BOUNTIFUL AND BOMBINGS

Bountiful and Bombings

What have these two news items in common? Our BC Supreme Court staying the charges of polygamy against the two Bountiful religious leaders, Winston Blackmore and James Oler on Sept. 22, and the announcement of the bombing of yet another school for girls in Pakistan ( there have been roughly thirty such bombings of schools in and around the Swat Valley-CNN.com) on Sept. 23?
Events in common? Well, let us consider. First, the dismissal of charges of Polygamy against the two religious leaders in Bountiful who keep multiple wives (27 and counting for one of the accused); never mind the practicality of accomplishing such a feat, the fact remains that it’s unlawful. POLYGAMY IS AGAINST THE LAW. IT’S A FEDERAL LAW. IT SAYS SO IN THE CRIMINAL CODE. THE CRIMINAL CODE RULES THE COUNTRY OF CANADA. Except in British Columbia. In BC judges make decisions that are, in my opinion, unlawful. And they are aided and abetted by the Attorney Generals and by government lawyers (Crown Council) who are in my opinion mostly a gutless bunch. They only like to bet on a sure thing i.e. putting away environmental protesters and the like for long prison sentences. BC Supreme Court Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein said that Wally Oppal (then Attorney General) should have not shopped around for a second prosecutor when the first one refused to lay charges. Why the refusal? Because the charges might not pass a constitutional challenge from the Supreme Court of Canada on the grounds of freedom of religion.
Well, what was Wally Oppal to do except look for another prosecutor? The only way to know whether or not charges will pass a constitutional challenge is to present the case. But why is it that nobody in the legal profession or the Attorney General’s office will present the case of Bountiful polygamists to the Supreme Court of Canada? Does the claim of religion actually countenance breaking the law? The codified law of Canada? Evidentially yes, when the religion embraces the dictates that very young women (girls, actually) should be forcibly given over sexually to old and middle aged men. There must be something titillating abut this to old and middle aged men in law and government or else polygamy would have been treated like any other broken codified law long ago. In spite of the fact that more women judges are sitting on the bench the court is an extremely masculine place, run by men. And on the other side of the world religious leaders are preaching that girl’s schools will continue to be bombed because educating girls is un-Islamic and against religion. Religion, huh? What an all encompassing way to keep girls ignorant and sexually accessible and beyond the powers of the court to intervene. And beyond the powers of mothers to protect their daughters. In my opinion, women should heed these two religious extremes because the results have a way of nesting on our own doorsteps. Women in Ontario narrowly escaped a provincial acceptance of Sharia law a couple of years ago and it was Muslim women who understood what this would have meant and who fought fiercely against it. And won. We should all be so vigilant.
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