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On June 10, 2003, Michael Leshner and Michael Stark tied the knot at Toronto City
Hall. Exchanging kisses and sipping champagne in front of television cameras from around
the world, Leshner and Stark were the first in a steady stream of same sex couples –
including visitors to Toronto from across Canada, the U.S., Europe and even China – who
made the trek to city hall for a marriage license, following a ruling from an Ontario court
that legalized same sex marriage in Canada’s most populous province (Tyler and Huffman,
2003). In the days that followed, the federal government proposed legislation that would
legalize same sex marriage across Canada. These developments put Canada in the forefront
of the world in the recognition of lesbian and gay rights. Only two other countries – Belgium
and the Netherlands – recognize same sex marriage (Wintemute and Andenæs, 2001).
Moreover, Canada offers broad and deep human rights protections for lesbians and gay men,
including measures that still do not exist in many parts of the developed world, such as
enforceable protection from employment and housing discrimination; employment benefits
for same sex partners in the public and private sectors; adoption rights for lesbians and gays
in many provinces; family rights with respect to health care decision-making and wills; and
special sentencing provisions in criminal law for crimes motivated by hate on the grounds of
sexual orientation. This paper argues that Canada’s trailblazing efforts to promote the human
rights of lesbian and gay citizens can be traced to the impact of the growth of judicial power
on public policy outcomes.
Political-institutional change in advanced capitalist democracies provide
opportunities for assessing the effects of institutions on political debate and policy
development. While the real world does not provide many cases in which other factors
remain constant while political institutions change, certain historical situations may
approximate this ideal closely enough that they provide an opportunity for a longitudinal
Convention