Government lawyer questions whether the Canadian marriage of a non-resident lesbian couple is valid
Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied Ottawa is reconsidering its position on same-sex marriage, after a government lawyer filed a submission suggesting that same-sex marriages performed in Canada are not valid for non-residents, CBC reports. The submission was filed in a divorce case involving a lesbian couple from Florida and the U.K. While Canadian marriage laws do not require residency, divorce laws do. This inconsistency has particular relevance for same-sex couples, who may not be able to divorce after being married in Canada. Harper said the submission does not represent a re-visiting of the same-sex marriage debate. At a ship-building event in Halifax, the prime minister said, “We have no intention of further reopening or opening this issue,” while noting that he did not know of the details of the particular case in question.