And my Canadian heart smiled

I received an email the today that made my Canadian heart smile. It was from a good friend who remembered my blog posting titled “Excuse me, but you’re stepping on my Canadian pride.” This post, from March 2010, was an open letter to Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

The guide for new citizens to Canadians had finally be given a re-haul (it had not been updated since 1995). But not only had this revised version of the guide omitted gay rights, it had been revealed that Minister Kenney had ctually stripped gay rights out during the production process. This had knocked the wind out of my Canadian pride. A pride intrinsically linked to our country’s stance against discriminate based on race, gender, age, national origin, religion OR sexual orientation.

However, my pride is feeling just fine after reading today that the next version to be released of this guide will include reference to gay rights. Although the exact wording had not been released to the public, today’s article in The Ottawa Citizen suggests that it will be similar to the following:

“Our laws protect all Canadians, including gays and lesbians, from unjust discrimination. All Canadians enjoy the same access to education, health care, jobs, housing, social services, and pensions, regardless of their sexual orientation. In 2005, Parliament passed a law extending the right to civil marriage to same-sex couples. At the same time, the law respects religious freedom, so no church, synagogue, mosque or temple can be forced to perform a marriage that goes against the religious beliefs of its members.”

Oh Canada! to that.

Photo credit: CKA