Polygamy is illegal in Canada. (emphasis added) This is all well and fine except that Attorney General Wally Oppal has decided to prosecute a breakaway mormon religious community that has serious allegations of child trafficking, and child sex [age of consent was 14 at the time with provisions for persons in a position of power such as say ... the community leaders/prophets - the children were as young as 15] not for the above mentioned crimes, but for polygamy. The accused men are not denying being engaged in some form of conjugal union with more than one person at a time, however, they claim protection under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: (emphasis added) The story gets even more interesting as the lawyer for one of the accused has indicated to the CBC that he intends to use (presumably among other things) gay marriage as a defense. Is polygamy morally wrong? How do we approach the Charter issue (the Charter is the highest law in the land - all other laws must be in harmony with the Charter or the notwithstanding clause be used [which has never happened])? What role, if any, has granting marriage title, rights, and responsibilities to same-sex couples changed the issue at hand?
Actually, the notwithstanding clause has been used... 2 or 3 times, I believe. Once was in a Quebec French language case, another in... Saskatchewan? Anyway, way less often than people initially feared it would. Your question is interesting. I'm not all that fond of the whole "freedom of religion" angle just because it seems like it gets used to beat down a lot of gay rights stuff. That being said, in theory I don't really see what's wrong with polygamy--I mean it obviously threatens some hugely normative assumptions but my issue with it in this case would be the fact that it seems to be more about abusing/manipulating young girls than about having more than one partner. And funny how with polygamy it always seems to be about 1 man with many wives, not a woman with many husbands, huh?
