Canada: Three adults in polyamorous relationship declared legal parents of child
Jun 28, 2018 by Jill
by Michael Macdonald, The Star:
In what is believed to be a legal first in Canada, a court in Newfoundland and Labrador has recognized three unmarried adults as the legal parents of a child born within their “polyamorous” family.
Polyamorous relationships are legal in Canada, unlike bigamy and polygamy, which involve people in two or more marriages.
In this case, the St. John’s family includes two men in a relationship with the mother of a child born in 2017.
“Society is continuously changing and family structures are changing along with it,” says the decision, by Justice Robert Fowler of the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court’s family division.
“This must be recognized as a reality and not as a detriment to the best interests of the child.”
The April 4 decision says the unconventional family has been together for three years, but the biological father of the child is unknown. The family members are not identified in the decision, which was released Thursday by the court.
It’s not the first time a Canadian court has recognized that a family can have three legally recognized parents. In 2007, for example, the Ontario Court of Appeal recognized two women in relationship as the mothers of a child whose biological father was already deemed a legal parent. But the three adults in that case were not in a relationship.
The three people in the Newfoundland case turned to the courts after the province said only two parents could be listed on the child’s birth certificate.
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