Tuesday, August 6, 2002
Canadian cabinet ministers supporting same-sex marriages
A story published today by the Vancouver Sun reports that two federal cabinet ministers publicly declared their support of same-sex marriage in Canada. Industry Minister Allan Rock spoke out in favor of legally sanctioned same-sex unions, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham stated his support during an interview from his Vancouver hotel on holiday Monday.
"I'm an advocate of it, I always have been and will continue to be so," Graham said. "There will be, obviously, a discussion on this and there's a lot of legal ramifications around the present position because there are inconsistent rulings in different national courts. So how we go about dealing with it is a different subject, but in terms of the basic principal that's where I stand."
"I'm going to continue to be an advocate for equality and an advocate for liberal policies toward this whole issue and an advocate for recognition of same-sex marriages," said Rock.
Rock said he brought about positive changes for homosexuals in the areas of human rights law and dealing with HIV and AIDS when he served as minister of justice and minister of health. He now wants to work from within government to secure legal recognition of same-sex marriages-- despite Justice Minister and Attorney-General Martin Cauchon's plan to appeal a landmark ruling by an Ontario court last month that paved the way for legal same-sex marriages in Canada.
Cauchon is expected to raise the issue at Wednesday's cabinet meeting.
Besides the appeal, the justice department is also working on several other options, including getting out of the business of sanctioning marriages. Such a change would mean government would only recognize civil unions and leave marriage to the church.
Prior to Rock, only Heritage Minister Sheila Copps has gone on the record in support of same-sex marriages. Earlier this month she said the Liberal government should drop its hardline stance and allow gay and lesbian legal unions.
"I don't think that from the point of view of equality we should be prohibiting anybody from entering into a legal contract if they choose to be together," Copps said.
Last month, the Quebec government passed the Civil Union Act, allowing both homosexual and heterosexual couples to formally legalize their unions and make them legally binding. A similar system exists in Nova Scotia, but the relationships are not recognized outside those provinces because the federal government controls the definition of marriage.
