Canadian Gov't Appeals $400 Million Gay Suit
by Jan Prout
365Gay.com Newscenter
Toronto Bureau


(Toronto, Ontario) The Canadian government told Ontario's highest court today that a lower court judge erred in ruling that the same-sex partners of gays and lesbians who died between 1985 and 1998 were owed as much as $400 million in pensions.

The case involves survivor benefits under Canada's Pension Plan. In 2000 the federal government passed legislation recognizing same-se relationships under the Plan and made it retroactive to Jan. 1 1998.

But, gays argue it should have been backdated to April 1985, when gays and lesbians were granted equality under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and began a class action suit to recover the unpaid benefits due an estimated 1,500 survivors, many of whom became widowed at the height of the AIDS crisis.


Last December a Superior Court judge in Toronto agreed with them.