This is worth noting because it illustrates the utter contempt that both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler have for Parliament and their own Liberal MPs.
On Feb. 21, Conservative MP Rick Casson (Lethbridge) said in a question to Paul Harold Macklin, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada: “We understand that after the bill leaves the House of Commons it will not go to the regular justice and human rights committee, that a special committee will be struck to deal with the bill. Some of the concerns with that will be the structure and the membership of that committee. Will members on the government side who are opposed to this legislation be allowed to sit on it? Is this just an issue of fast-tracking this to stifle debate further in the country?”
Macklin replied: “The public needs to know that the committee will be representative of the way in which the House is constituted and, in fairness, will deal with it as best it can, again representing all of the parties in the House and dealing with it in a full and democratic way.”
Notice that Macklin did not answer Casson’s question. He focused instead on the partisan make-up of the committee rather than addressing whether pro-marriage Liberals will be able to sit on the committee. For the record, all six of the Liberal MPs on the ad hoc committee support same-sex marriage despite the fact that at least one-third of non-cabinet members of the Liberal Party are opposed to redefining marriage. Where is their voice? Or would Martin, Cotler and Macklin like us to believe that each of the six hand-chosen MPs sitting on the newly created committee to examine C-38 are coincidentally pro-marriage?
