Friday, January 13, 2006

Asbestos Trousers Warning

Flame Alert: Expect anti-same-sex-marriage flaming to flare immediately.

The Toronto Globe and Mail carries an item that the Rick Santorum and Bill O'Reilly types have eagerly awaited. They'll surely empty their I-told-you-so sacks on our heads.

A study for the Canadian federal government recommends legalizing polygamy. Feel the heat.

Currently, conviction can bring a five-year sentence.

As part of $150,000 project by the Justice Department and Status of Women Canada (a federal agency), the just-released study cites the problems women have in foreign legal polygamous marriages moving to Canada. The three professors involved are from Kingston, Ontario's (honest to punchline) Queen's University.

The paper "argues that Sec. 293 of the Criminal Code banning polygamy serves no useful purpose and in any case is rarely prosecuted. Instead, Canadian laws should be changed to better accommodate the problems of women in polygamous marriages, providing them clearer spousal support and inheritance rights."

So, what may be an effort to recognize the realities some immigrants face and make lives saner and easier for some women is going to fill the air ici, en les États Unis.

The Liberal Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler, has no intention of decriminalizing polygamy. "At this point, the practice of polygamy, bigamy and incest are criminal offences in Canada and will continue to be," he said. "These reports will become part of the knowledge base on this issue and will be taken into account."

I dread the flames though. How many times shall we hear slippery slope? Perhaps we can consider it just more theater.

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