“We’ve got more fools on the bench than we thought we had in this country, obviously. Marriage is not a provincial issue,” said Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition. The coalition seeks to restore Judeo-Christians moral principles.
“We’re going to have a next generation of children growing up being taught in public schools things that their parents don’t approve,” he told the Canadian Press.
Nova Scotia followed Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Yukon and Manitoba. All six provincial jurisdictions have married same-sex couples. Ontario was the first to grant a same-sex divorce Sept. 13, less than 18 months after it granted the first same-sex marriage.
The Nova Scotia ruling came two weeks before the Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to hold hearings on the federal government’s same-sex marriage reference case at the beginning of October.
The Canadian government submitted a draft bill on same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court in July 2003, seeking its opinion on the bill’s constitutionality.
A record 27 interveners are scheduled to present their arguments before the high court in the reference case Oct. 6-8, including the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.