Bigamy In Canada

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When one thinks of an activity that is illegal, one thinks of a heinous crime, such as robbery, murder or theft. One does not think of marrying two people at once as an activity that would be considered illegal. In fact, marrying two people is criminalized in Canada, whilst, physically harming, -spanking- your child is not. Crime can be defined as a socially constructed concept; behaviour requiring formal control and social action. On this basis one would think that spanking your child would be a crime, currently, this is not the case. After a discussion with a friend, I was informed that in Canada under the criminal code, Bigamy can be defined as “The act of a person who, being married, goes through a form of marriage with any other person …show more content…

In Canada, one has the right to make all of her/his decisions of their own accord as long as they do not occur at anyone’s expense. If both parties are consenting, it is still a criminalized act to commit bigamy. In a country that prides itself on the freedom of its citizens, something as small as this should certainly be legalized. In fact, the last successful prosecution of bigamy was over 60 years ago (2011, CBC), this certainly should call for a reform. In continuation, this law may actually be infringing on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in section 2 B of the charter it states every Canadian citizen has the right to “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” (Government of Canada, 1982) I believe that if Canada grants the rights for any citizen to express their beliefs, whether it is bigamous in nature or not, …show more content…

A debate in my high school law class sparked my view on this controversial topic. Currently there is no legislation regarding disciplinary action, but should be. The University of Cambridge conducted a study in 1994 that concluded that ‘Findings indicated that children who had been spanked evidenced levels of aggression that were higher than those who had not been spanked, and children who had been the objects of violent discipline became the most aggressive of all groups.” (Strassburg et al, 1994) The book “The Case Against Spanking, The How to Discipline Your Child Without Hitting” (Hyman, 1997) goes further in depth on other ways to discipline your child without causing physical harm. If there is no need to physically harm your child why would you? To digress, spanking comes from an older school of thought, and should be left in the old school of thought. Furthermore, aggression in children was directly linked to being spanked. With an overabundance of supporting evidence, Legislation needs to be put in place to prevent aggressive adolescent

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