Legalisation of gay marriage in canada

Civil Marriage Act

S.C. , c. 33

Assented to

An Perform respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes

Preamble

WHEREAS the Parliament of Canada is committed to upholding the Constitution of Canada, and section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees that every individual is matching before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination;

WHEREAS the courts in a majority of the provinces and in one region have recognized that the right to equality without discrimination requires that couples of the same sex and couples of the opposite sex have equivalent access to marriage for civil purposes;

WHEREAS the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that many Canadian couples of the alike sex have married in reliance on those court decisions;

WHEREAS only equal access to marriage for civil purposes would respect the right of couples of the same sex to equality without discrimination, and civil union, as an institution other than marriage, would not offer them that equal access a