Canadian Politics Today

Let's get a number of things sorted out.

First off, while freedom of religion is promised in the Charter of Rights, no freedom is absolute.   And we have a history of prioritizing the safety of children above the freedom of religion. This has been established in repeated cases where religious nut-jobs asserted that their freedom of religion entitled them to reject modern medical care for their children. The courts have ruled against them time and time again. That was the ruling when Jehovah's Witnesses wanted to refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds. That was the ruling when the native girl's family wanted to reject modern medicine in favor of magic mumbo-jumbo.  There are a lot more examples. When freedom of religion comes into conflict with a child's right to life, liberty, and security of person, the child's right to life, liberty, and security of person wins out every single time.  I invite anybody to provide a counterexample, but I don't think there are any counterexamples.


Second:  unlike Islam or other major faiths where polygamy is *allowable* in some circumstances, Blackmore (and Warren Jeffs, and others from this retarded cult) assert that their faith *requires* that they take multiple wives.  If a Muslim or a mainstream Mormon went to court and said that a law against polygamy violates his religious freedom, the court could easily say no, because there is no obligation in his faith to take multiple wives.  Not so with Winston Blackmore, who believes that God *requires* him to have multiple wives.


I think there's a significant difference between allowing consenting adults to share partners, engage in adultery, and whatever other shenanigans consenting adults might get up to, versus allowing a religious cult to indoctrinate young girls with the belief that their uteruses are the property of some withered old creep. And unfortunately, BC prosecutors have spent decades trying to figure out how to make this difference stand up in court without a Charter of Rights challenge on the basis of Freedom of Religion, and the Polygamy charges were apparently the best option available.

Overall I look at this pretty much the same as I look at using Tax Evasion to put Al Capone in prison.  Ideally that wouldn't have been the way to put Al Capone in prison, but it's better than nothing.

Listen: the BC government has spent decades trying to figure out how to deal with Winston Blackmore. This is the best they could do. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.


 -k