Ottawa, Canada, Jun 20, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Canada’s Liberal government announced yesterday that it is prepared to sit through the summer to pass its final budget bill and the same-sex marriage bill.
The summer recess is supposed to begin at the end of the week, but the Liberals hope their motion to extend the session will come to a vote Thursday.
Last week, Prime Minister Paul Martin said passage of the the same-sex marriage bill would be delayed until the fall because of the Conservative’s delaying tactics. But since then, the prime minister has changes his tune and expressed his intention to pass the bill as soon as possible.
"It's not time to take a holiday when we're still working on generating equality that people have waited so long to achieve," said NDP Leader Jack Layton, whose party backs same-sex marriage.
The Conservatives said they will continue to use parliamentary tactics to delay passage of the bill.