Same-sex marriage was progressively introduced in several provinces and territories of Canada by court decisions beginning in before being legally recognized nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act on July 20, On June 10, , the Court of Appeal for Ontario issued a decision immediately legalizing same-sex marriage in Ontario , thereby becoming the first province where it was legal.
The introduction of a federal gender-neutral marriage definition made Canada the fourth country in the world, and the first country outside Europe, to legally recognize same-sex marriage throughout its borders.
Before the federal recognition of same-sex marriage, court decisions had already introduced it in eight out of ten provinces and one of three territories, whose residents collectively made up about 90 percent of Canada's population. More than 3, same-sex couples had already married in those areas before the Civil Marriage Act was passed. It was passed by the House of Commons on June 28, , and by the Senate on July 19, , it received royal assent the following day.
Following the election , which was won by a Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper , the House of Commons defeated a motion to reopen the matter by a vote of to on December 7, , effectively reaffirming the legislation. This was the third vote supporting same-sex marriage taken by three parliaments under three prime ministers.
Same-sex marriage was legally recognized in the provinces and territories as of the following dates:. In some of these cases, some marriages were in fact legal at an earlier date for example, an Ontario ruling held that marriages performed in January were legal when performed , but the legality was questioned. As of the given dates, the legality was authoritatively established. The decision of the Government of Ontario to recognize two marriages that took place in Toronto on January 14, , retroactively made Canada the first country in the world to have a government-legitimized same-sex marriage the Netherlands and Belgium, which legalized same-sex marriage before Canada, had their first in April and June , respectively.
