Simple Divorce Papers

In Canada it is the federal government which has jurisdiction over the laws governing divorce, even though it is the provincial governments which have power over marriage. This might seem odd to anyone following the recent debates over whether the definition of marriage ought to include “same-sex unions” as this debate has been going on at the federal level. However, this is because the term “marriage” is used in various federal laws such as pension legislation and the Income Tax Act and the federal government can define the terms used in its own legislation any way it wants to, unless the Supreme Court declares the definition to be illegal. Regardless of what the federal government decided, the provinces will all still need to make their own decisions about how marriage is defined.

This means that when you get married, it is under the rules and procedures set down by the province in which your marriage takes place. For example, the person who performs the marriage must get his or her authority to do so from the provincial government, not the federal government. Your marriage is registered and certified by the provincial government and it is from it that you can obtain a copy of any documents necessary to prove that your marriage took place.

When marriages take place outside the country, they are performed according to the laws in effect in the country in which the marriage is performed. For the most part these marriages are respected and recognized in Canada when the married spouses move here although there may be exceptions for example in cases where a person is married to more than one spouse.