Same-sex marriage
Letter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. An edited version appeared in the 2005-1-27 edition under the heading “It’s up to the PM to convince us”.
It appears that once again the federal government is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Canadians. Prime Minister Paul Martin asserts that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires that gay couples be legally allowed to marry.
In actuality, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms says nothing at all about sexual orientation. Furthermore, the traditional definition of marriage does not discriminate against gays, who have never been excluded from marrying; just not to each other. But neither can sisters marry brothers, or parents marry their children. These kinds of marriages are proscribed because they do not contribute to the social interests and policy purposes that underlie traditional marriage.
Unless the government provides convincing evidence that its proposal to change the definition of marriage will do nothing to undermine the societal purposes of marriage, or that legalizing same-sex marriage will improve either marriage or society, to proceed with the legalization of same-sex marriage is to perpetrate a fraud.