Canadian Court Upholds Polygamy Ban, AFP, November 23, 2011

Canadian Court Upholds Polygamy Ban

AFP
November 23, 2011

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAUNu_GulYdgpEY9AEhFXm9v6F5A?docId=CNG.d82efe5d4edfc39ab0940f79d2fde59d.451

Several thousand polygamy supporters who are part of a breakaway Mormon sect gather in Utah (AFP/Getty Images, George Frey)

VANCOUVER, Canada — A court upheld Canada's law against polygamous marriage in a sweeping ruling Wednesday that weighed religious and civil freedoms, human rights, and criminal legislation.

But the ruling -- which affects Muslims as well as a breakaway Mormon sect which prompted the case -- is just one step to finally resolving the controversial issue because appeals to higher courts are expected to take years.

Justice Robert Bauman wrote that Canada's law against marrying more than one person limits religious rights and freedoms, but ruled the limits are justified if they "advance concerns that are pressing and substantial in a free and democratic society."

"Polygamy is associated with numerous harms," wrote Bauman, siding with polygamy opponents who had testified in the constitutional reference case.

Monogamous marriage is "a fundamental value in Western society," he wrote, and criminalizing polygamy "is consistent with, and furthers, Canada's international human rights obligations."

Last year, after Canada?s westernmost province failed in several attempts to prosecute accused polygamists Winston Blackmore and James Oler, the province asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to rule on the constitutionality of the law.

The men are rival leaders of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints near the town of Bountiful in the province's remote southeast corner.

The church is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, and leaders of its branches in the United States have been convicted there of charges relating to polygamy.