Ottawa—Today, the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of a Reform Party motion opposing same-sex marriage. The motion, introduced by Eric Lowther MP, the Reform Party Critic on "Children and Families", affirms the exclusion of gays and lesbians from the institution of marriage and commits Parliament to take "all necessary steps" to see it stays that way.
216 MPs from all parties supported the motion, including the overwhelming majority (all but 11) of the Liberal caucus, all Reform MPs, and a number of NDP, Bloc Québécois and Conservative MPs. 55 MPs voted against the motion. Despite initial suggestions that it would be a free vote, the Liberal Government ultimately adopted a Government position supporting the Reform Party.
Upon passage of the motion, the Reform Party caucus rose in a standing ovation.
EGALE had urged supporters to contact their MPs and some votes were gained as a result. The information gathered will be fed back into EGALE’s Adopt-an-MP program and will prove extremely helpful as we prepare for the same-sex relationship battles to come in the Fall.
Because there was so little advance notice and the requirement under the Rules of the House that the debate and vote on a Supply Day Motion take place on the same day it is introduced, there was little time to organize much opposition to the motion.
The motion has no legal effect, but the outcome nonetheless represents a statement of the position of Parliament. The reference to the need for Parliament to "take all necessary steps" to preserve the "opposite sex" definition of marriage presumably seeks to commit Parliament to use of the "notwithstanding clause" should the need arise. The "notwithstanding clause" is a clause in the Constitution which enables Governments to "opt out" of the Charter of Rights and deny equality to their citizens. The federal government has never before used the "notwithstanding clause".
This was the first time that the issue of same-sex marriage was the subject of a vote in the House of Commons.
EGALE would encourage anyone to contact their MP by way of follow-up and either congratulate them or critique them on their position, as the case may be. Call Election Canada toll free at 1-800-463-6868 for the name of your MP. You can also FAX your MP (www.net-efx.com/faxfeds) even if you don’t have a fax machine! Supportive MPs need to know we noticed (particularly those courageous Liberals who voted against the Government position)—and MPs from whom we might have expected better need to know we noticed too.
Read the record of the debate from Hansard.
Click the arrow at the bottom of each Hansard screen to go to the next page of the debate.
Division No. 548
YEAS (i.e. supporting the motion to restrict marriage to opposite-sex only)
Members
Abbott Ablonczy Adams Alcock
Anders Assad Assadourian Asselin
Augustine Bailey Baker Bakopanos
Bélair Bellemare Bernier (Tobique—Mactaquac) Bertrand
Bevilacqua Blondin—Andrew Bonin Bonwick
Borotsik Boudria Bradshaw Breitkreuz (Yellowhead)
Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville) Brown Bryden Byrne
Cadman Calder Cannis Canuel
Caplan Cardin Casey Casson
Catterall Cauchon Chamberlain Chan
Charbonneau Chatters Chrétien (Frontenac—Mégantic) Chrétien (Saint—Maurice)
Coderre Collenette Comuzzi Cullen
Desjarlais Desrochers Dhaliwal Dion
Discepola Doyle Dromisky Drouin
Dubé (Madawaska—Restigouche) Duhamel Duncan Easter
Eggleton Epp Fontana Forseth
Fournier Gagliano Gallaway Gauthier
Gilmour Godin (Châteauguay) Goodale Gouk
Gray (Windsor West) Grewal Grey (Edmonton North) Grose
Guarnieri Hanger Harb Hart
Harvard Herron Hill (Macleod) Hill (Prince George—Peace River)
Hilstrom Hoeppner Hubbard Ianno
Iftody Jackson Jaffer Jennings
Johnston Jones Jordan Karetak—Lindell
Karygiannis Keddy (South Shore) Kenney (Calgary Southeast) Kerpan
Keyes Kilger (Stormont—Dundas—Charlottenburgh) Kilgour (Edmonton Southeast) Knutson
Konrad Lastewka Lavigne Lebel
Lee Leung Limoges (Windsor—St. Clair) Lincoln
Longfield Lowther Lunn MacAulay
MacKay (Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough) Mahoney Malhi Maloney
Manley Manning Marchand Marchi
Mark Marleau Martin (Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca) Martin (LaSalle—Émard)
Massé Matthews Mayfield McCormick
McGuire McKay (Scarborough East) McLellan (Edmonton West) McNally
McTeague McWhinney Mercier Meredith
Mills (Broadview—Greenwood) Mills (Red Deer) Mitchell Morrison
Muise Murray Myers Nault
Normand Nunziata Obhrai O’Brien (Labrador)
O’Brien (London—Fanshawe) O’Reilly Pagtakhan Pankiw
Paradis Parrish Patry Penson
Peric Perron Peterson Pettigrew
Phinney Pickard (Chatham—Kent Essex) Pillitteri Power
Pratt Proud Provenzano Ramsay
Redman Reed Reynolds Richardson
Riis Ritz Robillard Rock
Saada Schmidt Scott (Fredericton) Scott (Skeena)
Sekora Serré Solberg Solomon
Speller St. Denis Steckle Stewart (Brant)
Stewart (Northumberland) Stinson St—Julien Strahl
Szabo Telegdi Thibeault Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest)
Thompson (Wild Rose) Torsney Ur Valeri
Vanclief Vellacott Venne Volpe
Wappel Wayne Whelan White (Langley—Abbotsford)
White (North Vancouver) Wilfert Williams Wood
—216
NAYS (i.e. opposing the motion to restrict marriage to opposite-sex only)
Members
Alarie Bachand (Richmond—Arthabaska) Beaumier Bélanger
Bellehumeur Bennett Bergeron Bernier (Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles—de—la—Madeleine—Pabok)
Bigras Brison Caccia Crête
Dalphond—Guiral Davies de Savoye Debien
DeVillers Dockrill Dubé (Lévis—et—Chutes—de—la—Chaudière) Duceppe
Dumas Earle Finestone Finlay
Folco Gagnon Girard—Bujold Godin (Acadie—Bathurst)
Graham Guay Hardy Harvey
Kraft Sloan Laliberte Lalonde Lill
Loubier Mancini Marceau Martin (Winnipeg Centre)
McDonough Ménard Nystrom Picard (Drummond)
Plamondon Price Proctor Robinson
Sauvageau St—Hilaire St—Jacques Tremblay (Lac—Saint—Jean)
Turp Vautour Wasylycia—Leis
—55
PAIRED
Members
Anderson Axworthy (Winnipeg South Centre) Bachand (Saint—Jean) Barnes
Clouthier Guimond Laurin Mifflin
Rocheleau Tremblay (Rimouski—Mitis)
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