By paNOW Staff

Refusal to marry same-sex couples unconstitutional

Jan 10, 2011 | 9:32 AM

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decided it is unconstitutional to allow marriage commissioners to opt out of marrying same-sex couples.

It released its decision in the “Marriage Commissioners Reference” today.

The case concerns the possible amendments that would allow marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.

In 2005, Parliament created a new law redefining marriage to include same-sex unions. Since then there has been a religious fight against them, including Saskatchewan marriage commissioners.

There were several proceeding under the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code and one civil case in the Court of Queen's Bench.

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The provincial government went to the Court of Appeal to test the validity of two possible amendments to the Marriage Act — allowing marriage commissioners to decline performing a marriage if it is against their religious beliefs.

Today the court decided that is unconstitutional — and denying a service to day people is discriminatory.

According to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, section 15, people cannot be discriminated on, based on their sexual orientation.

According to the court, marriage commissioners are government officials and are obligated to perform the legal act of marriage. The court did take into account that if they were performing that act as a private citizen the outcome of the case may have been different.

The court came to the decision that government officials need to be impartial and non-discriminatory when doing their daily work.

The full decision can be found here

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