Canadian courts to test the boundaries between polygamous & same-sex unions

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS)—A landmark court case will test whether Canada’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage also justifies the practice of polygamy.

The defense lawyer for a British Columbia man who openly admits to having multiple wives will argue that Canada’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage broadens the definition of marriage to include multiple spouses.

Blair Suffredine, lawyer for Winston Blackmore, who prosecutors claim has 19 wives, said he will argue in court that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects polygamy under the principles of equality and religious freedom.

When the Canadian parliament made same-sex marriage legal in 2005, members of the Conservative Party of Canada argued that changing the definition of marriage would open the door to court challenges from people who wanted polygamous unions.

Canadian evangelical Christians also opposed making same-sex marriage legal on the grounds that it could permit immigrants from countries where polygamy is legal to maintain multiple spouses in Canada. Some Muslim countries allow polygamy.

Legal specialists say it would be hard to cite same-sex marriage laws to defend polygamy in the United States, in part because same-sex unions are not constitutionally approved across the country.

In the United States, polygamists who belong to fundamentalist breakaway Mormon sects have been prosecuted for sexual crimes involving minors—not polygamy itself.

Daphne Gilbert, a law professor at the University of Toronto, told Canadian Press the argument proposed by Blackmore’s lawyer is predictable, but without merit.

Same-sex relationships maintain Canada’s traditional view of marriage, she said, because they only involve two people. Polygamous marriages, she added, raise questions about whether the often-young wives truly are consenting to being married.

Even if a lawyer could prove a ban on polygamous marriage is a violation of the Charter, Gilbert said the Canadian government would be allowed to ban polygamy by arguing the value of protecting the greater public good.

The two British Columbia men charged with polygamy by government prosecutors—the first case of its kind in Canada—are leaders of rival polygamous factions of roughly 400 members each. They reside in a community called Bountiful in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains near the U.S. border.

Winston Blackmore, 52, has more than 100 children from as many as 19 wives. The other man on trial is James Oler, 44, who is charged with having two wives. Both Blackmore and Oler have long been affiliated with the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.