Canada: While 11 states in American voted to ban gay marriage this week, the practice is now legal in a majority of Canada's provinces, the result of a court decision yesterday in Saskatchewan.
The court made Saskatchewan the sixth of Canada's 10 provinces to allow gay marriage, ruling that the heterosexual-only definition of marriage is unconstitutional.
Gay marriage is also legal in the northern Yukon Territory,
"The common law definition of marriage for civil purposes is declared to be 'the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others'," Justice Donna Wilson argued, expanding the definition to include homosexual unions.
Only in the conservative province of Alberta and two northern territories does the legal definition of marriage remain only the union of a man and a woman.
Gay marriage is now legal in provinces and territories representing 86 per cent of Canada's population.
Neither the Liberal federal government nor the left-leaning New Democratic Party government of Saskatchewan opposed the efforts of the five gay couples who brought the case.
The federal Liberals have promised to make gay marriage legal nationwide, but they have also asked the Supreme Court to pronounce on whether this is required by the Constitution. The High Court is not expected to make its decision before next year. - (Reuters)