Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 19/02) - The government amendment to the Adoption and Family Law Acts faced a last-ditch fight from several dissenting MLAs.

The new law would allow for same-sex couples to adopt children, and entitle them to the same spousal benefits given to heterosexual couples.

MLAs, during clause- by-clause debate of Bill 5, the act to amend the Adoption Act and Family Act, appeared no less divided over the issue than when the move to change the law for the second time began two years ago.

Again, MLAs were divided mainly along Yellowknife constituencies and those containing high numbers of aboriginal residents.

Children were the biggest concern for dissenting MLAs, with some comparing the situation to what happened to children sent away to residential schools.

"We are putting these children in a situation where they can be an orphan early," said North Slave MLA Leon Lafferty.

Lafferty said he had medical documentation that showed gay men typically have lifespans 20 years shorter than heterosexual men, and wanted to know if the government had any plans to protect adopted children from diseases like AIDS.

Lafferty did not produce any documentation to support his assertions.

"How do we ensure that this kind of environment won't cause harm to them?" asked Lafferty.

House Speaker Tony Whitford said Lafferty's question was "hypothetical," and ruled him out of order.

Some MLAs complained there wasn't enough public consultation over Bill 5.

"They didn't even step outside the boundaries of Yellowknife," said Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko.

The committee in charge of reviewing the bill, headed by Yellowknife South MLA Brendan Bell, received numerous written submissions, but concluded last month that it had heard enough.

"Two years is a reasonable length of time for any legislation to move in the Northwest Territories," said Great Slave MLA Bill Braden.

"In this time, the Government of Alberta has passed legislation that is at least this progressive."

But for those MLAs and cabinet ministers who remained morally opposed to the new legislation, the government had little choice but to pass it or else face a legal challenge.

Homosexual rights, including those for gay adoptions, are already enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Premier Stephen Kakfwi made a passionate appeal to the legislative assembly to take a hard look at the world outside of the NWT, and themselves before voting on the bill.

Kakfwi said he only had to reflect on the discrimination he experienced -- as an aboriginal -- growing up to convince him the government was doing the right thing.

"I believe these amendments are the right thing to do as a government,

"One way to look at this, if your own children were born gay, would you love them just as much if they weren't born with the sexuality you prefer? Or would you banish them?

"There must be a future that strives to eliminate discrimination in whatever way it manifests itself."