A Concordia graduate student is filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Edith Tam, who studies urban planning, is contesting a ministry of education policy that only recognizes students’ common-law marriages if they have a child. As an out-of-province student living with a Quebec resident, and without a child, she has been denied access to provincial student loans.
Tam, originally from British Columbia, has been living in Montreal for the last three years with her common law-partner. Tam attempted to claim eligibility for Quebec tuition fees, but said she was bounced around to various offices, before being denied.
“I was frustrated with the shuffling back and forth between financial aid and the registrar’s office,” she said. She was also informed that a child was necessary for the provincial government to recognize her common-law status. “I was taken aback,” said Tam. “I think it’s a silly rule and that it wasn’t fair someone needs to have a child to be considered common-law.”
Quebec is the only province that requires university students to have a child for them to be considered as in a common-law relationship when applying for financial assistance.
While Tam was denied residency in Quebec, she said she is also not eligible for resident status in her home province of British Columbia, and is not eligible for financial assistance there. “I have been in Quebec for three years, I went to the United States for 11 months before coming back to Montreal,” she said. “I’m a Canadian citizen, yet I have this lost sense of identity. My case has fell through the cracks and now I’m living in limbo.”
The Centre for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR), an award-winning Montreal-based race-relations organization is providing legal assistance for Tam.
“This is an unprecedented case for CRARR, as they normally focus on action based discrimination,” said Gregory Ko, a legal intern at CRARR, who has taken on the case.
In Quebec, common-law marriages, called “de facto unions,” and are recognized as a legal “couple” and receive certain rights similar to married people when it comes to employment assistance, legal aid, income tax and workers’ compensation.
“For common-law couples to receive the same Quebec resident tuition fees, they must prove their relationship by having a child. We find that provision is discriminatory,” said Ko. “The government is sending a message to get married or have a child to benefit from the law. You shouldn’t have to marry to benefit from the law, it’s a question of whether one can’t afford or doesn’t want to marry, can’t naturally have children or the means to adopt.”
Ko said he hopes other students in similar situations come forward. He said he wants to pursue a class action suit under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike courts the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal doesn’t set precedents, so each decision is only applicable in that specific case.
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