A top Canadian criminal lawyer has said that courts there should be asked to rule on the constitutionality of the country's long-standing laws against marriage involving more than two people.It is the latest attempt in Canada to radically redefine marriage.
Independent prosecutor Richard Peck made the call to rule on constitutionality in relation to a case concerning a US-linked religious community that has openly practised polygamy in Western Canada for years.
However, Peck has recommended that criminal charges not be filed against the community. He suggested that the charges, which relate to sex with underage girls, would not likely result in convictions on the "available evidence".
However he added that the case left unanswered the broader issue of how Canada should handle the issue of ‘plural’ marriage.
Writing in a report to the attorney general of British Colombia, Peck said that the legal status of polygamy in Canada "has for too long been characterised by uncertainty". The report was released to media outlets on Wednesday.
"Polygamy is the underlying phenomenon from which all the other alleged harms flow, and the public interest would best be served by addressing it directly," Peck wrote. He added that the province should put the issue to the courts in the form of a specific question rather than a criminal case.
Attorney General Wally Oppal told the media his office was considering Peck's report, but might still press criminal charges so the constitutional issue would be raised by the defendants.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had recommended charges be filed against unspecified members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
Police launched the investigation in 2006 following media reports that leaders of the FLDS community in Bountiful, in southeastern British Columbia, had forced underage girls into marriages with older men.
Peck said he supported a decision by provincial prosecutors not to file criminal charges because of the unlikelihood of a conviction. Some of the female witnesses were reported to be unwilling to co-operate.
Plural marriages are illegal in Canada, but British Columbia prosecutors have been averse to press charges against the members of the FLDS for years out of concern the law could be struck down on the basis of religious freedom.
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