decision of the Government of Ontario to recognize two marriages that took place in Toronto on January 14, 2001, retroactively made Canada the first country in the world to have a government-legitimized same-sex marriage (the Netherlands and Belgium, which legalized same-sex marriage before Canada, had their first in April 2001 and June 2003, respectively). Overview Same-sex marriage was originally recognized by law as a result of cases in which courts in eight out of the ten Canadian provinces, and in one of its three territories, ruled existing bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Thereafter, many same-sex couples obtained marriage licences in those provinces; like opposite-sex couples, they did not need to be residents of any of those provinces to marry there. The legal status of same-sex marriages in these jurisdictions created an unusual jurisdictional issue. According to the Constitution of Canada, the definition of marriage is the exclusive responsibility of the federal government; this interpretation was upheld by a December 9, 2004, opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada (Reference Re Same-Sex Marriage). Until July 20, 2005, the federal government had not yet passed a law redefining marriage to conform to recent court decisions. Until the passage of the Civil Marriage Act, the previous definition of marriage remained binding in the four jurisdictions (two provinces and two territories) where courts had not yet ruled it unconstitutional, but void in the nine jurisdictions (eight provinces and one territory) where it had been successfully challenged before the courts. Before the enactment of federal legislation recognizing same-sex marriage, therefore, the application of federal marriage law differed depending on the province or territory. Given the Supreme Court ruling, the role of precedent in Canadian law, and the overall legal climate, it was very likely that any challenges to legalize same-sex marriage in the remaining four jurisdictions would be successful as well. Federal lawyers had ceased to contest such cases, and only Alberta's Conservative provincial government remained officially opposed. Premier Ralph Klein threatened to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to avoid having to comply with the ruling. Many commentators opined that a province likely could not use the notwithstanding clause to avoid recognizing same-sex marriage because the federal government had jurisdiction over marriage. Alberta Attorney General Ron Stevens agreed with that conclusion, stating: "Since the court ruled the authority over same-sex marriage falls to the federal government, it is