10th February 2003, 5:30 PM
A few Canadian provinces also have civil unions for gays. The federal government has also said that a common law marrige can be between two men, two women or a man and a woman.
The Federal government controls marrige laws but the Ontario Supreme Court ruled that not allowing homosexual marriges is unconstitutional. Therefore the federal government has a year to change federal marrige laws by either making it so that churches control marrige and the government only does civil unions or they can allow gay marriges. If they choose not to do anything then federal marrige laws will no longer apply in Ontario and that would affect over a quarter of the Canadian population. They probably wouldn't leave marriges to just the church though because then the marrige laws would most likely be ruled unconstitutional again. Some of the churches have already said they would support gay marriges anyways though.
The Federal government controls marrige laws but the Ontario Supreme Court ruled that not allowing homosexual marriges is unconstitutional. Therefore the federal government has a year to change federal marrige laws by either making it so that churches control marrige and the government only does civil unions or they can allow gay marriges. If they choose not to do anything then federal marrige laws will no longer apply in Ontario and that would affect over a quarter of the Canadian population. They probably wouldn't leave marriges to just the church though because then the marrige laws would most likely be ruled unconstitutional again. Some of the churches have already said they would support gay marriges anyways though.