Charter of Rights

Responding to the Smug Canadian

September 8, 2003

My smug friend posted a link yesterday to this site, responding to this.  He wrote: The Canadian Alliance has been bitching about parliamentary reform since their earliest days when they were called Reform. The message has been falling on uninterested Canadian ears ever since because it is such a difficult problem to solve. How do you explain [...]

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What’s in a hate crime?

September 8, 2003

It’s been an interesting week, hasn’t it?  Hopefully the irony of the Alliance motion, followed by bill C-250 hasn’t been lost on anyone.  On the one hand, a group of "Reformers" in Parliament has pushed hard for a motion to not reform the marriage laws in Canada.  The motion was narrowly defeated.  The next day [...]

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A tie vote

September 7, 2003

Most disheartening of all about last nights’ vote was that the first time round it was a tie vote – 134 to 134.  It was not until the speaker of the house ruled that the original Alliance motion had to stand, which called on Parliament to take "all necessary steps" to preserve marriage as an [...]

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Notwithstanding minority rights

September 6, 2003

Tonight’s vote in the Commons on the definition of marriage was a sad sad affair.  Sad that so many Canadians feel it necessary to vote on such a basic issue of human dignity and kindness.  Sad that it was so narrowly won.  Sad because some of those who would lead our country (Peter Mackay, Steven Harper) [...]

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Reviewing the Marriage Laws

September 3, 2003

The flap continues over same sex marriage here in Ontario.  The letters page in this morning’s Citizen was wall to wall opinions on the topic.  Now Ernie Eves is weighing in during the election despite the fact that marriage is federal territory, and not provincial at all. Around our house we’ve had pretty spirited debates on [...]

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Who’s out of step?

July 21, 2003

Jeffrey Simpson ran a yawner of an opinion piece on the power of the courts in the Globe this morning.  Another rant on how the courts in this country have too much power, this time suggesting that our elected politicians do nothing to earn their keep, and that in fact it is the courts that are [...]

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What kind of a country do you want to live in?

July 1, 2003

The Globe’s 12 part series on being Canadian, which was published around Canada Day, included an article titled "A generation redefines civic society" about activism amongst Canadian youth.  According to the Globe, many Canadian youth are completely disenchanted with the political system, and see lobby groups as a more effective way to influence the future [...]

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Same sex marriages legal as of yesterday in Ontario

June 11, 2003

I awoke this morning to news reports that the Ontario Court of Appeal had upheld a lower court ruling that the common law definition of marriage in Canada is not defensible under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Furthermore, the court said that the Federal Governments’ more recent, and hasty, declaration, was also discriminatory.  [...]

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Gay Marriages – What’s the Flap?

May 4, 2003

This topic has been all over the papers again this week, after the BC Supreme Court ruled that the definition of marriage used today (the union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others) is unconstitutional.  Perhaps the way it is worded does violate the Charter of Rights.  I am no [...]

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Canada stalls on Gay Marriage

August 17, 2002

Canada stalls on gay marriage question.  Isn’t this just an inevitable conclusion?  From what I read, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has pretty much pre-ordained this.  So get over it! And get over this too! Let Charles be king and marry Camilla – poll   

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