PROGRESS REPORT on "Marriage - Let the People Decide"

January 21, 2005

The political controversy over same-sex marriage has been escalating all week (Globe and Mail news story below). Paul Martin didn't escape it even in India.

The Citizens Centre campaign for a referendum on the meaning of marriage is also steadily escalating.

We exceeded our e-mail target for the week, with over eleven thousand e-mail letters having now gone to Paul Martin, and CCs to nine other national decision-makers. That's 110,000 personalized e-mails.

If you haven't yet forwarded notice of this campaign to your on-line friends and family, please do so by telling them to go to www.MarriageReferendum.ca.

There was also enough response to our appeal for on-line donations to enable us to start mailing paper printouts of the first ten thousand letters to the Prime Minister, key cabinet ministers, Opposition leaders, and the Supreme Court.

To help us continue this print-and-mail project, and give the referendum demand more visibility on Parliament Hill, you can contribute safely on line at www.citizenscentre.com/support.html

Globe and Mail
Friday, Jan 21, 2005

E-mails flying over same-sex marriage showdown
- Opposing sides line up their support

By Gloria Galloway
With a report from Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- MPs' e-mail boxes are flooded, ad campaigns are ramping up, churches are becoming more vocal and both sides are staking out what they see as the high moral ground in the next showdown of the same-sex marriage debate.

"If they [the politicians] think they're getting a lot of e-mails and letters now, it's nothing compared to what it's going to be over the month of February and however long it takes until there's a final vote," said Derek Roguski, vice-president of family policy for Focus on the Family Canada, a group trying to reserve marriage as a right for heterosexuals.

"We've seen some recent polling that reflects to us that we've got the majority on our side," he said.

"So it's just a matter of mobilizing those people and asking them to contact their MP and asking them to vote a certain way and making sure that the MP understands how important an issue it is to them."

In fact, both sides in the gay-marriage battle claim to represent the majority of Canadians as the federal government contemplates changing the traditional definition of marriage to include same-sex spouses.

Although it appears the Liberals have enough support to push a bill through the House, the final result is far from certain.

Many Liberal MPs will say only that they are "voting with the government," rather than state their personal beliefs when asked whether they support same-sex marriage.

Carolyn Bennett, the Public Health Minister who represents Toronto St. Paul's, which claims a large number of gay and lesbian constituents, is not one of them.

"This country is only as strong as the people who decide to look after one another in individual family units that they should get to define," Ms. Bennett said. "And if people want to formalize that in a way, then obviously we should support that."

Like many other MPs, Ms. Bennett has been inundated with e-mails from people on both sides of the issue.

But it is an ad campaign started this week by the Conservatives that has her "really annoyed," she said. "Whether people are comfortable or uncomfortable with same-sex marriage is not the issue any more. The issue is, are you prepared to turn human rights on and off like a light switch."

Courts in seven provinces and one territory have ruled that preventing same-sex couples from marrying is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But Conservative Leader Stephen Harper told reporters in Quebec yesterday that, if the traditional definition of marriage is expanded, "radical" groups may begin launching constitutional battles arguing that it is legal for a man to marry more than one woman, or other types of marriages.

"As soon as they've got to attack one traditional idea, the next one is down the road," he said.

"I don't want to get into the polygamy debate, but I fear if we do this, the next thing on the Liberal agenda will be polygamy, and who knows what else."

Fears like that have pressed otherwise apolitical Canadians into action.

Inky Mark, another Conservative opposed to same-sex marriage, said his staff in Ottawa has been handling hundreds of e-mails a day on this issue since December.

He met with 54 religious leaders in his community two days ago -- all opposed to homosexual weddings -- to plot strategies for continuing their fight.

Mr. Mark said he advised them "to continue the lobby, what else can we do? Don't take anything for granted."