OTTAWA, November 7, 2002: The Honourable Martin Cauchon, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today delivered to the Honourable Andy Scott, Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, a discussion paper on marriage and the legal recognition of same-sex unions.

Minister Cauchon also publicly released the discussion paper after distributing it to the members of the Committee. The Minister intends to ask the Committee to study this issue, to hear from Canadians, and to provide him with recommendations on possible legislative reform.

"I believe strongly that Canadians as a society should be encouraged to thoroughly consider, in an open and respectful way, what all of the implications of either maintaining or changing the opposite-sex legal requirement for marriage in Canada might be," Minister Cauchon said.

The issues around maintaining or changing the law in this area are complex, and include Constitutional questions involving the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces and territories, as well as Charter rights.

The discussion paper provides contextual information about the issue of marriage and legal recognition of same-sex unions, including relevant public opinion research information and a survey of what the provinces, territories and other countries are doing to legally recognize conjugal relationships outside of marriage, including same-sex. It also provides an overview of possible approaches that could be taken by the Government and what the implications of each could be.

Currently, there are three challenges before the courts - in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario - which raise the question of whether the opposite-sex requirement for marriage is constitutional.

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Ref:

Office of the Minister of Justice and
Attorney General of Canada
Irène Arseneau(613) 992-4621

Department of Justice Canada
Media Relations Office
(613) 957-4207