it take effect immediately. The couple who brought the suit, Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf, immediately sought a marriage licence; the usual 20-day waiting period was waived, and they were wed on April 1 at the Palais de justice in Montreal. Given the populations of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, more than two-thirds of Canada's population lived in provinces where same-sex marriage had been legalized after the Quebec decision. Yukon decision On July 14, 2004, in Dunbar & Edge v. Yukon (Government of) & Canada (A.G.), the Supreme Court of Yukon issued another similar ruling with immediate effect. Rather than reproducing the Charter equality arguments used by the other courts, the court ruled that since the provincial courts of appeal had ruled that the heterosexual definition of marriage was unconstitutional, it was unconstitutional across Canada. The position was strengthened by the Attorney General's refusal to appeal those rulings. It further ruled that to continue to restrict marriages in Yukon to opposite-sex couples would result in an unacceptable state of a provision's being in force in one jurisdiction and not another. On August 16, 2004, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler indicated that the federal government would no longer oppose court cases to implement same-sex marriage in the provinces and territories. Manitoba decision On September 16, 2004, Justice Douglas Yard of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench declared the then-current definition of marriage unconstitutional. The judge said that his decision had been influenced by the previous decisions in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. This decision followed suits brought by three couples in Manitoba requesting that they be issued marriage licences. Both the provincial and federal governments had made it known that they would not oppose the court bid. One of the couples, Chris Vogel and Richard North, had legally sought the right to marry in a high-profile case in 1974, but had been denied. Nova Scotia decision In August 2004, three couples in Nova Scotia brought suit in Boutilier et al. v. Canada (A.G) and Nova Scotia (A.G) against the provincial government requesting that it issue marriage licences to same-sex couples. On September 24, 2004, Justice Heather Robertson of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled the then-current law unconstitutional. Neither the federal nor the provincial governments opposed the ruling. Saskatchewan decision Five couples brought suit in Saskatchewan for the recognition of their marriage in a case that was heard by the Saskatchewan Court