Five years ago yesterday, despite the best efforts of our current Prime Minister, the the Civil Marriage Act, having been passed by the House of Commons and the Senate, received Royal Assent.
I am happy to report that Canada remains undestroyed by swarms of flaming meteorites.
I’ll keep you posted on further developments.
(Also, apparently, 250 million people worldwide now live in countries or states with equal marriage.)
Wow it’s hard to believe it’s been so long.
I agree.
Well, I personally am SHOCKED that the very fabric of Canadian society hasn’t crumbled around us.
No, not really. 
I hate to inject politics into this, but in the interest of truth, the current Prime Minister has made no serious attempt of any kind to change this. “Best efforts,” my ass.
And I, too, am mildly surprised it’s been five years, though I guess I shouldn’t be. Geez, time flies, and the country remains safe from rampaging bands of married homosexuals. You’d almost think the doomsayers were wrong.
You’d think the rampaging homosexuals would be the single ones - perhaps gay marriage has saved Canada!
I went and looked up PM Harper’s record on gay marriage - he did re-open the debate and had a free vote on it, but it doesn’t look to me like he went out of his way to dismantle it. Perhaps I’m missing some nuance here.
RickJay, if you’ll reread, I said that it was passed despite his best efforts. Which is the truth, and which I’m not inclined to forget or forgive.
They are on their way, space is very big, will take time.
Happy anniversary. A proud call for Canada.
It better damn well be intact, I’m coming to visit y’all next month. Montreal, baby!
Happy Anniversary.
That’s because flaming meteorites are all unashamedly gay. Just wait until the straight meteorites get here…
Wait, are you sure it’s still there? Wasn’t God supposed to have smoten it or something?
We’re definitely still here! Anaamika, for heaven’s sake e-mail me when you’re on your way, and we’ll have lunch. BTW, Pride is August 15!
If the meteorites weren’t gay, they wouldn’t be flaming, now would they?
My wife paused on some god-awful show about some wedding planner on Slice the other night, and it was about two grooms. It caused me to remark that after five years, equal marriage is now mainstream.
Well Lord only knows, they’re reproducing like flies!
We peer at you in awe from a dark land. Keep up the good work, Canada.
I’m interested in knowing if the law change has been or will eventually be followed by a more equal society for the LGBT crowd in other ways. For example, will the legalization of gay marriage be followed by a reduction in the homelessness or suicide rate of young gay males?
I’m curious because my colleagues, who are all very liberal social worker types, generally do not feel gay marriage is the right cause to rally behind for LGBT equality in America. They see gay marriage as predominantly a white middle-class interest that ignores the sexual minorities who are in poverty, living on the streets, etc. While I see their point, I think gay marriage could be a good goal to focus on, because it seems it would help foster mainstream acceptance of the LGBT crowd. It will be interesting to follow demographic trends in Canada so maybe I could eventually point to the data and say, ‘‘Hey! See? Gay marriage good! Improves overall quality of life!’’
ETA: That presumes that LGBT Canadian citizens suffer from the same social problems as they do in the U.S. Maybe an unwarranted assumption, but worth investigation nonetheless.
On the other hand, it’s been fourteen years since the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that it was okay for women to be topless in public in the province. In the rest of the country, there exists the notion that women can be topless in public because of the equality doctrines of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I don’t think one follows from the other; it seems to me those things are parallel occurrences that both result from a general practice of tolerance.
A teenager who contemplates suicide because his parents won’t accept his sexuality is not going to be buoyed by the legality of gay marriage (well, likely not, anyway) because to a 15-year-old that sort of thing is impossibly distant from his immediate problem. But the same trend towards accepting people as they are, which led to same sex marriage becoming accepted, will also reduce the number of parents who won’t accept that sort of thing.
I mean, I’d be fine with my daughter being gay. There’s not a chance in hell my great-grandparents would have been okay with my grandmother being gay.
Thsi strikes me as being akin to a black person in the 60s saying that voting rights weren’t a good cause to rally around because economic disadvantage was more important. Why not demand BOTH?
This is true. In fact, next week’s scheduled meteor shower over Seattle is because of a salmon deal gone bad. 9,000 years ago.
Well of course, they’re all busy going to stag parties!