>From valchu@atlas.cs.upei.ca Mon Oct 25 21:05:37 1993

Information forwarded to me by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of 
of Canada, Committee on Human Rights in the Workplace, Sub-Committee on Sexual
Orientation indicates that our employer, the federal government, is now required
to offer benefits to same-sex couples.

Recently, a gay man applied for family-related leave when his partner had a
serious accident.  He later applied for bereavement leave when his partner's
father passed away.  According to the terms of his collective agreement, these
leave rights applied when the person concerned was a spouse (including common-
law spouse), etc., etc.

The leave was denied by his supervisor and, on grievance, subsequently denied
at all levels of the department he worked for.  The grievance subsequently was
heard by the Public Service Staff Relations Board in a tribunal.

The grievor's counsel argued that 1) the clause in the collective agreement that
guarantees no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation overrode the clau   
clause that specified that a common-law spouse had to be of the opposite sex;
2) that the Canadian Human Rights Act also overrode that clause (because in a
previous case, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that sexual orientation must
be "read into" the list of prohibited forms of discrimination as if it were 
already there and the government chose not to appeal the case to the Supreme
Court of Canada).

The government argued that because the definition of common-law spouse was
intentionally written into the collective agreement it could not be overridden
by the no discrimination clause.  It stated that it had no desire to dis
discriminate against the grievor but that the benefit he claimed was not 
available to him because of the contract.  The department also conceded that
if his partner had been of the opposite sex but all other circumstances were the
same it would have granted the leave.

The adjudicator ruled that 1) although "common-law spouse" was defined as a
person of the opposite sex, there was no such definition of the term "spouse"
other than to say it _included_ "common-law spouses".  She stated that "spouse"
therefore must include spouses through religious ceremonies and other cultural
definitions besides the strictest form of "spouse" and "common-law" spouses.

She ruled also that even if this were challenged, she would still have to rule
in favour of the grievor because rights and no discrimination clauses must be
broadly interpreted and that therefore the definition of "common-law" spouse
was in contravention of both the no discrimination clause _and_ the Canadian
Human Rights Act.

She ordered that the grievor have the days of vacation he had to use for his
partner's accident and his partner's father's death reinstated.

I haven't heard if the government has decided to appeal this decision to the     
courts.  If they do not, this sets a broad precedent within the entire Public
Service, because a large majority of us are unionized and the no-discrimination
clause is in virtually all the collective agreements.  This decision, if 
unchallenged or if challenged and upheld, establishes same-sex spouses as
recognized for purposes of family-related leave, marriage leave, bereavement
leave, and leave for relocation of spouse.

I hope you find this informative.  If you send me your address, I may be able to
send you the actual decision.  This depends on my getting permission, of course.
The decision was forwarded to me as a member of the Sub-Committee I mentioned and
and since names appear on the decision, I'd have to get an OK from the parties
concerned.

Or you can call me and I can give you more details (I don't have the decision
brief here with me, alas) without revealing names.

My phone number is (902) 894-7979.  Please keep in mind that when it's
8 p.m. in California or 11 p.m. in New York, it's midnight here!

panda cub (Leith Chu)   | No, I don't touch-type.  I do a lot more than just
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valchu@atlas.cs.upei.ca | Uniforms! Rope! Leather! Smurfs! Yeah! Oooh! Yeah!
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