ONTARIO, Canada — Canada’s Supreme Court refused Oct. 9 to permit conservative religious and family groups to appeal a court ruling that made same-sex marriage legal in Ontario. A five-judge panel said the groups cannot appeal a decision by an Ontario court that the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman was unconstitutional, the Associated Press reported. The decision was unanimous.
The Interfaith Coalition on Marriage and Family and the Association for Marriage and the Family in Ontario filed for the appeal after Canada’s federal government refused to appeal. The government instead drafted a law that alters the definition of marriage to between two people. It has sent the proposal to the Supreme Court for judicial review before passing it along to Parliament.
Hundreds of same-sex couples have been married in British Columbia and Ontario since courts in those provinces ruled this year that the marriage law discriminated against gays and lesbians.
(TAB)
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