"Nobody gave us a gay and lesbian discount when were paying into the CPP, so we should not have a gay and lesbian discount when they're paying out of the CPP," said Doug Elliott, the lead lawyer for the claimants.

As reported in The Toronto Star, the Ontario Court of Appeal has awarded pension survivor rights to gay widows and widowers. Here is the full ruling. It is interesting to note this passage:

In its factum, the Crown argues that the further objective of excluding all same-sex survivors whose partners died before January 1, 1998 and of making payment entitlements prospective beginning in July 2000 was to recognize the evolution of s. 15 Charter rights for this group and at the same time to be consistent with how the CPP was amended in the past to include new groups. As discussed above, both these rationales have been discredited in this case. The evolution of rights argument has been rejected both by the trial judge in this case and by the Supreme Court of Canada in Vriend, supra, and past amendments to the CPP have never imposed eligibility limitations, although they have made new payment entitlement provisions prospective. Therefore, to the extent that the Crown suggests that the exclusion of same-sex survivors in s. 44(1.1) is part of the pressing and substantial purpose of legislation, that submission must fail.

For those in the yapping classes who speak of judicial law-making, this is the point. Rights are not created by the court but recognized as being ignored by the state. The rights yet to be identified exist today and always have - they have just not been brought to the fore. They only come to the fore when citizens realize they exist and make the case for them. They only come to the fore when the state makes rules that unfairly treat citizens differently. The citizen and the right are static - it is only the fullness of the human experience of freedom that is being unwrapped. These are great times.