[Bad Hussar]

The bit the OP posted was from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, who deal with.... citizenship and immigration issues. No doubt there are some common law marriage provisions that are taken into account in general, but the original article described who could be considered a "spouse" for purposes of immigration. This status is generally considered an advantage to be sought out. For example, if a Canadian citizen meets a girl abroad and wants her to move back with him to live in Canada they would only need to have lived together for a year for the girl to be considered a spouse for purposes of immigration. It will still take the "hard workers" at CIC a year or even more to process the application, but it would nevertheless be substantially faster than those sitting in the general immigration queue.