Giving Canadians credit

Editorial

Last week, the House of Commons endorsed the civil marriage bill that codifies the right of same-sex couples to marry under Canadian law. The bill, it could be said, was paperwork. Equal marriage was already a fact for most Canadians, thanks to provincial and territorial court decisions striking down the opposite-sex exclusionary definition of marriage as unconstitutional.

This issue isn't over, of course. The Senate and the queen's representative must accede to the legislation. This is not likely to be a problem. But Conservative leader Steven Harper says he is going to make it an issue in the next election. The challenge for Harper, and all opponents of the new definition, is that the only way to reverse the marriage bill, it seems, is to invoke the notwithstanding provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But this is an issue for the future, when the positions of the various parties become clearer.

Right now, we should celebrate. What we should celebrate is not same-sex marriage, necessarily. Though many of us are thrilled at the Commons' vote, others are profoundly pained and see their lifelong ideals threatened.

What we should celebrate is the civility and peacefulness with which Canadians, with notably few exceptions, have discussed this profoundly contentious issue. On whichever side we stand, Canadians have exhibited a degree of respectfulness and care that represents, beyond anything else this vote might have declared to the world, that we are a country that resolves its contentious disagreements through democratic means and respectful engagement.

This civility has repercussions for Canada's Jewish community. Having known what it is to live in societies where contentious issues are resolved in less peaceable fashion, the decorum around the equal-marriage issue is a reassurance that Canada is the sort of place we'd always hoped it could be.

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