CBC reports on a human rights challenge in Halifax to Nova Scotia's birth certificate registry system:
A lesbian couple in Halifax has filed a human rights complaint over the way Nova Scotia registers the birth of a child.
Jamie and Emily O'Neill say it's unfair that government forms contain spaces for "mother" and "father," but not for two mothers.
"I want the same rights that everyone else has when a couple gives birth in the hospital and they are a married couple," said Emily, who married Jamie in 2005, the year Canada legalized same-sex marriage.
...Under Nova Scotia's Vital Statistics Act, only the birth mother can have her name on the birth registration, the document needed to issue a birth certificate.
Jamie says it's shocking that she has to formally adopt Jordyn to win legal rights as her parent.
The challenge closely follows the Supreme Court of Canada's refusal on September 13 to reconsider the Ontario Court of Appeal's "two moms and dad" decision, in which a declaration of parentage was granted to the same-sex partner of a child's biological mother. We discussed that case last week:
The case was originally brought by the same-sex partner of the boy's biological mother, who asked the Court to grant her a declaration of parentage of the boy.
As the child's biological mother remains alive, the court was thus asked to find as a matter of law that the child has three parents - two mothers and a father.
In its decision, the Appeal Court acknowledged that the request was without precedent. Nonetheless, it granted the declaration, finding that to do so was ultimately in the best interests of the boy.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
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