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The Harper government has served notice that thousands of same-sex couples who flocked to Canada from abroad since 2004 to get married are not legally wed.
Talk about a body-blow to all of the Americans — including me and my wife Kate — who flocked to Canada to get married. Stephen Harper’s conservative government has declared all marriages from any countries where there is not marriage equality null-and-void.
The reversal of federal policy is revealed in a document filed in a Toronto test case launched recently by a lesbian couple seeking a divorce. Wed in Toronto in 2005, the couple have been told they cannot divorce because they were never really married – a Department of Justice lawyer says their marriage is not legal in Canada since they could not have lawfully wed in Florida or England, where the two partners reside.
The two women – professionals in the their early 30s – cannot be identified under a court order. But Martha McCarthy, a prominent Toronto lawyer who represents them, said the government’s about-face is astonishing.
“It is scandalous,” she said in an interview. “It is offensive to their dignity and human rights to suggest they weren’t married or that they have something that is a nullity.”
The latest development threatens to transform Canada from an international beacon for the rights of gays and lesbians to a nation that discriminates against them, Ms. McCarthy said.
Our wedding album is here. Pat Mitten, a marriage commissionaire (equivalent to a justice of the peace in the U.S.) performed the civil ceremony, held at the Apricot Cat and Black Dog Bed & Breakfast in Vancouver, British Columbia on July 1 (Canada Day), 2004.
What Stephen Harper and his government cannot undo is the freedom of equality we felt from all we encountered during our stay in Vancouver when we told them we traveled from North Carolina to their great city to be legally joined as a family unit.
If the bottom line is that if I’m no longer married, that presents an opportunity — we can do what we could not in 2004 — legally marry in NYC, where I have a lot of family and friends. Now if only we can afford to do the shindig, since that’s a lot more people to invite than just my brother – he was our sole guest the first time around. Shove it, Harper.
More from Dan Savage, who is in the same predicament.
UPDATE: Harper has been caught off-guard by this firestorm that has been lit.
“I will admit to you that I am not aware of the details,” the Prime Minister told reporters. “This I gather is a case before the courts where Canadian lawyers have taken a particular position based on the law and I will be asking officials to provide me more details.”
Mr. Harper’s advisers must know that a huge political controversy has landed in their lap. Soon after The Globe and Mail published the story, the Twitterverse exploded, with more observant posters asking if this meant that couples of different races couldn’t marry in Canada, or women couldn’t get a driver’s licence, if their native land forbade such things.
…If Mr. Harper wanted to launch a culture war through the back door, he has succeeded. If he was as surprised as everyone else by the lawyer’s opinion, then he will need to deal with the matter – and deal with it soon.
UPDATE 2: LGBT legal groups: Canadian marriages of same-sex couples are not in jeopardy.
16 Comments
Oh,no! Looks like you and Kate will have to live in sin. This news sucks.
On a practical level, they probably just want to prevent foreign couples from using court resources to obtain divorces in Canada. But that can easily be accomplished by having residency requirements. No need to invalidate the marriages
There already is a 1 year residency requirement before you can file for divorce in Canada. So this looks to be flat out bigotry.
Pam, did you and Kate have to pay any fees to local/provincial/Canadian government? Say for the license or for Pat Mitten’s services? Seems as though you would have a good case for fraud; they charged you a fee for the purpose of obtaining legal marriage status, then denied you what you were promised. Sue their asses, including Harper personally. JMO.
So sorry to ear of this. But they can never take away what these couples mean to each other and the love they share.
But it is the 51st state.
The corporatists also run things there.
They have a housing bubble, … and no one’s doing anything about it.
They are owned by the same people as the US.
NH too.
My husband and I were married in Vancouver in 2005.
If this stands, then at a minimum we should be entitled to a refund of the fee we paid to their government for the license. We should also be entitled to sue for the money we spent on the marriage commissioner, transportation, lodging, and the service provided by Two Dears and a Queer, the wedding planning firm we used. After all, the Canadian economy prospered as a result of their adoption of marriage equality, which will have been offered to foreigners under false pretenses if this stands.
The Christians are at it again.
Remember, those are the idiots that believe in dead guys getting up and walking around.
I like the idea – and Canadian judges are not totally owned by the right as are Courts in the US – so I think Harper does not have a chance here.
I’m trying to figure out what the big fuss is about. From a technical standpoint their position seems reasonable. If neither partner is a Canadian citizen nor a legal resident, the marriage ends up being largely symbolic anyway. What does one gain from being married in Canada if its not going to be recognized by your home government?
I’m also unsure why the couple in question would even need to file for divorce if neither partner’s government recognized them as married in the first place. What is there to actually dissolve? From a legal perspective why would a divorce be necessary?
Well, this is sad.
Sadder still is that some people can’t see what the ‘big fuss’ is about. I remember the sense of loss when my home state took away my potential marriage in 2008. I can’t imagine the feeling Pam’s family, and Dan’s family, and thousands of others, are going through today to see their marriages declared null-and-void.
It is amazing what mean people will do to justify some silly mistranslation in a sky-god death cult book from centuries ago, in order not to admit their own bigotry and hate.
So — what if, for example, a couple from NH or IA got married in Canada when their own home state did not allow it yet, then their states did and also honored marriages performed in other places (like Canada)? Are these ppl married or not? Even having nothing to do with divorce.
Canada will (should?) recognize your marriage.
If your government changes its recognition (or if you go somewhere where your marriage is recognized), it’s valid. For example, if a person went to New York, it would be respected in New York – even if it isn’t in her/his home state.
At least that is my understanding, which is close to GLAD’s ( https://www.glad.org/uploads/docs/publications/canada-marriage-faq.pdf ). It appears that Mr. Gaudet’s opinion is different, although I can’t find the primary source.
I found a somewhat better source for this story: http://live.theglobeandmail.com/Event/Same_sex_discussion
So, to be clear, at the moment, they only mean that the government intends to make this argument in Court. Nothing has changed in the legal landscape. If they withdrew the argument, or lost in Court, there would be no effect… – Lawyer Martha McCarthy
So it seems that your marriage certificate isn’t torched yet, Pam. It’s in danger of being torched if the government gets the court to agree on this point of their Answer.
The argument is on Feb 27-28.
I am as outraged by this nonsense as anyone (OK, not as much as those whose marriages are in question, but I live 4KM from Harper’s house, so the impulse to go egg his door is strong).
But have I missed something? Is this not just some government lawyer presenting an argument? Has the judge ruled here? Has ANYTHING actually changed?
If not, then I’d bet Harper will just make this go away. As much as he may personally want to re-imagine Canada as born-again paradise, he has much bigger fish to fry taking care of his crony capitalists and fighting “radical foreign-backed environmentalists” over pipelines.
This issue will draw too much heat. Interesting arguments are popping up all over. Can women from Saudi Arabia leagally drive in Canada, since they cannot get a licence at home? This is all just absurd. I’d suggest ignoring the whole thing, at least until there is a judgement.
Harper will try to work his culture-war objectives more patiently, through judicial appointments.
I don’t see this as standing up in court – primarilly with existing marriages and to a lesser degree with new marriages. I think even if new foreigner same sex marriages got blocked, that they’d still have to grandfather the existing marriages. In a few short minutes on the intertubes I was able to find that a Canadian-married US couple was able to get divorced even though the couple’s own state tried get it called a civilian instead, so that horse has already left the building with precedent set for allowing foreigners to divorce in foreign countries/states without same sex marriage laws:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/judge_allows_lesbian_couple_ma.html
With new marriages I’d have to be more familiar with the nitty-gritty of the legislation itself, but from what I can tell is that it seems like the Harper government is trying to make law-via-policy…in other words it’s not for the executive branch’s whims to decide the validity of marriages, but instead would be up to the Canadian legislature and the judiciary rather than executive branch fiat.