- OTTAWA (Reuters) - An attempt
to broaden Canada's hate-crimes laws to include protection for homosexuals
has sparked a fierce debate in Parliament over whether the Bible and the
Koran could be branded as hate literature.
-
- It centres on a bill from gay Member of Parliament Svend
Robinson that would make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in prison,
to incite or promote hatred against homosexuals.
-
- But his attempt to end gay-bashing has brought warnings
that pastors or imams could be thrown into jail for preaching homosexuality
is evil and that their scriptures could be banned or confiscated.
-
- Robinson, a member of the minority New Democratic Party,
dismissed the fears as unfounded.
-
- "There's not an attorney general in the country
anywhere at any level who would consent to the prosecution of an individual
for quoting from the Bible," he told a House of Commons committee
examining the bill.
-
- "An attorney general who tried something like that
would be run out of town on a rail."
-
- Opponents of the bill point to the Owens court case in
Saskatchewan five months ago involving the right to quote the Bible in
an newspaper ad against homosexuality. The judge ruled that a Biblical
passage in Leviticus "exposes homosexuals to hatred."
-
- Even though the Owens case dealt with human rights legislation,
critics said that sort of ruling could just as easily be applied in a hate-crimes
case under the criminal code.
-
- "I'm concerned about the chilling effect of this
kind of decision," said Vic Toews of the official opposition in Parliament,
the Canadian Alliance.
-
- The gay-rights lobby group Egale suggested the courts
would eventually insist on including sexual orientation in the current
hate-crimes legislation, which prohibits hatred on the basis of colour,
race, religion or ethnic origin.
-
- "I would suggest to this committee that the legislation
as it stands, by being under-inclusive, by failing to protect a group equally
needing protection, is unconstitutional," Egale's John Fisher said
this week.
-
- He said gays were more likely to be attacked than heterosexuals.
-
- Pat O'Brien, a legislator from the governing Liberal
Party, recalled an incident in which Robinson himself had confronted a
Roman Catholic priest on Parliament Hill who was protesting homosexuality,
and Robinson threw one of his signs over the embankment he was standing
on.
-
- "I have concerns whether somebody like that is going
to be able to carry out his freedom of expression," O'Brien said.
-
- Because Robinson's bill has prompted an avalanche of
e-mails and letters to members of Parliament, it has become hot potato
that the Liberals appear unsure how to handle.
-
- Liberal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon told the House
of Commons on Thursday he supported the bill. But socially conservative
members of the Liberal Party were put on the committee on Wednesday when
a motion was made to shelve it.
-
- Robinson successfully delayed that motion, and both sides
are now looking to a final committee battle on May 26 or 27 that is likely
to determine whether the bill will die or proceed to broader consideration
by Parliament.
|
