Province

On 01 June 2003, the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act was proclaimed in force

Adult Interdependent Relationships Act [L1.1]

Application of Act

2 This Act applies to adult interdependent relationships arising before or after this Act comes into force.

Adult interdependent partner

3(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person is the adult interdependent partner of another person if

(a) the person has lived with the other person in a relationship of interdependence

(i) for a continuous period of not less than 3 years, or

(ii) of some permanence, if there is a child of the relationship by birth or adoption,

or

(b) the person has entered into an adult interdependent partner agreement with the other person under section 7 [L1.2].

Previously

In April 2003, the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act was about to be proclaimed by the province as law, but it was mooted it may be sent back to the drawing board to include a same-sex registry [R2.1].

In December 2002, Alberta extended equal pension rights to the partners of gay and lesbian employees throughout its civil service [R1.1].

In November 2002, the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act, if passed, would affect some 53 pieces of legislation, from health-care insurance to civil enforcement and numerous legislation related to family law [R2.4].

On 07 May 2002, two bills were introduced by Premier Ralph Klein's government under which same-sex couples in Alberta would enjoy some of the same legal rights as married couples [R2.2].

The government planned to hold the bills over until the fall to gauge public reaction to it [R2.2].

In January 2002, a review of family law released by Justice Minister Dave Hancock recommended that Alberta should extend the same legal benefits to same-sex relationships as married couples [R2.3].

Hancock said the province would give Albertans until March 1 to react to the same-sex relationship proposal and changes to other family laws.

In May 1999, the Domestic Relations Amendment Act, defined a common-law union as "a relationship between two people of the opposite sex" who have lived in a "marriage-like" relationship for at least three years or who have a child and have been living together in a relationship of "some permanence" [R2.5].

In March 1999, Conservative MLAs agreed to defer the thorny issue of what benefits should be provided to common-law and same-sex couples [R2.6].

Courts & Tribunals

In December 2002, Alberta's Human Rights Commission ruled that the Alberta Health policy denying family coverage to same-sex couples was discriminatory [R3.1].

In 1998, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that spousal support provisions in the Domestic Relations Act were unconstitutional because they only applied to married couples who break up [R3.2].

Province

In 1997, discrimination on the gorund of sexual orientation was not unlawful [R1.1].

Courts & Tribunals

In April 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Alberta to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination [C2.1], [R2.1].

Province

In April 2009, Health Minister Ron Liepert said the Province would pay for almost 50 final genital reassignment surgeries before ceasing funding for the operations [R1.1].

Province

On 21 December 2010, the Province finally scrubbed homosexuality from its diagnostic guide to mental disorders, more than thirty-five years after the psychiatric profession made the same move [R1.1].

Courts & Tribunals

In June 2001, a city man who claimed he killed a Mexican immigrant who was gay in self-defence because the man threatened to rape him at knifepoint was acquitted of murder [R2.1].

Province

Same-sex couples have the same rights to the estate of a deceased partner as opposite-sex couples [R2.2].

Courts & Tribunals

In November 2001, Justice Del Perras ordered the province to change the law that discriminates against same-sex partners within nine months [R2.1].

In April 2001, Justice Del Perras of the Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench declared the province's estate law unconstitutional because it did not give homosexual couples the same rights to the estate of a deceased partner as it gives heterosexuals [C2.1], [R2.2].

The judge ruled that the Intestate Succession Act contravened the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it gave the estate of a gay man who died without a will to his children rather than sharing it with his same-sex partner.

In March 2001, lawyers for the government told the court that they would not stand in the way of a lawsuit brought by a gay man challenging the province’s inheritance laws [R2.3].

The Alberta government subsequently amended the law [R2.4].

Federal

See Federal - Marriage

Province

In March 2000, Bill 202, or the Marriage Amendment Act was voted into law by Alberta's legislative assembly, defining marriage to be exclusively "between a man and a woman," and further invoking the notwithstanding clause to ensure the bill continues to hold force in the face of any future challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [R2.1].

Province

Alberta allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt children [R1.1].

In January 2001, the first couple took advantage of the Court ruling allowing second-parent adoption [R1.2].

Previously:

In 1999, The government changed the wording of the Child Welfare Act to allow for adoption by a homosexual step-parent [R1.3].

Courts & Tribunals

On 12 October 2011, in D.W.H. v. D.J.R., 2011 ABQB 608, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Susan Bensler ruled a gay Calgary man identified as H. be granted legal parent status in place of his gay ex-partner, R, the child's biological father [C2.3], [R2.2].

In November 1999, Justice Peter Martin of Court of Queen's Bench allowed the partners of two lesbian mothers to adopt children [R2.1].

Province

In April 2003, the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act reportedly would, when proclaimed by the province as law, set up a series of rules on how same-sex couples can split up their assets if the relationship goes sour [R1].

[Ed: As at 29 June 2009, neither the proclaimed Act nor the Regulations appear to address the issue of the division of assets upon the breakup of an interdependent relationship.]