Saskatchewan Party seeks to legalize bigotry

The Saskatchewan Party government is proposing legislation that would allow marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
In a news release Friday, the provincial government said the proposed law would ensure there are other marriage commissioners available to fill in if someone refused to perform the service because it violated his or her religious beliefs.
Provincial Justice Minister and Attorney General Don Morgan said he'll ask the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal for an opinion on whether the proposed legislation would conform with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The previous NDP government told marriage commissioners that they had to marry same-sex couples, regardless of their personal religious beliefs.

....

Provincial Justice Minister and Attorney General Don Morgan said he'll ask the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal for an opinion on whether the proposed legislation would conform with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Alberta went through the same mind numbingly moronic debate a few years ago. I'll make essentially the same points I made then:

• Marriage Commissioner is a government licensed position relating to civil marriage not religious ceremonies. Churches still have the right, which nobody contests, to refuse to perform religious marriage ceremonies that go against their beliefs.
  
  
• There are people out there who believe interracial marriage is an affront against their own idiosyncratic interpretation of the will of God. The arguments against gay marriage are an exact replay of the arguments against striking down miscegenation laws that made interracial marriages illegal in some parts of North America up until only a few decades ago. Do proponents of this law also believe government licensed civil marriage commissioners should be allowed to refuse to marry two people of different races or faiths if the commissioners disagree with such unions?
  
  
• As Civil Marriage Commissioner is a government licensed position I can save the government of Saskatchewan some time and legal bills. Yes, such a law would unambiguously violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, inevitably lead to divisive, expensive court cases which would result in an inevitable loss for the government.
  
  
• Do the citizens of Saskatchewan approve of their government spending at a minimum hundreds of thousands of dollars on a quixotic legal defense of a bigoted, hateful law purely to cater to the most intolerant elements of their base? Is this even an issue that has a crying need to be opened again? Do the leaders of the Saskatchewan Party really want to open the Tom Lukiwski can of worms again for example? Don't doubt that it will.
  
  
• Why are we still wasting time on this hateful stupid horse shit?