Top Court Won't Hear Gay Marriage Appeal

[Jenya]

Top Court Won't Hear Gay Marriage Appeal
Federal Government Has Asked Judges To Help Frame New Law

October 09, 2003

OTTAWA (CP) — Groups fighting same-sex marriage lost a major battle in Canada’s top court today, but said the war is far from over.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-0 to refuse two right-wing coalitions a chance to challenge an Ontario Court of Appeal judgment after Ottawa refused to do so.

Last June, the Ontario court struck down the legal definition of marriage — the union of one man and one woman — saying it violates equality rights.

The Supreme Court did not give reasons today for refusing to hear the case, as is usual in applications for leave to appeal.

Advocates of same-sex marriage cast the ruling as a historic victory, but others cautioned that it was a narrow, technical ruling.

The coalitions weren’t losers in the original case and therefore should not be allowed to appeal, said Justice Minister Martin Cauchon.

“It’s just a little bend in the river,” said Gwen Landolt with REAL Women of Canada. “Nothing has been resolved.”

The conservative women’s group was among two religious and family coalitions that tried to step in where Ottawa left off.

The Association for Marriage and the Family in Ontario and the Interfaith Coalition on Marriage and Family said changing the century-old marriage definition is too profound an issue for lower courts or a sharply divided Parliament.

They wanted the top court to decide if the traditional definition of marriage is constitutional.

Rather than challenging the Ontario ruling, the Liberal government drafted legislation to legalize same-sex weddings. It has sent the bill to the Supreme Court for an opinion on its constitutionality.

Focus now shifts to an April high-court hearing on the draft bill, Landolt said.

REAL Women will join a host of groups seeking intervener status to press their case that heterosexual marriage should be preserved.

A similar case in Quebec could also makes its way to the top court, Landolt said.

The Catholic Civil Rights League and the Evangelical Christian Fellowship are appealing a lower-court ruling that traditional marriage is unconstitutional. The case is to be heard at the Quebec Court of Appeal in January.

Ottawa also refused to fight that judgment, but this time the religious groups are parties with rights to appeal in that case.

Supporters of same-sex marriage were elated at today’s high-court ruling.

“Same-sex marriages are now, and will always be, legal in two provinces which make up over half the population of Canada,” said lawyer Martha McCarthy.

She represented seven Ontario same-sex couples who successfully quashed the coalitions’ appeal bid.

“This ruling today is reassuring news for the thousands of legally married same-sex couples across this country.”

Gay weddings in Ontario and British Columbia have been performed since the top courts in those provinces struck down the traditional marriage definition.

“The hands of time cannot be turned back on equality for lesbian and gay couples,” said Alex Munter, spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage.

“The only question is: when will the federal government extend this equality to all Canadians?”

That’s uncertain at best, said Patrick Monahan, dean of Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto.

Same-sex marriage legislation drafted under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien could change when Paul Martin takes over by February, he said.

“There may be other ways of defining other categories of marriage that have not been considered.’

Martin has said he supports the government’s approach, but has also left a wide escape hatch, saying other options may be put on the table and they would need to be “examined very carefully.”

[flinstoned]

Its Canada, big whoop

[Jenya]

Originally posted by flinstoned
Its Canada, big whoop

Yep...especially if you're gay, and you want to get married!

[flinstoned]

Thats me.