This made the territory the fourth jurisdiction in Canada, and the seventh in the world after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Massachusetts, to legalise same-sex marriage.
"[1] In January 2004, Rob Edge and Stephen Dunbar were denied a marriage licence at the Vital Statistics Office in Whitehorse.
[1] Their lawyer, Jim Tucker, used a novel approach: rather than arguing on the basis of Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as in the previous cases, he argued that the federal government's failure to appeal the decisions legalising same-sex marriage in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec signalled a change in Canadian common law regarding marriage.
Therefore, the territory's failure to provide marriage licences to same-sex couples meant that the law was being inconsistently applied in Yukon.
[2] The judge obtained verbal promises from the Yukon Government that the couple would be granted a marriage licence.
Laurie Arron, from Egale Canada, said, "This ruling sends a message that governments across the country must now accept the Charter rights of same-sex couples to marry in a civil ceremony.
"[1] In May 2002, the Yukon Legislative Assembly approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to adopt children jointly.
[RSY 2002, c.146, s.13]Further legislation, the Equality of Spouses Statute Law Amendment Act 2018, was passed by the Assembly in October 2018.
[10] The census also showed that about 1.9% of Whitehorse women in couples were in same-sex relationships; the second highest in Canada after Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.