Canada In Canada, polygamy is a criminal offence under section 293 of the
Criminal Code, which provides for a penalty of up to five years imprisonment, but prosecutions are rare. As of January 2009, no person had been prosecuted for polygamy in Canada in over sixty years. This changed in 2014, when polygamy charges were brought against
Winston Blackmore and
James Oler. On March 9, 2018, the Supreme Court of British Columbia reaffirmed the constitutionality of Canada's anti-polygamy laws, upholding the July 2017 polygamy convictions of
Winston Blackmore and
James Oler. The federal
Criminal Code applies throughout the country. It extends the normal definition of polygamy to having any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time. Anyone who assists, celebrates, or is a part to a rite, ceremony, or contract that sanctions a polygamist relationship is also guilty of polygamy. Polygamy is an offence punishable by up to five years in prison. Edith Barlow, a mother of five in the polygamous community of
Bountiful, B.C., was denied permanent residence and was asked to leave the country after ten years in Canada.
Alberta A 2005 report by the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre recommended that Canada decriminalize polygamy, stating: "Criminalization is not the most effective way of dealing with gender inequality in polygamous and plural union relationships. Furthermore, it may violate the constitutional rights of the parties involved."
British Columbia In 2007, the Attorney General of
British Columbia expressed concerns over whether this prohibition is constitutional, and an independent prosecutor in British Columbia recommended that Canadian courts be asked to rule on the constitutionality of laws against polygamy. The
Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld Canada's anti-polygamy section 293 of the Criminal Code and other ancillary legislation in a 2011
reference case. On March 9, 2018, the Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld the constitutionality of Canada's anti-polygamy laws again.
Mexico Prior to Spanish colonization, polygamy (polygyny) was widely accepted and practiced by the indigenous people of what is now Mexico. In contrast to Eurocentric views of marriage and property in which land and other belongings were perceived as being owned by individuals or couples, indigenous people regarded property in a more communal manner, facilitating the existence of polygamy. This practice was most commonly practiced amongst the elites of the Aztecs (
pipiltin), whereas average members of the society (
macehualtin) were more likely to keep to monogamous relationships. Because the number of wives that one could marry was based on the male's economic capacity,
calpulli leaders and pipiltin were the only members of the community capable of maintaining multiple wives. At the turn of the 16th century, the
Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Queen Isabella I of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, began their imposition and conquest on indigenous peoples. Citing the
Sixth Commandment of the Roman Catholic Bible as reason for prohibition of polygamy, the so called Laws of Toro (1505) were instituted. These gave the
Roman Catholic Church exclusive control over the statues for legitimization of marriage, and declared monogamy to be the only legitimate form of marriage. In 1876, Anglo-Saxon Mormons from the United States fled to the Mexican states of
Sonora and
Chihuahua after the prohibition of polygamy in the United States. Ten years later, the
Book of Mormon was translated to Spanish by Meliton G. Trejo and Jamie Z. Stewart. In 1895, Mormonism in Mexico took root with its own colony in
Ciudad Juárez. In 1937, Nahua-Mexican evangelist,
Margarito Bautista, presented himself among the
Third Convention, advocating for the reinstatement of
plural marriage. However, Bautista's plead was quickly rejected and he was expelled from the movement. However, some unofficial cases of polygamy remain present in the country.
United States Polygamy is a crime and punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both, according to the law of the individual state and the circumstances of the offense. Polygamy was outlawed in federal territories by the
Edmunds Act, and there are laws against the practice in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Because state laws exist, polygamy is not actively prosecuted at the federal level, but the practice is considered "against public policy". Many US courts (e.g.
Turner v. S., 212 Miss. 590, 55 So.2d 228) treat bigamy as a strict liability crime: in some jurisdictions, a person can be convicted of a felony even if he reasonably believed he had only one legal spouse. For example, if a person has the mistaken belief that their previous spouse is dead or that their divorce is final, they can still be convicted of bigamy if they marry a new person. Utah reduced polygamy from a third-degree felony to a minor infraction on May 13, 2020.
Polygamy and immigration Accordingly, the U.S. government does not recognize
bigamous marriages for immigration purposes (that is, would not allow one of the spouses to petition for immigration benefits for the other), even if they are legal in the country where the bigamous marriage was celebrated. Any immigrant who is coming to the United States to practice polygamy is not eligible for
permanent resident immigrant status. ==History==