Blue Like You

Archive for August 7th, 2007

Front page story in the Record today - Desperate search for care.

Catherine Cooke of Walkerton was diagnosed with cancer, and basically told that there was little or no hope.

Instead of waiting for death she opted to spend an inheritance from her mother on private health care in India.

The treatment is now close to being complete and the cancer is almost “non-existent.”

Something tells me this family will not be very impressed when Health Minister George Smitherman tries to sell them on another McGuinty government in October.

Today’s Star has reprinted an edited version of a recent Vancouver Sun editorial (Polygamy is not a freedom issue) which seems to be urging B.C.’s Child, Family and Community Services to remove the children of Bountiful from a perceived situation of harm and exploitation; even without a court order.

This seems a tad harsh, but I suppose if there were concrete evidence of abuse, then by all means, the authorities should intercede.

The opening paragraph of the editorial also refers to the Canadian Criminal Code:

Polygamy has been a crime in Canada since 1892. Under s. 293 of the Criminal Code any conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not it is a binding marriage, is an indictable offence with a penalty of up to five years in prison.

There’s no ambiguity in s. 293. Polygamy is illegal, no ifs, ands or buts.

Under that definition, any ‘conjugal union’ of consisting of more than two people is illegal.

However, I wonder how many consensual living arrangements there are in Canada involving more than two persons? We are already told that Swingers’ sex is legal by the Supreme Court. So is it only legal in clubs? What if the couples want to live together in a conjugal manner? So they have to go the the clubs to have sex?

So what we’re talking about here is polyamory. I really don’t think that law from 1892 is valid any longer. Society and morals have changed, I am always being told.

Supposing two bi-sexual women and a straight guy all love each other and want to live together, and possibly even have that recognized as a civil union?

How can we stop it?

On what legal grounds?