Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act

The Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act, also known as An Act to Amend Ontario Statutes to Provide for the Equal Treatment of Persons in Spousal Relationships or as Bill 167, was a proposed law in the Canadian province of Ontario, introduced by the government of Bob Rae in 1994, which would have provided same-sex couples with rights and obligations mostly equal to those of opposite-sex common law couples by amending the definition of “spouse” in 79 provincial statutes. Despite the changes, the bill did not formally confer same-sex marriage rights in the province, as the definition of marriage in Canada is under federal jurisdiction; instead, the bill proposed civil union status for same-sex couples, although it was not explicitly labelled as such since the term was not yet in widespread international use.

The legislation was in part a response to a 1992 ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal in the case of Michael Leshner and Michael Stark, which obligated the government to provide spousal benefits to same-sex partners of government employees.

The bill was first introduced in the legislature on May 17, 1994, by Attorney General Marion Boyd. The bill passed first reading by a handful of votes, with the most vocal opposition emerging between first and second reading as public reaction to the bill began to mount. In an attempt to salvage the bill on second reading, Boyd dropped the most controversial provisions, including adoption rights, but the move did not win the support of any MPP who was not already supporting the bill in its original form. The bill was defeated by a recorded vote of 68 to 59 on second reading on June 9, 1994.

Liberal leader Lyn McLeod had long pledged her party's support for legislation extending civil rights to same-sex couples; Liberal MPP Tim Murphy, who represented the riding that included Toronto's Church and Wellesley gay village, had even drafted and presented a similar albeit less sweeping private member's bill, Bill 45, which passed first reading in the legislature in June 1993 but was delayed as the government prepared Bill 167.

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