OTTAWA, Feb 14 (LifeSiteNews) – Bill C-23 proposed in Parliament Friday has received condemnation by most family groups in the country. The bill, “An Act to modernize the Statutes of Canada in relation to benefits and obligations,” would amend 68 federal statutes, changing every occurrence of the term “spouse” to “spouse or common-law partner.”
The Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) says the bill “is not about fairness and equality; it represents the abolition of the institution of marriage. … We anticipate that in the very near future, the courts will use this legislation to order the legal sanction of marriages between homosexuals.” Janet Epp Buckingham, of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) said her group “has grave concerns that the unique status of marriage is being watered down.” The release notes that the group “is concerned that the omission of non-sexual domestic relationships may be discriminatory.”“If this bill passes into law, marriage will for the first time be defined by ideology – not biology,” said Focus on the Family Canada (FOTF) President Dr. Darrel Reid. “Make no mistake about it. This proposed law strikes at the root of our legal, cultural, social and moral traditions. It represents a fundamental attack on marriage and the family as special institutions in Canada.” Reid also called for national public consultations on the bill. “Such profound changes,” he said, “demand that Canadians be given ample opportunity to express their views directly to MPs before it comes to a vote.
Giuseppe Gori, leader of the Family Coalition Party of Ontario called the bill “an attack to the traditional family and an attack on civilized society. … If same-sex families were ‘natural’, mankind would be extinct.” Ron Grey, leader of the Christian Heritage Party commented that the problem “is not that homosexual couples have been excluded from the “right” to be regarded as “equivalent-to-married”; the real problem goes back to the Federal Government’s earlier recognition of unmarried heterosexual couples as equivalent to married. They’re not. … The move to include same-sex couples in that category is a classic example of “slippery slope” politics: the first mistake begets much worse later mistakes.
Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition warned that the federal government would imitate the Ontario government in ramming through the legislation without allowing for public debate or perusal of the legislation. “Likely, they will also imitate Ontario in not recording the votes so the public cannot hold them accountable,” said Hughes. (see below for coverage of the ON law)
Bill C-23 will be available in the coming days here.
See the LifeSite coverage of Ontario’s hasty passage of homosexual laws.
See a brief to MP’s on a “Suggested Approach to addressing issues of extending federal legislation to include same-sex partners” prepared by the EFC, CFAC, FOTF, the Catholic Civil Rights League, REAL Women Canada, and the Home School Defense Association.
See an action item on this issue.