Let the Polygamous Games Begin

Family responsibilities in the past few weeks have prevented me from posting as much as I'd like. Events are thereby overtaking my blog, it seems.

I see on the front page of this morning's National Post that the federal Liberal government is making plans for an expected challenge respecting polygamy. That there will be a challenge to Canada's laws prohibiting polygamy ought to surprise no one. As night follows day, polygamists will now agitate for additional restructuring of civil marriage to accommodate their tastes in marital bliss.

What will Paul Martin say to men who cannot accept that their destiny lies with having only one spouse? Having surrendered his Catholic moral beliefs in a political quest to accommodate a spurious human right to same-sex civil marriage, he now has no principled basis on which to oppose further demands for change.

Remember that it was a Liberal government which instructed Justice Department lawyers to not appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal judgment on same-sex marriage, thereby opening the gates to homosexual civil marriage. Having acquiesced to the dictate of the unelected and unaccountable judicial elite, (which ignored the expressed will of our elected Parliament and the provincial legislatures when it unilaterally rewrote the Charter of Rights to accommodate same-sex equality rights), how can he now possibly object to several people who want to share the joys of matrimony with each other?

The Post story has a most peculiar comment from the Status of Women Canada (what an Orwellian moniker that is!).

"In order to best prepare for possible debate surrounding Canada's polygamy policy, critical research is needed," a Status of Women Canada document says. "It is vital that researchers explore the impacts of polygamy on women and children and gender equality, as well as the challenges that polygamy presents to society."

Really? What an interesting idea. Of course, this was not contemplated, or undertaken with the same-sex marriage question.

I wonder if the good sisters of the secular order Status of Women Canada realize how similar their views on the process of restructuring marriage are with those of His Eminence, Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic in his January 18, 2004 letter on the same-sex marriage debate?

So far the debate has been among lawyers. It is time for there to be a debate in Canadian society as a whole. It is time for ordinary Canadians to be given a sufficient opportunity to discuss the issues and to reflect on the deeper implications before a debate occurs in Parliament and a decision is made that could irrevocably change the nature of marriage and the family in Canada.

My purpose in writing this open letter to you [Prime Minister Martin]is to urge caution in taking this step towards the re-definition of marriage. We all would do well to pause reflectively before we alter social structures like marriage and the family that lie at the core of our society, and that represent the accumulated wisdom and experience of the ages.

The conjugal partnership of a man and a woman is the beginning and basis of human society and the family is the first and vital cell of society. Tampering with marriage and the family poses significant social risks.

Can we say with certainty what the social outcome of a re-definition of marriage would be? In all humility, none of us can do so. Human sexuality is a powerful force, which society has acknowledged through many of our laws and social customs.

If same-sex marriage receives the approval of Parliament, then what?

Well, we all know what, don't we. Let the polygamous games begin!