The s

RECENTLY, a letter of
considerable public
interest was dropped
into my lap.

The letter, written last
month by Mary-Woo Sims,
Chief Commissioner of che
Human Rights Commission,
is addressed to the
Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh,
B.C,"s Attorney General (AG)
and Minister Responsible for
Human Rights.

T must say, Ms. Sims is a
woman of many faces. Her
words to the public are
invariably so measured and
diplomatic, one almost for-
gets they mask a sweeping
totalitarian vision of human
rights,

Not in this missive
though. Addressing an insider
rather than the public, Ms.
Sims fails to disguise her
shrill, even dogmatic pitch.

One minute she is
demanding the AG end “dis-
criminaticn suffered by gays
and lesbians and other non-
traditional faniilies in B.C.,”
via the introduction of an
omnibus bill.

In the next breath she
gently cajoles the AG,
“applauding” him for the
changes he has made so far to
existing legislation. In Ms.
Sim’s assessment, the inclu-
sion of same-sex relationships
in B.C. statutes is proceeding
at too incremental a pace.

Ms. Sims refers to a report
by the BC Law Institution on
the Recognition of Spousal
and Family Status, conclud-
ing that “in many cases
provincial statutes draw
unsustainable distinctions
between persons who are
matried and those of the
same or opposite sex who live
in non-traditional marriage-
tike relationships.”

And this, by the way, is
the last mention Ms. Sims, a
public servant, makes of com-
mon-law heterosexuals. The
rest of her epistolary fumes
are reserved for fighting the
good fight: the fight for gays,
bisexuals, and transgendered
pcople only.

_ The BC Law Institute’s
Report on Recognition of
Spousal and Family Status
was tabled for the AG The
institute’s scholars, who con-
veniently left the public out
of the loop, point out that

fair
comment

the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, in combination
with human rights legisiation
and a host of provincial and
tederal jurisprudence — have

“If giving same-sex

and other types of

domestic partners

assorted benefits
will cripple it,
then business
should be able
to opt out.”

made it impossible (and cost-
ly) to exclude same-sex rights
trony law.

Benevolently, the institute
has decided not to tamper
with the institute of marriage
just vet, but rurn instead to
regulating non-traditional

mailpox

Don’t sink

Dear Editor:

North Vancouverites
should hurry down to
Lonsdale Quay to have a last
look at a disappearing part of
their city’s history.

The former HMCS Cape
Breton, moored at the Burrard
Dry Dock site, is the last sur-
viving Second World War
Canadian freighter and it was
built in North Vancouver.

Fort-class freighters used
innovative welded construc-
tion from prefabricated com-
ponents forced on the Allies
by their losses to enemy sub-
marines.

The Cape Breton might
have been a floating maritime
museum, a visible memorial
to the city’s major wartime
industry — shipbuilding, or it
could have been 2 monument

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relationships.

Pay “regulating,” since J
see a tumbling, albeit well-
meaning, attempt aloot in the
name of equigy, to regulate
the lives of ways, lesbians and
any cohabiting adults.

Naturally, the proposed
legislative changes are
couched in the deceptive lan-
guage of balancing nights and
freedoms with obligations
and responsibilities: the loss
of individual freedoms being
presented ostensibly as a way
to protect the vulnerable.

The institute proposes the
proclamation of a Domestic
Partner Act, which will
enable the law to recognize
the variety of non-traditional
relationships currently not
accorded tull entitlements,

Here is how it works more
or less: nwo (for now) adults
can make a domestic partner
declaration by officially regis-
tering their relationship. A
sexual relationship needn’t be
part of this configuration so,
in my understanding, brother
and sister, or two friends can
become bona fide domestic
partners.

People sharing voluntarily
in such living arrangements
will be able to avail them-
selves of the myriad of gov-
ernment-provided benefits,
social assistance, grants, tax

N. Van Gi

to Canada’s merchant marine.
Its intended fate is otherwise:
it is to be gutted and sunk as
an artificial shipwreck for the
amusement of divers. It will
be the fifth, and certainly the
oldest and most historic, naval
vessel ‘to be deliberately sunk
in B.C. waters.

The Americans had the
good sense to save their last
Liberty ship, the Jeremiah
O’Brien, in San Francisco; we
are going to send ours to a
watery grave which will result

Bras as ang

ic Dal

relict and employer-based
benefits available to tradition-
il families, once they have
cohabited for avo years.

Let's be clear, F see no
reason te deny the same-sex
partner of a pension plan-
member emploved in the
public sector access to a pen-
sion, [f common-law hetere-
sexuals can have that right,
denying it to a same-sex part-
ner is to flout the principles
of natural law and justice

Private business, however,
should not come under the
acgis of such legislation.

If giving same-sex and
other types of domestic part-
ners assorted benefits will
cripple it, then business
should be able to opt out. OF
course, this presupposes that
we live in a society where
freedom to contract is a
human night as well — but
we don’t!

If the putative non-tradi-
tional partners don’t want to
“come out” to government
and get registered, that’s fine.
But should they wish to enter
a relationship with no finan-
cial bondage — they can’t.
By default, their relationship
will be subsumed under the
act so that when it is over,
partners can appeal to the
courts for a piece of the
action.

heritage

in destruction and pollution.
In 18th-century Britain
noblemen, built artificial ruins
on their estates, much like the
creators of the artificial ship-
wrecks.

What were these structures
called? ~ “Follies.” Future
generations of Canadians who
will marvel that our genera-
tion’s best idea for using a his-
toric vessel was to sink it and,
thereby, destroy it.

Prof. Peter Moogk
UBC

Friday, June 18, 1899 — North Shore News ~ 7

This pertains equally to
the other type of catchment
relationship the institute is
careful to specify: the one
involving adults that live
together in a marriage-like
relationship. The upshot
being that domestic partners
and people in marriage like
relationships wiil all be enu-
ted to the same rights, privi-
leges and obligations as mar-
ricd couples while their rela-
tionship lasts.

On separation, partners in
a registered or non-regis-
tered, sexual or non-sexual
relationship will be able to tie
up the courts and engorge
the wallets of attorneys by
suing their partners.

The financial implications
of the proposed Domestic
Partner Act on taxpayers and
employers will undoubtedly
be considerable. Youre talk-
ing government and employ-
er-based entitlements, not to
mention lawsuits for posteri-
ty.

The cost to personal liber-
ty will also be staggering.
Keeping two households
might be prudent because
once you terminate 6 live-in

nersh

ips

relationship you become
open season.

Finally, the BC Law
Institute is suiting up for a
bold future.

“A significant minority of
the institute’s members,”
wants to allow a person to
have more than one domestic
partner. This is where this
venerable institute, in my
estimation, indicates it is
guided by human appetites
and not by the requisites of a
civilized society,

Primitive, promiscuous
hordes will be able to rake
hold in the community; 3
throwback to a time wher
the survival of Homo sapiens
depended on the frequency
of insemination.

If this comes to pass,
nothing will prevent a bisexu-
al fom bunking with nwo
people of her chonsing, just
as nothing will prevent
swingers assembling a couple
of their favourite bosom bud-
dies under one roof to reap
the financial benefits,

As usual, those imperiled
will be the children of these
hordes.

~~ gnone@attcanada.net

— a

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