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2nd Politician Attacks Gays Over Marriage
by Ben Thompson
365Gay.com Newscenter
Ottawa Bureau
May 13, 2003
12:02 a.m. ET/+5GMT/-3PT
(Ottawa) Only days after Conservative Member of Parliament Elsie Wayne told Canadian gays to "shut up" about marriage aspirations a member of the ruling Liberals accused gays of trying to force polygamy on the country.
"If you're going to throw open the definition of marriage so you destroy it in essence, how do you know you can ever draw the line any place? If I want two or three wives and want that considered legal marriage, who are you to tell me I can't do that?
"Don't tell me Ralph and Bob being together is marriage because to me it's just wrong," Pat O'Brien told CBC Radio.
O'Brien, the MP for London-Fanshawe, in southwestern Ontario, is a member of a parliamentary committee set up to examine legalizing same-sex marriages.
The committee has concluded hearings across the country and is to give its recommendations to the government next month.
Last week, Elsie Wayne, the deputy Tory leader told the House of Commons during a debate on the role of the courts in social issues like gay marriage that gays should go back in the closet.
"If they are going to live together, go live together and shut up about it," she said. (story)
Courts in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec have ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry.
O'Brien, despite his opposition to gay marriage, said he was not opposed to the issue proceeding through the courts. If the question of gay marriage reaches the Supreme Court a favorable ruling would force the federal government to rewrite the law preventing gays and lesbians from legal marriage.
Canada already recognizes gay unions in pensions and other benefits under common law.
©365Gay.com Ltd® 2003