Vital Statistics Acts challenges (1986)

In 1986, LEAF supported challenges to the Vital Statistics Acts in Ontario, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island. These Acts required that the child born of a married woman be given the husband's surname. Married women could not give their surnames to their own children. In April 1984, the Uniform Law Conference of Canada recommended that legislation on surnames be amended to conform with the Charter. These changes have allowed parents to register their children under the mother's surname, the father's surname, or a hyphenated surname.