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"If plural marriage is decriminalized by court decision, polygamists will be in the same legal vacuum as gays were after legislative change in 1969. Polygamy will no longer be a criminal offence, but no legal category of plural marriage will exist. Polygamy will simply be a voluntary social practice. But that won't last long, because common-law relationships are now virtually equivalent to marriage in Canadian law.
"Small-scale legal issues will immediately present themselves. Will polygamous immigrants be able to get Canadian divorces from a marriage performed in countries, such as Saudi Arabia, that recognize plural marriages? Will a polygamous man be able to include all his wives and their children as beneficiaries in his employment benefit plans? What happens to his pension after his death? Does it go only to the woman with whom he has been legally married in Canada, or must it be divided among his other common-law wives? These real-world questions cannot be avoided as the numbers of polygamists grow after decriminalization.
"Given the impact on dependent children, it will not be long until plural marriage is fully legalized, either by statute or by the cumulative weight of court decisions dealing with the practical issues arising from polygamy. It took almost four decades to move from the decriminalization of homosexuality to the legalization of same-sex marriage. I doubt it would take a decade for polygamy to follow the same path."
