Angry in the Great White North

From a week-old CTV article (June 7):

In an effort to avert further internal dissent over the pace of the government's same-sex marriage bill, Prime Minister Paul Martin held a private meeting with more than 30 Liberal MPs Monday night.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife told Canada AM this morning that Martin and the MPs discussed four amendments with regard to Bill C-38.

They include:

• Stronger guarantees that Charter rights will not override religious freedoms


• Justices of the Peace who do not want to perform civil marriages of same-sex couples will not have to do so


• Churches will not be required to rent out their halls for same-sex weddings


• Religious educational institutions will still be allowed to preach that homosexuality is against God's law, without being subject to hate crime laws

Questions of renting halls have been challenged under provincial human rights charters, so that particular guarantee would need to be tested in court against provincial laws. Education is a provincial responsibility, so that fourth guarantee is fatuous. The issue of Justices not having to perform same-sex marriages is also nonsense -- the question is not refusing to perform these marriages, the question is whether they can be fired for refusing. No mention of job security here, and no answer to the question on how the federal government plans to guarantee the employment of a provincial employee, especially if that employee is subsequently fired on other grounds as a way of avoiding a legal confrontation.

But the first is also the best -- Charter rights already override religious freedoms. How is this statutory legislation supposed to influence judicial interpretation of the Charter?

This is the deal that was offered to Pat O'Brien?

I wasn't fooled, nor were people on the other side of the debate, as noted on rabble.ca:

It's meaningless. These are all in areas of provincial jurisdiction [Reality Bites]

Possibly a smart move then. PM PM adds a few lines into the document to satisfy the bigots knowing that the provinces can ignore them outright. [quelar]

Yes, we don't have to like it, but it's really no worse than the already existing religious "guarantees" that are equally meaningless. [RealityBies]

And none of the admendents will stand up against a serious court challenge, but the homophobic rubes will have been duped...and hey, that's politics. Isn't it grand? [Hinterland]

No matter what Martin promised, the first JP that refuses to marry a homosexual couple will have themself and their whole ilk sued out of existance. [No Yards]

That's my take on it as well. I looked at the "deal" and said to myself, "Martin you lying scum ... good work!" [No Yards]

Well, it turned out there was no deal:

No consensus, however, has been reached, according to Scott Reid, the Prime Minister's communications director.

Reid said Martin only promised that he would be open to the four amendments, although MPs at the meeting apparently left with the impression they had a deal.

I wonder if Pat O'Brien thought about what was being offered, and what it really meant, and realized that it was all smoke. Nothing of substance, nothing that could actually make a difference and withstand a challenge. Irwin Cotler said that his guarantees were pretty much worthless given that much of what was being talked about were provincial matters.

So Paul Martin talked amendments to the nervous Liberal MPs. He lied to them, and for that he is congratulated. People like Pat O'Brien and his "ilk" aren't worthy of being invited to an honest discussion. Tell the "rubes" what they want to hear, and send them on their way.

Problem is, Pat O'Brien might not be so stupid.