Gay partners seek retroactive benefits

$400 million at stake in class-action lawsuit

It would be a mistake to apply current views on the rights of gay and lesbian couples to the situation that existed in 1985, when the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into being, a federal government lawyer argued today.

That’s because the legal, political and social consensus that gay couples needed the same constitutional protection as opposite-sex couples only began to emerge in the mid- and late 1990s, Paul Vickery told Ontario’s highest court.

“There are very strong policy reasons why the courts should not attempt to view events of the past through modern-day eyes,” said Vickery.

“It would involve a distortion of the historical record.”

The submissions before the Ontario Court of Appeal came as the federal government and gays squared off over millions of dollars in back payments of pension benefits to survivors of same-sex unions.

When Ottawa changed the Canada Pension Plan in July 2000 to bring it into line with constitutional decisions by the courts, it limited retroactivity to Jan. 1, 1998.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968350116467