The Senate opens marriage to same-sex couples

On 19 July 2005, the Canadian Senate in Ottawa voted at third reading on the Civil Marriage Act (Bill C-38) and passed it by 47 votes to 21, with three abstentions. The law redefined marriage for civil purposes as "the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others", opening it to same-sex couples nationwide for the first time.

The road there was long: since 2003, courts in Ontario and British Columbia had declared the traditional definition of marriage unconstitutional, and other provinces and territories gradually followed. In December 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in a reference opinion that a corresponding federal law would be compatible with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that religious officials could not be compelled to marry same-sex couples. Justice Minister Irwin Cotler introduced the bill in February 2005 on behalf of Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government in the House of Commons, which passed it on 28 June 2005 by 158 votes to 133. In the Senate, Serge Joyal steered the bill; the votes in both chambers were free votes, so MPs and senators did not have to follow the party line.

One day after the Senate's approval, on 20 July 2005, the Civil Marriage Act received Royal Assent and came into force. Canada thus became the fourth country in the world and the first in the Americas to enshrine same-sex marriage in law nationwide, after the Netherlands, Belgium and, just a few weeks earlier, Spain. An attempt by the Conservative opposition to reopen the question after the 2006 election was clearly defeated in the House of Commons in December of that year by 175 votes to 123, and the law finally stood.