Muslim polygamy happens in Canada too
February 8, 2008
The Brits are still debating whether or not to allow men with more than one wife to claim additional welfare benefits for the additional brides. Here in Canada, however, it’s full steam ahead!
Hundreds of GTA Muslim men in polygamous marriages — some with a harem of wives — are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.
Mumtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, said wives in polygamous marriages are recognized as spouses under the Ontario Family Law Act, providing they were legally married under Muslim laws abroad.
“polygamy is a regular part of life for many Muslims,” Ali said yesterday. “Ontario recognizes religious marriages for Muslims and others.”
Yes, but not multiple marriages. In Canada, you only get one. If you’d like more than one, get out. You’re more than welcome to move somewhere that allows additional marriages.
He estimates “several hundred” GTA husbands in polygamous marriages are receiving benefits. Under Islamic law, a Muslim man is permitted to have up to four spouses.
What have I been saying about Sharia being barbaric and misogynistic?
However, city and provincial officials said legally a welfare applicant can claim only one spouse. Other adults living in the same household can apply for welfare independently.
The average recipient with a child can receive about $1,500 monthly, city officials said.
That’s a lot of dollars these men are able to claim. And how much actually reaches the women, do you suppose, O Reader?
Look, I know that in Canada, we have kind of shot ourselves in the foot. We’ve more or less done away with restricting marriage based on the gender of the participants, and once you’ve gone that far it seems bloody pointless to quibble about the number of participants. That said, polygamy is still, for the time being, illegal in Canada, and no government at any level has any business treating it as a legal arrangement simply because the actual marriages took place in a country that regards polygamy as legal. If people want to live out that barbaric little custom, let them move to the country they got married in. And reform welfare law to specifically prohibit additional welfare payments to “other adults in the same household” if in fact an investigator determines that the relationship between those “other adults” is of a marital nature.
Asking a lot? Yeah, it probably is, at that. But what’s the alternative? To tolerate that this misogynistic practice within Canada? I. Think. Not.
Kathy has an excellent suggestion as well:
Let Mumtaz and his friends how “liberal” some of us really are by contacting them here:
info@muslim-canada.org
Meanwhile, Toronto City Counsellor Rob Ford is on record as saying this scheme must end. If you agree that parasitical state-sponsored sharia harems have no place in Canadian culture, contact him here:
Phone: 416-397-9255
Fax: 416-397-9238
Community phone: 416-233-6934
councillor_ford@toronto.caWhy not contact our Mayor while you’re at it?
Don’t worry if you aren’t from Toronto: tell him you’ll be boycotting Toronto until the city stops using our extorted tax dollars to support illegal, backward tribal customs.
Mayor David Miller
Toronto City Hall,
2nd Floor, 100 Queen St. West,
Toronto ON M5H 2N2Phone: 416-397-CITY (2489)
Fax: 416-696-3687mayor_miller@toronto.ca
(In Soviet Russia, hat tips you: SDA)
Update: Welcome, Steynians!
