Yukon judge legalizes same-sex marriages

By The Associated Press

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In a decision delivered to a packed Yukon Supreme Court hearing, Justice Peter McIntyre followed courts in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

Previously, Yukon common law had limited marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

"The [old] common-law definition of marriage is unconstitutional," said McIntyre.

The federal attorney general had asked the Yukon court to delay its decision until the Supreme Court of Canada hears arguments on same-sex marriage in October.

McIntyre, however, said "a legally unacceptable result would be perpetuated in the Yukon" if he delayed the decision.

The ruling means Stephen Dunbar and Rob Edge are getting married.

"Well, it means this afternoon we can go pick up our marriage license, just like any other couple that's getting ready to get married would do," said Dunbar.

Dunbar and Edge will exchange vows Saturday at a Whitehorse church.

After being refused a wedding license in January by the territorial vital statistics office and then taking their case to the Yukon Human Rights Commission, the couple filed their petition with the courts in early June.

Dunbar rejected the federal government's suggestion that the couple have marriage banns read (announcing a pending marriage), hold the wedding and be issued a marriage license retroactively once Parliament decides the issue.
 
Marriage banns were being read in their church already, Dunbar said.

"But it would have felt like a hollow marriage," he said of the attorney general's suggestion.

McIntyre also made the unusual move of ordering the territorial and federal governments to split the costs of the couple's two lawyers.

Egale, the national gay and lesbian advocacy group, welcomed the decision.

"This ruling sends a message that governments across the country must now accept the charter right of same-sex couples to marry in a civil ceremony," said Egale's director of advocacy, Laurie Arron. "There is one law for the whole country, and that law includes same-sex couples. Governments who don't accept that are leaving themselves open to legal challenges and liability for costs."

A conservative "family rights" advocacy group, however, said the ruling represented unwarranted judicial activism.

"Canada's Supreme Court is scheduled to hear all the arguments on this issue and elected members of Parliament will debate it soon," Derek Rogusky, Focus on the Family's Canadian vice president, said in a news release.

"There was no need for an unelected Yukon Territory judge to ignore this process.

"The people of the Yukon and their elected representatives should be the ones to decide whether or not to alter their understanding of marriage."