Michael Leshner and Michael Stark

Michael Leshner (born April 8, 1948) and Michael Stark, also known as The Michaels, were the men who in 2003 entered into the first legal same-sex marriage in Canada. They were consequently named the Canadian Newsmakers of the Year by Time magazine. Leshner is a lawyer and a Jew, while Stark is a Catholic and a manager involved in graphic design. Leshner was born on April 8, 1948, in Niagara Falls, New York. He then lived in St. Catharines, Ontario and went to Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. Feeling isolated in small-town Ontario as a homosexual, he went for post-secondary education to the University of Toronto. In 1992, Leshner, who worked for the Ontario government, made news when he successfully argued before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal that the provincial government should allow survivor pensions for gay people. He then told the media he believed that private companies should also allow such pensions for homosexuals, or they could be subject to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Leshner also said, "I'm rather hard on the gay and lesbian community in part because I think there's too much emphasis on why you should feel sorry for yourself. Social change will happen as quickly as you're willing to move it. If it doesn't happen, don't blame [Prime Minister Brian] Mulroney." The 1992 decision led the Ontario New Democratic Party government of Bob Rae to introduce the Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act (Bill 167) in 1994, although the bill failed on third reading amid controversy. When Leshner heard of colleagues' plans to try to legalize same-sex civil marriage, he persuaded Stark to get married so the two could start the case. Leshner considered himself to have been in a common law marriage with Stark for 22 years. After the ruling by a lower Ontario court, Leshner proposed to Stark in front of reporters. The marriage then occurred after the decision Halpern v. Canada (Attorney General) by the Court of Appeal for Ontario deciding homosexuals should be allowed to marry.