News

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

VANCOUVER, September 24, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) – BC Supreme Court judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein has thrown out polygamy charges against two BC men after ruling that former BC attorney-general Wally Oppal had acted unlawfully in appointing a third special prosecutor in the case.

Lawyers for Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler argued that Oppal had gone “special prosecutor shopping” after rejecting the recommendation of BC special prosecutors Richard Peck and Len Doust that the case should be tried for constitutionality, instead of criminally prosecuting the polygamists.

“The harm in the appointment of successive special prosecutors is that it undermines the administration of justice by leaving the perception, if not the reality, of political interference and of an oppressive or unfair prosecution,” Judge Stromberg-Stein said. “The Attorney General upset the critical balance that … should be kept between political independence and accountability.”

Premier Gordon Campbell and current attorney-general Mike de Jong told reporters they were surprised and disappointed by the ruling.

“It's not the result that obviously we were hoping for or looking for, and it's obviously an impediment to advancing this prosecution,” de Jong said. “There's a decision to be made around a possible appeal.”

“I think it's important to solve the issue,” Campbell said. “The question is, how do you solve it?”

Campbell and de Jong have not indicated what course they will follow to solve the issue: whether an appeal will be launched against Stromberg-Stein's decision, or the case will be handled as a constitutional challenge as Peck and Doust had advised, or they will direct the RCMP to conduct a new investigation of polygamy in the province and once again bring charges against Blackmore and Oler, or simply do nothing.

Blackmore and Oler, members of a polygamous Mormon splinter group in Bountiful, British Columbia, were charged with polygamy in January of this year after a two year investigation by the RCMP.

Blackmore was charged with marrying 20 women, though he claims to have had 26 wives and more than 108 children. Oler was charged with marrying two women.

Section 293 of the Canadian Criminal Code says that anyone entering into a conjugal relationship with more than one individual at the same time is in violation of the law.

On at least two previous occasions the RCMP had recommended that arrests be made, but the Crown denied the recommendation, saying that the ban on polygamy would likely be struck down on the basis of the Canadian re-definition of marriage to include homosexual couples, and the Charter's guarantee of religious freedom.

Lawyers had argued in January that the polygamists had “a very strong case” in light of Canada's legalization of homosexual “marriage.”

“If (homosexuals) can marry, what is the reason that public policy says one person can't marry more than one person?” the lawyers contended.

Opponents of same-sex “marriage” have long observed that once homosexuals are permitted to “marry,” there is nothing holding polygamous marriages from being legally recognized as well. “It's like this,” explained Stanley Kurtz in a 2006 National Review article. “The way to abolish marriage, without seeming to abolish it, is to redefine the institution out of existence. If everything can be marriage, pretty soon nothing will be marriage. Legalize gay marriage, followed by multi-partner marriage, and pretty soon the whole idea of marriage will be meaningless.”

Pro-family advocates have also warned that the erosion of traditional marriage in Canada, as well as in other western countries, starting with no-fault divorce and most recently with the institution of homosexual “marriage,” would lead to the legalization of polygamy. Indeed, following the insertion of same-sex “marriage” into Canadian law, the federal Justice Department under the Liberal government produced a report suggesting the legalization of polygamy.

Link to the full text of the ruling by the BC Supreme Court is available here.

See previous LSN coverage:

Canadian Law Prohibiting Polygamy Faces Challenge 

Same-sex “Marriage” Used as Defense in Canadian Polygamy Case 

Canadian Government Study Suggests Legalizing Polygamy 

BRITISH COLUMBIA A HAVEN FOR POLYGAMISTS