Canada recognises 'gay adultery'

Canada allows gays to get married and to divorce

A Canadian woman has won a legal battle allowing her to divorce her husband for having an affair with another man.

A court had earlier told the woman she could not file for an immediate divorce because her husband's actions did not legally constitute adultery.

She won her divorce after her lawyers argued that the definition of adultery cannot be limited to extra-marital sex between a man and a woman.

The ruling was issued on Tuesday by the British Columbia Supreme Court.

Canadian law already allows couples in homosexual relationships to marry.

'Anachronism'

Earlier this year, the woman from Vancouver filed for an immediate divorce from her husband of 17 years, who had admitted having an affair with a younger man.

But the judge refused her request, arguing that the legal definition of adultery did not include homosexual relationships.

Canadian law only grants an immediate divorce in relationships where adultery or cruelty have taken place.

Where there has been neither, couples are obliged to remain separate for a year before the courts can grant a divorce.

The divorce was finally granted after the woman's lawyer argued that "the historic definition of adultery... was anachronistic".