That reference case concluded in 2012 with the B.C. Supreme Court upholding the law on the basis that polygamy\u2019s harms were sufficient to warrant a limit on religious freedom as well a freedom of association and expression.<\/p>\n
Referring the law to the court was initially recommended a decade ago by the first special prosecutor, Richard Peck. He said a reference was preferable to a trial, which could be \u201ca cumbersome and time-consuming process\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peck said \u201can authoritative statement from the courts\u201d was needed because since the 1990s, the B.C. attorney general\u2019s ministry had refused to press charges based on legal opinions suggesting that the law was invalid.<\/p>\n
Peck disagreed and wrote that the harms of polygamy were extensive enough that they would likely be considered a reasonable limit on Charter-protected freedoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cReligious freedom in Canada is not absolute,\u201d he said. \u201cRather it is subject to reasonable limits.\u201d<\/p>\n