A Canadian woman
won a divorce on Tuesday after a Vancouver court
conceded that her husband's affair with another man did in
fact amount to adultery. In the first case of its kind
in the country, the British Columbia supreme court
granted a woman, identified only as Ms. P., an
immediate divorce from her husband of 17 years after he
admitted to having had an affair with a younger man.
In February,
Justice Nicole Garson had declined to grant the divorce,
arguing that the common-law definition of adultery did not
include same-sex affairs. But Garson told the woman
that she would hear the case again if a lawyer would
argue why the legal definition of adultery should
include extramarital same-sex relations. Because of a court
order, the woman cannot be named. "We argued that the
historic definition of adultery, which is limited to
sex between a spouse and someone of the opposite
gender, was anachronistic in light of changes to the
Marriage Act and changes to the understanding of
same-sex marriage and divorce," said Ms. P.'s lawyer,
Barbara Findlay. Canada is one of a handful of
countries that has legalized same-sex marriage, acting in
response to court rulings that said a ban on same-sex unions
amounted to discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Ms. P., a
44-year-old Vancouver resident, filed for divorce in
December 2004 after discovering the affair. Her
ex-husband acknowledged the extramarital relationship
in January. Canadian law allows for an immediate
divorce if one side admits adultery. A no-fault divorce is
possible after a one-year separation because the marriage
has broken down. (Reuters)