Why do some particular laws confer rights to de facto spouses?

More than one third of Quebecers who live as couple live in de facto union. This phenomenon, which goes by growing since the 1960s, has led the legislator to gradually take into consideration this new reality. Cohabitants became de facto spouses, the children born out of wedlock received the same rights as those born of legally married parents, etc.

Within the framework of the reform and the adoption of the Civil Code of Quebec, the Quebec legislator, following the recommendations of major social stakeholders, has voluntarily chosen not to grant couples who choose to live in de facto union the same rights and responsibilities as married couples, or couples in civil union since 2003, regardless of the number of years of their common life. There is to this a very simple reason: the respect of the choice made by the persons who preferred to adopt this form of life together.

This concern to respect the will of those choosing de facto union not to be submitted to the rules of marriage while, precisely, they do not wish it, was repeated in 2002 during the debates around the adoption of civil union.

The Quebec legislator is not for all indifferent to the fate of de facto spouses. The protection of the children, the financial health of families, a concern for social justice led the legislator to assimilate de facto spouses to married spouses or spouses in a civil union in several laws having a social nature.

It is in particular the case of the laws concerning the employment assistance (the welfare), the legal aid, the income tax, the Quebec pension plan, the automobile insurance and the occupational accidents.

In areas of competence of its own, the Canadian legislator showed the same concern for social justice by granting the same rights to de facto spouses as those for married spouses or spouses in a civil union in laws such as on the citizenship, insurance employment, old age security and allowances to war veterans.