OTTAWA, May 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s parliament early this evening gave approval in principal to the Liberal government’s same-sex marriage Bill C-38. The Bill passed second reading by a vote of 164-137. The bill now automatically goes to a special committee for review. The committee, stacked by a majority of MPs who strongly support same-sex ‘marriage’, is expected to significantly limit public submissions and attempt to conclude its proceedings as quickly as possible to allow the bill to receive its third and final reading vote.
Today’s vote will undoubtedly be used by opponents of the bill as clear evidence of which MPs they must target for defeat in the upcoming federal election. There is likely to be continuation of close cooperation among many religious and social conservative organizations and individuals across the nation to ensure the defeat of as many MPs as possible who voted for C-38.
It remains to be seen however whether Canada’s religious leaders will finally co-operate with this task to the degree that they are needed. In general, the church leaders have tended to avoid anything that might be seen as political activity, including simply allowing summaries of the positions of the candidates on life and family issues to be distributed to their congregations.
As well, Canada’s Church leaders have not given the life and family issues the top priority that one would expect from religious shepherds. On the political level they have often been more pre-occupied with economic and less significant social issues. As a consequence, so far, Canadian social liberal activists have had almost a free hand for decades to radically change the Canadian social order. The newest factor, however, is that the very freedoms, if not existence of the churches is now threatened by the latest legislative initiatives such as C-38 and the recently passed hate crimes law changes. Hate crimes charges will undoubtedly begin cropping up if and when Bill -C-38 is passed, unless an election occurs in the meantime.