Gay and Lesbian Immigration to Canada

On Wednesday, 20 July 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to officially recognize same-sex unions as equal to those of heterosexuals. The new law makes it possible for gay and lesbian couples to get married – but it also has other, far reaching implications, even for those couples who have no intention of getting hitched. Same-sex couples who are married, or who have simply been living together for at least 1 year, now have the same rights as straight couples when it comes to taxes, inheritance, hospital visitation rights – and, of course, immigration.

The road toward passing the same-sex marriage law has been long and difficult. The Conservative Party, backed by the evangelical Right, religious Jewish and Muslim organizations, a spattering of members from other parties, and the country’s southern neighbor, tried desperately, and sometimes comically, to stall other bills in Parliament, and even tried to bring down the government in May 2005 - all of this, in large part, to stop this progressive bill from even coming to a vote. 

The party attempted to hijack other issues scheduled before the same-sex vote, playing dirty tricks worthy of the White House. The Conservatives attempted to hold hostage the new Federal Budget, which many consider to be the best budget in the last 30 years – but to the delight of much of the country’s population, the strategy backfired when the Liberals aligned with the New Democratic Party (NDP), the leftist “third party” of Canada, who proceeded to make the budget even more progressive. The NDP forced the Liberal government to erase from the bill a $4 billion tax cut for large corporations and hand the money over to affordable housing and education. 

Meanwhile, Members of Parliament were flooded with admonitions, predictions of hellfire, and even threats – most of them sent by American citizens. Several Members of Parliament wondered publicly why they should listen to people from another country instead of their own electorate.