the traditional definition of marriage was consistent with the Charter. 2005–2009 On June 28, 2005, by a vote of 158–133, the House of Commons passed Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act and on July 19, 2005, by a vote of 47–21, the Senate gave its approval to the bill. On July 20, 2005, C-38 received royal assent from Chief Justice of Canada, Beverley McLachlin, acting in her role as deputy governor general. Canada became the fourth country to officially sanction same-sex marriage nationwide, behind the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Same-sex marriages began in Ontario and British Columbia in 2003, with other provinces following via court challenges. The Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a religious same-sex marriage that was performed in January 2001 legally valid, thus retroactively making it the first legal same-sex marriage in modern times (as The Netherlands did not legalize same-sex marriage until April 2001). In 2006, the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights was held in Montreal, culminating with the issuance of the Declaration of Montreal. The Borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal soon became the first government in the world to adopt the declaration, and the New Democratic Party became the first political formation in the world to do so at its convention in September. As of 2009, all provinces and territories had included "sexual orientation" in their human rights laws, and the Northwest Territories include "gender identity" in theirs. 2010s In February 2011, the House of Commons passed at third reading NDP MP Bill Siksay's Bill C-389, to amend the federal Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination under Canadian federal anti-discrimination laws, at third reading, but it died on the order paper in the Senate when Parliament was dissolved. The bill was reintroduced as Bill C-279 in the subsequent Parliament and passed second reading on June 6, 2012. June 2012 also saw the addition of gender identity and gender expression to the Ontario Human Rights Code and of gender identity to the Manitoba Human Rights Code. The May 2, 2011 election saw the arrival of a Conservative majority government. At the same time, the NDP became official opposition and elected the largest LGBT caucus in Canada's history, with four out LGBT New Democrat MPs, later increased to five. On December 6, 2012 Bill No. 140 of the 61st General Assembly of Nova Scotia known as the