OctosER 22, 2003

News 7

Ring Bearer or Pallbearer
The Issue of Same Sex Marriage

By Rory Conroy

In a previous volume of Over the Edge,
the issue of same-sex marriage was intro-
duced. Specifically discussed was the
attempt by Canadian Alliance Leader,
Stephen Harper, to entrench the definition of
marriage, ‘the union of one a man and one
woman to the exclusion of all others’ in leg-
islation and to back that institution, when
and where necessary, by the use of Section
33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
the ‘Notwithstanding Clause’, which could
effectively defeat any court ruling in related
Charter cases. Those motions were narrowly
defeated and the federal government has
now engaged the Supreme Court of Canada
to address the legal ramifications arising
from the issue.

The following day, September 17, 2003, a
private members bill, brought to Parliament
by MP Sven Robinson, was passed. Bill C250
was an amendment to the Criminal Code
(hate propaganda) to include sexual orienta-
tion in the definition of an ‘identifiable
group’.

These parliamentary activities and the
ensuing legislation are particularly signifi-
cant when considering recent juridical histo-
ry in Canada. In 1965, Everett Klippert, an
admitted homosexual, was sentenced to
prison as a ‘dangerous sexual offender’, a
ruling supported by the Supreme Court of
Canada. Klippert was released from prison
in 1971 after then Prime Minister of Canada,
Pierre Elliot Trudeau, introduced sweeping
amendments to the Criminal Code.

Trudeau’s now famous quote, “...there’s no
place for the state in the bedrooms of the
nation” tends to reduce the significance of
the actual accomplishment, that of freeing
Canadians from a medieval yoke.

Canada and a number of other interna-
tional jurisdictions have been experiencing
an incremental evolution in societal accep-
tance of changes to institutions which were
for centuries taken for granted. An example
of some of the remarkable changes that
Canadian society has witnessed over the
course of a few short decades is that of com-
mon law marriages and the recognition of
the status of common law partners as equal
to ‘married partners’ in regards to civil
rights and property disposition. Further,
common law partners now have access’ to
spousal benefits, such as pension payments
or employment benefits for maternal / pater-
nal leave. In some jurisdictions, same-sex
partners too, have similar benefits;
guardianship, adoption, and medical deci-
sion making are just a few. However, until
same sex unions have been entrenched in
law, the position of same sex partners is ten-
uous at best.

An examination of the legal and spiritual
tradition behind ‘marriage’ provides some
insight into the controversy. In numerous
court cases concerning marriage, divorce,
and property it is necessary to define the
term ‘marriage’. The ultimate case refer-
enced is Hyde v. Hyde and Woodmansee.
This particular case came before the
Matrimonial Court of England in 1866. The

Photo By Dana Schwehr
This equipment is part of the study that UNBC is conducting research between the wind
patterns and air pollution episodes in the “bowl” area of Prince George. Sounds are echoed
off of th air and the change in pitch if the echo is used to calculate the winds in the lowest
1km of the atmosphere.

case involved a polygamous union that was
recognized in the Mormon community of
Salt Lake City. The British judge was asked
to decide whether the marriage was consid-
ered valid under the laws of England. The
judge, later Lord Penzance, uttered the fol-
lowing conclusion, “[Marriage] is the volun-
tary union of one man and one woman to
the exclusion of all others.” This decision
has influenced every subsequent ruling
throughout the commonwealth. (The
Constitution of Canada 1867 adopted
English.Common Law. The constitutional
ramifications of this will be covered in the
next issue of Over the Edge.)

In a spiritual context the tradition of mar-
riage appears to be universal. According to
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in
their submission, On Marriage and the Legal
Recognition of Same-Sex Unions, the
Christian understanding of marriage is root-
ed in the biological differences between man
and woman; the biological reality is in the
two sexes, in the becoming of one flesh and
in procreation. “Marriage is the social, cul-
tural and religious context for the conjugal
relationship, which is exclusive to male and
female”. According to the Evangelical
Fellowship, all of the major world religions
have from time immemorial recognized
marriage as a union of male and female,
grounded in our dimorphic nature. Dr.
Katherine Young, professor of religion at
McGill University is quoted in the same sub-
mission as follows: “From. my comparative
study of the world religions and the world-

views of small-scale societies I have also
concluded that the following features of
marriage are universal. Marriage is support-
ed by authority and incentives; it recognizes
the interdependence of maleness and
femaleness; it has a public dimension; it
defines eligible partners; it encourages pro-
creation under specific conditions; and it.
provides mutual support not only between
men and women but also between men and
women and their children (the sharing of
resources, apart from anything else, or trans-
mission of property)...” :

Same-sex relationships are indeed worthy
of respect. But “same-sex marriage” is an
oxymoron, because it lacks the universal, or
defining, feature of marriage according to
religious, historical, and anthropological
evidence. Apart from anything else, mar-
riage expresses one fundamental and uni-
versal human need: a setting for reproduc-
tion that recognizes the reciprocity between
nature (sexual dimorphism) and culture
(gender complementarity)”.

Therefore from a common law perspec-
tive, same-sex marriage is by definition, con-
ceptually not legal. And further, the majori-
ty of worldwide religions contend that such
a union lacks a spirituality and religiosity
that has been institutionalized and recog-
nized through millennia

This is the second of a four part series on
the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, the role of the courts, Canadian
society and equality in the issue of same-sex
marriage in Canada.

Homosexual students denied

right to donate

blood

‘IDS is a disease, being gay is not’

By Ginny Collins, Central Bureau

REGINA (CUP) — A student group at the
University of Regina has launched a cam-
paign to make the public aware that sexual-
ly active homosexuals are deprived of the
right to donate blood. Launched in conjunc-
tion with a visit by Canadian Blood Services
to the University of Regina, the gay, lesbian
and bisexual student group put up posters
appealing to students to donate because
they themselves could not. The posters are
titled, “AIDS is a disease, being gay is not.”

“The ultimate goal would be to have the
question changed, that Canadian Blood
Services has right now, to allow gay men
who are sexually active the right to donate
blood,” said Tim Smith, president of the
GBLUR club. It was Smith’s colleague, the
vice-president of the GBLUR club, who
came forward with the idea for the cam-
paign after personally running into prob-
lems with Canadian Blood Services while
trying to donate. Currently, question 19 of
the Canadian Blood Services questionnaire
asks, “Male donors: Have you had sex with
a man, even one time, since 1977?”
Question 23 asks, “Female donors: In the
last 12 months, have you had sex with a
man who has had sex, even one time since
1977 with another man?” If a donor
answers “yes” to these questions, they will
not be permitted to donate. “It is generally
assumed that this question pertains to AIDS

and HIV,” said GBLUR President Tim Smith
of question 19. “Yes some gay men have
aids. Then again so do some straight
women, some lesbian women and some
straight men. AIDS is not just a gay dis-
ease.” Canadian Blood Services claims they
base their decisions on statistics and current
scientific information. This information
states that men who have had sex with

.other men are at a greater risk for

HIV/AIDS infection than other people. .

In a phone interview with a nurse from
Canadian Blood Services, who requested
her name be withheld for media relations,
said 73 per cent of Americans and
Europeans with AIDS are homosexual and
bisexual men. She said the testing done on
the blood cannot catch all forms of AIDS
and HIV and that the virus is sometimes not
caught if it is in the “window” faze of infec-
tion. However, since it is the aim of
Canadian Blood Services to constantly
increase their donation numbers, Smith
questions why they would continue to limit
possible donors. According to the Canadian
Blood Services Web site, donors will also be
temporarily deferred if they have had a
piercing or tattoo within the past year. The
case of sexually active homosexual men is a
permanent deferral. The nurse interviewed
from Canadian Blood Services claims that
there is nothing currently in the works to
change the questionnaire.