CLIPPING: Alberta gives up on opposistion to gay marriage

Wednesday » July 13 » 2005

Tories to give marriage officials choice on gay unions
Civil servants to get protection on religious grounds as Klein throws in towel on fight with Ottawa

Jason Markusoff and Jodie Sinnema
The Edmonton Journal

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

CALGARY - The Alberta government will give marriage licences to gay and lesbian couples once Ottawa legalizes the unions, Premier Ralph Klein said Tuesday.

But it will also draft laws that will ensure religious officials and marriage commissioners won’t be forced to perform the ceremonies if they object on cultural, social or religious grounds.

In his government’s final surrender in a long-standing opposition to gay marriages in Alberta, Klein said any more legal challenges or other drastic steps were foolish and that change was inevitable.

"Government can give hope as long as it’s legitimate hope, but we can’t give false hope," he said.

The Senate is currently debating the Civil Marriage Act and could pass it as early as next week. Klein sees it as a near certainty.

"We will proceed to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples, much to our chagrin, following the proclamation of the federal marriage act," Klein said.

"We will develop legislative options to ensure the rights of religious officials and those Albertans who hold social or cultural beliefs or values, whether religious or non-religious."

Even so, Government Services Minister Ty Lund promised same-sex couples that he would do what’s necessary to make sure they would have no problem finding a civil servant to marry them. Lund hinted he would go so far as hiring extra commissioners who expressly approve of gay unions.

Lund could not commit to particular changes to existing laws and said he didn’t know to what extent the government would go to protect marriage commissioners.

However, the government’s lawyers have warned they might have to wield the notwithstanding clause to protect civil commissioners, since allowing them to refuse to perform gay marriages could violate Alberta human rights laws and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The proposal drew sharp criticism from NDP Leader Brian Mason.

"Anyone who performs marriages would be allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples," Mason said.

But Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said although he doesn’t think the legislation is entirely necessary, since the rights of religious officials will already be protected under the federal act, he agreed with the government’s plan to protect the rights of marriage commissioners.

"It’s fine," Taft said. "Both sides of this come down as issues of defending individual rights and we will defend the individual rights of people to marry who they want to marry and we will defend, with the same vigour, the rights of people who don’t want to perform those marriages not to perform them.

"I don’t want to be in a situation where a marriage commissioner is forced to perform a ceremony for people they don’t want to perform it for."

Gerald Gall, a law professor at the University of Alberta, said the proposed legislation to protect the religious rights of civil marriage commissioners, in conjunction with the possibility of using the notwithstanding clause, is clever, though not necessarily airtight.

"It’s certainly open to challenge," he said. He said the court would have to balance the rights of marriage commissioners to freedom of religion and conscience with the rights of same-sex couples for equality, protected by the charter.

"The marriage commissioner, as a government official, is still doing something which is violating the equality rights of the same-sex couple," he said. "Are you going to keep the government out of court? Not necessarily."

Mickey Wilson, who wants to marry his longtime boyfriend, said he doesn’t expect any challenges will be forthcoming if the government provides adequate services and enough commissioners willing to marry same-sex couples.

"I don’t think most of us are looking for a fight," said Wilson, a 48-year-old registry manager.

"I think there will be sufficient avenues available for people to get married. Nobody is interested in a fight. We just want equality."

Wilson proposed to his boyfriend, 28-year-old Arron, earlier this year, but hasn’t been able to nail down a firm wedding date, stalled by the provincial government’s talk of challenges.

"Aside from my own elation because maybe in the reasonably near future, my partner and I can be married and we can actually pick a date and rent a place, (the challenges were) just a waste of taxpayers’ money."

Ray Wiens, pastor of Summerside Community Church who organized a rally in May to support traditional marriage, said Klein had to drop the court fight if there were no other options.

"It’s unfortunate from the perspective of the majority of both Albertans and Canadians who have disagreed with the direction of the Liberal government," Wiens said. "What’s happened in the country is that a lot of the laws that have to do with marriage and family have actually weakened marriage and family life over the years, and this is another example of taking away meaning from marriage."

Wiens said he supports the government’s proposed legislation.

"The government has a moral obligation to strengthen marriage and family life," Wiens said.

In recent months, the Klein government mused about going to extreme lengths to keep same-sex marriage out of Alberta, vocally supported by some social conservatives within the Tory caucus.

Those included getting out of the marriage business entirely and only licensing civil unions, seeking a federal constitution amendment enshrining heterosexual marriage and launching a court fight it conceded it would lose.

Government sources said that after the House of Commons passed the marriage bill last month, only a handful of Klein’s 61 MLAs seemed willing to keep the fight going.

jmarkusoff@thejournal.canwest.com

jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com

© The Edmonton Journal 2005

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