Vancouver, BC: The BCCLA has filed its final arguments in the B.C. Supreme Court hearing that will determine whether Canada’s anti-polygamy law is constitutional. The BCCLA argues that the anti-polygamy law offends fundamental freedoms protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Monique Pongracic-Speier, lawyer for the BCCLA: “This law is a Victorian statute. It is time for it to 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. It erodes the dignity of people involved in those relationships and denies them the privacy that is available to couples and monogamous families.”
The BCCLA argues that individuals should be free to make the life choices they wish so long as those choices do not harm other people and they engage in them with free, informed and full consent. By intruding into adults’ decisions about the form of conjugal relationship that best meets their personal needs and aspirations, the law overextends the reach of the criminal law into individuals’ private lives, intruding into their most private relationships.
Grace Pastine, Litigation Director for the BCCLA: “Harm can occur in plural relationships, just as it sometimes does in monogamous ones. But the mountain of evidence before the court simply doesn’t establish that there are any harms specific to plural relationships.”
The BCCLA has long been concerned about allegations of child abuse and sexual interference sometimes said to be associated with the practice of polygamy. The BCCLA argues that where harms do occur in plural relationships, they warrant treatment no different from the harms that occur in monogamous relationships. Suspected criminal activity should be investigated and, where warranted, prosecuted in accordance with the governing criminal law. The government should focus on rigorous enforcement of the laws relating to consent, sexual abuse, school attendance and standards to address these harms, not on criminalizing consensual adult relationships and activities.
The anti-polygamy law purports to make it a criminal offence to agree or consent to, or to practice, any form of polygamy, or any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding form of marriage. The broad criminalization of plural relationships erodes, and does not serve, freedom.
Final oral arguments in the case are scheduled to begin in March 28. The BCCLA is represented by Monique Pongracic-Speier of Ethos Law Group LLP.
Read the argument of the BCCLA here
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Monique Pongracic-Speier, Lawyer for the BCCLA, 604-569-3022
Grace Pastine, BCCLA Litigation Director, 604-630-9751
