marriage
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Marriage Drama
A row about civil and religious marriage in Québec is quite unnecessary In early February, Québec’s Superior Court delivered what should have been a fairly routine judgment dismissing a weak constitutional challenge to provisions of the province’s Civil Code that have usually ― although not always ― been regarded as requiring a person celebrating a Continue reading
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Égalité, Liberté?
As I was thinking about the application of the liberty interest protected by s. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the family/marriage context, which I have written about here and here, a question occurred to me: why wasn’t it invoked to argue for the unconstitutionality of denying same-sex couple the opportunity to Continue reading
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Vies Communes
Il y a quelques jours, je parlais des promesses que l’État peut ou ne peut pas exiger de gens à l’occasion de leur mariage. Cependant, dans les faits, les provinces de common law n’exigent pas que les gens qui se marient civilement promettent quoi que ce soit au sujet de leur vie future. Le Québec, Continue reading
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Ask Not
I have written more than enough about the oath of allegiance to Queen that would-be Canadian citizens have to take, but I have thought of an analogy that I like and which just might help us think the matter through. The Canadian citizenship is like marriage ― not necessarily in some romantic or esoteric way, though there Continue reading
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Can’t Compel
In “Law Like Love,” W.H. Auden wrote that “we can’t compel” love. He was right of course, and not only in the sense he meant. So holds―without reference to Auden―a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, R. v. Hall, 2013 ONSC 834. At issue the constitutionality of the exclusion of common law spouses Continue reading
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Vive la Différence!
It was a long time in coming, but the Supreme Court has finally delivered its ruling regarding the constitutionality of Québec’s (absence of) legal regime for de facto (a.k.a. common law) couples. The dispute pitted a wealthy businessman, identified by the Supreme Court as “B”, against his former common law spouse (and mother of his Continue reading
Double Aspect 