World IN BRIEF : CANADA : Court Rules Anti-Gay Bias Violates Charter

Canada’s Supreme Court narrowly ruled for the first time that the country’s constitution protects homosexuals from discrimination. But when it comes to pension benefits, the court ruled that limiting payments only to heterosexual couples is a justified infringement on homosexual rights to equality. The case involved two elderly British Columbians, James Egan and Norris Nesbit, who have been together for 47 years but were denied a spouse’s allowance under the federal Old Age Security Act. Egan and Nesbit lost their court bid for a spouse’s pension, but gay activists were expected to use the landmark decision on equality as the basis for legal challenges to dozens of laws across the country that they view as discriminatory.