History of Divorce - Canada

In the 1960s Canada legalized divorce. Previously the only option was to get a marriage dissolved by an Act of Parliament with an investigation by a special committee of the Canadian Senate.

In July 2004, a lesbian couple in Ontario, Canada became the first same-sex couple in Canada to seek a divorce...complicated by divorce laws that define spouses as "either of a man or a woman who are married to each other." The couple had been together for nearly 10 years, married on June 18, 2003 about a week after it was legalized and then separated only 5 days later. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the Divorce Act unconstitutional on September 13, 2004 and ordered same-sex marriages added.

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