Same-sex marriage in Saskatchewan became legal on November 5, 2004 as a result of a decision of the Family Law Division of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench. This decision followed similar cases in six other provinces and territories, and pre-dated by eight months the federal Civil Marriage Act of 2005, which made same-sex marriage available throughout Canada. Later court decisions have dealt with the issue of marriage commissioners who object to performing same-sex marriages on the basis of their religious beliefs. Saskatchewan became the seventh jurisdiction in Canada, and the tenth worldwide after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Massachusetts, Yukon, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, to legalise same-sex marriage. N.W. v. Canada (Attorney General) In the fall of 2004, five same-sex couples brought an application in the Family Law Division of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench, seeking a judgment requiring marriage licence issuers appointed by the Provincial Government to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples. The application was based on the argument that the traditional common-law definition of marriage discriminated against same-sex couples on the basis of sexual orientation, contrary to the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At the time of the application, courts in six other Canadian provinces and territories had upheld the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in Canada. The application named as parties both the Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler, and the Attorney General for Saskatchewan, Frank Quennell. Both the federal and provincial governments were parties; the former because the substantive law governing the definition of marriage is a matter of federal jurisdiction under the Constitution of Canada, and the latter because marriage licence issuers are provincial officials appointed under Saskatchewan's marriage legislation. Quennell had already stated in September 2004 that he would not oppose such a court bid. The Green Party of Saskatchewan supported the couples, and had issued a statement supporting same-sex marriage rights in April 2004, "Giving same sex couples the same range of choices as opposite sex couples is a simple question of fairness and human dignity. Either this government supports equality or it does not." On 3 November 2004, the five couples appeared before Justice Donna Wilson on the application. Neither the federal nor the provincial governments challenged the suit. Greg Walen, lawyer for one of the couples, had filed a statement of claim seeking a declaratory judgment that the common-law definition of marriage