Background: Superior Court Ruling
On July 12, 2002, in a 3-0 decision of the Ontario Superior Court, same-sex couples won the right to marry in the case of Halpern et al. v. Canada. The Court ruled that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights, giving the federal government a two-year stay of judgment in which to pass legislation implementing same-sex marriage; otherwise, same-sex marriage would come into force automatically.
There was a decision in 1993 by the same divisional Court in Layland v. Ontario, which ruled that same-sex couples did not have the capacity to marry each other. However, that decision was non-binding as it was the same Court taking up the issue in 2002. One of the judges in the most recent case wrote "with respect, the decisions to which I have referred assumed, without analysis, that the inability of persons of the same sex to marry was a question of capacity. The decisions are not binding on this court and, with respect, I do not find them persuasive."
- Text of the ruling
- Summary of the decision from EGALE Canada
- (Layland V. Ontario decision)
Read more about this topic: Same-sex Marriage In Ontario
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