Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says there will be no sharia law in his province and that he will move to ban all faith-based arbitrations.

Seeking to end months of debate, McGuinty said he would not let his province become the first Western government to allow the use of Islamic law to settle family disputes and that the boundaries between church and state would become clearer by banning religious arbitration completely.

"There will be no Shariah law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians," McGuinty told The Canadian Press.

The proposal to let Ontario residents use Islamic law for settling family disputes drew protests Thursday in Canada and at some of its diplomatic sites across Europe.

Ontario, the most populous province in Canada, has allowed Catholic and Jewish faith-based tribunals to settle family law matters such as divorce on a voluntary basis since 1991.

The practice got little attention until Muslim leaders demanded the same rights.

Officials had to decide whether to exclude one religion, or whether to scrap the religious family courts altogether.

McGuinty said such courts "threaten our common ground," and promised his Liberal government would introduce legislation as soon as possible to outlaw them in Ontario.

"Ontarians will always have the right to seek advice from anyone in matters of family law, including religious advice," he said. "But no longer will religious arbitration be deciding matters of family law."

Just hours before McGuinty's announcement, a group including prominent Canadian author Margaret Atwood and actress Shirley Douglas issued an open letter to the premier on behalf of the No Religious Arbitration Coalition.

Homa Arjomand, a women's rights activist, was elated after hearing the announcement.

"I think our voice got heard loud and clear, and I thank the government for coming out with no faith-based arbitration's," Arjomand told CP.

"Oh, I am so happy. That was the best news I have ever heard for the past five years."

However a representative from Ontario's Jewish community expressed disappointment and shock over McGuinty's decision.

"We're stunned," Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told CP.

"At the very least, we would have thought the government would have consulted with us before taking away what we've had for so many years."

Some observers said McGuinty's means of pulling the plug on sharia, by talking to one news agency on a Sunday afternoon, was a strange way to end a debate that has raged for months.

"By letting it go on, and suddenly ending it mysteriously on a Sunday afternoon, is not probably the best kind of leadership that one could show," Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory told CP.

Last year, former NDP attorney-general Marion Boyd recommended the province handle Islamic arbitrations as it long has other religious arbitrations. She said participants must go into the process voluntarily, and that all decisions could be appealed in court.

Shariah comes from several sources including the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and it governs every aspect of life.

Under most interpretations, Islamic law gives men more rights than women in matters of inheritance, divorce and child custody.