Standing up for Polygamy

Amidst the gales of hot air and bloviation over the same sex marriage debate is notion that allowing gays and lesbians to marry will inevitably lead to polygamy as surely as shoo-fly pie leads to the consumption thereof. The Liberal plot to foist polygamy on the otherwise monogamous has been fuelled in part by reports that the federal government is studying the matter. (The reasoning of extrapolating a call for papers for what amounts to a sociological study on polygamous practice from a relatively insignificant government agency to Offical Government Policy boggles: it reminds me of the professor who lept from peak to intellectual peak, leaving his students to labour up the logically contorted slopes.)

But nevermind all that. I'm here to tell you that polygamy already exists in Canada in Bountiful, British Columbia, where an obscure and fanatical Mormon sect practices the Matrimony That Dares Not Speak Its Name. All sorts of nasty things go on in Bountiful in connection with polygamy, all well-documented: child abuse, trafficking in young women as "breeding stock", domestic violence.

Here's the rub: attempts to prosecute these polygamists have been squelched in the past because of fears of violating Charter rights, particularly their right of freedom of religion. RCMP investigations, however, are ongoing.

Clearly, if you are at all concerned about religious freedom ---we've all heard enough about it in the past few weeks in the context of the same sex marriage debate --- you need to fight to defend the rights of the polygamists against untoward statist interference.

In fact, I'm thinking of starting a Society for the Protection of Polygamists Everywhere. How about it, Bishop Henry? A buck to defend religious freedom? Maybe I can even get the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada to make it a special project for Easter.

Because once you start attacking the religious rights of polygamist Mormons, only God knows where it will stop.