September 4, 2003

Source: CBC News Online

OTTAWA - The Opposition leader said Thursday the fix was in on the question of same-sex marriage. Stephen Harper said the federal government is letting the courts rewrite the laws about same-sex marriage so it doesn't have to face Parliament over the issue. In June, a court in Ontario ruled that denying same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Similar rulings in British Columbia and Quebec had already been handed down. "I think the federal government deliberately lost this case in court and got the change to the law done through the back door," the Canadian Alliance leader said on Thursday. Worse, he suggested the court cases were rigged by the Liberals. "They had the courts do it for them," he said. "They put the judges in they wanted, then they failed to appeal, failed to fight the case in court."

Harper said the Liberals are trying to bypass Parliament, and that the courts are overstepping their boundaries. "Courts do not have the right to write the law in this country. The constitution is clear on that: the courts are to adjudicate the law, they are not to legislate and not to write it," he said. The Alliance wants to see Parliament deal with the issue, Harper said.

On June 8, 1999, the Liberal government supported a Reform Party motion to preserve the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The motion called on Parliament "to take all necessary steps to preserve this definition of marriage." Harper says the Liberals have not done that because the government didn't appeal the rulings of the lower courts. The Alliance intends to reintroduce that motion to force a vote on the issue.