Toronto Sun columnist Lorrie Goldstein is right on the money today again, as he explains the obfuscations that liberals are employing surrounding the so-called “gay rights” which they say are written into our Constitution, and that these gay rights are at stake in the gay marriage debate.
The liberal-left endorse gay marriage, but leave it to the Supreme Court division of the Liberal Party to take the heat, then launch a federal study into the idea of polygamy, then blame Conservative leader Stephen Harper for bringing up polygamy. This kind of slight-of-hand politics is becoming a trademark of liberals. They manufacture debate, build debate on false pretences, lie about “hidden agendas”, then blame the mess on someone else.
Ducked issue by leaving it with courts
By Lorrie Goldstein—For the Toronto SunIn his latest argument in favour of same sex-marriages, Prime Minister Paul Martin has described it as a “Charter right”.
In other words, legalizing gay and lesbian unions, Martin now argues, is a basic issue of protecting minorities from discrimination, as guaranteed by Section 15 of the Charter of Rights.
There’s only one problem. Nowhere in Section 15 do the words “sexual orientation” appear.
When the Charter was passed by Parliament in 1982, it specifically protected individuals from discrimination based on “race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability”.Sexual orientation as a “Charter right” was never approved by Parliament. It was “read into” the Charter by the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada, starting in 1995.
Opponents of same sex-marriage argue this key ruling—which paved the way for the eventual legal recognition of same-sex marriages—was a blatant example of judicial activism run amok.
Proponents argue the court was simply fulfilling the intent of Parliament, given the “open-ended” wording of Section 15, which guaranteed “every individual” freedom from discrimination based upon—but not limited to—race, origin, colour, sex, etc.
But whichever side of the debate you’re on—and I support the traditional definition of marriage—the federal Liberals have been utter cowards on this issue.
Instead of taking a stand for or against same-sex marriage from the start and dealing with it in Parliament, where it should have been decided after a broad public debate, they ducked at every turn and thus handed the issue by default over to the courts. […Read the rest of this good column…]
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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