Polygamy is illegal in Canada. Section 293 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to enter into, or help sanction, any form of polygamy or any conjugal union with more than one person at a time, and the maximum penalty is five years in prison.1Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Polygamy The Civil Marriage Act backs this up by defining marriage as “the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others.”2Justice Laws Website. Civil Marriage Act SC 2005 c 33
What Section 293 Actually Prohibits
The offence reaches further than most people assume. Section 293(1) applies to any form of polygamy and to any conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not that union is recognized as a binding marriage under any law.1Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Polygamy A licensed ceremony is not required. A religious rite, a community ritual, or a private contract that creates a marriage-like bond between more than two people falls inside the section.
The law also captures the people around the central parties. Officiating, assisting, or being a party to any ceremony or rite that purports to sanction a multi-spouse union carries the same liability as entering the union itself. And the Crown does not need to prove how the relationship was formed or whether the parties had, or intended to have, sexual intercourse. The existence of the arrangement is what matters.1Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Polygamy
Penalties and How Courts Have Applied Them
Polygamy is a hybrid offence, which means the Crown can proceed either by indictment or by summary conviction. On indictment, the maximum is five years in prison.1Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Polygamy On summary conviction, the maximum is a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment for up to two years less a day, or both.3Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 787
Actual sentences have come in well below the statutory ceiling. The only major modern prosecution involved Winston Blackmore and James Oler, leaders in the fundamentalist community of Bountiful, British Columbia. Blackmore was convicted of polygamy in 2017 after marrying 24 women over several decades and received six months of house arrest, 150 hours of community service, and 12 months of probation. Oler was sentenced to three months of house arrest, 75 hours of community service, and 12 months of probation. Judges tend to weigh case-specific factors heavily: whether minors were involved, whether anyone was coerced, and the scale of the arrangement.
Polygamy and Bigamy Are Not the Same Offence
Bigamy, under Section 290, targets the formal act of going through a second marriage ceremony while already legally married, or knowingly marrying someone who is already married.4Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Bigamy It centres on deceiving the licensing system; a person can be guilty even if they never live with the second spouse.
Polygamy, by contrast, needs no paperwork at all. It captures the ongoing practice of living in a multi-spouse arrangement, whatever its origin. Both offences carry the same maximum of five years on indictment.5Justice Laws Website. Criminal Code – Punishment for Bigamy
Where Polyamory Fits
Section 293 does not criminalize polyamorous relationships that lack a marriage-like ceremony or union. In the 2011 Reference case, Chief Justice Bauman held that the offence “is not directed at multi-party, unmarried relationships or common law cohabitation.”6CanLII. Reference re Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada
The distinction turns on how the arrangement comes into being. A conjugal union forms through a specific sanctioning event: a ceremony, a ritual, or a contract. A conjugal relationship develops over time with no single moment of creation.6CanLII. Reference re Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada Three adults who live together as partners are in a conjugal relationship. The same three adults who stand together in a ceremony meant to bind them in a marriage-like institution have crossed into a conjugal union, and into the reach of Section 293.
Immigration Consequences
Canadian immigration law excludes polygamous family structures. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations say a foreign national is not a “spouse” for immigration or sponsorship purposes if either party was already married to someone else at the time of the marriage.7Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Chapter Five – Spouses, Common-Law Partners and Conjugal Partners A person with multiple spouses abroad can sponsor only one, and only after any prior marriages have ended.
Parliament went further in 2015 with the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, which added Section 41.1 to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. That section would make a permanent resident or foreign national inadmissible on polygamy grounds alone if they are practicing polygamy with a person physically present in Canada, with no need to prove misrepresentation or a criminal conviction.8Government of Canada. Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act – Addressing Polygamy It has been enacted but is listed among amendments not yet in force.9Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act SC 2001 c 27 – Amendments Not in Force Even without it, practitioners can be refused entry under existing regulatory exclusions or on criminal inadmissibility grounds.
A polygamy conviction itself carries immigration weight. Because the offence has a maximum sentence of at least five years, a conviction can bar a foreign national from entering Canada and can trigger removal for a permanent resident.10Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Overcome Criminal Convictions
Foreign Polygamous Marriages Get Narrow Recognition
Canadian courts will not treat a foreign polygamous marriage as a valid Canadian marriage, but they have recognized such marriages for limited protective purposes. In Yew v. Attorney-General of British Columbia, a court recognized an actually polygamous marriage performed abroad for the purpose of distributing a deceased spouse’s estate. Spousal support claims from second spouses have been harder to win, though some provinces have expanded the statutory definition of “spouse” to include parties to actually or potentially polygamous marriages for family property purposes.11Library and Archives Canada. Polygamy in Canada Legal and Social Implications for Women and Children The point of these cases is to protect vulnerable spouses and children, not to validate the underlying arrangement.
Why the Ban Survived a Charter Challenge
The constitutional question was tested in 2011, when British Columbia referred Section 293 to its Supreme Court. In Reference re: Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada, Chief Justice Bauman found that the section does limit freedom of religion under the Charter, but that the limit is justified under Section 1 as reasonable in a free and democratic society. The court heard extensive evidence about harms associated with polygamous communities, including the subordination of women, harm to children, and the expulsion of young men to reduce competition for wives. Challenges under freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the right to liberty and security of the person all failed.6CanLII. Reference re Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada No later court has disturbed that ruling, and it has effectively closed off Charter arguments against the ban.