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ABSTRACT
Social equity is at the very heart of policy makers' preoccupations, including those at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. This is reflected in the evolution of the definition of family members in the family class. Today, it includes common law or same-sex partners. This article traces the evolution of public policies in this area since 1990.
One of the primary goals of Canadian immigration is, and has historically been, to see that families are reunited in Canada. Over the years, though Canadian immigration law and policy has undergone considerable transformation, this commitment has remained firm. Both previous and current legislation allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents the ability to sponsor members of their family as immigrants to Canada. Exactly who is considered "family," and by that same virtue who could be sponsored as part of the family class, has however been subject to change in an attempt to keep pace with social realities.
Canadian society is one renowned for its diversity - it is a country filled with people who possess a multiplicity of identities, attachments and cultural investments. But to make effective policy in this environment is to do more than recognize the Canadian population as diverse, it is to appreciate and account for the intersecting and plural identities present. It is to understand that both Canadian and immigrant families do not always conform to a particular model. Immigration policy makers, as a necessity, must be progressive in their approach and reflect these societal changes in their decision making. Such has been the approach to modernizing the Canadian immigration policy as it relates to the family class, to the inclusion of considerations relating to sexual orientation and the social reality that family relationships necessarily include same-sex couples.
IMMIGRATION POLICY EVOLUTION
Before 1976 homosexuals were among the list of inadmissible classes to Canada, a comment on the prevalent public attitudes of the time. With the passing of a new Immigration Act in 1977, this provision was repealed, permitting lesbians and gays legal access to the country. Though they could now enter Canada, this was only possible if they applied to immigrate as independent immigrants. It remained that only heterosexual Canadians could sponsor their partners in the family class. This group retained a strict...