TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE BILL QUASHED IN HOUSE

OTTAWA, Oct 13 (LSN) – Last week pro-family Liberal MP Tom Wappel presented bill C-225 in the House of Commons hoping to enshrine into Canadian law the accepted definition of marriage as between an “unmarried woman and an unmarried man.” The bill was ruled nonvotable by the controversial House Committee on Private Members’ Business, so Canada’s elected representatives could not vote the measure into law. This ruling also automatically limited debate on the bill to one hour.  During his short presentation, Wappel noted that although the courts and the legislature operate with the historic definition of marriage, this definition is only embodied in common law tradition, not in statute law. The previous and present Justice ministers told Wappel they thought the current situation did not need to be changed. Wappel pointed out, however, that “common law is, plain and simple, judge made law.  Therefore, it can be changed at any time by judges. There is no statute to guide to restrain judges.”  He illustrated his concern with Ontario court case Leyland and Beaulne v Ontario Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Attorney General of Canada, et al. in which two homosexuals sued the provincial government for not granting them a marriage licence. They lost in a 2-1 decision. Wappel observed that if the current law was so clear, the decision should have been unanimous.