A Harbour Grace pensioner has been left in legal limbo and cannot access his dead partner’s pension because same-sex laws in their specific case were not made retroactive.

71-year-old Ken Haire says he and Gerry Schwarz were in an exclusive common-law relationship for more than 30 years before Gerry died unexpectedly in 2012.

Schwarz retired from CN Rail in 1991 and while the company recognized Haire as his spouse, the CN Pensioners Association does not because the recognition of same-sex couples will not be made retroactive to his retirement date.

Haire has had to sell the house they shared and some of their belongings just to get by.

He tells VOCM News that Gerry would have been devastated to know he’d been left in that predicament and says they thought the pension was sorted if anything happened to either one of them.

Haire says he’s taken the matter to a lawyer but has been told there is little in the way of legal recourse.