SAME-SEX MARRIAGES (SSM) IN CANADA
Northwest Territories
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Overview:
 The Northwest
Territories, shown in red at the left, is a sparsely populated area of
Canada located to the north of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and
Saskatchewan. The territory extends all the way to the North Pole.
Statistics Canada estimates that
the 2003 population of the province is about 43,000 persons. This amounts to
about 0.13% of the population of Canada. 1 During 2005-MAY, it became the
ninth
political jurisdiction in Canada in which a lawsuit was initiated to expand marriage to include same-sex
couples. The plaintiffs consisted of a single gay couple: Jason Perrino and
Colin Snow. At that time, among the thirteen political jurisdictions in Canada, only
the provinces of Alberta, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, along with
the Northwest and Nunavut Territories still refused
to allow same-sex couples to marry, as of 2005-MAY.
Events related to same-sex marriage in Northwest Territories:
In 2003, a same-sex couple from the Northwest Territories, Jason Perrino and Colin Snow,
attended their union ceremony in a local United Church. Their ceremony was
attended by 100 friends and family. They had been refused a marriage license by
the territorial government. They applied again for a license in 2005-APR, almost
two years after same-sex couples were routinely being married in Ontario. Again,
they were refused. 6 They
decided to sue.
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2005-MAY-20: Perrino and Snow launched a lawsuit
against the government of the Northwest Territories over their right
to marry. The couple will not speak publicly about their lawsuit. However,
in their statement of claims, Perrino says that "Colin and I both wish to
legalize our relationship....It is my wish that my stepdaughter will grow up
and recognize her dad and I are a real family." Their lawyer, Sheila
MacPherson, anticipates a victory for her clients. She said: "The law is
fairly well settled in this regard. I think it would be difficult to
conceive we would not be successful....My clients have been waiting for two
years in order to get married and they really feel that matters just aren't
moving quickly enough at the political level. If they lived in Ontario or
B.C. or Quebec of many other Canadian jurisdictions they could already get
married." 2 | |
2005-MAY-21: An Internet forum
sponsored by RightNation.US who identify themselves as "America's #1
Conservative Community" contained some postings which dealt with the
lawsuit.:
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"A marriage license doesn't make you a 'real family' any more
than a drivers license makes you a driver. This has nothing to do with
being a 'real family.' It has everything to do with promoting the gay
agenda. Soon we will have people wanting to marry animals as long as
PETA doesn't object." |
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"Good God, the gay agenda is even permeating the Northwest
Territories of Canada. We've got to start praying, fast :bang:" |
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"We should not refer to it as gay anymore. Whenever you do you
are helping them. Always refer to them as homosexuals. " |
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"BTW, isn't there someone else to pick on but the poor
homosexuals. I guess not. After all, if you picked on the blacks, or
Asians, or Latinos you'd be called a racist, but apparently we haven't
progressed as far in our society as some people might think, and picking
on the queers is still a good pass time for a lot of people." 3 |
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2005-MAY-24: Brendan Bell, the justice minister of the
Northwest Territories announced that the government will not interfere
with Perrino and Snow's lawsuit. He said: "Hypothetically, if the judge
rules that the federal legislation is deficient and orders us to issue
marriage certificates to same-sex couples then we will abide by that. I
don't know if it would be the same day but I don't think it would take very
long. I would think that thereafter I would sit down with the minister of
health who is in charge of our vital statistics and we would provide the
direction to the people at vital statistics and to marriage commissioners
that this is how they would go forward."
4 | |
2005-MAY-27: The hearing began in the Territorial
Supreme Court in Yellowknife, NWT. A married couple, described as "pro-family
activists Ruby and Laurin Trudel of Yellowknife" applied to intervene in
the lawsuit. They had been members of
Yellowknife's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada until it started
to share communion and the pulpit with the United Church -- a denomination
which had begun blessing same-sex unions. They left the Lutheran church and
started attending a conservative Anglican congregation. When they learned
that the government was not going to contest the lawsuit, they had contacted
Focus on the Family, Canada, who put them in touch with the
Christian Legal Fellowship -- a conservative Christian legal group --
who requested intervener status for the Trudels in the lawsuit. 6Court hearings were adjourned until June in order to allow
the court to hear the Trudels' application. 5 | |
2005-JUN-17: According to the
Canadian Lutheran: "The Trudels applied to upgrade to party status,
allowing more involvement and the right to appeal." | |
2005-JUN-30: The financial support for
the Trudels evaporated. Their lawyer withdrew his services. The Trudels
decided to proceed alone, without legal representation. | |
2005-JUL-06: Ruby Trudel, alone,
testified before the Supreme Court. She apologized to the court for her lack
of knowledge of court procedures, and said that she was not homophobic: "While
we do not support, encourage or endorse their lifestyle, we hold nothing
against them personally." She said that those who promote the exclusion
of same-sex couples from marriage have been "rendered voiceless at the
federal level." Actually, the debates in the
Canadian Senate were in full swing at that time. She expressed concern
over the possibility of persecution of Christian clergy if SSM were to
become legalized. She said: "If the application before this court were to
succeed, there is every reason to believe that repercussions against people
of conscience and religion....will soon begin to occur here also." They
asked that the court not impose costs on them: "Costs incurred to this
point already exceed our ability to pay." | |
2005-JUL-20. Federal bill C-38 was proclaimed. This legalized SSM
in all jurisdictions across Canada and made the Northwest Territories'
lawsuit moot. | |
2005-OCT-17: Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler awarded the
plaintiffs $5,000 to cover their court costs. The status of court costs for
the Trudels is not known. |
References used:
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"Population, provinces and territories," Statistics Canada,
2004-JUL-01 estimates. See:
http://www.statcan.ca/
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"Gay couple sues to marry in N.W.T.," Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, 2005-MAY-20, at:
http://north.cbc.ca/
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"More of the homosexual agenda, They are constantly pushing,"
RightNation.US, 2005-MAY-21 to 23, at:
http://www.rightnation.us/
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"N.W.T. gov't won't interfere in gay marriage suit," Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, 2005-MAY-24, at:
http://north.cbc.ca/
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"Northwest Territories Supreme Court Gay Marriage Case Adjourned,"
LifeSite, 2005-MAY-30, at:
http://www.lifesite.net/
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Kevin Drews, "A Lutheran couple in Yellowknife defend their beliefs and
rights: Taking marriage to court," The Canadian Lutheran, 2005-SEP, at:
http://www.lutheranchurch-canada.ca/ This is a PDF file. You may require
software to read it. Software can be obtained free from:
Copyright © 2005 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2005-MAY-25
Latest update: 2005-JUN-14
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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