Same-Sex Divorce Bill Slowly But Surely Clawing Its Way in Canadian Parliament

Gay or same-sex couples who got married in Canada but now want to divorce their partners may well heave a sigh of relief as the same-sex divorce bill is slowing clawing its way into the Canadian Parliament. On Tuesday night, Canada's House of Commons approved Bill C-32, a legislation that authenticates same-sex marriages under Canadian law while at the same time allowing non-resident gay or same-sex couples to divorce.

All its needed now is for the legislation to have a counterpart in the Senate. A version is actually long sitting in the Upper Chambers.

Canada legalised same-sex marriages in 2005 where giddy, foreign couples immediately jumped on the available flight to have their unions solemnized. But as life and fate have it, some unions will later prove to be unworkable. Many incompatible couples found their lives enmeshed in misery. They could not work towards a divorce in their respective homelands because their Canadian nuptials were not recognise.

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Further complicating matters is that Canada doesn't grant divorces to people, unless they have stayed in the country for at least a year residency.

The momentous occasion on Tuesday night was a one and a year half in the waiting.

"I honestly do not know what took them so long because we could have reached this agreement a year ago," NDP MP Randall Garrison said.

"We think of it as a little victory here at the end."

Canada became the fourth country in the world, and the first country outside Europe, to legalise same-sex marriage throughout the country in July 2005.