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VIDEO - GLIMPSE INTO THE WORLD OF
POLYGAMY
Canada's ban on polygamy
invites the state into the bedrooms of consenting adults, says a B.C. (British
Columbia Province) civil rights group that is siding with a controversial
religious sect in a landmark court case on the federal law barring multiple
marriage.
The BC Civil Liberties
Association has filed a final argument in B.C. Supreme Court against the
polygamy law, saying it is a Victorian-era statute that should be “relegated to
the scrap heap of history.”
“It invites the state to
inspect the bedrooms — and kitchens and living rooms — of consenting adults who
find fulfilment in plural relationships,” association lawyer Monique
Pongracic-Speier said in a statement issued Thursday.
“It erodes the dignity of
people involved in those relationships and denies them the privacy that is
available to couples and monogamous families.”
Individuals should be free
to make the life choices they wish, so long as those choices do not harm others
and are made with informed consent, she said.
Final arguments in the case
will begin later this month in B.C. Supreme Court, which has heard months of
testimony both for and against upholding the federal law, including conflicting
expert testimony about whether the practice of multiple marriage is inherently
harmful to women and children.
Written arguments have
already been filed by several interveners in the case, as well as the federal
and provincial governments.
Both levels of government
are defending the law, arguing polygamy is inherently harmful and must be kept
illegal. They've alleged multiple marriage inevitably leads to sexual and
physical abuse, child brides, teen pregnancies and the trafficking of young
girls to be married.
Provincial government
lawyer Craig Jones, a former president of the BC Civil Liberties Association,
said polygamy harms not just the people involved in polygamous families, but
also society as a whole.
“There is a significant
increased risk to women and children in polygamous households ... and second,
there are significant and measurable harms to a society in which polygamy is
practised,” Mr. Jones said in his written final submission.
“These latter social harms
are felt regardless of whether any particular polygamous relationship is ‘good'
or ‘bad'."
Mr. Jones rejected the
argument that polygamy is a religious practise that must be protected, saying
such protection doesn't extend to practices that are harmful.
The court has also heard
explosive allegations that B.C. girls as young as 12 have been married off to
jailed American polygamist Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” of the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway sect from the
mainstream Mormon church. The mainstream church abandoned polygamy more than a
century ago.
The constitutional
reference case before the B.C. court was prompted by the failed polygamy
prosecution of two religious leaders from Bountiful, in southeastern B.C., a
branch of the FLDS.
Documents filed with the
court allege three girls — two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old — were taken to
the United States by their parents and married to Mr. Jeffs, who was in his
late 40s and early 50s at the time. He is currently in a Texas jail awaiting trial
on charges of sexual assault and bigamy.
Five other girls from
Bountiful, between the ages of 16 and 18, were married to other American men,
according to the documents.
The B.C. civil rights group
said it, too, is concerned about allegations of child abuse and sexual
interference but argued that criminal activity should be investigated and
prosecuted whether it occurs in polygamous or monogamous relationships.
The group said officials
should focus on enforcing laws on the age of consent, sexual abuse and school
attendance.