Canadian same-sex marriage bill faces challenge News
Canadian same-sex marriage bill faces challenge

[JURIST] Conservatives in the Canadian parliament plan to introduce an amendment Tuesday to scrap Bill C-38 [official text], which establishes the Civil Marriage Act [Canadian Department of Justice backgrounder] and allows for same-sex unions. Federal Liberals believe they will have enough votes to block the amendment. Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper [official website] argued that the proposed legislation "fails to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others." Conservatives want to substitute a new bill which reaffirms the traditional view of marriage. Justice Minister Irwin Cotler [official bio] said on Monday that the Liberals have enough support to defeat the motion. A recent CBC poll shows that Canadians are deeply split on the issue, with more than half saying that they opposed the Liberals' attempt to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. CBC has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.