LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L'ONTARIO

Monday 2 June 2008P

olygamy Statement

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I must say, the Liberals have officially buried their heads in the sand. I’ve never been more disappointed in a group than I have been in this Liberal government by refusing to uphold the rule of law and gender equality rights. By allowing and endorsing illegal polygamous marriages, they are, as John Turley-Ewart says, “giving licence to shariah by stealth.”

Real people are suffering because this Liberal government is ignoring reality. Safia Rigby, a 35-year-old mother of five, learned just the other day that her husband had another wife. He was multiply married by an imam, Aly Hindy, who justifies polygamy this way:“If the laws of the country conflict with Islamic law, if one goes against the other, then I am going to follow Islamic law, simple as that.” That’s why. Others, like Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, ask, “Why are they so wishy-washy? Why aren’t the officials doing something” about it?

I intend to do something about it, even though the Liberals are passing around illegal polygamous marriages like a hot potato around the cabinet table. I am therefore calling on the McGuinty Liberal government to uphold the rule of law by investigating and enforcing the law on these illegal polygamous marriages.

Surely the Liberals will consider the impacts on children and gender equality rights under the Charter of Rights of Freedoms; of course, they will consider the Criminal Code of Canada—or are they secretly putting forward another agenda to bring forward shariah law in Ontario?

These questions need to be asked; they need to be answered by the members opposite and I demand that they do so.