Updated: July 12, 3:00 p.m. EDT/+5GMT/-3PDT

(Toronto) A three judge Ontario court ruled Friday that the Ontario government must register gay and lesbian marriages. It also chastised the city of Toronto for refusing to issue marriage licences to gay couples.

In a landmark decision, Ontario Superior Court said that by denying gays and lesbians the right to marry was "creating second class citizens."

Federal law defines marriage as "a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others."  The justices ruled that the definition violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the Constitution. 

But, it suspended its ruling for two years to allow Parliament time to redefine the term marriage.

Last November the judges heard a lawsuit brought by eight gay and lesbian couples who challenged the constitutionality of the ban.

After the decision was read in court this morning, one of the couples, Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell, hugged and shared a kiss.  The couple, along with several others involved in the case broke into tears of joy.

"My relationship is validated and nobody can say we're not a real family anymore," said Varnell.

"We're no longer second-class citizens in this country."

The suit combined two cases, one in which six couples were directly refused marriage licences by the city clerk's office.  The other involved two couples who were married in a double ceremony at Toronto's Metropolitan Community Church.

In the MCC case, the church used the ancient Christian tradition of "publishing banns", a legal alternative to marriage licences.  The banns, or announcement, involves announcing impending marriages on three consecutive Sundays in the church.  

While banns are legal in Ontario, the province refused to register the marriages citing federal legislation.

Justice Harry Laforme said: "The restriction against same-sex marriage is an offence to the dignity of lesbians and gays because it limits the range of relationship options available to them.  The result is they are denied the autonomy to choose whether they wish to marry.  This is turn conveys the ominous message that they are unworthy of marriage.  For those same-sex couples who do wish to marry, impugned restriction represents a rejection of their personal aspirations and the denial of their dreams." 

"Certainly it is an historic decision and it is unprecedented," Roslyn Levine, counsel to the federal attorney general who had argued against giving gays and lesbians marriage rights, said outside the courthouse.  There has been no reaction from the federal government.

But, in Ottawa, gay New Democratic Party MP Sven Robinson called on the Chretien government to immediately amend the law.

"Anyone in this country should be free to marry the person of their choice," he said.

National gay rights organization Egale said it was overjoyed with the decision and called on the government to act.

"It is an outrage that the federal government has been wasting taxpayers' money fighting to discriminate against its own citizens," said John Fisher, Executive Director of Egale. 

"It's time for the federal government to catch up to society, and respect the Court's decision and the Constitution."

In the meantime, the province has 15 days to launch an appeal to the decision, something Bourassa and Varnell's lawyer Douglas Elliott sees as inevitable.

A ruling against gay marriages in British Columbia is expected to be heard by the Court of Appeal of British Columbia early next year, and a judge in Montreal has reserved judgment on a similar case in Quebec.

Regardless of the court rulings, all Elliot predicted that all three cases will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The federal and provincial governments already recognize gay couples under common law.

Both the Law Commission of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Commission have recently called for the extension of marriage laws to include same-sex couples.  A recent Leger Marketing poll demonstrated that over 65% of Canadians support granting same-sex couples the equal right to marry.

©365Gay.com Ltd® 2002

Close Window to Return to TBC Web Site