The Saskatchewan Party, the province’s government, intends to introduce legislation that would allow all provincial marriage commissioners the right to refuse to perform gay marriages because of religious beliefs. The bill - there are actually two versions – would allow religious exemptions for commissioners, but would ensure that there be at least one commissioner available at all times to perform same-sex marriages.
Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada where litigation on the issue of same-sex marriages has occurred, the Human Rights Commission fining a marriage commissioner in 2008 for refusing to perform a civil service ceremony for a gay couple based on his religious beliefs.
The party itself is on record opposed to gay marriage – legal in Saskatchewan since November, 2004 – and despite talk that the legislation is meant to accommodate two sides, the introduction of the bill (s) is regard by many to a be a transparent form of discrimination against homosexuals.
The bill must gain approval by the Supreme Court, where, employing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is unlikely to be regarded as conforming to the law.
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