TORONTO - A judge has quashed polygamy charges against two leaders of a polygamous community in western Canada.
In 2003 all of us were caught off guard when Roy McMurty, Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeals of Ontario, redefined marriage to include same sex couples. 

Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada explicitly bans polygamy and threatens offenders with a five-year prison term. Bigamy is named as a similarly serious crime in Section 290.

 
These victims aren�t just numbers and statistics. They are wives, mothers, and daughters. They suffer horrific mental, physical and sexual abuse during their captivity.
A 50-year-old man declared a dangerous offender in 1990 after more than a decade of sexually assaulting children has been arrested in Toronto, accused of attacking a friend's 5-year-old son.

 


 

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Polygamy May Soon Be Fully Legal in Canada
by Dr. Charles McVety

In 2003 all of us were caught off guard when Roy McMurty, Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeals of Ontario, redefined marriage to include same sex couples.  Over 1 million Canadians subsequently protested to defend marriage, but it was too late.  After courts rule and change the law, it is very difficult to overturn their decision.  We then vowed to be proactive, not reactive, as we had been in the case of same sex marriage.  Now marriage is being challenged again, this time by polygamists, and many indicators say that the courts will redefine marriage in the coming months.  What can we do about it?

A test case for legalizing polygamy is underway in British Columbia where two men have bee charged for practicing polygamy.  The B.C. Attorney General, Wally Oppal, is in charge of defending existing laws against polygamy, and he says, "I am pleased a prosecution will be proceeding, as it will provide legal clarity as to the constitutionality of Section 293 of the Criminal Code”. "The question which arises is, is the offence of polygamy still relevant in today's era?" says Oppal. "There's been some suggestions that if two or more women want to marry a man, or vice versa, and they all do it by consent, what business does the state have intervening in that?"  Will Mr. Oppal provide a rigorous prosecution successfully defending the law, or will the prosecutors follow the Ontario Government lead: in 2003, homosexual activists working in the Ontario Government were placed in prominent positions influencing the Attorney General’s office that was supposed to defend the existing definition of marriage.  Marriage was not properly defended in Ontario, and it may not be in British Columbia.  

The B.C. case is interconnected to the same sex marriage challenge. Queen's University law professor, Nick Bala says, "If you open up the definition of marriage, as we have, one can ask, 'Well, if it doesn't have to be a man and a woman, why not more than two parties?'”  Blair Suffredine, the lawyer for one of the men charged with polygamy, Winston Blackmore, says in an Associated Press report, "If (homosexuals) can marry, what is the reason that public policy says one person can't marry more than one person?".  Judges arbitrarily wrote new laws redefining marriage to include same sex couples, so they can easily write new law legalizing polygamy.

To make matters worse, polygamy is already quasi legal.  The preamble to the Ontario Family Law Act states, "In the definition of 'spouse,' a reference to marriage includes a marriage that is actually or potentially polygamous, if it was celebrated in a jurisdiction whose system of law recognizes it as valid. R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3, s. 1 (2)."  The Ontario government offers full welfare of $1,500 per month for each spouse with a child in a polygamous marriage. 

Hundreds of Muslim men practice polygamy in Toronto according to the President of the Canadian Society of Muslims, Mumtaz Ali, who says, "polygamy is a regular part of life for many Muslims."  There have also been reports claiming that Canada Immigration will allow a man to immigrate with several wives.  If the Federal and Ontario governments already recognize polygamy to a certain extent, then full scale legalization would follow.

The Federal Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson, has been curiously silent on the subject.  In January 2006 the Justice Ministry paid $150,000 to the Faculty of Law at Queens University to make a report, and the end product recommended legalizing polygamy. It stated, “The report therefore recommends that this provision be repealed.” It went on to say, “Criminalization does not address the harms associated with valid foreign polygamous marriages and plural unions, in particular the harm to women”.  Later that month the Liberal government was replaced by the Conservatives.

Some ask the question “What can my Member of Parliament do to defend marriage against polygamy”? 

 

  1. Your Member of Parliament can ask the Justice Minister to intervene in the BC polygamy case to ensure full, vigorous defense of the law.

 

  1. Your Member of Parliament can assure Canadians that he will do everything in his power to stop the legalizing of polygamy.

  1. Your Member of Parliament should commit to use the “Notwithstanding Clause”, Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, if judges override democracy and rewrite the law to legalize polygamy.

Concerned Canadians should call their Members of Parliament and ask them to commit to do everything they can to stop polygamy.  Every call is critically important.  Usually a politician will multiply each call by 1,000 to approximate the number of concerned constituents on a given topic.  So 100 calls may be seen as 100,000 voters. 

Polygamy is deeply destructive to society with a profound impact on women’s rights and children’s well being. If we do nothing, then the evil of polygamy could be on every corner across the nation. Your action could be the key to preserving marriage for another generation.