Members of The 39th Canadian Parliament and Same-sex Marriage - Background

Background

Same-sex marriage became legal in Canada in 2003 when a series of court decisions declared that denying the privilege to homosexuals was unconstitutional. The Civil Marriage Act was approved by the Canadian House of Commons on June 28, 2005 by a margin of 158 to 133 and was subsequently passed by the Canadian Senate on July 19, 2005, before being given Royal Assent on July 20, 2005. This law brought the two provinces where such court challenges had not been resolved, Alberta and Prince Edward Island, in line with the rest of the country. The issue remained controversial and Conservative leader Stephen Harper pledged to revisit the issue with a free vote should the Conservatives form a government. Harper's party won the greatest number of seats in the 2006 federal election. Harper said that he would address this issue by means of a simple motion to the House as to whether or not the matter should be revisited. If the motion were to pass his government would introduce legislation to change the legal definition of marriage to two opposite sex couples, while creating civil unions for same-sex couples; should the motion be defeated, the government will take no further action.

See also: Members of the 38th Canadian Parliament and same-sex marriage

Read more about this topic:  Members Of The 39th Canadian Parliament And Same-sex Marriage

Famous quotes containing the word background:

    “They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
    —Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    “Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
    —Emma Goldman (1869–1940)