CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, July 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Prince Edward Island, one of the few provinces and territories of Canada in which activist court decisions didn’t legalize same-sex “marriage” before the Senate passed Bill C-38 earlier this month, has indicated that it will not immediately begin issuing same-sex “marriage” certificates.
Mildred Dover, the province’s attorney general, has said that the province will delay issuing certificates to same-sex couples until they have had the opportunity to amend all the state laws pertaining to marriage. That process could take up several months; it is also unclear what would happen if the provincial legislature opposed the amendments. However, despite the province’s past reluctance to have anything to do with same-sex “marriage” Dover insisted that the delay did not indicate that the province was opposing the newly signed federal law.
The main problem, Dover explained, had to do with the obvious confusion surrounding what language to use in describing a so-called same-sex “marriage”; marriage certificates have said “husband” and “wife” since the inception of Canada as a nation, and before.
“We were consulting about whether or not we could just scratch out the words husband and wife, bride and groom, and maybe just put spouse and spouse” Dover told CBC News. “We’re not even sure what words you’d use.” She explained that a certificate with handwritten alterations could end up in court.
Interestingly, should PEI decide not to follow through on the federal government’s homosexual ‘marriage’ mandate, it would be the second time the province has fought back in the culture wars. PEI is Canada’s only province which proudly refuses to perform abortion on its shores. The province is however forced to pay for abortions out of province.
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