[JEH]

I want to introduce you to the BC litigant web site for the Canadian
same-sex marriage case. We maintain a web site with case information,
news, quotes, resource pages, wedding albums, a wedding tips page, and a
message board, among other things. Originally 8 couples took Canada's federal government to court in BC, and 11 other couples across Canada started cases in their provinces resulting in positive rulings everywhere. People started marrying June 10 2003. Legislation has now been introduced in Parliament and beginning Valentine's Day, 2005, will be debated. Tune in to CBC news, the Globe and Mail newspaper or Egale Canada for updates, or visit Queer Marriage BC for news items. Should be interesting. The US org. Focus on the Family is funding opposition.
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Jane Eaton Hamilton

[JEH]

An update on Canadian same-sex marriage:

On July 20 2005, Canada received Royal Assent on their same-sex marriage bill following a labile and contentious spring Parliament headed by a minority Liberal government. In the fall of 2005, this government fell; on Jan 23, 2006, Canadians elected a minority Conservative government. This government is now in office, led by Stephen Harper whose acceptance speech election night ended "God bless Canada." Up here, we believe in the separation of church and state; however the new PM is a fundamentalist Christian and affiliated with several right-wing Christian organizations. He has promised to revisit the same-sex marriage issue.

Like government anywhere, the situation is complex. If Parliament votes to revoke same-sex marriage, we will still have same-sex marriage in all the provinces that fought and won it, but we won't have an overarching law that rules the entire land. Stephen Harper could also invoke the notwithstanding clause of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which would allow him to stop all future marriages and annull all current marriages for a period of five years. He has said he won't do this, but many of his election promises were already thrown to the wind on the day he was sworn in.

In any case, we in the original cases are gearing up to sue, and we will be loud and vocal defenders of our hard-won human rights. Stay tuned!

Jane Eaton Hamilton Feb. 18, 2006
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Jane Eaton Hamilton