Following the Supreme Court's decision, Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler introduced "Bill C-38" on February 1, 2005 to legalize marriage between persons of the same sex across Canada. The Paul Martin government supported the bill but allowed a free vote by its backbench MPs in the House of Commons. Defeat of the bill in Parliament would have continued the "status quo" and probably incremental legalization, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, via court challenges. This trend could have been reversed only through Parliament passing a new law that explicitly restricted marriage to opposite-sex couples notwithstanding the protection of equality rights afforded by the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" or by amending the Canadian Constitution by inserting the clause "marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman", as was recommended by several conservative religious groups and politicians. Given the composition of the House of Commons at the time, such a measure would have been very unlikely to pass. Conservative Alberta Premier Ralph Klein proposed putting the question to the public at large via a national referendum, but his suggestion was rejected by all four party leaders.