Same-sex Marriage

[bcholmes]

As expected, Manitoba is the fifth province or territory to recognize same-sex marriage. Manitoba has a population of 1,168,000 people which means that almost 80% of Canadians now live in a province or territory where same-sex marriage is legal.

Earlier this week, Ontario granted the country's first same-sex divorce.

Comments

[inefficient.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, why is this a province by province issue and not a federal one (i.e., why hasn't Parliament or the Supreme Court enacted SSM?)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Because the provinces and territories aren't waiting.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Marriage is a weird responsiblity.

The administration of marriage is a provincial responsibility (one would, for example, go to a provincial government office to get a marriage license). Recently, however, some have argued that the definition of marriage is a federal responsibility.

Individual provinces have been sued for unconstitutionally refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples and as each case came before the highest provincial courts, the courts have ruled that, yes, it is unconstitutional, and none of the provinces have chosen to appeal that decision.

Under Chrétien, the federal government committed to change the legal definition of marriage. That change was not effected before Chrétien left, and Paul Martin (who is a bit more conservative about this topic) dragged his feet about completing that change.

It's also true although the law is clearly favouring same-sex marriage, the issue is still divisive among Canadians. I think that one reason that Martin dragged his feet was because he wanted to win the election, and didn't want same-sex marriage to influence votes. In the end, though, he used it as one of many matters (like abortion) to paint his opponent, Steven Harper, as a social conservative (Harper was the only party leader who was against same-sex marriage). In the middle of the election, Paul Martin suddenly decided that it helped his party to be pro-same-sex marriage.

[inefficient.livejournal.com]

The right to define marriage in the US is also contested between the states and the federal government. Some of the opposition to the FMA is solely based on the belief that the federal government doesn't have the constitutional right to define marriage since is neither implicitly or explicitly given. Of course, the Supreme Court may jump in and make the point moot.

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

That rocks! I am so moving to Can... oh, right.