Marriage on trial

The polygamy reference in British Columbia is an opportunity to learn about marriage

December 2, 2010 | by Andrea Mrozek , Manager of Research and Communications, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada
PDF:  Marriage on trial

Endnotes

  1. Criminal Code of Canada.
  2. McMartin, P. (2010, November 23). Polygamy's on trial? How about monogamy? Vancouver Sun, p.A4. Letter to the editor in response by Tom Noort, November 27, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2010 from the Vancouver Sun.
  3. Kreivys, D. (2010, November 18). Economies rise and fall with the family. MercatorNet. Retrieved November 30, 2010 from MercatorNet.
  4. Walberg, R. and Mrozek, A. (2009, June). Private choices, public costs: How failing families cost us all. Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, pp. 9-13 and 22-24.
  5. Akerlof, G.A. (1998). Men without children. The Economic Journal, 108: 287-309 and Gilder, G. (1986). Men and marriage. Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc. Some of the benefits of marriage for men are discussed in The Status of Men, released in November 2010 by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.
  6. Wood, R.G, Goseling, B and Avellar, S. (2007, June 19). The effects of marriage on health: A synthesis of recent research evidence. Washington D.C.: Department of Health and Human Services, pp. 27-42.
  7. Le Bourdais, C., Neill, G., and Turcotte, P. (2000). The changing face of conjugal relationships. Canadian Social Trends, no. 56. p. 15.
  8. Blankenhorn, D. (2007). The future of marriage. New York: Encounter Books.
  9. Blankenhorn, p. 91.
  10. The lack of solid studies regarding outcomes for children of gay parenting made up the testimony of Steven Nock, University of Virginia sociology professor in the Ontario Superior Court in Halpern v. Canada. Halpern v. Canada, [2003] was the case which decided that the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. Nock’s affidavit reads: “Through this analysis I draw my conclusions that 1) all of the articles I reviewed contained at least one fatal flaw of design or execution; and 2) not a single one of those studies was conducted according to general accepted standards of scientific research.”

    The affidavit can be read here.
    Further making this point about the dearth of science on gay parents is a study by William Meezan and Jonathan Rauch called Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Parenting and America’s Children, and published in Future of Children 97, 104 (Fall 2005). “…[T]he authors find that the children who have been studied are doing about as well as children normally do. What the research does not yet show is whether the children studied are typical of the general population of children raised by gay and lesbian couples.”
  11. Godfrey, T. (2008, February 8). Muslims claiming cash for numerous wives. The Toronto Sun.