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"The recent decision
by the Supreme Court in the Vriend case is unconstitutional
and demonstrates both the need to reform the high court,
and the need for a higher level of appeal, says the Christian
Heritage Party of Canada. Speaking from Northern BC, where
he is on a speaking tour, the CHP Leader, Ron Gray denounced
the decision as anti-democratic.
The right of the elected
legislature to make laws, and the rights of a university
and its students to choose what kind of community of
scholars they want to study in, have been brushed aside
in a decision which ignores both law and the constitution,
Gray said.
The Interpretation Act,
he pointed out, says every law and every court decision
under that law must be governed by the law's preamble.
The preamble to the Constitution, Canada's highest law,
invokes the supremacy of God, but the court decision
in Vriend ignores God's word in a case involving a Christian
school, he emphasized.
A Christian institution
has the absolute right to insist on Biblical standards
of behaviour, Gray asserted. That right derives from
both the Preamble and from the Charter's guarantee of
freedom of religion.
In this decision the court
has taken one more autocratic step towards re-defining
'marriage' in Canada. It is obliterating the definition
which this nation has historically held, Gray said.
That definition has traditionally limited spousal recognition
to the legal union of one adult man with one adult woman.
That definition limits number, gender, age and species.
If the Supreme Court, over-riding
the legitimate authority of the legislatures, sweeps
aside the limitation of gender, on what basis can we
hope to continue to limit 'marriage' in terms of number,
age or species? he asked. Will the court now open the
door for polygamy and polyandry? For child marriage?
For bestiality? The decision in Vriend offers no rational
basis for the Court to so 'no' to anything.
By this decision, the Court
has also usurped the authority of elected legislature.
That is profoundly anti-democratic. Gray said his party
is considering a policy that would advocate the right
to appeal Supreme Court decision to the Governor-General
in Council or to the House of Commons, in order to provide
a final level of appeal that is accountable to the electorate.
The Supreme Court, he pointed out, is unelected, and
accountable to no one."
For further
information:
Call
905-788-2238
EDCHPCAN@netcom.ca
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