Court grants THROUPLES the same legal rights as two-parent families
Canadian 'throuples' are to be granted the same parental rights as traditional families thanks to a bombshell new ruling.
A Quebec Superior Court determined that denying legal rights to multi-parent households would be 'unconstitutional'.
The decision came after a judge ruled that three polyamorous families were being discriminated against under the status quo.
The law only applies to parental units established before the conception of a child, not to households involving step-parents or families established after birth.
It is a marked difference from the US, where most states only recognize one or two parents.
'In these times when the right to equality is savagely attacked, it feels good,' lawyer Marc-André Landry, who represented the plaintiffs, wrote after the ruling.
Landry, of the Lavery law firm, represented three multi-parent families. The first is a man and two women who share four children.
The others were a lesbian couple and a male sperm donor and a couple where the husband had a baby with his wife's friend due to her infertility struggles.
'Those families do exist, no matter what people may think,' Landry told CTV News.
'You have kids whose affiliation, from a legal standpoint, does not match their reality.'
He added that the case has a personal resonance for him as he has long considered that he has three parents.
Landry explained that similar provisions already exist for multi-parent families in Ontario and British Columbia.
The Quebec government will have a year to amend its Civil Code to reflect the ruling, although Landry said he expects the government to appeal.
'This decision aligns Quebec law with the practices of other international and Canadian jurisdictions, enhancing the legal equality of children, regardless of their family structure,' Lavery wrote in a statement.
'Lavery is pleased to contribute to the advancement of the law in Quebec by participating in this decision.'
Polyamory and bigamy is technically still outlawed in Canada. In 2011, the British Columbia Supreme Court upheld the country's polygamy laws and ruled that the potential harm to women and children outweighs concerns over protecting religious and personal freedom.
But around one in five Canadians and Americans reported that they have engaged in consensual non-monogamy, according to the Vanier Institute of the Family.
In the US, only a handful of states are moving towards legislation which would extending parental rights to throuples and other unconventional families.
Earlier this month, Oakland, California became the first city on the West Coast to pass new protections extending nondiscrimination laws to cover family and relationship structure.
It followed similar laws in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2023.
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NBC News
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ITV News
2 hours ago
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