Polygamy In Canada

We know in our society today there are many different types of families. They range from nuclear families which consist of a mother, father, and children to blended families which consist of two families coming together following a divorce. For the sole purpose of this essay, however, we will be looking into a type a family which is different than most of the others; which is called Polygamy. Polygamy is defined as “The practice or Custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time” (Oxford Dictionary). The term polygamy acts as an umbrella term for the simple reason there are different types of this practice. The most common practice of polygamy and the one this essay will be looking into specifically is called polygyny which
After the Warren Jeff’s case, it would be very hard for any families who have continued to practice polygamy publically, due to the amount of horror the world just witnessed of the harm one man did to a community. However, not every plural marriage family that continues to practice polygamy is like Jeff’s community. When it comes to looking into the legalities behind polygamy, in Canada according to “Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada explicitly bans polygamy and threatens offenders with a five-year prison term” (CBC News). The worry of being thrown in jail for five years have caused many Canadian polygamist families to go into hiding from the government. However, there has been a few families that have openly come out saying they are a polygamist family and have shared their experiences with the rest of the world. For a family from BC, a court tried to claim that practicing polygamy would lead to harm for everyone involved meaning the wives, children, society and harm to monogamy, this idea was appealed and later thrown out (CBC News). Although there are many people who believe that practicing polygamy is horrible, there are few who believe that doing so would be a way to spread the love. According to “The Good Men Project” having children after entering a marriage is a way to bring joy and if one of the women are not able to have a
Although polygamy has been around for many decades, we have been witnesses to how several groups of people in our society look at the practice. Although from the research that was conducted for the purpose of this paper we are able to understand that the thought of doing this practice was not openly accepted in early decades by all; however, it wasn’t until the world learned about what Warren Jeff’s did to his wives and children of his community that the most of the world was completely against plural marriages and plural families. It was after the Warren Jeff’s case that many people believed that plural families would not be suitable for children to be brought up in, however, as we have seen that is not the case. Plural marriage allows for the sharing of children to be loved by many individuals. It is quite clear that the questions this essay set out to look into have now been answered. Yes, polygamy might not be the most common and viewed as the best way to raise a family that being said, as long as the family is caring and loving and raising the children without causing any harm to them then they should be able to live in peace with the lifestyle they have