| | Sexual Orientation and Legal Rights (92-1E) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-30) |
 | | The legislation added a gender-neutral definition of “common law partner” to a number of laws, including those governing maintenance and custody, health, insurance and pension benefits; the measure had the apparent effect of restricting the term “spouse” in the affected statutes to married individuals. |
 | | Under the legislation, opposite-sex or same-sex common-law couples might, irrespective of the duration of their cohabitation, register their relationships and immediately become entitled to the benefits and subject to the obligations for which non registered couples were required to satisfy varying prior cohabitation requirements. |
 | | The legislation defined “relationship of interdependence” as one outside marriage in which two persons of the same or of the opposite sex, including non-minor relatives, shared their lives, were emotionally committed and functioned as an economic and domestic unit. |
| www.parl.gc.ca /information/library/PRBpubs/921-e.htm (13395 words) |