Thursday, January 08, 2009
Harper Can Protect the Sanctity of Marriage
He's going to be so excited. I'm not talking about same-sex marriage. I'm talking about polygamy. There's a reasonable chance that the courts could strike down Canada's anti-polygamy laws. While conservatives will no doubt rant about activist judges, the Canadian Constitution has the answer: The Notwithstanding Clause. Yes, the scariest clause in the constitution which allows a government to violate the rights of Canadians if they feel like it. As long as they renew every few years, they can get away with it. Now, the clause has never been exercised by the federal government. The only famous use of the notwithstanding clause is by Quebec in defense of its draconian language laws. However, if the courts were to say that polygamy is okay, Harper (or realistically a successor by the time this gets through the appeals process) would be well within his powers to strike down such a ruling.
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2 comments:
Regardless of what the courts decide, the CHRC will settle this in the end and polygamy will be legal. Though given the CHRC's penchant for supporting minority hate it may well be that polygamy is allowed only for "protected "victim groups".
Little Stevie Harper is gutless.
I highly doubt Harper will use the NWS clause to uphold the criminal code prohibition against polygamous marriage. If the courts ever compelled state recognition of polygamous marriage that might be a different story but I doubt he will use it just to make sure you cant play house with more than one wife or husband.
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