Same-sex Marriage in Alberta - Federal Civil Marriage Act

Federal Civil Marriage Act

On June 28, 2005, the Canadian House of Commons passed Bill C-38, an act which defines Canadian civil marriage as a union between "two persons." The bill received royal assent a few weeks later. Klein responded by saying that the Alberta government might opt to stop solemnizing marriages entirely, suggesting that in its place, the government would issue civil union licences to both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. Religious groups could still solemnize opposite-sex unions as marriages if they chose, but any civil ceremony would be permitted to recognize only a civil union. The Alberta government also considered continuing to issue marriage licences to opposite-sex couples only in court, on the grounds that the federal government's legislation encroached on the provincial government's jurisdiction over the solemnization of marriage.

On July 12, 2005, Klein conceded that the advice given to him by legal experts was that a challenge in Court to refuse to marry same-sex couples had no chance, and wasting taxpayers' money to fight it would be "giving false hope." Klein said, "much to our chagrin," the Alberta government would issue marriage licences to same-sex couples when the bill received royal assent. Klein also said that the Alberta government would enact provincial legislation to protect religious and civil officials who do not wish to perform a same-sex marriage. This means that an Alberta marriage commissioner who refuses to solemnize same-sex marriages would not be liable for dismissal on those grounds — in most of the other provinces, marriage commissioners face automatic dismissal if they refuse to solemnize a same-sex marriage.