Marriage and the Law (Ontario)

  • Couples can be married in a civil or religious service.
  • Marriage licences cannot be issued to minors (under 18 or 19 throughout Canada) unless with written parental consent. With consent of both parents, you must be at least 16.
  • No particular form of ceremony is required except that in some part of the ceremony, in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and witnesses, each of the parties shall declare:

“I do solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, AB, may not be joined in matrimony to CD.”

  • Once married, the law treats your marriage as an economic partnership. If it ends, the value of your property acquired while married and the increase in value of property brought into marriage will be divided in half.
  • Both have equal rights to stay in the family home in case of separation.
  • Marriage licences cannot be issued to minors (under 18 or 19 throughout Canada) unless with written parental consent. With consent of both parents, you must be at least 16.
  • Where one person makes a gift to another in contemplation of or conditional upon their marriage to each other and the marriage fails to take place, the question of whether or not the failure was caused by the donor shall not be considered in determining the right of the donor to recover the gift.
  • If the marriage ends, one partner may be entitled to financial support.

Marriage contracts:

  • These are important LEGAL DOCUMENTS. Should be signed with a lawyer (get independent legal advice, i.e. each of you should use different lawyers)
  • You are setting out rights, obligations, expectations and responsibilities of marriage.

You can include:

  • property you bring into the marriage, it’s value, and who owns it.
  • the division of assets if marriage is dissolved.
  • support payments and upbringing of children (religion, education, etc.) even if unborn.

You cannot:

  • describe custody and access agreements to children.
  • contract out of the legal rights to the matrimonial home.
  • Marriage contracts can be re-done and changed at different points in time.
  • You may enter into a marriage contract after you have already been married.
  • A common thing to include in a marriage contract is that the increased value of one asset brought into a marriage (i.e. real estate, china, etc.) will be excluded for the division of assets if the marriage is dissolved.
  • Courts may overrule the marriage contract, but this is rare.