“I don’t think this will be the end” Oppal on polygamy trial
Posted April 15, 2011 11:19 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Today marks the final day of legal arguments in the landmark constitutional trial focusing on Canada’s controversial anti-polygamy laws.
Former BC Attorney General Wally Oppal first got the ball rolling in this case. He decided in 2009 the best way to test the polygamy law was within the context of a criminal trial.
“The Chief Justice will have to determine whether or not the polygamy sections of the criminal code violate the person’s right to freedom of religion under our constitution,” he explains. “Either way, I would expect the ‘losing party’ will go to the Court of Appeal and eventually to the Supreme Court of Canada.”
“I don’t think this will be the end of the process, by any means,” he adds.
The judge has heard months of testimony from various groups, including government lawyers who argue polygamy leads to child labour and sex abuse.
Wally Oppal says why it’s taken so long for the case to make it through the courts:
“Over the years, a number of academics and retired judges have given opinions that, given the nature of our society, maybe the polygamy section has out-lived its usefulness in that it contravenes the person’s right to freedom of religion,” he says. “I always disagreed with that because I always thought that the polygamy section is more about the exploitation of women.”
Many of the women from Bountiful have testified they lead happy, and fulfilling lives.
