Pubdate: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) Copyright: 2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Contact: http://www.seattle-pi.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/408 Author: Les Leyne, Special To The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Note: Les Leyne is a writer for the Victoria Times Colonist's Legislature Bureau. SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK 'N' ROLL? BLAME CANADA In the 20th century, good old boring, gray Canada was ... well, who knows what it was? Not many Americans ever noticed or cared. But the 21st century Canada is a fast-breaking new story, going recently in a direction that has startled Canadians as much as it has everyone else. In May, Canadians still shaking off the effects of winter awoke one day to find the federal government had introduced a bill that will decriminalize possession of small quantities of marijuana, making it a trivial violation on par with getting a $150 traffic ticket. Then in June, an Ontario court ruling that will go unchallenged across most of Canada declared that same-sex marriages are legal. Gay couples started flocking into Toronto City Hall and other municipal offices to get marriage licenses. More than 300 of them have obtained legal licenses at Toronto City Hall alone at last count, including 49 from the United States, even though their ceremonies are not recognized back home. Running concurrently was the news that the government retained the services of the Rolling Stones for a massive outdoor concert late last month to banish the lingering economic effect of SARS in Toronto. That's another first; who would have thought a government would ever enlist Keith Richards in a public health campaign? In short order, Canada touched all three bases on the fabled road to ruin: sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. The gay marriage and marijuana stories continue to develop. The British Columbia court recently reversed itself and followed Ontario's lead. Within an hour, a gay couple on the courthouse steps got legally married for the first time in British Columbia (after changing bride and groom on the bureaucratic form to spouse). They sealed it with a passionate kiss carried on provincewide television. Then the federal government announced the marijuana it has been growing in a remote northern mine shaft for a pilot medical-use project will be couriered to doctors and made available to people with medical certificates for $5 (Canadian) a gram. Gays getting legally married, pot decriminalized, Ottawa dealing dope -- what's the deal? If you compare catchphrases -- the United States' "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" from the Declaration of Independence versus Canada's "peace, order and good government" from the Constitution Act of 1867 -- you wouldn't think Canada would be breaking new ground on social-policy fronts. This is the country that brought the world televised curling. But it is now looking positively European in some aspects. The old, faintly perceived image of being cold, cordial and cloistered is fading. Canada has gone from cold to cool. From cordial to beyond friendly (look for magazine cover teasers such as "When Mounties Marry -- Each Other"). And from cloistered to wide, wide open. Mild-mannered Canadians, innately polite and orderly, seem to be taking it in stride so far. Religious leaders from various denominations have expressed serious reservations about legalized same-sex marriages. National organizations representing Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox Jews want the historic Biblical definition of a union of a man and a woman retained. More liberal faiths are going along, and some denominations are split right down the middle. But religion holds far less sway in Canada than in the United States. A recent (Toronto) Globe and Mail headline about Canada's churchgoing rate (a laggard 20 percent, half the U.S. rate) read: "God is Dead: Whatever." It's ironic, says the minister who performed British Columbia's first legal same-sex marriage. Tim Stevenson is the first openly gay ordained Canadian minister, the first openly gay Cabinet minister in Canada (in a previous government) and is now a Vancouver city councilman. Partnered for 21 years and co-father of three children, he laughs at the new image Americans may have of Canada: "The pot-smoking queers have taken power!" Oddly enough, for an ordained minister, Stevenson said the lessened religious influence is a positive in Canada. Despite the U.S. history of welcoming people fleeing oppression, some of it religion-based, he says the irony is the United States now sometimes resembles a theocratic, religious republic. But Canada is prepared to ignore its religious leaders, put aside Biblical injunctions and redefine marriage for the 21st century. The federal government will soon rewrite the law to recognize the court decision, and Canada will be only the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages, after Belgium and the Netherlands. "There are very significant U.S.-Canadian differences, and these moves will accentuate those," Stevenson said. "I don't think it's any accident that the liberal European countries are much more aligned with us than the United States." Some Canadians are worried about the clout the United States can bring to bear if it is moved to make its views about Canada felt. U.S. drug policy director John Walters already has warned Canada against the new pot laws, which could make for delays at already clogged border crossings. And in the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning sodomy laws, Justice Antonin Scalia issued a dark, dissenting warning that the country is "heading down the road for judicially imposed homosexual marriages, as has recently occurred in Canada." But not everyone is making much of this recent liberal lurch, or any emerging U.S.-Canada social gulf. Keith Martin, an Opposition Member of Parliament from Vancouver Island, said: "There's a huge mythology that Canada is a more liberal, socialistic place. There is an erroneous perception that the U.S. is a monolithic, hard-right, intolerant Republican place. "But large parts of the United States would fit comfortably into the Canadian approach. The picture is a lot more nuanced than that." A dozen U.S. states have relaxed pot-possession laws, and large segments of the population don't support the administration's continued "war" on drugs, he said. By one estimate, 30 percent of the U.S. population lives under pot laws as or more lenient than the one introduced in Canada. Marijuana activist Philippe Lucas, who openly sells marijuana to people in Victoria with doctor's certificates saying they need it, agrees. "The U.S. is actually far ahead of Canada in allowing the medical use of marijuana at the state level," he said. Eight states, including Washington, already recognize that special use. Lucas dismisses the new pot law as not going nearly far enough. "The original intent of the law was probably good, but it's a step backward. We had a chance to do something progressive, and we took a step backward." The decriminalization of small amounts (under a half-ounce) simply reflects the reality; street cops using discretion opted out of arresting people for that offense years ago. There are two cafes in Vancouver where people smoke it openly -- no sales are allowed -- with minimal police interest. Ticketing is actually being touted as a way to increase enforcement; cops will issue fines, rather than lay charges. "No one has 'gone Dutch' yet,' " said Lucas, meaning buying and selling openly, as well. "It's not something we'll see on the West Coast for a while yet. "Even if the bill passes, which is very questionable, it still puts us far behind Europe in terms of progressive reform. They are miles ahead of us." The Liberal government's pot law could die in Parliament. Its passage depends on whether outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chretien is serious about establishing that as a legacy, or just introduced it to make mischief for his likely successor, former Finance Minister Paul Martin, with whom he had a bitter falling-out last year. It's widely presumed that Martin will win the current leadership race and be prime minister by early next year, when Chretien retires. In a recent interview in Victoria, Martin said even if the pot law doesn't make it through Parliament, he would continue with decriminalization, coupled with a crackdown on the biker gangs who deal in it. "Society evolves," he said. "It's the responsibility of government to reflect that evolution. There's a book ("Fire and Ice: The U.S., Canada and the Myth of Converging Values" by Michael Adams) talking about the different perspectives that occur between Canadians and Americans over the past decade. "The argument was, contrary to what people might normally think, the greater integration of the two economies has not led to an integration of perspectives or insights. In fact, Canadians are clearly going the other way. I think that's right. "Whether this is because there's always been a greater collective sense of responsibility in Canada than in the U.S. -- there's a different history in the two countries -- I don't really know. But there's no doubt that that is a fact." One theme common to the decriminalization and the same-sex marriage issues is that both were spurred by court rulings over the years flowing from the 21-year-old Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The country relied for its charter on British law up until 1982, so the constitution is still in its infancy. And gays and marijuana activists made determined and ingenious use of it and other legal arguments over the years in pushing their respective causes. Americans looking northward will notice other recent developments. Canada opted to sit out the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and the government enjoyed considerable support in making that decision. The government is also pursuing a stringent national gun-control regime, even though it has been established to be scandalously inefficient and monstrously over budget. Inside Canada, it's startling to note both the recent swerves originated in Ontario, although the flaky Left Coast (the California of Canada) is supposed to be in the vanguard of social change. Wherever it's coming from, central Canada, the charter of rights or newly discovered fundamental social differences with the United States, it's been a remarkable few months on the social-policy front. If some of these attitudes start creeping over the 49th parallel, Americans are advised to start singing the Oscar-nominated song from the "South Park" movie of a few years ago: "Blame Canada." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek