Jan 13 2003

Over The Edge Page 3

Discrimination Against Same-sex Unions

Deemed Unconstitutional

by Dan Turner

“The Bible contains six
admonishments to homosexu-
als and three hundred sixty
two admonishments to hetero-
sexuals. That doesn’t mean
that God doesn’t love hetero-
sexuals. It’s just that they need
more supervision.” — Lynne
Lavner

After Ontario and Québec
Superior Courts ruled that not
including same-sex unions in
the definition of marriage is
unconstitutional, Attorney-
General Martin Couchon
announced that the Justice
Department would appeal the
decision to the Supreme Court
of Canada to clarify the issue.
The Justice Minister also
announced that the Standing
Committee on Justice and
Human Rights would study the
matter and even gain the input
of Canadians before making
the decision. The Committee
was given four choices to
choose from: do nothing and
leave the definition of marriage
as is; keep marriage as a man-
woman institution and have
“civil unions” for same-sex
couples; allow homosexuals to
marry; or with the consent of
the provinces, leave marriage

in the hands of religious insti-
tutions and have a federal reg-
istry for conjugal relationships.

However this has proven to
be a very divisive issue within
parties. A Liberal Member of
Parliament, Tom Wappel, has
expressed his concern with
changing the definition of mar-
riage. He said that the House
already voted to uphold the
traditional definition of mar-
riage two years ago “Why, all
of a sudden, after nine years of
consistent support for this def-
inition, is there a sudden need
to consult, | don’t know, so |
don’t agree with it.” Many
prominent Cabinet Ministers,
including leadership hopefuls
Sheila Copps and Allan Rock,
are pushing for the change. “I’ll
be advocating the recognition
of same-sex marriage. | think it
is a matter of equality and so
’m going to be there.” Joe
Clark, who has been the
Grand Marshall for the Calgary
Gay Pride Parade, said that he
would not enforce the party
line whenever the House votes
on issues involving homosexu-
al rights; allowing his caucus a
free vote. Even one of Clark’s
top lieutenants, MP Elsie
Wayne, who sits on the Justice

Committee, is staunchly
apposed to the “homosexual
lifestyle” The NDP including
the most prominent gay MP,
Svend Robinson, will call for
equal rights for gays and les-
bians. Robinson has even
tabled a Private Members’ Bill
that would amend Section
318(4) of the Criminal Code of
Canada, dealing with hate pro-
paganda, to include sexual ori-
entation. The Canadian
Alliance continues to oppose
any changes to the traditional

definition of marriage. The ,

issue is something that will not
go away very easily. 55% of
Canadians are in favour of
same-sex marriage and the
2001 Census reported that out
of 11 million household, 34
200 couples said they were liv-
ing in a homosexual relation-
ship. The highest number of
couples was in Québec and
Ontario, with the highest per-
centage compared to all cou-
ples was in BC, the Yukon and
Québec. Those numbers
would indicate that the accep-
tance of gays and lesbians in
on the rise and while that is
true there are many hard lined
opinions that are trying to turn
the tide of support. An exam-

ple of this is the website run by
the Westboro Baptist Church
in Topeka, Kansas called god-
hatesfags.com. This website is
dedicated to stopping the
“soul-damning, nation-destroy-
ing notion that it's OK to be
gay.’ The WBC-run site makes
many claims that it sees as
factual and includes a memor-
ial to Matthew Shepard, how-
ever in this memorial it is said
that he has been in hell for
over 1500 days and the
“memorial” is nothing but the
condemnation of Shepard and
all homosexuals.

Religious extremists are
always quoting their right to
religious freedom and expres-
sion to make the case for pro-
moting hate. However it should
always be known that no mat-
ter what your rights extend
only as far as someone else’s.
Say for example while you
have freedom of speech and
you want to sing off key to “It’s
Raining Men’ at 2 in the morn-
ing when you have 4 room-
mates living with you, there
rights to sleep peacefully are
being infringed upon. What |
am trying to say is that people
are not allowed to promote
prejudice against others of dif-

fering race, religion and sex,
so why is it not the same for
people who sleep with the
someone of the same sex?

Marriage is no longer the
religious institution it once
was. For decades the govern-
ment has given tax breaks to
married couples and same-
sex couples are left out of that
benefit. Especially troubling is
when a partner dies and the
widow(er) is hit on top of that
with the realization that they
will not receive any survivor
benefits, available to opposite
sex couples. All that is asked it
that everyone respects every-
one else and just let people
live their lives in peace, without
fear of attack for being who
they are.

If you want your opinion
heard, contact your Member of
Parliament or Senator. Or you
can even contact the Minister
of Justice directly about at
marriage @ justice.gc.cag

Montreal Activist Coming Home

Jaggi Singh defies Israeli court order; says Palestine visit will aid his work with refugees in Montreal

By David Wachsmuth, The
McGill Daily

MONTREAL (CUP) — After
spending nearly a month in
Israel and the Palestinian terri-
tories, defying a court order in
the process, Montreal activist
Jaggi Singh will soon return to
Canada armed with new expe-
riences and some frustration,
he told Canadian University
Press.

Singh made headlines across
Canada in December when he
entered the occupied territo-
ries, defying a Tel Aviv court
order that forbade him from
setting foot in either the West
Bank or Gaza.

But Singh does not acknowl-
edge the legitimacy of the
court ruling.

“t don’t think it is for Israel, that

is illegally occupying
Palestinian territories, to
decide [whether | can enter the
territories],” he said.

Singh said he arrived in Tel
Aviv on Dec. 14, where he was
detained for over seven hours
by Israeli customs officials and
then denied entrance to the
country on the grounds that he
posed a security threat. He
refused to leave, however, and
won a temporary court injunc-
tion allowing him to stay. The
injunction was subsequently
upheld by the Tel Aviv District
Court on the conditions that he
not enter Palestinian territory
and that he leave Israel by
Dec. 23.

The Israeli state attorney pre-
sented secret evidence about
Singh to the District Court, but

the Montreal activist is skepti-
cal about the validity of the
government's claim that he is a
security threat.

“| was no security threat,
because if | had been | would-
n't have been allowed to stay a
few hours, let alone a few
weeks. If | was coming to
attack soldiers, that’s one
thing. If | was coming to
observe Palestinians, to write
and support from a sympathet-
ic point of view, that’s another
thing,” he said.

Singh made a_ connection
between his journey to the
Middle East and his ongoing
work with the No One Is Illegal
campaign in Montreal, which
addresses the plight of
refugees in Canada and
abroad.

“[No One Is Illegal] talks about
the situation of refugees, and
one of the classic cases of
refugees is Palestine,” he said.
“’m coming back and continu-
ing the work that has always
been happening, and using my
experience [in Palestine] to
deepen my understanding of
the refugee situation. You can
read all you want, but you
need to see for yourself.”
Singh said that he has been
frustrated by the coverage his
visit to Israel has received,
claiming that the media has
ignored the situation in
Palestine while emphasizing
his defiance of the Israeli
court.

“The coverage of my presence
here has been absurd. It’s
somewhat newsworthy, the ini-

tial part of it, but after that they
should have focused on what
was going on. | did an inter-
view with [Canadian media
chain] Southam, and | only
agreed to do an interview if
they also interviewed
Palestinians, but they never
published that part,” he said.
Singh doesn’t anticipate any
further trouble from the Israeli
government before returning
to Canada in a few days, but is
not ruling anything out.

“I’m leaving through Tel Aviv,
and presumably [the Israeli
government] just wants me to
leave, so everything should be
okay, but there could be prob-
lems,” said Singh. “They could
decide they want to detain me
for longer or question me fur-
ther.”