Foreword

• Author: Andrew Coyne
• Pages: 9-13

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Foreword

e polygamous community of Bountifu l, British Columbia, had been a

stain on the Canadian conscience for decades. It was known t hat men in

the community, members of a fundamentalist oshoot of the Mormon

sect, took several wives, a nd that many of these wives were underage. Yet,

to the growing frustration of the British Columbians and of their govern-

ment, no prosecution had ever been brought against them.

e reason: prosecutors within British Columbia’s famously independ-

ent Crown prosecutors’ oce, known as the Criminal Justice Branch,

feared Canada’s 120-year-old law against polygamy was unconstitutional

— a violation of the religious freedom, certainly, of those who claimed

the practice as a part of their fa ith, and possibly of other rights. Not that

this was a view restricted to the prosecutors. So long as it occurred be-

tween consenting adults, polygamy seemed to many obser vers a matter of

personal choice. If there were specic allegations of exploitation or abuse,

these could be addressed by means of other sections of the Criminal Code.

But to make a crime of polygamy itself ?

To some this was overbroad, an improper use of the criminal law to

express societal disapproval. Others questioned whether even disapproval

was warranted. Surely this was a relic of Victorian prudery or cultural

chauvinism, or perhaps both; a blinkered prejudice in favour of Western

ways and traditional va lues. Was polyg amy, whether obser ved in the ultra-

conservative lifest yle of the Bountiful colony, or the libertine adventures of

urban freethinkers, unusual? Certainly. But where was the harm sucient

to justify overriding constitutional rights?

To be sure, you could nd examples of abuse within polygamous

relationships. But you could nd examples of abusive monogamous rela-

tionships as well. As for one man, one woman, “till death do you part” —

that train had left long ago. Was polygamy — multiple wives at the same

time— al l that dierent from the “serial monogamy” — a succession of

wives at various times — practised by many men, some of them famous