The applicants, Roger Bruce Stanley Swinden and Donna Leah Crowell, submitted a joint application to validate their marriage solemnized on October 2, 2021.
The issue arose because the Reverend who performed the ceremony was not registered under Ontario's Marriage Act, RSO 1990, c.M.3, a fact unknown to the parties and the Reverend at the time.
The court applied Section 31 of the Marriage Act, which allows for validation of marriages entered into in good faith despite an unauthorized officiant or procedural irregularities.
The court found that the marriage met all four elements for validation: it was solemnized in good faith, intended to comply with the Act, neither party was legally disqualified, and they had lived and cohabited as a married couple since the ceremony.
Consequently, the marriage was deemed valid.
