Oh, Canada!

Canada's looking better and better everyday.

Court Backs Gay Marriage in Canada

December 9 -- Canada's supreme court has said the government can legalise gay marriage but has stopped short of requiring it to change the constitution. 

Ottawa had hoped the court would force it to allow gay marriage across Canada, making it politically easier to push draft legislation through parliament.

But the higher court refused to give an opinion on the issue and any legislation will now have to go through the 155-seat legislature.

Instead, the court 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.

Canada would join Belgium and the Netherlands in allowing gay marriage if the government rules that it is legal nationwide.

The court's decision brings to the final stages a bitter fight over whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry in Canada.

Judges in six provinces and one territory have already overturned the traditional definition, allowing thousands of same-sex weddings.

The move comes after Massachusetts held the first legal gay marriages in United States history earlier this year.

Attempts to push through a constitutional amendment to same-sex marriage have so far been rejected by the US Senate.

Link: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/09/ugay.xml