Good News Bad News Canada... [Poly News]

[Pom Graines]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been following this but for those who haven't this is about the court case in BC, Canada about the anti-polygamy law in Canada.

Poly in the News has a good summary of both what happened and the reaction.

I'm not surprised with the ruling to be honest. As progressive as Canada seems today judges at the Supreme Court level have been very conservative. Even when legislation is progressive ruling are often more on the conservative and traditional side. So that it happened in this case... not surprising.

I'm hopeful for the future, and at the very least the law has been clarified to not include poly relationships who do not claim marriage.

However I am pissed off because the ruling judge has "There can be no alternative to the outright prohibition.... There is no such thing as so-called 'good polygamy.'"

No such thing as "good polygamy"? I really wish more people would pick up a social anthropology book every once in awhile.

So what's the difference between good polyamorist relationships (which are clarified as being excluded from the law) and good polygamist relationship? The act of getting married, really.

But the thing is poly people who have spiritual weddings and commitment ceremonies are *still* criminalized by the law. As are those who facilitate the wedding. So... still perfectly non-abusive poly families and their friends and families who help out even a hand-fasting commitment ceremony are still considered criminals and could still face 5 years in jail as per the law on the books.  

[Blackrose_Knight]

Better than having "good" poly couples in prison. I would highly suggest fighting the ruling, but that is me, the political activist.  

[Pom Graines]

Blackrose_Knight

Better than having "good" poly couples in prison. I would highly suggest fighting the ruling, but that is me, the political activist.

Yeah, I was wondering how or why they'd even enforce it on regular couples anyway. Likely it would remain unused except for in abusive cases like Bountiful (which started the whole thing). But ah well. Clarification to exclude poly relationships (though not marriages of any form) is still better than what we had.

From the sounds of it the ruling is likely going to be appealed probably all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada, in which case, we'll see how things go. I'm just going to keep watch on the CPAA to see what the next move is.

((Call me a directionless activist. I like the idea of being an activist, but I have no idea where to start. So I just talk about it when I can, educate people where I can and otherwise follow other's leads when it comes to larger scale things.))  

[Pom Graines]

Interesting Video Clip