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Green Party vote down motion to decriminalize polygamy

By heather - Last updated: Sunday, August 29, 2010 - Save & Share - Leave a Comment

Recently, members of Canada’s Green Party attended a polygamy workshop and brought a motion to decriminalize polygamy that was voted down.

Polygamy is a marriage between multiple consenting adult spouses. Polygamy is not be confused with the various polygamist sects or religious cults such as the one in Bountiful, B.C., where there were accusations of domestic abuse, forced marriage and children being married to adults. This distinction was made very clear at the workshop, according to the Toronto Sun.

According to poly-advocate and Edmonton East Green Party candidate Trey Capnerhurst, issues like those seen in British Columbia should be met with criminal charges, but, “we should not be charging people with polygamy,” she said. According to Canadian criminal law, polygamy can result in up to five years in jail but polygamy itself has not been prosecuted for six decades. 

Many Green Party members have stated that polygamy is a human-rights issue, similar to same-sex marriage. A history of polygamy or a polygamist relationship is still on occasion used to deny custody of children in divorce cases.

While geared more towards surrogate parents and sperm donors, British Columbia’s new family law changes that would allow children to have more than two legal parents may leave room for polygamist relationships and increase the rights of polygamist parents, some of which are not biologically related to the child but have strong parent-child bonds and raise the children along with the biological parents.

Posted in Divorce, Polygamy, Same Sex Marriage, child custody • • Top Of Page

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