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Polygamy in Canada: Legal and Social Implications for Women and Children – A Collection of Policy Research Reports
Separate and Unequal: The Women and Children of Polygamy
The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre
ABSTRACT
Polygamy is illegal in Canada pursuant to s. 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada. However, a polygamous community thrives in Bountiful, British Columbia and, to date, nobody from the community has been prosecuted for violating s. 293. Justice officials in British Columbia say prosecuting s. 293 would invite a defence challenge to the section's constitutionality, based on the argument that the section infringes the guarantee to religious freedom as set out in s. 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, an analysis of the practice of polygamy in Canada, and how it undermines the equality rights of women and children, suggests that even if s. 293 impinges on religious freedom, such a limit is justified, because of the inherent harms polygamy engenders for the women and children of polygamous families.
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