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 | 1965: Everett Klippert was arrested. He acknowledged to the police that he has been gay for 24 years and is unlikely to change. Two years later, he was sentenced to an indefinitely long term in prison as a "dangerous sex offender." 5 |
| 1967: Reviewing Klippert's case, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a lower court ruling which suggested life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for homosexual behavior. |
| 1967: Within a few weeks of the Court's decision, Attorney General Pierre Trudeau introduced bill C-150
to Parliament to liberalize the Canadian Criminal Code. One aim of the
amendments was to decriminalize homosexual behavior between adults. He commented:
The "bedrooms of the nation" expression was actually borrowed from an editorial in the Globe and Mail newspaper by Martin O'Malley, dated 1967-DEC-12. 6 |
| 1968: Trudeau's amendments to the Criminal Code become law. |
| 1969-MAY-14: C-150 was signed into law. Any consensual sexual activity by a maximum of two adults was decriminalized. |
| 1971: Everett Klippert was released from prison. |
| 1977: Quebec became the first province in Canada to include sexual orientation in its Human Rights Act. Discrimination against heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals was prohibited. |
| 1978: The Canadian Immigration Act was altered so that it no longer prohibited homosexuals from immigrating into the country. |
| 1979: The Canadian Human Rights Commission recommended that "sexual orientation" be added to the Canadian Human Rights Act. |
| 1980: Pat Carney introduces a bill to Parliament to prohibit discrimination against homosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals by adding "sexual orientation" to the Canadian Human Rights Act. It failed to pass. Svend Robinson introduced similar bills in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1991. None succeeded. |
| 1981: Toronto City Council called on the Ontario government to amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to include sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Toronto is by far the largest city in Ontario. |
| 1981-FEB-6: Canada's "Stonewall:" About 3,000 people marched in Toronto to protest the arrest of more than 300 men at four gay bath houses on the previous night. |
| 1982: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada's constitution, was approved. It defined many protected classes based on race, sex, religion, etc. However, sexual orientation was not initially included. |
| 1986: The Ontario Human Rights Code was amended to include sexual orientation as a protected class. Ontario is the most populous province in Canada. It was the second province to do so. |
| 1987: Manitoba became the third province to add sexual orientation to its human rights code. |
| 1988: Svend Robinson became the first Member of Parliament to reveal that he is gay. He was re-elected in 2000. |
| 1989: The Canadian Human Rights Commission ruled that same-sex couples, and their children if any, should be considered families. |
| 1991: Delwin Vriend was fired by King's University College in Edmonton, AB, because his sexual orientation was regarded as incompatible with the religious beliefs of the Christian Reformed Church who owned and operated the school. He taught chemistry as a lab instructor. It is not clear how his sexual orientation interacted with his teaching. He sued the government of Alberta. |
| 1992: The military lifted its previous ban of promotions, postings and career training for homosexuals, as a result of a lawsuit initiated by Captain Joshua Birch and others. 2 |
| 1992: New Brunswick and British Columbia made sexual orientation a protected classification. |
| 1993: Saskatchewan made sexual orientation a protected class. |
| 1993: The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it was not discrimination to deny bereavement leave to a partner in a same-sex relationship. |
| 1995: The Province of Ontario extended family benefits to its gay and lesbian employees in same-sex relationships. |
| 1995: The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Egan v. Canada that the term "sexual orientation" was to be "read in" to Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is the section that deals with equality rights. |
| 1995: An Ontario Court judge ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to bring joint applications for adoption. |
| 1996: Bill C-33 passed Parliament. The term "sexual orientation" was added to the Federal Human Rights Act as a protected class. |
| 1997: Newfoundland added sexual orientation to its human rights legislation. |
| 1998: Vriend's case was decided by the Supreme Court of Canada. In a unanimous decision, the court orders that the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act (now called the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act) is to be interpreted as including protection of homosexuals. 3,4 |
| 1998: Prince Edward Island's human rights legislation was changed to include sexual orientation -- the last province to do so. Seven years later, they were to become the last province to allow same-sex couples to marry. |
| 1999: The Ontario Legislature passed Bill 5. This outlawed discrimination in the province against same-sex couples. They are now treated in the same way as heterosexual common-law couples. |
| 1999: The House of Commons overwhelmingly passed a resolution -- 216 to 55 -- to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. |
| 1999: In the "M v. H" case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that same-sex couples were to have the same rights as opposite-sex unmarried common-law couples. This includes the right to alimony. Responding to this case, the Ontario Legislature introduced Bill 5 to alter more than 50 provincial laws. |
| 2000: The Federal government passed omnibus bill C23 which amended 68 federal statutes to extend full benefits and obligations to persons in same-sex relationships. One significant exclusion was their right to marry. |
| 2000: The government of Alberta passed Bill 202 which states that the province will use the notwithstanding clause to refuse marriage to same-sex couples in the event a court decides in favor of SSM. The bill is meaningless, because the federal government, not the provincial and territorial governments, defines who may marry. |
| 2001-JAN-14: Two same-sex couples were married in a church service in Toronto. They could not obtain a marriage license, and so went through the ancient ritual of the reading of the bans. The Ontario government refused to register their marriages. However, on 2003-JUN-10, the Ontario Court of Appeal retroactively recognized the marriages, thus making them the first same-sex couples in the world -- at least in recent centuries -- to be legally married. |
| 2002: Marc Hall won a lawsuit against Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic High School in Oshawa, ON. The school had prohibited him from bringing his boyfriend to the school dance. |
| 2002: The Ontario Superior Court ruled unanimously that restricting marriage to one man and one woman is unconstitutional. The court gave the Ontario and Federal governments 24 months to change their legislation to allow same-sex couples to marry. The Ontario government decided to not appeal the ruling. The federal government released a public opinion poll indicating that most Canadian adults favor allowing same-sex couples to marry. Three days later, the federal government appealed the ruling to the Ontario Court of Appeals. |
| 2002: In November, an Ekos poll found that 45% of Canadians favored SSM. |
| 2003-JUN-10: The Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously ordered the Ontario government to issue marriage licenses to same-sex adult couples, and to register their marriages. Michael Stark and Michael Leshner made North American history by obtaining a marriage license and being married a few hours later. More details. |
| 2003-JUN-17: The Federal Government threw in the towel. They felt that they had to recognize the unanimous decisions of three senior provincial courts legalizing SSM. At a caucus meeting, the Liberal party decided to not appeal the decisions of the Ontario and British Columbia appeal courts to the Supreme Court of Canada. Rather, it decided to introduce legislation to Parliament which will legalize same-sex marriage across the country. More details. |
| 2003-JUL-08: The British Columbia Court of Appeal unanimously ordered the British Columbia government to immediately sell marriage licenses to same-sex adult couples, and to register their marriages. |
| 2003-AUG-14: The United Church of Canada voted overwhelmingly to endorse SSM at their general council meeting in Wolfville, NS. |
| 2003-SEP-09: A gay-positive group initiated a class-action suit against the federal government on behalf of same-sex couples who were denied Canada Pension Plan benefits when one partner died before 1998. They won the case. |
| 2003-SEP-16: A motion by the conservative Alliance Party in Parliament was defeated. It would have declared that marriage in Canada was restricted to a union of one man and one woman. It would have required Parliament to invoke the notwithstanding clause. That would have over-ridden the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry. |
| 2003-SEP-17: Bill C-250 was passed. It added sexual orientation to the existing list of four protected classes in Canada's hate propaganda legislation. Hate speech against persons on the basis of their sexual orientation is now a criminal offense. Exceptions are made in the law for religious hate speech. All Canadians are protected by the law: heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals. |
| 2004-JUN: A lesbian couple filed the first same-sex divorce petition after their one-year marriage broke down. |
| 2004-DEC-08: The Supreme Court of Canada handed down a 19 page ruling on the Federal Government's "Proposal for an Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes." -- commonly referred to as its "reference." It involved four questions concerning same-sex marriage. The court's decisions were unanimous. It determined that the Federal Government has the sole right to determine who may marry in Canada, that the proposed federal SSM legislation was constitutional, and that churches and other religious institutions can freely discriminate against same-sex couples in marriage. Unfortunately, it refused to rule on whether the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires SSM. More details |
| 2005-FEB-01: Bill C-38, which would make SSM available across Canada, was introduced to parliament. More details. |
| 2005-MAY-04: The House of Commons voted in favor of C-38 at the second reading stage -- approval in principle -- by a vote of 163 to 138. More details. |
| 2005-MAY-09: The governing body of the Anglican Church of Canada decided to delay its decision on SSM until 2007. |
| 2005-JUN-28:The House passed the bill by a vote of 158 to 133. More details. |
| 2005-JUL-19: The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 47 to 21 with three abstentions. |
| 2005-JUL-20: Bill C-38, which theoretically made same-sex marriages available across Canada was signed into law by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Normally, this action is taken by the Governor General. However, she was incapacitated by a medical problem. Same-sex couples anywhere in Canada could theoretically be married. |
| 2005-JUL-22: The Prince Edward Island government decided to not make marriage licenses available to its same-sex couples, in violation of federal law. Alone among the provinces and territories, they decided that they first had to pass enabling legislation. |
| 2005-AUG-19: Dr. Chris Zarow and Constance Majeau, a same-sex couple from California, successfully petitioned the government of Prince Edward Island to allow them to marry. They received a marriage license on the morning of AUG-19 and were married that afternoon. For the first time in history, any qualifying couple, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, could obtain a marriage license in any province or territory in Canada, marry, and have their status registered. |
| Week of 2006-DEC-03: The Conservative Government is to introduce a motion to Parliament asking whether the Members of Parliament wish to have legislation introduced to prevent loving, committed same-sex couples from marrying in the future. More details. |
"SSM" means "same-sex marriage"
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Home > Rel. info. > Basic > Marriage > SSM menu > SSM submenu > here |
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Home > "Hot" topics > Homosexuality > SSM menu > SSM submenu > here |
Notes and references:
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Christine Overall, "Trudeau Was Right. State Should Stay Out Of Nation's Bedrooms," Kingston Whig Standard, Kingston ON, 2004-JUN-28, at: http://www.christiangays.com/
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"Sexual Orientation and the Canadian Human Rights Act," Canadian Human Rights Commission, at: http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/
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"Vriend & Ors v Alberta & Ors [1998] ICHRL 57 (2 April 1998)," Interights Commonwealth Human Rights Law, at: http://www.worldlii.org/
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It is worth noting that:
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"Same Sex Rights: Canada Timeline," CBC, 2005-JUN-29, at: http://www.cbc.ca/
Wendy Pearson, "Interrogating the Epistemology of the Bedroom: Same-Sex Marriage and Sexual Citizenship in Canada," Discourse 26.3 (2004), Pages 136 to 165, at: http://muse.jhu.edu/
Copyright © 2003 to 2006 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2006-DEC-02
Author: B.A. Robinson
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