| British Columbia was legalized before Ontario. However, the Ontario ruling came into effect immediately. Following the Ontario ruling, the applicants in the B.C. ruling successfully applied for an order having the B.C. ruling be effective immediately.
A ruling, quite similar to the Ontario ruling, was issued by the B.C. Court of Appeal on July 8, 2003. Another decision in B.C. in May of that year had required the federal government to change the law to permit same-sex marriages. The July ruling stated that "any further delay... will result in an unequal application of the law between Ontario and British Columbia." A few hours after the announcement, Antony Porcino and Tom Graff became the first two men to be legally wed in British Columbia.
In 2003 there were 735 same sex marriages in British Columbia. Of those 1470 married, more couples resided in the United States than did in Canada.
External Links
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- (Court of Appeal for BC 2003/07/08) - text of the ruling (canlii.ca)
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