c.c.: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected], [email protected],[email protected],[email protected]
b.c.c.:
Same-Sex Options are NOT an Option.
By Rexanna M. Keats
701 Millidge Ave., P.O. Box 29021
Saint John, New Brunswick
E2K 2N7
C/o (506) 634-8699
A copy of this proposed speech is being sent to everyone listed at its conclusion and to the editorial departments of the Telegraph Journal, the National Post, and the Globe and Mail.
Earlier this month, I was invited by Tim Dooling to say a few words at the rally against same-sex marriage that will be held in Ottawa at the end of the week. These are some of the sentiments that I would like to express.
I want a strong family. You want a strong family. All of us need strong families. A strong family provides mutual support regardless of whether it begets children. My favorite definition of a marriage was offered by Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough: it is "lovers gazing out in the same direction together-in many ways a stronger definition of love." Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter said, in 1976, "When the family structure is weak, our government will tend to fill the vacum, often unsatisfactorily."
Unlike their southern neighbors, Canadians do not directly pay and arrange for their children's health and education. Canadians do not have regular municipal and provincial referendums and bond issues. Government is a contrivance and Canadians contrived that their government shall be based upon mutual support. That is one reason why, for example, helmets are mandatory for cyclists in New Brunswick, the province that I have lived in for the majority of my life. If your child is thrown from its bike and suffers a traumatic brain injury, we all pay for it and we are all deprived of that child's full human development.
To paraphrase a memorable speech from my favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life, the heterosexual community is the rabble that does most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. The power blackout that you endures last week is emblematic of a big problem that can be caused by smaller events. Strange, isn't it? Each family touches so many other lives, and when it isn't around it leaves an awful hole, doesn't it?
I acknowledge that my family is is vulnerable. I am a single parent. The government provides monetary, medical, educational, judicial, and social support to my family but it cannot provide the same-sex mentoring that my son requires. The government cannot teach my son by example how to build and maintain a strong marriage. All families need the mutual support that is provided when other strong families surround them. This is an idea that underlies neighborhoods. Weak families need that modeling even more. The Chretien marriage has been one such excellent role model.
We do not want to see non-church civil marriage between same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples replaced by civil unions, and "marriage" performed only in church. Many of us cannot become members of any recognized religion. Many others contribute to a faith community but are ineligible for membership in that community. Mr. Chretien rose before his caucus earlier this week and said that he would rather see an interpretation that guarantees rights than takes away rights. Any same-sex option will see rights taken away from the majority of Canadians, which I might add, includes the majority of the children of same-sex parents who are heterosexual.
For many of us, the issue of the legalization of the union of homosexuals has nothing to do with religion. The issue that must be addresses by this government is how do we best support the societal contrivance that best supports strong families that, in turn, supports society. The societal contrivance that best supports strong families is opposite-sex marriage.
The Prime Minister did not consult our elected representatives when he decided to legalize same-sex marriages. We, the people, are talking back to the government instead. We are angry. We demand to be heard.
We demand that the 216 MPs who voted in 1999 to uphold the current definition of marriage keep their promise. The Prime Minister and 28 other cabinet members were among the 216.
There will be an election before the Supreme Court brings down its decision, if the government does not withdraw its referral first. Many of us will remember the arrogance of this government by voting "anybody but."
c.c.:
Names in the news that have made statements against gay marriage legislation:
Hon. Rose-Marie Ur, MP
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex
[email protected]
Brenda Chamberlain
Liberal MP
Guelph-Wellington
[email protected]
Yolande Thibeault
Liberal MP
Saint-Lambert
[email protected].
Hon. Stephen Harper
Leader of the Opposition, the
Canadian Alliance
[email protected]
Mr. Peter McKay
Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
[email protected]
Hon. Elsie Wayne, MP
Saint John, NB
[email protected]
Tim Dooling, Head
Canadians Against Same-Sex Marriage
[email protected]
Hon. Judy Sgro, MP
York West
Hon. Carmen Provenzano, M.P.
Sault Ste. Marie
Hon. Jason Kenney, MP
Canadian Alliance
[email protected]
Archbishop Marcel Gervais
Archbishop of Ottawa
C/o Thomas J. Reilly, General Secretary
Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops
[email protected]
Mr. David Mainse
[email protected]
Hon. John McKay, Ontario
Liberal Party Caucus Chairman
Scarborough East
[email protected]
Hon. John Reynolds, MP
Canadian Alliance
[email protected]
Mr. Derek Rogusky, Spokesman
Focus on the Family
[email protected]
Hon. Dan McTeague, MP
Liberal Party
Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge
[email protected]
[email protected]
Hon. Tom Wappel, MP
Liberal Party
Scarborough Southwest
[email protected]
His Eminence Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic, Archbishop of Toronto
Catholic Pastoral Centre
1155 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario. M4T 1W2
Monsignor Peter Schonenbach, General Secretary
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
C/o Mr. William (Bill) J. Sammon
Lawyer for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
BARNES, SAMMON
Barristers & Solicitors
200 Elgin Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 1L5 T
Most Rev. Jean-Louis Plouffe
Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie
30 Ste. Anne Road
Sudbury, Ontario P3C 5E1
Mr. William (Bill) J. Sammon
Lawyer for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
BARNES, SAMMON
Barristers & Solicitors
200 Elgin Street, Suite 400
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 1L5 T
Hon. Eugene Bellemare, MP
Ottawa-Orleans
http://www.eugenebellmare.com
[email protected]
Hon. Pat O'Brien, MP
London-Fanshawe, Ontario
http://www.pobrien.london.on.ca
[email protected]
Fraser Institute
Head Office
4th Floor, 1770 Burrard Street
Vancouver BC Canada
V6J 3G7
[email protected]
Father Raymond J. De Souza, Associate Pastor
Our Lady of Lourdes,
Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario
390 Palace Road
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 4T3
[email protected]
Most Reverend Anthony Giroux Meagher
Archbishop of Kingston, Ontario
Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario
390 Palace Road
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 4T3
[email protected]
Hon. Benoit Serre, MP
Liberal Party
Timiskaming-Cochrane
[email protected]
Hon. Paul Szabo, MP
Mississauga, Ontario
[email protected]
Names in the news that have made statements in favor of the gay marriage legislation:
Marlene Jennings, MP
Montreal
Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien
[email protected]
Hon. Martin Cauchon, Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada
Liberal Party
[email protected]
Hon. Gilles Duceppe, MP
Leader of the Bloc Quebecois
#533-S, Centre Block
House of Commons
111 Wellington St.
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
[email protected]
Joe Clark, MP
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Calgary, Alberta
[email protected]
Rt. Hon. Paul Martin, MP
http://www.paulmartin.ca
Liberal Party
LaSalle-Emard
[email protected]
Hon. Marlene Jennings, MP
Liberal Party
Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine
[email protected]
Hon. John McCallum, MP
Secretary of State
Hon. Sheila Copps, MP
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Heritage Room
511-S House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
[email protected]
Hon. Jim Peterson, MP
Willowdale
[email protected]
Hon. John Finlay, MP
Liberal Party
Woodstock, Ontario
[email protected]
Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, MP
Minister of International Trade
Liberal Party
Papineau - Saint-Denis
Hon. Anne McLellan, M.P.
[email protected]
Names in the news that have expressed reservations or are undecided about the gay marriage legislation:
Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal
[email protected]
Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault
[email protected]
Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw
Veterans Affairs Minister Rey Pagtakhan
[email protected]
Junior Foreign Minister David Kilgour
[email protected]
Names in the news whose opionion about the gay marriage legislation are unknown:
Gerry Byrne
Atlantic Development
Ethel Blondin-Andrew
Secretary of State for Children and Youth
Paul DeVillers
Amateur Sport
Jean Augustine
Junior Minister for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women
Joe Peschisolido, MP
Richmond, B.C.
[email protected]