Polygamy Debate Heads to B.C. Supreme Court

Lawyers will attempt to determine whether Canada’s law against polygamy should be upheld or struck down as unconstitutional.

The case that begins today at B.C.’s Supreme Court is a reference case, which means there is no defendant. Instead lawyers representing the attorneys-general will argue the merits of the law that bans plural marriage with a court-appointed “friend of the court.” Prosecutors in the province have long struggled with what to do about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints community in Bountiful, B.C., where polygamy is considered a religious obligation. The patriarch of Bountiful, Winstone Blackmore, reportedly has 24 wives and 121 children and was arrested in January 2009. Charges against him were stayed because of prosecutorial misconduct, and in the wake of his release the court filed the reference case.