Crosbie on May 28, 2009. Further legislation passed in December 2009 replaced references to "husband and wife" and "a man and a woman" with "spouses" and "two persons" in other acts, namely the Family Law Act. Provincial law also recognises common-law couples for limited purposes. The Family Law Act allows common-law partners to enter into agreements, which provide couples, same-sex and opposite-sex, the ability to contract property division at separation. However, unlike married spouses, common-law partners do not have the automatic right to inherit property if the partner dies, unless explicitly mentioned in a will. Marriage statistics The 2016 Canadian census showed that there were 690 same-sex couples living in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2006, Kim and Jennifer Oliver, a same-sex couple from Nunatsiavut, had to change the date and location of their marriage due to local protests and opposition. The couple were married in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Religious performance In July 2019, the synod of the Anglican Church of Canada passed a resolution known as "A Word to the Church", allowing its dioceses to choose whether to perform same-sex marriages. In September of that same year, Bishop Geoff Peddle of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador sanctioned requests from several local parishes to perform same-sex marriages; among them, the St. Michael and All Angels Church in St. John's. The Diocese of Western Newfoundland held a special synod meeting to discuss the matter in September 2019 and voted by 94 percent to perform same-sex marriages. The measure includes a freedom of conscience clause for clergy opposed to performing the marriages, but non-consenting clergy "will do a non-biased, affirming referral to the regional dean or the archdeacon and we will find a priest that will go and do that wedding", said Bishop John Organ. Likewise, the Diocese of Central Newfoundland has allowed its parishes to perform same-sex marriages since November 2019 after its synod voted by a 87 percent majority in favour at a meeting on 27 October 2019. The move was welcomed by Bishop John Watton. See also Same-sex marriage in Canada LGBT rights in Canada References External links Newfoundland and Labrador Politics of Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador law 2004 in LGBT history