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→Voidable marriages
==Voidable marriages==
A voidable marriage is a marriage that is ''potentially '' void ''ab initio'' but remains is presumed to be valid until an application is successfully made to the court for an ''annulment'', a declaration that the marriage is in fact void. A marriage may be invalid and annulled if:
It is important to know that even if a marriage is annulled, the parties may still have certain legal rights and obligations towards each other if as long as they qualify as "spouses" under the provincial ''Family Law Act''.
===Consent and duress===
As with any contract, which is how marriage was historically described, if either party has not properly given their free consent to marry, or was under some sort kind of duress or coercion in agreeing pressure to agree to the marriage, the marriage may be voidable. Essentially, the argument here is that you didn't go into the marriage of your own free will; you . You were forced into it.
===Sham marriages===
Sham marriages are marriages that are entered into without the intention of the spouses parties intending to ever live together as husband and wifespouses, but rather for some other purpose, such as a tax benefits benefit or an immigration status. While these marriages might be voidable for lack of intent, the courts have, in some cases, found them to be binding on the parties nonetheless. If you are thinking of marrying someone to help them get into Canada, think twice: you . You may not be able to get out of the marriage quickly if something goes wrong.
===Misrepresentation and fraud===
Fraud and misrepresentation, terms also found in the law of contracts, may also make a marriage voidable. If misrepresentation The argument here is claimed, that you were tricked into the deception must usually be as to the identity of one of the spouses or marriage in some other material fact about the marriage itself, rather than about something like income or social <span class="noglossary">standing</span>way. A classic case of fraud and misrepresentation involved the marriage of a woman to the identical twin of the man whom she had been dating and had intended to marry— the marriage was declared void on the wife's application once the deception was discovered. If misrepresentation is claimed, the deception must usually be as to the identity of one of the spouses or some other fundamental fact about the marriage itself, rather than about something like income or social <span class="noglossary">standing</span>.
===Capacity to reproduce===
A marriage may be voidable if either spouse lacked the personal biological capacity to have children going into the marriage.
===Failure Inability to consummate a marriage===
It used to be the <span class="noglossary">case</span>, and many people think this is still true, that a marriage can be annulled if the spouses never had have sex the marriage was voidable. The common law on this subject has developed in a somewhat different direction. A spouse must have either a complete inability to have sex, because of some physical problem, or an "invincible repugnance" to the prospect of sex which is psychological in nature. Be warned that one instance of consummation will defeat either spouse's ability to claim inability to consummate as a ground of voidability.
A 2004 case of the British Columbia Supreme Court, ''[http://canlii.ca/t/1q1m1 Grewal v. Sohal]'', 2004 BCSC 1549, reviewed the law on applications to annul a marriage based on non-consummationan inability to consummate. The court held that the applicant must prove that:
==Invalid marriages==