Conjoint de fait

Full disclosure: this is not a post about a bilingual product label in Canada, like this one, par exemple --------->

It is about a type of label, however, a très important label, it seems: 

Conjoint ou mari? 

Conjointe ou femme?

Big news if you were under a rock this past week in Canada:

 "The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Quebec can continue to exclude common law couples from receiving spousal support upon the breakdown of a relationship. A majority found that Quebec’s exclusion does violate the Charter right to equality. However, a complicated split on the court led to a narrow 5-4 vote in favour of leaving the unconstitutional law intact." 

Sacre bleu! "in favour of leaving the unconstitutional law intact" ?!?!

And if that isn't wacky enough Canadiana for you, turns out Quebec is : 

"home today to among the highest concentration of unwed couples in the world. About a third of all couples in the province live common-law. The conjugal arrangements are so fluid that in Quebec, the French terms conjoint and conjointe are often used to refer to both a common-law spouse or married partner" 
(Globe and Mail article) 

(In English, of course, this is the equivalent of using "partner" and all the ambiguity that implies)

Looks like Quebec's one-label-fits-all needs its own translation, as our "complicated" Supreme Court just gave conjoint de fait a very clear definition. Vite! Check your label or you could be left sans ressources!

BTW: What WOULD Martha Stewart do?