---
title: "From Patriarchy to Partnership: Championing Lola's Cause ✦ Goldwater Droit"
meta:
  "og:description": "Me Marie-Hélène Dubé argues for spousal support and family patrimony rights for Quebec common law partners. Opinion piece originally published in Le Devoir."
  "og:title": "From Patriarchy to Partnership: Championing Lola's Cause"
  description: "Me Marie-Hélène Dubé argues for spousal support and family patrimony rights for Quebec common law partners. Opinion piece originally published in Le Devoir."
---

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# From Patriarchy to Partnership - Championing Lola's Cause

12 September 2010

4 min read

[Family Law](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/news-insights?topic=family-law) [Marriage & Cohabitation](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/news-insights?topic=marriage-cohabitation) [Child & Spousal Support](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/news-insights?topic=child-spousal-support) [Asset & Property Division](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/news-insights?topic=asset-property-division) [Articles & Analysis](https://goldwaterdroit.com/en/news-insights?category=articles-analysis)

A week ago, the Quebec Court of Appeal declared unconstitutional the absence of a support obligation between common law spouses in our Civil Code. Our highest tribunal thereby rejected the Quebec legislature's unfavourable prejudice toward common law unions and its desire to preserve a superior status for marriage.

As the world champions of common law unions, one would have expected Quebecers to celebrate this victory for equality between partners with or without marriage papers. Yet the loudest voices deplore the imposition of a supposedly outdated spousal solidarity.

A setback for feminism according to some, or excessive feminism according to others, the right to claim spousal support is, for all those who decry it, the subject of prejudice and misunderstanding. In the name of the ideal of independence, partners whose only crime is counting on each other are being pilloried! In today's Quebec, a citizen who devotes themselves to their family rather than earning a living would be deemed contemptible, we are told.

#### AN INSULT TO WOMEN

Some rail against the oppression of a State that today, through its judges, grants common law partners the right to claim spousal support. I revolt against the idea of repressing the freedom of those who put their family's well-being ahead of their career advancement or retirement planning.

Women dearly earned the right to study, then to work outside the home, and they are still fighting for pay equity! Quebec women have never been lazy — less so today than ever, as we often juggle paid employment and domestic duties. Work is something we know well! We are so hardworking that many of our partners are inspired by our example and also attempt to balance work and family.

Why tremble at the idea that spousal support for common law partners will turn us into freeloaders? What an insult to Quebec women to believe that it is under the yoke of having no rights that they must be kept in order to make them honourable citizens!

#### REPERCUSSIONS

Nearly twenty years spent working with Quebec families have taught me to respect their diversity and understand their needs. Educated, career-driven women who are at their wits' end between the demands of their profession and the needs of their little ones; families that must make choices when one partner is transferred; wealthier common law partners who fail to protect themselves against abuse; common law spouses who take unpaid leave to care for their partner's children — they are everywhere. Over time, all these choices that pepper daily life have economic repercussions.

The majority of new families are formed by common law partners who forge economic bonds identical to those of the minority that marries. The intensity of the economic union varies according to the length of the shared life, the presence or absence of children in the family, and life's uncertainties such as illness or unemployment. All these factors are considered in a spousal support application and will ensure that only certain common law spouses receive support. However, access cannot be limited through arbitrary distinctions. For example, not all partners with children are entitled to support for themselves, and some partners without children have a legitimate need for it.

The toolbox for today's Quebec families must include access to spousal support and the existence of a family patrimony. Spousal support allows the rebalancing of the economic capacity of both partners to face the future separately, insofar as their conjugal relationship has had a financial impact. However, it is of only theoretical use when the gap between the two partners' incomes is not very pronounced. It is the family patrimony that then proves more effective, by fostering the economic equality of partners through the sharing of certain common assets used by the family (residence, furniture, automobiles, pension plans) acquired during the shared life.

These tools, which we have given ourselves to support Quebec families in their quest for a fair balance, should be a source of our pride rather than our derision.

_[Marie-Hélène Dubé, November 12, 2010, Le Devoir](http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/justice/310763/du-patriarcat-jusqu-au-partenariat-epouser-la-cause-de-lola)_

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