Chief Justice Bauman: Monogamous Marriage

Polygamy Dept: These assertions are ludicrous. The heart of the matter is whether polygamy respects the principle of equality between men and women and it clearly doesn t. Polygamy must be banned not because it is an unconventional practice, but because it is inherently degrading to women, according to Globe and Mail. Incidentally, Chief Justice Bauman stated the obvious when he said that in the Western world at least, monogamous marriage has been a fundamental value from the earliest of times. In all liberal democracies, marriage is indeed defined as the union of two consenting adults. In the past, it meant the union of a man and a woman. The definition was recently modified in many countries, including Canada, to include gay marriage, but the concept of marriage hasn t changed. It still involves no more than two adults. This doesn t mean that other forms of sexual unions should be banned. For instance, a man or a woman can have multiple sexual partners simultaneously but only marriage or common-law relationships are sanctioned by the state and regulated by the law and involve the obligation of financial support. What happened to swingers? What happened to people who are adulterous? asked one academic. Others feared the ruling would lead to a return of the ban on gay marriages. Gays or heterosexuals who exchange marriage vows are equal partners. Adultery involves no inequality at all: In Canada, married women are as free as married men to take a lover. Women can freely engage in various unconventional practices such as partner-swapping or group sex. Divorce and remarriage are accessible to women as well as men. Even though serious abuse can happen in all forms of sexual unions, including monogamous marriages, polygamy is a very specific case the only one that is per se rooted in the inequality of women. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.