Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 29/02) - Unlike MLAs, the public will have no further opportunity to voice its views on proposed legislative changes that would allow same sex couples the right to adopt.

Earlier this month the committee reviewing the changes, encapsulated in Bill 5, decided not to hold a public hearing on the bill.

Brendan Bell, chair of the committee reviewing the bill said the committee decided a public hearing could add nothing more to the viewpoints expressed in written submissions the committee received.

Bill 5 proposes that same sex couples be allowed to adopt children. A gay person can legally adopt under current legislation. But the law does not allow both partners in a same-sex relationship parental status.

Bell said the committee provided a plain language summary of the bill and offered to visit communities that expressed an interest in the changes.

No communities accepted the offer, said the Yellowknife South MLA, and none of those who wrote in requested a public hearing.

If the number of written submissions is an indication, the issue has touched a tender nerve with the public.

The committee received written comments from 111 individuals. The lion's share of the comments came from Yellowknife residents. Among those was a call -- a petition signed by 80 people -- for a public forum on the issue.

"If another group wants to hold a public forum and debate the issues, there's nothing to stop them," Bell said. "But we're here to review submissions, either in writing or in person, depending on how the committee decides, but it is not a forum for debate."

Bill 5 is scheduled for third and final reading next month. MLAs will have one more opportunity to debate the changes before they vote on it.

Written submissions received by the committee are not available to the public before the committee reports back to the legislative assembly.

During the last debate of the bill, Bell and other MLAs argued the changes were necessary to bring NWT law in line with Canadian human rights law.

To not make the changes would leave the NWT vulnerable to legal challenges. MLAs who opposed the changes argued human rights rulings are not that clear-cut.