Yay, my Facebook friends are now into politics! The latest scandal, invalidating thousands of same-sex marriages, has brought out a beautiful and healthy debate. I'm sure you've read about it too. Some of my FB friends are mad that the Conservative governments are in a bad light. Although I'm not sure - not many articles do put them in a bad light.
Although I do think the final decision was a bit weak (more about that later), I don't think the Conservative government should be blamed for a judge's - technically an objective and independent body - decision. So get over it.
Why do I think the final decision is bad? Because non-residents cannot officially marry in Canada if their residency doesn't recognize their marriage. This makes it, as one commenter said, really, really ugly. That means the following marriages are also invalid:
- Egyptians and Israeli Jews.
- Muslim Malaysians and someone from another religion.
- Saudi women and an non-Arab men.
- Japanese women who had a divorce less than 6 months ago.
- Jewish Israelis married by a non-Orthodox rabbi.
Have these marriages been made invalid? They should, if they want the law to be consistent. But they shouldn't because it kind of conflicts with the Charter. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. These technically invalid, marriages are (to my knowledge) left alone.
So the question is: What made this judge get picky about this one particular case (that just happened to include same-sex marriage)?
Actually, the most important question is: Why did Canadian officials let non-resident same-sex get married in the first place?
