thanks, neighbors.

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OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada gave the federal government the go-ahead Thursday to legalize gay marriage, but stopped short of saying that this was required by the Constitution.

Ottawa had hoped the court would require it to allow gay marriage across Canada, making it politically easier to push draft legislation through Parliament. The high court refused to give an opinion on this issue.

Instead, it declared only that the government had the authority to legislate on marriage and that its proposed definition of marriage as "the lawful union of two persons" would not violate the Constitution.

Loophole for religious objections
But the court also said that the Constitution protected the right of religious officials to refuse to perform homosexual marriages.

The marriage question is a political hot potato that has divided all four parties in Parliament, and the battle will now be joined on the legislation, which the Liberals had pledged to introduce quickly regardless of the court’s opinion.

Its eventual passage seemed likely, particularly since Prime Minister Paul Martin has decided to require all his Cabinet members to support it, but fierce campaigns were planned on both sides for legislators’ votes.

Lower courts had already made gay marriage legal in six of Canada’s 10 provinces and one of its three northern territories, but it remains illegal in the rest of the country.

do you guys hate canada

I didn't until then.

it was stupid for the government to assume that the supreme court would give an opinion on something like that. the government was looking for them to make their job easy and for them to say it would be right to legalize it, but they were being played for fools and they knew it. telling the government to solve its own problems is the right thing to do.

clerk.

Last I heard, (this A.M.) Martin will allow a free vote on the bill. 3 Liberal MPs, including a cabinet minister, have already declared that they would not vote for the legislation. I'd be really surprised if the Liberals follow through with the free vote, especially since this is a vote of confidence in a minority government, though with 2 of the other 3 parties (Bloc Quebecois and NDP) being firmly in favour of the legislation, I can't see the bill being defeated.