Polyamorous relationships illegal in Canada?

[Ryft]

So I am walking past a news stand this evening and I see the frontpage headline on The Province, "Polygamy on Trial" (Fraser, 2010)—which included a quip about a polyamorous trio in Esquimalt who are concerned about the consequences of the British Columbia Supreme Court trial to start Monday. Curious, I checked out their story and in that article the reporter (McCulloch, 2010) cited the relevant section of the Criminal Code which, to my surprise, does indeed criminalize polyamorous relationships:

Every one who practices or enters into or in any manner agrees or consents to practice or enter into ... any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding form of marriage ... is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years (emphasis mine).

The woman at the center of that Esquimalt trio is 51-year old Zoe Duff, who happens to be one of the directors of the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association, which was formed last year when it was realized that many polyamorous relationships and their supporters will be criminally liable if the 120-year-old anti-polygamy law is found constitutionally enforceable as currently written. What I want to know is, why is the Canadian federal government criminalizing what consenting adults do with themselves in the privacy of their own homes?

It will be interesting to watch how this case works out.

REFERENCES:

• Bramham, D. (2010). Polyamorous triad: ‘We are a stable and happy blended family’. The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from http://www.vancouversun.com.
  
  
• Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association, http://polyadvocacy.ca.
  
  
• Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 293(1)(a)(ii) and (b).
  
  
• Fraser, K. (2010). Polygamy trial starts tomorrow. The Province. Retrieved from http://www.theprovince.com.
  
  
• Hutchinson, B (2010). Court to decide if polygamy laws conflict with rights charter. The National Post. Retrieved from http://life.nationalpost.com.
  
  
• McCulloch, S. (2010). ‘Many loves’ works best for some people. The Province. Retrieved from http://www.theprovince.com. Versions of this article also appear in The Times Colonist ("Esquimalt woman practices polyamory with live-in male partners"), The Vancouver Sun ("Threesome's company too: ‘Polyamorous’ adults defend way of life") and elsewhere.
  

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Interesting.

Outlawing menage a trois? Lots of luck.

I doubt anyone advocating trying to enforce such a stupid law has any idea of the can of worms they will open.

Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three". In contemporary usage, the meaning of the term has been extended to mean any living relationship between three people, whether or not sex is involved, but because it has also been extended to refer to the actual sexual act between three people, otherwise known as a threesome, the term retains its suggestive quality.

Historical instances

Some known examples are

* Emma Hamilton, her husband, and Horatio Nelson.
* Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Devonshire, and Lady Elizabeth Foster
* Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett his wife, Amy Gwen Wilson, and writer Gilbert Cannan.
* In Sweden in 1775, Count Adolf Fredrik Munck af Fulkila had reputedly been hired by king Gustaf III to assist him in the consummation of his marriage with Queen Sophie Magdalena. He was to act as sexual instructor for the couple. His "aid" is alleged to have resulted in the birth of the future King Gustaf IV Adolf in 1778. By further rumors, he was the lover of the king as well as of the queen. These rumors eventually had serious political implications in the end of the House of Holstein-Gottorp's rule in Sweden.
* The German intellectual Dorothea von Rodde-Schlözer, her husband Mattheus Rodde and the French philosopher Charles de Villers from 1794 until her husband's death in 1810.
* Poet Ezra Pound, his wife Dorothy Shakespear and his mistress, concert violinist Olga Rudge.
* Surrealist painters Max Ernst, Paul Éluard and his wife Gala, later Gala Dalí.
* William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, and his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston lived with and shared a relationship with Olive Byrne.
* The actress and stage director Edith Craig who lived with and was in a relationship with the dramatist Christabel Marshall and the artist Clare Atwood from 1916 to 1947.

Speculation that, in 1547-8, Queen Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII, and her fourth husband Thomas Seymour were involved in a ménage with the future Queen Elizabeth, is probably exaggerated, although there were well attested episodes of sexually charged horseplay involving the three.[1].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9nage..._instances

Here in Australia, one of our best known actors, Jack Thompson, was in a menage a trois with two sisters for many years.

[Dotard]

What I want to know is, why is the Canadian federal government criminalizing what consenting adults do with themselves in the privacy of their own homes?

I've often wanted to know why ANY goverment, mine included, would criminalize what consenting adults do with themselves in the privacy of their own homes.

[Shinylight]

What amorous acts people get up to in the privacy of their own home is no business of the Governments.

That law is so outdated.

[leo-rcc]

Really weird law indeed.

[downbeatplumb]

As long as everyones old enough and consenting whats the big whoop.

Surely its unenforcable anyway.

[Ryft]

That law is so outdated.

Indeed. But the more arguable point is that it is unconstitutional; according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians have not only "freedom of conscience" but also "the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice" as well as "the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination." As Justice Bertha Wilson described it (R. v. Clay, 2003), the right to liberty touches upon "the core of what it means to be an autonomous human being blessed with dignity and independence in matters that can be characterized as fundamentally or inherently personal."

• R. v. Clay, 1 S.C.R. 30 (2003).
  
• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s. 2(a), 7, and 15, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c.11.