- Find a person you trust: a friend or a teacher with whom you can discuss your concerns. You can also seek professional help (e.g., a social worker or a lawyer) to address legal and housing issues and to provide additional support. See “Info & Help” for more information.
- Talk to your parents: only if you feel safe, talk about your concerns, but try to have someone there who can mediate the situation if necessary.
- Slow down the process: if you feel safe, try to make sure that your parents have plenty of time to consider your own views.
Remember that there can be legal consequences for those who force you to get married. The actual consequences can either be a monetary fine or imprisonment. Depending on the offence, the person engaging in the illegal activity can get a criminal record. Once a person has a criminal record, the ability to travel, get a job, receive child custody, etc. will be very negatively affected.
You have the right to consent or refuse to be married. You have the right to choose whom you marry.
In Canada, you have the right to:
- refuse to be married
- be free of emotional blackmail
- be treated equally and with respect
- live in security
- be free of physical or mental abuse
- refuse to have sexual relations
- have an abortion without telling anyone but your doctor
- leave your husband through divorce or separation
My family is taking me back to our home country for me to get married – what can I do?
First off, you must seriously consider contacting the police because if you are being forced to leave the country against your will, you could be in a dangerous situation.
If you are not ready to contact the authorities yet, you can still take other precautions to ensure your safety.
- Speak to a professional
- You can discuss your situation with a school counselor, a social worker, a nurse, a teacher, a lawyer, etc.
- Make photocopies of important documents
- You can make photocopies of your passport and your personal identification (e.g. driver’s license) along with writing down the address and telephone number of where you will be staying, a detailed summary of your travel schedule, your arrival and departure dates, the names of the people you will be staying with and your future spouse’s information. These documents are to be given to someone you trust so that they can contact the police on your behalf if anything happens to you and you do not return to Canada.
- Notify those you trust
- You can notify people who you trust and who are not subject to pressure from those who are forcing you to get married.
- Notify the Canadian consulate and embassy in the country you will be traveling to (Embassies and consulates by destination – Travel.gc.ca).
- Notify the local authorities (e.g. the police) of the country you will be traveling to.
- Notify any organization that may exist in the country you are traveling to who help women.
- Bring along foreign currency
- You can bring along foreign currency for phone calls, food, and hotels.
- Have a way you can be contacted while traveling
- Bring a mobile phone that is reachable or purchase a SIM card.
- Call the Global Affairs Canada’s Emergency Watch and Response Centre at +1 613 996 8885 (collect calls accepted), or you can contact them via sos@international.gc.ca.
I was married against my will, but I have no legal proof of the marriage. Can I have my marriage annulled?
If you do not have legal proof that you are married, you are not considered married in Quebec. Therefore, you do not need to apply for an annulment of your marriage.
Note that there is a difference between divorce and annulment of marriage. Annulment dissolves the marriage as if it had never existed. In contrast, divorce ends the union while acknowledging that it did exist. A marriage will be annulled if it does not meet the necessary conditions for its formation. Grounds for annulment include bigamy, a prohibited degree of relationship between the spouses, lack of consent, mistaken identity, coercion, and the incompetence of the officiant.
If you want to get a divorce, you can request that the government of the country where you were married send you your marriage certificate. You can then use it to file for divorce in Canada.