VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – A man’s affair with another man constitutes adultery and is grounds for divorce, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled.

In granting the divorce Tuesday, Justice Nicole J Garson said she was persuaded that she had the authority to make a change in the legal definition of adultery, which under previous Canadian court rulings has been considered voluntary extramarital sex between a spouse and someone of the opposite gender.

Garson also granted a Canadian Justice Department’s request to ban publication of the couple’s name and referred to the case as P versus P.

The woman, 44, filed for divorce in October after she discovered that her husband of almost 17 years was having an affair with a man, said her lawyer.

Garson, concerned about whether she had the authority to grant a divorce, requested in February that the woman hire a lawyer to argue her case for expanding the definition of adultery to include homosexual relations.

The judge’s written decision was expected to be released in two weeks.

The decision is expected to have far-reaching consequences across Canada, coming after the nationwide legalisation of same-sex marriages in July.

“It’s going to be important for lesbian and gay men whose partners commit infidelity to enable them to get divorced immediately instead of having to wait a year,” said the woman’s lawyer in the case, Barbara Findlay.

Christian Girouard, a federal government spokesman, said the department intervened to ensure that the Divorce Act would be interpreted in accordance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to reflect same-sex marriage legislation.

Canada legalised same-sex marriages nationwide in July. Gay marriages were first allowed in two provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, in 2003.