Marriage equality threatened in Canada

Marriage equality threatened in Canada
By Lisa Keen
Originally printed 4/20/2006 (Issue 1416 - Between The Lines News)
Same-sex marriages have been legal in parts of Canada for almost five years now. But if the country's new conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has his way, they won't be available for much longer.
It was probably a financial scandal and not his party's support for same-sex marriage that caused former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to lose his seat to Harper. The Conservative Party leader who defeated Martin by a narrow margin three months ago used his opposition to same-sex marriage as a campaign issue during the fall election.
This month, as the new parliament convened, Harper told reporters he intends to follow through on his promise to overturn the Civil Marriage Act, shepherded through the parliament last summer by the Liberal Party.
It was not the Civil Marriage Act that made same-sex marriages legal throughout Canada. Most provinces began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after courts ruled that bans on same-sex marriage violated the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The first province to issue licenses was Ontario, which spans the Great Lakes region and attracts numerous visitors from the United States. Toronto, the first city in Ontario to issue licenses, issued 3,194 licenses to same-sex couples between June 10, 2003 and April 4, 2006. Thirty-eight percent of those licenses were issued to gay couples from the United States.
USA Today reported in February that the number of same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in Toronto was up - from 60 in January 2005 to 90 in January 2006. But that does not necessarily reflect a surge in couples seeking licenses because of the Conservative Party victory in January. The average number of marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples by Toronto since 2003 has been about 94 per month; between January and April of 2006, it has been about 75 per month.
According to Canadians for Equal Marriage, in order for the parliament to overturn the Civil Marriage Act, it must first vote on whether to revisit the same-sex marriage legislation currently in force. Should that resolution pass, it can then take up a bill to repeal the legislation.
But gay civil rights supporters are hopeful that, even if parliament repeals the law, Canadian courts will again rule that a ban on same-sex marriages violates the country's constitution.
With the passage of the Civil Marriage Act last July, Canada became the fourth nation to legalize same-sex marriages - behind The Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), and Spain (June 2005).
Even as the bill passed last summer, Conservative leader Harper said he would seek to overturn the law, should his Conservative Party win control of the parliament. Harper also promised, however, that, should the parliament reverse itself, his administration would continue to honor marriages already licensed. And according to CBC News, Harper does support civil unions for same-sex couples.
Harper has indicated he will call on parliament to vote on a resolution to take up the same-sex marriage issue this year - probably this fall, according to various news reports. A national poll by The Environics Group, a market and social values research company, asked Canadians in late January whether they wanted the newly elected Conservative Party government to bring up the same-sex marriage issue in parliament. Of the 2,034 polled, 66 percent said "No," 30 percent said "Yes," and four percent were undecided.