Canada Goes from Gay Rights Beacon, to Discrimination Central -_-

That's pretty much it. It seems less an "anti-gay" measure than a rather perverted "anti-immigration" measure. In short, "Don't come to our country just because you want to get married. Either you're living here or it don't count."

Lex

 

It isn't a Global Prop 8. As Lex said, Canada has always been really, really, really tough on immigration. They won't even let you move there unless your career is "in demand" up there, so it's not really that surprising.

While it's sort of uncool, it's not a massive shock.

 

... But that happens here in the USA already, if I'm not mistaken. If you get married in one state and move to another, there's a decent chance your marriage won't be considered valid. Why would it be any different for countries?

I agree though, it does suck and I think they'd be better off saying "look, we let you guys do this in the past but FROM NOW ON no more of this". Retroactively cancelling marriages to me is an asshole move. It'd be easier to just stop any further out-of-country marriages.

 

I read this this morning and got so depressed. I can't believe it.

Anyway, the important point is that this is merely a legal opinion stated by a government lawyer during a court case. It is not a settled fact.

 

Disappointing but unsurprising given our current yankee kissing government. However, it reads more to me like either a legal cock up or an immigration thing, as previously stated.

Either way - canucks, make some noise and fix it.

 

from here

 

You know what else pisses me off.. none of the candidates of the 2012 elections wanna say ANYTHING about gay rights.. they're just pansies that don't want to say anything "wrong" and lose a few votes. FTW!! I wish somebody would stand up for gay rights. One Person!!!

 

Some further clarification:

LGBT Legal Groups: Canadian Marriages of Same-Sex Couples Are Not in Jeopardy « NCLR Blog: Out for Justice

 

QFE

It sucks that there is not one person who will represent the LGBT community in an uncompromising way.

 

Actually Its not true. Canadian marriages of same-sex couples are not in jeopardy | Freedom to Marry

 

Here's more...

"The federal government is considering changes to the law that will make it easier for foreign same-sex couples who married in Canada to obtain divorces, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Thursday."

"A lesbian couple who married in Canada seven years ago and recently filed for divorce was told by a Department of Justice lawyer that their marriage was not legal.


The stated reason was that because the partners live in Florida and England, where same-sex marriage remains illegal, their Canadian union was invalid too.


The case threw into question thousands of marriages non-residents entered into since 2004, when same-sex marriage became legal in Canada under a Liberal government.


In a statement, Nicholson said the issue centres on dissolution of marriages performed in Canada.


Non-resident couples who marry here must live in Canada for one year before they can legally divorce. The lesbian couple at the centre of the controversy has launched a constitutional challenge of that provision in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.


Nicholson said he will be "looking at options to clarify the law so that marriages performed in Canada can be undone in Canada."


Read more: Ottawa to explore same-sex divorce options | CTV News

 

....Well; glad that turned out to be a red herring.

 

Well, let's not take the slippery slope here too far. If these people are indeed living in Canada, then there is no problem. They get the benefits living in Canada entails. It's just that they can't take a bit of Canada with them any more when they go home.

So if Saoudi-Arabia forbids women to drive, they're perfectly allowed to drive in Canada. However, it would be folly to go back to Saoudi-Arabia with a Canadian driver's license, there to break the local laws and then expecting Canada to back them up on this.

Doubly so if they just zipped in, got some paperwork and zipped out again. They took zero investment in Canada, so they don't get to expect any more effort from Canada on their part.


That said, there would be better ways to enforce this. Like, say, a treaty with the US to guarantee that contracts (as marriages essentially are contracts) are transferable between nations when the parties move. But that's probably legally complicated and if the U.S. isn't forthcoming, I can see how the government doesn't feel it worthwile to fight other people's legal battles because they just happened to be in Canada one day in their lives to get married.

 

Once again.. is this a surprise to anyone? What can you expect with a right wing nutjob evangelist as a PM? Do you think he'll work for us, for LGBT rights!??! HAHAHAHA, then you're dumber than I thought.

It's obvious that everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. He does whatever he thinks is best, he doesn't care about the people, he never has. He said he wasn't going to reopen debate on abortion either, but whataya know.. there was a debate on abortion last week! Yeah, you weren't going to reopen it, riiight. Stop lying you A'hole. We all know your true intentions, your agenda, no matter what you say. We're not stupid!

---------- Post added 13th Jan 2012 at 11:59 PM ----------

Yep, just like Harper said he would have more transparency, yet at the same time he sold out all Canadians, and treated all Canadians as criminals with the new border deal, just so he could suck ass to the Americans. He basically sold out all Canadians, every Canadian is now registered and Big Brother (USA) is watching. Yeah, more transparency my ass. Just another case of little ol Stevie saying one thing and doing another. Disgusting. Then again.. nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to this small minded bigot. He has ruined Canada, More Canadians are unemployed, more Canadians live paycheck to paycheck, the middle class is shrinking and so is the country's GDP. Does all of this sound good to you? It's all Harper's fault. He ruined Canada.

 

So at the end of the day, all the fear-mongering about "Canada just imposed a global Proposition 8" or "Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper squashes Gay Marriage" etc turns out to be untrue.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper said before and continues to say until he is blue in the face, Gay Marriage was voted on in Parliament and he will not reopen the issue. Simply, as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister, Gay-Marriage is here to stay.

To summarise what happened: It seems when the Supreme Court of Canada pressured the Liberal Government of Prime Minister Paul Martin into legalising gay-marriage in 2005, they left a legal loophole which essentially stated that if you were gay, not-Canadian but married in Canada, and your home country did not recognise your marriage then Canada didn't either.

Today, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper honoured his word and said the Justice Minister would make the required changes to ensure that any gay-marriages performed in Canada would be recognised by the Canadian Government, whether or not those involved were Canadian. Also, the couple has the right to a divorce in Canada.

Gay Marriage will be so far entrenched in Canada (10+ years) by the time Harper leaves office that its here to stay folks.

National Post: Same-sex marriage law to be changed to recognize gay tourists

 

Sadly, I am forced to agree to some extent. However, things have not gone near as bad as I expected when he got into office, and he did accomplish one thing I'm glad to see gone, but that's another topic. I don't think he ruined the nation a la bush/obama but he's done it few favors.

 

I do not see how the issue could be surprising.

If you have to travel to another nation to obtain a legal certification, then of course it isn't going to be recognized by your sovereign nation. Contracts and treaties between nations are rarely if ever upheld outside the boundaries of international trade agreements. Why would a marriage in another nation be valid in the home nation where it is not legally recognized?

 

Whewww, so this whole thing was basically a bad news article making things way out of proportion and the impression it left doesn't strictly agree with the truth.

So before you guys open your mouth about your "World Proposition 8" and the other person calling Prime Minister " right wing nutjob evangelist " when you are not even from Canada, please, don't open your mouth and remove all our doubts about you ....