Anti-polygamy law a ‘relic’ that predates Charter of Rights, court told

At yesterday's session, the court heard again from the Amicus.  James Keller, in the Globe & Mail wrote:

The federal prohibition on polygamy is a relic from another time that imposes Christianity on all Canadians and violates their right to religious freedom, says a lawyer arguing against the law.

Tim Dickson, a lawyer appointed to oppose the government position at the landmark constitutional case in B.C., said Monday that the law was originally motivated by fears of Mormon immigrants flooding into Canada to practise polygamy.

In fact, the 1890 law specifically referred to Mormon polygamy, known as spiritual or plural marriage, for more than half a century until the wording was changed in the 1950s to remove the reference.

“Faced with the emergence of Mormon religious beliefs that ran counter to mainstream Christianity, Parliament responded by mandating the conjugal form recognized in Christendom,” said Mr. Dickson as the case entered its final week of closing arguments. “Earlier versions of the law overtly targeted and discriminated against Mormons, and the law as a whole takes the Christian monogamous view of marriage and imposes it on all Canadians, regardless of their beliefs, regardless of their individual circumstances, and it backs up that Christian standard with penal consequences.”

The mainstream Mormon church officially renounced multiple marriage around the same time anti-polygamy laws were enacted in Canada and the United States. But that hasn't stopped self-described fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S. and Canada, including residents of a the small commune of Bountiful, B.C., from continuing to practise polygamy.

It was the failed prosecution of two men from Bountiful that prompted the ongoing constitutional hearings.

Mr. Dickson said the Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers two protections regarding religion: laws cannot have a strictly religious purpose, and they can't actively discriminate against people of faith because of their religious practices.
He said it does both.

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