WASHINGTON (ABP) — Canada is now the fourth nation in the world — and the first outside of Europe — to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
Canada's Senate gave approval July 19 to a gay-marriage bill on a 47-21 vote. The same bill had passed the Canadian Parliament's lower chamber, the House of Commons, on a narrower vote three weeks earlier.
The bill became law July 20. While the vote was mostly symbolic, since courts had already legalized the practice in eight of Canada's 10 provinces and one of its three territories, it divided the governing Liberal Party and will likely be seized on as a campaign issue by members of the minority Conservative Party in upcoming national elections.
The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain are the only other nations to legalize gay marriage nationwide. Massachusetts is currently the only other jurisdiction in the world where gay marriage is legal.
Canadian — and American — conservative groups decried the development, while gay-rights supporters hailed it.
“This is a proud and exciting time to be a Canadian,” read a statement from Canadians for Equal Marriage. “Today we affirmed once again our worldwide reputation as a country that is open, inclusive and welcoming.”
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which opposed the bill, sent an open letter July 22 to the nation's provincial and territorial justice ministers, urging them to protect the jobs of civil servants who refuse to perform same-sex marriages due to their religious convictions.
“Forcing a marriage commissioner to solemnize a marriage that, according to his or her religious convictions, cannot be a valid marriage, offends not only the religious conscience of that commissioner, but also his or her human dignity,” wrote Janet Epp Buckingham, the group's public-policy director. She also argued that Canadian court decisions affirm the right of marriage commissioners to refuse to perform gay unions. “There is no need to violate one person's rights in order to uphold another's.”