Yukon decision on gay marriage hailed by activists

Canada's gay rights activists are applauding a Supreme Court decision from the Yukon earlier this month.

CBC News Posted: Jul 30, 2004 4:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 30, 2004

Canada's gay rights activists are applauding a Supreme Court decision from the Yukon earlier this month.

They say the same-sex marriage ruling is a landmark decision for gay rights across the country.

The court released its written decision Friday explaining why it ordered the Yukon government to issue a marriage licence to Stephen Dunbar and Rob Edge.

"It is legally unacceptable in a federal constitution area involving the Attorney General of Canada for a provision to be inapplicable in one province and in force in all others," wrote Justice Peter McIntyre, later adding "to fail to act now in the face of an acknowledged constitutional violation will result in an unequal application of the law."

LINK: See complete court ruling (.pdf file)

The judge, who's an Alberta Supreme Court justice and a deputy justice in Yukon, also criticized the government in his ruling.

"In my view, with respect to the Attorney General of Canada, the approach it has taken is so fundamentally inconsistent with the approach it took in the other provinces and, indeed, with the approach that is acknowledges to be correct in the Supreme Court of Canada, that solicitor client costs should be awarded against the Attorney General of Canada," he wrote.

FROM JULY 14, 2004: Judge rings wedding bells for gay Yukoners

It was the third such case for Ontario gay rights lawyer Martha McCarthy.

McCarthy says the ruling makes it clear that other provinces that deny same-sex marriage licences are breaking the law.

"The message of the Yukon case says this is the end of this, we can't have different rules for individual citizens on something that is a federal matter, in different provinces," she says.

She says she never expected such a precedent from the North, where she came to argue the case last month.

"I've never been any where near Whitehorse before, not the jurisdiction I expected to fly into on four day's notice, get called to the bar and argue one of these cases, It was quite a rewarding thing to do," she recalls.

Wedding bells ring for lesbians

Officials for Yukon vital statistics say the latest request for a marriage licence comes from two gay women in the territory.

"I don't expect a flood. I have had one other couple, two women and yes I expect the wedding licence to be issued as soon as they come back with the appropriate documentation," says Sylvia Kitching, the licencing registrar for the territorial government.

Kitching says over the years her office has denied at least four same-sex marriage requests.

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