Quebec, said "Same-sex couples should not have to wait patiently for their rights to be upheld. The federal government accepted not only the Ontario and B.C. court rulings that marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples, but also the Quebec Court of Appeal's ruling that the law has changed across the country. If they accept that in Quebec, how can they now take a different position in the Yukon?" On July 14, 2004, Supreme Court Justice Peter McIntyre agreed that the Federal Government was inconsistent in its approach to the definition of marriage, a federal responsibility, since it had not appealed the first three decisions. Therefore, the territory's failure to provide marriage licences to same-sex couples meant that the law was being inconsistently applied in Yukon. Justice McIntyre declared same-sex marriages legal in Yukon, and ordered the government to issue a marriage licence to Mr. Edge and Mr. Dunbar. The judge obtained verbal promises from the Yukon Government that the couple would be granted a marriage licence. Premier Dennis Fentie praised the ruling. Laurie Arron, from Egale Canada, said, "This ruling sends a message that governments across the country must now accept the Charter rights of same-sex couples to marry in a civil ceremony. There is one law for the whole country, and that law includes same-sex couples." Territorial legislation In May 2002, the Yukon Legislative Assembly approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to adopt children jointly. The law took effect on 1 January 2003. In December 2014, the Assembly amended the territorial Marriage Act () to replace references to "husband and wife" with "spouses" and add "or spouse" in section 13. The amendments received royal assent by Commissioner Doug Phillips on 11 December and took effect on 1 June 2015. The Act states: Further legislation, the Equality of Spouses Statute Law Amendment Act 2018, was passed by the Assembly in October 2018. It replaced references to "husband and wife" and "a man and a woman" with gender-neutral language in other acts, including the Evidence Act and the Family Property and Support Act. The law was assented by Commissioner Angélique Bernard. Marriage statistics 44 same-sex couples married in Yukon between July 2004 and July 2014. The 2016 Canadian census showed that there were 70 same-sex spouses living in Yukon, with 55 (78.6%) being women. The census also showed that about 1.9% of Whitehorse women in couples were in same-sex relationships;