”Making the dotted line solid”
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By Paul Harris
YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada)
(YellowTimes.org) – The National Post is a newspaper in Canada that is in love with all things American. It salivates over the prospect of Canada becoming not only more like the United States, but actually part of it. It must be darn near apoplectic with rage right now over what it will surely consider clear evidence that Canada is going to hell in a handbasket.
The border between Canada and the U.S. has always been a bit of a magical thing; the relationship between the two of us has been so close that for all of my life, up to September 11, 2001, the border could readily appear on maps as a dotted line rather than a solid one. Even though a good chunk of Canada actually lies south of the 49th parallel, that is usually how the border is referenced. The 49th is the longest undefended border in the world.
We have always said we were different because we didn’t carry guns; we didn’t drop bombs whenever and wherever we wished; we had national social safety systems and better hockey teams, and so on. But recently, Canada has started to go its own path in much more obvious ways. Some decisions made in Canada in the past few months have angered our southern neighbors but probably none will anger them so much as one announced June 17: more about this later.
Earlier this year, Canada decided to refuse the demands of U.S. president George Bush that we join his immoral war against Iraq. Most Canadians supported that refusal but once the war had started, and with the constant cajoling of the National Post about the economic repercussions we were sure to face from the Americans, opinions seemed to swing more in favor of the war. Just a few days ago, 71 percent of Canadians are again reported as believing the war was unjust. Naturally, the Post is once again outraged at our national stupidity.
Now to be sure, this was a divisive issue in Canada; but on the whole, we are just not in favor of big guys beating up on little guys for made-up reasons. We have been chastised by the likes of Condoleezza Rice and Pat Buchanan, which certainly makes our hearts swell with pride; and we have had gentle understanding from the likes of Colin Powell, which makes us really sad he never ran for President. In this case, most of the world thinks we got it right.
But while this issue helped make it a little more clear that we are a bit different from Americans, this is not the first U.S. military adventure we have scorned.
A second recent issue, however, is more defining: we have decided to decriminalize possession of marijuana. We have already heard threats from the U.S. about shutting down the border and heard the predictions from the far right about our impending status as a drug haven.
Now Canada is not talking about making this a place for pushers and users to hold their annual conventions; we’re just talking about making the possession of small amounts of marijuana subject to a fine only, so that the guilty party is not left with a criminal record. But to hear the hue and cry coming from south of the border, you would think we were planning to distribute it free to school kids. Rather than spending billions of dollars on a ludicrous and fruitless “war on drugs,” we are willing to recognize a basic reality of life — people are using this stuff. And so long as we are only talking about small amounts for personal consumption, we are willing to treat it as we would treat an underage teenager being caught with a case of beer: a simple fine.
Naturally, the United States is a good deal less than happy with this because of the shared border and they are sure that the whole Colombian cartel will soon be opening a branch office here; frankly, it would make more sense to open one in the U.S., somewhere where it can be closest to its customer base.
But on June 17, 2003 the government of Canada made an announcement that will probably have the moral right in the U.S. pushing for a regime change up here: we are about to legalize same-sex marriages.
Three provincial courts have already ruled that refusal to accept same-sex marriage violates the letter and spirit of our constitution and the federal government has decided to go along with them. They will introduce a bill in the House of Commons but rather than vote on it, it will be sent directly to our Supreme Court where its validity can be verified. Then, it will return to the House where members can vote on it. The law will allow for religious institutions to refuse to sanction same-sex marriage but a civil union will still be an option in those cases.
We have a so-called “notwithstanding clause” in our constitution that allows provinces, in certain circumstances, to exclude themselves from federal laws. At least one province has made clear that it will not accept same-sex marriage and will surely opt out of this one. It will take time, but they will eventually come around; like it or not, this is an issue whose time has come. We have long had openly gay members of our various governments and have managed to resist the urge for all of us to become raving perverts.
That Canada has been brave enough to take this position in the face of what is sure to be outrage from our neighbors is admirable. That such a basic human issue should cause the amount of fuss that it does is despicable. As far back as 1967, the man who was our Minister of Justice and would become our next Prime Minister remarked that “the State has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” It seems that Canada is finally beginning to accept that he was right.
For all Canadians and Americans who have never quite understood what, if anything, makes us different, that dotted line along the map is beginning to become more solid.
[Paul Harris is self-employed as a consultant providing Canadian businesses with the tools and expertise to successfully reintegrate their sick or injured employees into the workplace. He has traveled extensively in what we arrogant North Americans refer to as "the Third World," and he believes that life is very much like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Paul lives in Canada.]
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@ June 20, 2003