Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Not that I'm much for blank “national pride” in general, but seeing Wednesday's speech by the Canadian Prime Minister makes me very proud to be Canadian. The subject was his support for Canada's Bill C-38 — the legalization of gay marriage. He made three core points debunking bigots in his speech demanding that all the provinces uphold Canadian law:

1. Re: “Gay marriage violates religious freedom”
   This idea is fundamentally untrue, since gay marriage is about protecting and granting freedoms, rather than restricting them. A specific church has no responsibility to sanction a gay marriage, but the state does. Any other action would be restrictive of fundamental individual rights.
2. Re: “We need a national vote on this”
   This notion violates the core spirit of the Charter of Rights, which is designed specifically to protect the rights of the minority from mob opinion. The whole point of a Bill of Rights type document is to protect the individual, not to protect the crowd.
3. Re: “Civil unions” are an acceptable compromise
   Nothing short of full gay marriage rights is equality. Duh.

I hope this is the start of a wave that will encircle the globe.

And I hope America doesn't try and strong-arm Canada on this like they have on just about every other pro-freedom stance we've taken, with threats, increased sanctions, embargoes, and restrictions on tourists crossing the border… “they hate us for our freedom!”