Same-sex couples still
'husband and wife' in Nova Scotia
By CBC News Online staff from the Web October 26, 2004
HALIFAX, Oct 25 -- Gay couples wanting to get married in Nova Scotia this fall will have to be declared husband and wife –- at least until the province gets its paperwork finished.
Some of Nova Scotian same-sex couples who fought for the right to be legally married are angry over the terminology.
Same-sex marriages have been legal in the province since a Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision last month.
Five other provinces and territories had earlier delivered similar court decisions.
A revised edition of Nova Scotia's civil marriage guidelines circulated by the Justice Department says that until the laws are amended, justices of the peace have to have all couples take their vows as husband and wife.
Supporters of gay marriage say there's no reason for the province to have included such a note in the guidelines.
"Nothing in the statute says the marriage is invalid unless those exact words are used," said Kevin Kindred, a lawyer and spokesman for the gay advocacy group Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project.
"The law is pretty clear on that, so I wonder why the government would have touched on the issue at all."
Kindred has sent a letter to provincial Justice Minister Michael Baker asking for a review of the guidelines.
Ron Garnett-Doucette, who petitioned the court to allow gay marriages and plans to marry his partner Bryan next June, calls the guidelines an "insult."
"If we'd been made aware of this, we never would have applied for a licence," he told the Halifax Daily News.
"I'm hoping it's an oversight, but if it was intentional, it's an extremely heterosexist act."
The Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments earlier this month about the federal government's draft legislation to redefine marriage.
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