Marriage equality advocates say they are increasingly confident that gay Australians married in Canada have nothing to fear from a Canadian Government document declaring same-sex marriages involving overseas couples are invalid.
Australian Marriage Equality national spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said the consensus among respected legal analysts is that Canadian same-sex marriages involving foreign couples are still valid, while Canadian officials appear to be backing away from the document which cast doubt on the validity of overseas same-sex marriages.
“Gay and lesbian Australians who have married in Canada will be reassured that their Canadian marriages are still valid”, Mr Croome said.
“We will be watching developments in Canada closely, but are hopeful the Canadian Government will not go further down the path of overturning overseas same-sex marriages solemnised under Canadian law.”
“Whatever the outcome, this episode highlights why same-sex couples should be able to marry in Australia rather than being forced to marry overseas.”
A statement issued by a range of US legal organisations including the American Civil Liberties Union, has declared “no one’s marriage has been invalidated or is likely to be invalidated”.
“The position taken by one government lawyer in a divorce is not itself precedential. No court has accepted this view and there is no reason to believe that either Canada’s courts or its Parliament would agree with this position, which no one has asserted before during the eight years that same-sex couples have had the freedom to marry in Canada.”
Meanwhile, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has said “we have no intention of opening or re-opening this issue”.
The offending document was filed in a Toronto court case launched by a foreign same-sex couple seeking to end their Canadian marriage.
Visitors to Canada can marry but only residents can divorce, an anomaly the couple are seeking to remove.
The document asserted that the couple did not need to divorce because same-sex marriages involving foreigners are invalid if same-sex marriages are not allowed in the partners’ home country.
Same-sex marriages are not allowed in Australia with hundreds of Australian couples marrying in Canada instead.
The Canadian Justice Minister has indicated that a less drastic way of allowing foreigners to more easily divorce than to invalidate their marriages will be to amend the nation’s divorce law.
For more information contact Rodney Croome 0409 010 668.