Fridae

Canada
After the Canadian Supreme Court ruled last week that gay marriage was constitutional, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has rejected a call to put same-sex marriage to voters after Alberta Premier Ralph Klein argued that Ottawa should hold a national referendum.

Canada's supreme court ruled last Thursday that gay marriage was constitutional - a landmark ruling that clears the way for the Canadian Parliament to enact a law that would permit same-sex couples to marry throughout the country.

Reiterating that civil rights is not a popularity contest; PM Martin said on Sunday that the gay marriage is "an issue that parliamentarians ought to decide."

"The courts have now given their direction. I think it's one for Parliament and I think that Parliament ought to accept their responsibility," the PM said.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler who dismissed Premier Klein's call for a national referendum said: "You don't subject minority rights to a referendum," Cotler told a local newspaper. "That's not what we do in Canada."

PM Martin has pledged to put the issue to parliament when the government tables new legislation early next year.

New Zealand
The same day of the Canadian Courts decision, New Zealand's Parliament approved a bill that would recognise civil unions between gay couples, but stopped short of recognising same-sex marriages.

The New Zealand parliament voted 65-55 on Friday to pass the Civil Union Bill which allows New Zealanders to enter civil unions and have their relationships formally recognised from April next year. The Bill is similar to laws passed by Denmark in 1989, the first of their kind, which affords same-sex couples the same housing and pension rights as married, heterosexual couples.

Similar laws have since been passed in Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Argentina. The Netherlands and Belgium were the first two countries to allow marriages between same-sex couples, the Netherlands in 2000 and Belgium three years later.

South Africa
Meanwhile, in South Africa, leading churches are calling on the country's President to call for a referendum after a panel of five judges on the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that South Africa's 'common law' definition of marriage should be altered to be inclusive of same sex couples.

The South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), which represents 30 of the country's largest churches, said in a statement that same-sex marriage was against public opinion.

It added: "The decision to legalise same-sex marriage cannot be left to the courts, as all South Africans, both now and in the future, will be affected by this decision."

"As a society, we cannot afford to adopt laws that are also in conflict with God's law as encapsulated in the Bible and in the writings of all major religions," the Reuters news agency reports it as saying.

President Thabo Mbeki is expected to meet with the religious leaders next year although he has not yet expressed any views on such a referendum.