![]() "It takes a considerable amount of faith and determination to live the right way," she said. She explained the difficulties the three of them faced. 25, one wife testified anonymously that she married at 16 to the husband of her sister and had nine children with him (her sister had 10). Some of the polygamous wives were called to witness in favour of the practice of plural marriage, although Oler and Blackmore were not present at the proceedings. Jessop spoke of her concern for the educational neglect of children and the practice of abandoning so-called surplus boys that would otherwise compete with older, powerful men for wives. "Personally I can't see why they have so many children if they don't want to take care of them," he said.įREE Learning Resources - Download Today - Printable PDF'sĬarolyn Jessop, who left an FLDS community in Arizona, partly because her children faced physical abuse and also because she feared her 13-year-old daughter would soon be compelled to marry, is in favour of decriminalization as long as there is an effort to prosecute abuses. Bountiful husbands were often gone for long periods of time and he received little attention from his mother. 18, Truman Oler, the brother of James Oler who ran away from Bountiful, spoke about his difficult childhood as one of 47 children in a polygamous family. The court also heard testimony from victims of polygamy. Joseph Henrich, a noted Canadian scholar at the University of British Columbia, warned that, if Canada became the only developed western country where polygamy is permitted, it would cause "a non-trivial increase in the incidence of polygyny (men with multiple wives)." Henrich predicted that Canada would become the destination of choice for wealthy men from polygynous countries and that high-status citizens would invest in several wives. John Witte, director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta, testified that the Western legal tradition has rejected polygamy as a form of marriage for the past 2,500 years, recognizing the societal harms the practice caused. University of Toronto law professor Rebecca Cook said that Canada is obligated under international human rights law to ban polygamy and that an increasing number of countries all over the world are outlawing the practice. Shoshana Grossbard, an expert on the economics of marriage from San Diego University summoned by the Christian Legal Fellowship, an intervener in the case, said that women in polygamous relationships become subservient to men and do not benefit from a supposed increased "market value" due to larger demand for wives. Many expert witnesses were called to point out the harms of polygamy. ![]() Lori Beaman, who teaches religious studies at the University of Ottawa, compared abuses in polygamy to those found in some monogamous marriages and argued that the practices of a religious minority group should not be banned just because they are perceived as abnormal by mainstream society. McGill University law professor Angela Campbell, who had conducted controversial research on polygamy, reported that she saw few problems in Bountiful and that, in truth, FLDS wives are suffering from the anti-polygamy law. He told Justice Robert Bauman that evidence "presents a consistently worrisome narrative of child brides, teen pregnancy, and men and boys who are, by accident or design, driven out of the community."Ĭourt-appointed amicus George Macintosh argued on the third day of the trial that the law should be eliminated to decriminalize polygamous or non-polygamous relationships between more than two people to decrease social stigma and abuse.Īfterwards, the judge heard testimony from witnesses on both sides. The trial began with an opening statement by Craig Jones, a lawyer for the Ministry of the Attorney General, upholding the prohibition of polygamy. The issue was referred to the court after a judge in 2009 stayed charges against two Bountiful religious leaders from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) - James Oler and Winston Blackmore - accused of polygamy. ![]() P>TORONTO, ON (The Interim)  - For over two months, the British Columbia Supreme Court has heard testimony in its case examining whether Canada's ban on polygamy is constitutional. Keywords: canada, marriage, abuse, british-columbia, polygamy, fundamentalist, latter-day-saints ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |