hey

[Dark Lord Neo]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...rriage_col

Saskatchewan Allows Gay Marriage

Fri Nov 5, 4:47 PM ET Canada - Reuters



OTTAWA (Reuters) - While 11 U.S. states voted to ban gay marriage this week, the practice is now legal in a majority of Canada's provinces, the result of a court decision in Saskatchewan on Friday.



The court made Saskatchewan the sixth of Canada's 10 provinces to allow gay marriage, ruling that the heterosexual-only definition of marriage is unconstitutional. Gay marriage is also legal in the northern Yukon Territory,


"The common law definition of marriage for civil purposes is declared to be 'the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others,"' Justice Donna Wilson wrote in her decision, expanding the definition to include homosexual unions.


Only in the conservative province of Alberta, three lightly populated Atlantic provinces, and two northern territories does the legal definition of marriage remain only the union of a man and a woman. Gay marriage is now legal in provinces and territories representing 86 percent of Canada's population.


Neither the Liberal federal government nor the left-leaning New Democratic Party government of Saskatchewan opposed the efforts of the five gay couples who brought the case.


The federal Liberals have promised to make gay marriage legal nationwide, but they have also asked the Supreme Court of Canada to pronounce on whether this is required by the Constitution. The high court is not expected to make its decision before next year.