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A question of harm

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Bauman has confirmed Canada's polygamy law that says multiple marriages are illegal.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Bauman has confirmed Canada's polygamy law that says multiple marriages are illegal.

Essentially, the judge's 335-page ruling, handed down Wednesday after a 42-day case held earlier this year, says that Canada's law is flawed but constitutional.

The judge accepted the argument that polygamy is inherently harmful, siding with expert testimony that women in such relationships are at elevated risks running the gamut from psychological harm through financial harm to physical harm.

Bauman emphasized that these effects are not specific to certain locations but rather "they are universal."

That dealt with the argument that any harm in polygamous marriages comes from abusers. The judge has ruled that polygamy itself causes harm, not the way it is practised by certain people.

However, Bauman said the law should be changed - without saying how - to exempt minors in polygamous relationships from prosecution.

So the law on the books requires some tinkering. It's also likely the judgment will be appealed.

Leonard Krog, NDP critic for the attorney-general, is right on the money in calling for an expedited appeal process so that the prosecution of polygamists can go ahead. A stay of proceedings ended the prosecutions of Winston Blackmore and James Oler, charged in 2009 with practising polygamy in Bountiful.

That should never happen again in Canada.