Canadians support polygamy prosecutions
Only 18 per cent of those surveyed believe practice is protected under Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Most Canadians believe Bountiful residents should face prosecution for polygamy and that their leaders, Winston Blackmore and James Oler, should go on trial, according to a new Angus Reid poll.
The online poll found 64 per cent, or almost two-thirds, of the 1,001 Canadians surveyed believed polygamy -- being legally married to more than one person at a time -- was a criminal offence and residents of Bountiful should face the law.
About 53 per cent of those surveyed also said they believe the government should pursue a case against Blackmore and Oler, who were charged with polygamy earlier this year, while 23 per cent thought the case should be abandoned.
The online survey comes just weeks after the B.C. Supreme Court in September quashed the case against the two men, saying it disagreed with the way the issue was handled by former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal.
The B.C. government has since asked the B.C. Supreme Court to rule on whether Canada's anti-polygamy law violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Blackmore has 19 wives, nine of whom were 18 or younger when they married. Oler is married to three women.
B.C. residents were more vehement when it came to prosecuting those involved in polygamy, the survey said....Our Canadian cousins are ahead of the curve on this, due in very large part to the work of Nancy Mereska of Stop Polygamy in Canada. Their journalists are much better educated to the most common abuses of the practice, worldwide.
For more, please visit the Vancouver Sun at: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Canadians+support+polygamy+prosecutions/2161358/story.html
Well, I am quite undecided about this issue. On one hand, I do think polygamy is wrong. On the other hand, though, I don't have to have 20 wives, I don't have to practice it and I don't really mind. If people in such relationships are happy, just let them be.
ReplyDeleteLorne
Hello RBC,
ReplyDeleteI understand your reluctance to jump to conclusions about the personal choices of individuals and their "lifestyle choices". Until I had met and interviewed many of the survivors of American polygamy I would have agreed with you. However, after personally investigating the abuses which occur within the cultural practice, including the imperial research data, worldwide, I understood that it damages women and children and is inherently abusive.
I hope you are open enough to do the same, and investigate the facts for yourself.
I of course meant to say empirical research data..love the crummy spell check feature, lol.
ReplyDeleteI left a polygamous group some time ago after many years of living in a polygamous marriage.I knew some good, if misguided, people during the time I spent with them. Not all polygamists are wife beating child abusers. Many are hard working and sincere. Sincerity however does not make up for the fact that polygamy is an unsatisfactory and unpleasant way to live. Yes, we women were taught to justify it, tolerate it, and even claim that we loved it, but the truth is, when left to a truly guilt-free choice, there would be few women who would embrace it. The fact that I saw how much children lost out in so many ways in huge families, where the father was so often absent, was one of the deciding factors in me leaving. (After all, we’re not talking about “consenting adults” here – those “consenting adults” just happen to produce an awful lot of children who have no say in the matter.) I hope that polygamy everywhere (even in its less extreme forms) is finally recognized as the abuse to women and children that it really is. I hope and pray that Canada will not take a backward step and legalise this practice. Is there any website with links to petitions in Canada, or any way in which my voice might carry some weight with those who make the decisions there?
ReplyDeleteFreeBird [LOVE your name btw],
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for weighing in here with your opinion. Yes! There are many strong resources in Canada for you to add your voice. My favorite is Nancy Mereska, who runs the "Stop Polygamy in Canada" campaign. If you would like more information about her excellent network, you may email her at nmereska@mcsnet.ca
She usually sends out two regular weekly updates.
I understand what you mean about there being some good people trapped within the cultural practice of polygamy. Life is never so black and white as we would sometimes wish it to be.
I am not trying to demonize people here, just an inhumane practice, which does allow abusers to get away with abuse of women and children on a larger scale than traditional marriage.
You may also enjoy the Empirical Research tab on our main site. There are some excellent studies conducted, which show the difference between children raised in tradition homes vs. polygamous homes that back up exactly what you are saying about children not getting the attention they deserve from their fathers.
One of my main concerns about polygamy not being prosecuted as a crime is the effect it will [and already does] have on our Muslim sisters here in North America.
We as a people cannot turn our heads away from the tens of thousands of native born blue eyed, blond haired people engaging in the criminal practice and then expect immigrants from Muslim countries to abstain from the abusive practice.
It has been estimated that there are already between 50-100,000 practicing Muslim polygamists in America. If we continue to ignore the crime this will escalate here, as it already has in many places in Europe, to the point where Sharia law gains such a foothold we will never be able to recover the freedoms our Constitution guarantees to women for these populations.
Thank you, and a warm welcome to our blog. We hope to hear more from you in the future.
Below is Saskatchewans law that allows and supports polygamy.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Family Law Act.
Rights of new spouse
51 Where a person becomes the spouse of a person who has a spouse, the rights
pursuant to this Act of the subsequent spouse are subject to the rights pursuant to
this Act of the prior spouse.