The Harper government has served notice that thousands of same-sex couples who flocked to Canada from abroad since 2004 to get married are not legally wed.I am about the furthest thing from a lawyer, but I'm betting lawyers from Whitehorse to Moose Jaw are reading this report with a significant amount of horror. James C. Morton holds out one of the easy examples of where this leads.
But speaking in Halifax Thursday, the Prime Minister said the issue was not on the agenda for his majority Conservatives. “We have no intention of further re-opening or opening this issue,” Stephen Harper told reporters when asked about The Globe and Mail’s report.The reversal of federal policy is revealed in a document filed in a Toronto test case launched recently by a lesbian couple seeking a divorce. Wed in Toronto in 2005, the couple have been told they cannot divorce because they were never really married – a Department of Justice lawyer says their marriage is not legal in Canada since they could not have lawfully wed in Florida or England, where the two partners reside.
This is your Harper government. Their leader stands there and lies to you while they disassemble the rule of law.
Corrected Moose Jaw; two words; just down the road from Regina. TUVM Regina Mom.
Spend a little time with teh google and the phrase "Sean Gaudet, Canada".
ReplyDeleteHe's one the Harper Justice Department's go to guys in the Supreme Court of Canada if the case involves human rights or the Charter.
This is not a stumble.
That be Moose Jaw, two words, just 45 mins down the highway from Regina. Just sayin...
ReplyDeleteI think Steve is too smart to let this stick to him. And I believe he really didn't know about this.
ReplyDeleteThey'll fix the "not recognized in your country so not recognized here" problem. It shouldn't matter what is or is not recognized in other countries. Otherwise we would also be expected to recognize polygamous marriages from other countries, right?
As for the 1 year residency requirement for divorce, they will probably remove that. I'm not sure why we have it.
It won't piss off his base to let gay marriages be dissolved, now will it?
So he'll fix the problem in a reasonable way and use it to paint the left as shrieking ninnies when all they had to do was point this out. Like who really know about these archaic rules?
He'll gain lots of reasonableness points here, which is what he needs for the next election.