OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
2:06 PM – Thursday, October 9, 2025
A homosexual “throuple” in Quebec, Canada, who recently sparked national debate after adopting a 3-year-old girl, are now fighting for all three of them to be legally recognized as her parents — a challenge to long-standing provisions in Quebec’s civil code that limit legal parenthood to two people.
The men — Eric LeBlanc, Jonathan Bédard, and Justin Maheu — told the press that they have been in a “committed three-way relationship” and began fostering the little girl when she was one year old. The three men formally adopted her earlier this year after a lengthy approval process.
However, under current Quebec law, a child can only have two legal parents, meaning that only two of the three men are listed on the child’s official documents. The third partner has no legal parental status.
The gay poly couple cited a Quebec Superior Court ruling from April that declared parts of the civil code unconstitutional for limiting legal parenthood to two people. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees equality and protection against all forms of discrimination.
The ruling — which came after a separate case involving a “polyamorous family” — ruled that such restrictions “violated the rights of children and families whose structures fall outside traditional norms.” Canadian lawyers at the time had argued that limiting legal parenthood to two people could be seen as discriminatory.
Although the April decision opened the door for multiparent families, Quebec’s government has since appealed the ruling, arguing that the civil code should not be amended until a broader public and legislative review takes place.
Until that process is complete, the law technically remains unchanged, leaving families like LeBlanc, Bédard, and Maheu in a legal limbo.
“We’ve loved and raised our daughter together since she was a baby,” said LeBlanc in an interview. “All three of us are her parents — emotionally, practically, and in every sense that matters. We just want the law to recognize what already exists.”
Montreal family law scholar Dr. Marie-Claire Fortin offered her own insights on the matter.
“Quebec is one of the most conservative provinces in terms of family law, so if reform happens here, it will send ripples across the country,” said Fortin.
For now, the three gay men continue to raise their daughter together as the case works its way through the courts. If their challenge succeeds, Quebec could become the first province in Canada to fully recognize multiparent adoptions.
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