Let’s not wink at polygamy.

Canada

Mindelle Jacobs

The Edmonton Sun

A British Columbian man says he’s being persecuted for his religious beliefs. “Well, I would hope so,” said Mindelle Jacobs in The Edmonton Sun. Winston Blackmore is an avowed polygamist from a breakaway Mormon sect. Three of his 20-some wives are Americans who now face deportation. Blackmore claims the women should be allowed “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds” to stay in Canada with him and the 16 children the three have with him. He says the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects his religious rights as a polygamist. Obviously, the man is “making an ass out of the law.” Police in British Columbia have already uncovered a whole nest of his co-religionists, a community where girls are raised to be subservient and relegated to marriages before they even leave middle school. Two of Blackmore’s wives, in fact, reportedly married him at age 15. Canada needs to “stop pussyfooting around and charge him with polygamy.” Let him take his case to the Supreme Court. “I’m confident the courts will favor the human rights of women and children over the freedom of religion of a gaggle of oddball polygamists.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up