To the editor:
In his 335-page ruling on the validity of the country’s anti-polygamy law, British Columbia Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman failed to separate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from the Criminal Code.
Our freedom of association is a basic Charter right.
That includes the right to associate with individuals or groups of people who may or may not share religious beliefs or convictions.
His ruling to uphold the law against polygamy is a violation of the Charter.
The ruling that protection of women and children against abuse overrides the Charter rights is also a bit abstract.
The Charter is an integral part of the Constitution Act, while the Criminal Code is a federal statute enacted by Parliament.
The intent of the Criminal Code is to protect women and children against criminal acts, such as illegal confinement, physical and emotional abuse, forcing children into marriage, and the list goes on.
It’s difficult to imagine how that in any way could conflict with the Charter.
The ruling insinuates that religious beliefs and convictions are law, and that those “laws” allow people to commit criminal acts, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Religion is only a belief, and while it’s our Charter right to believe anything at all, a belief is not a law and is, therefore, not supreme to our Constitution.
The ruling also leaves the doors open to appeal, meaning lawyers will be able to continue to feed on this issue at great expense to Canadian taxpayers.
Andy Thomsen
Summerland
