Internal Splits Emerge in Canadian Parties Over Gay Marriage

C. Krauss

TORONTO, Dec. 18 - A week after the Supreme Court gave the government the constitutional go-ahead to expand marriage rights to gays and lesbians, a bitter battle has emerged in Parliament that is creating deep fissures in the Liberal and Conservative parties.Polls indicate that a comfortable majority of Canadians actively support or passively accept legislation being prepared by Prime Minister Paul Martin to redefine marriage across the country. Already courts in six provinces and one territory, all told including 85 percent of the population of nearly 32 million, have struck down old marriage laws to allow gays and lesbians to marry. Only minor protests have occurred.But pockets of dissent have emerged in rural areas and suburbs of Toronto with heavy immigrant and Muslim populations, putting as much as one-quarter of the governing Liberal caucus in the House of Commons in a political quandary. Mr. Martin has said that Liberal backbenchers may vote their conscience but that cabinet members must toe the party line in favor of the legislation.Already two members of the cabinet have said they may have to resign and vote against the government. A few defections from the cabinet, however, would probably not jeopardize final passage of the marriage legislation, which will be introduced when Parliament comes back into session late next month. The majority of Liberals supporting the bill will be joined by nearly all the members of the opposition Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party along with a few Conservative members.