Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 15:31:32 -1000 From: lambda@aloha.net (Martin Rice) Subject: QB 382: Quebec Marriage Lawsuit Aloha auwinala kakou. From the desk of Ron Buckmire at Queerplanet: Canada DP Immigration, and Marriage Lawsuit NewsPlanet Staff Wednesday, January 7, 1998 / 02:01 PM SUMMARY: While immigration reform on the federal level appears to be on the way, a gay couple in Quebec is going forward with a lawsuit for the right to marry -- and to solve their own immigration problem besides. Official recommendations for major immigration reform in Canada would recognize same-gender couples, while a gay male couple in Quebec is seeking equal marriage rights. Canadian Minister for Citizenship and Immigration and Refugees Lucienne Robillard on January 6 released 172 recommendations of an Immigration Legislative Review Advisory Group, a panel of independent consultants appointed by the government which began work in November 1996. Few news sources so far have made any mention whatever of the recommendation to give same-sex couples and common-law heterosexual couples rights equal to those of married couples for the immigration of foreign partners of Canadian citizens, and none have yet supplied details of the requirements for gay and lesbian pairs to qualify. However, that's likely to change when public comment on the wide-ranging 168-page document is received in February, particularly in connection with open meetings with Robillard in five cities beginning February 27. (Critics feel the public comment process should be extended; one remarked to the "Toronto Star" that, "The Rolling Stones will take longer to get across Canada.") The report calls for massive structural changes, including separating immigration law from refugee policy, into an Immigration and Citizenship Act on the one hand and a Protection Act on the other. Canada has been a world leader in extending asylum to foreign gays and lesbians persecuted in their homelands. Openly gay Member of Parliament Real Menard (Bloc Quebecois - Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) said his party was pleased by the idea of a new "protection agency" replacing the current refugee board, and was "moderately enthusiastic" about the recommendations overall. Also on January 6, gay Canadian Martin Dube, his Mexican partner Manuel Gambora and their non-gay attorney Stephane Gendron held a press conference in Montreal to announce their filing of a lawsuit seeking equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. The couple is facing an immigration problem which legal marriage could solve (Gambora's visitor's visa expired November 24, forcing his return to Mexico after living in Montreal for three years), but that's not their main motive in pursuing the case. Marriage itself is important to the couple, who held a religious wedding ceremony on November 4, and they want both the sanction of the law and the legal rights now reserved for heterosexual marriages. Gendron believes that Quebec's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, takes precedence over the province's civil code, which restricts marriage to one man and one woman. The trio say they are ready to take the case all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court if necessary. (However, a lawsuit brought by a Canadian-American couple denied a marriage license in Ottawa was decided against them in 1993, and the U.S. citizen was forced to leave Canada.) Meanwhile, Gambora is pursuing several other options for immigration, including the current procedure for same-gender couple sponsorship. All involve lengthy delays, while a legal heterosexual marriage would immediately confer residency. --- RON BUCKMIRE http://www.math.oxy.edu/~ron/ Asst. Prof., Math Dept., Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, L.A., CA 90041 ron@abacus.oxy.edu||+1 213 259 2536 (v)||+1 213 259 2958 (f)||Gore-Boxer 2000 Look for it in the