Same-sex Marriage in Ontario

Same-sex Marriage In Ontario

The first legal same-sex marriages performed in Ontario were of Kevin Bourassa to Joe Varnell, and Elaine Vautour to Anne Vautour, by Rev. Brent Hawkes on January 14, 2001. The legality of the marriages was questioned and they were not registered until after June 10, 2003, when the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Halpern v. Canada (Attorney General) upheld a lower court ruling which declared that defining marriage in heterosexual-only terms violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The first legal same-sex marriage registered in Ontario was that of Paula Barrero and Blanca Mejias, married by banns at Emmanuel- Howard Park United Church on September 29, 2001 and registered the same year. The officiant was Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo (now MPP for Parkdale- High Park). The Office of the Registrar General apparently did not recognize the names as both being women and issued a marriage certificate. The marriage licence form requested only the names of the bride and groom, not the sex of the applicants.

All of these marriages were authorized by calling the banns in the spouses' churches. The first civil marriage license issued to a same-sex couple was to Michael Stark and Michael Leshner, who had the usual waiting period waived and completed the formalities of marriage just hours after the court ruling, on June 10, 2003.