I’ve just read through the transcript of Paul Martin’s Parliamentary Address yesterday on Bill C-38 (The Civil Marriage Act). Text and video available.

You really ought to read or watch the speech in it’s entirety. Paul Martin has declared himself a true champion with this address. Here are some choice snippets:

The rights of Canadians who belong to a minority group must always be protected by virtue of their status as citizens, regardless of their numbers. These rights must never be left vulnerable to the impulses of the majority.

We embrace freedom and equality in theory. We must also embrace them in fact.

Our rights must be eternal.

If a prime minister and a national government are willing to take away the rights of one group, what is to say they will stop at that? If the Charter is not there today to protect the rights of one minority, then how can we as a nation of minorities ever hope, ever believe, ever trust that it will be there to protect us tomorrow?

When we as a nation protect minority rights, we are protecting our multicultural nature. We are reinforcing the Canada we value. We are saying, proudly and unflinchingly, that defending rights – not just those that happen to apply to us, not just that everyone approves of, but all fundamental rights – is at the very soul of what it means to be a Canadian.

We have only to look at our own history. Unfortunately, Canada’s story is one in which not everyone’s rights were protected under the law. We have not been free from discrimination, bias, unfairness. There have been blatant inequalities.

Remember that it was once thought perfectly acceptable to deny women “personhood” and the right to vote. There was a time, not that long ago, that if you wore a turban, you couldn’t serve in the RCMP. The examples are many, but what’s important now is that they are part of our past, not our present.

Over time, perspectives changed. We evolved, we grew, and our laws evolved and grew with us. That is as it should be. Our laws must reflect equality not as we understood it a century or even a decade ago, but as we understand it today.

…we are where our world is going, not where it’s been.

It’s true, that “the examples [of discrimination, bias and unfairness in Canadian history] are many” and by no means does Martin cover the worst examples of this in his address. What’s integral to his demonstration, though, is how foolish it is to deny fundamental equality to all people.

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