Brody's Notes... Update: Canadian Justice Minister Announces All Same-Sex Marriages Are Legal

By Brody Levesque | TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA -- The Globe & Mail, Canada's national newspaper has reported that "the federal government has quelled a growing controversy with a declaration that all same-sex marriages performed in Canada are legal."

In Ottawa, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson issued a statement Friday that reversed the department’s earlier legal opinion that same-sex marriages performed in Canada were legal only if they are accepted as such in the home nation of the same-sex marriage couples.

According to the paper, Nicholson announced that a “legislative gap” that caused the confusion will be closed.

“The confusion and pain resulting from this gap is completely unfair to those who are affected,” Mr. Nicholson said. “I want to make it clear that, in the government’s view, those marriages are legal.”

The controversy erupted on Thursday when The Globe and Mail reported that federal lawyers were fighting Ms. McCarthy’s clients’ divorce case by saying that same-sex marriages involving non-residents are not legal unless their home country recognizes them as legitimate.

Martha McCarthy, a lawyer for the lesbian couple whose Toronto divorce application has turned into a test case, said that Mr. Nicholson’s statement has assuaged her concern.

Brenda Cossman, a family law expert at the University of Toronto, said the government can readily amend divorce legislation to state that the laws of the place where a couple obtained their marriage will also dictate their divorce procedures.

Ms. Cossman said that Canada could also exempt same-sex marriages from an “arcane” set of international rules that state that the legal system of a couple’s domicile takes precedence over those of the country where they were married. ~ The Globe & Mail