What happens in Canada, stays in Canada

Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper

News agencies, and my Facebook pages too, have exploded into a fiery mess of a controversy involving the validity of gay marriages conducted in Canada.^1,2,3,4,5 The issue centres around the argument put forth by a federal government lawyer that all same-sex marriages involving foreigners are considered invalid if the foreigners' country of origin does not support same-sex marriage.

Popular columnist Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller.  "I had been divorced overnight," said Savage.

Based on the lawyer's view, Dan Savage and husband Terry Miller, who wed in Vancouver, would not be considered to be married at the federal level because they live in the United States.²

The prime minister stated that he did not wish to re-open the same-sex marriage debate.⁶

A student on the Queers on Campus Facebook page posted the following:

It is uncertain whether or not this controversy will lead to the invalidation of countless marriages of foreign couples or spark further debates in other similar topics.