An expert on the economic impacts of polygamy on women on Tuesday warned against Canada legalizing the practice of multiple marriages.
The warning came from Dr. Shoshana Grossbard, the third witness to testify at the polygamy trial being heard in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
Grossbard, a professor of economics at San Diego State University, was called as a witness by the Christian Legal Fellowship, a group opposing the legalization of polygamy.
The professor told B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman that there were a number of unintended consequences if Canada allowed polgyamy.
“Were Canada to legalize polygamy one can expect that this would negatively affect education achievement (for women) wherever polygamy is found in the urban centres,” she said.
“It would also cause all women to be under the constant threat their husbands are going to take another wife.”
Grossbard said more competition for scarce women by men leaves many men unmarried, resulting in social problems, such as crime.
“In the cultures and societies worldwide that have embraced it, polygamy is associated with undesirable economic, societal, physical, psychological and emotional factors related to women’s wellbeing,” she said.
Grossbard noted that most African countries and the majority of Asian countries as well as some parts of North America have polygamy.
The “market value” for women will rise if polygamy is permitted, but women don’t necessarily capture their increased market value, with men having an incentive to create institutions that lower women’s bargaining power, she added.
Those institutions include early marriage, with some African polygamous communities seeing child brides as young as 13, arranged marriages, divorce and female circumcision, she said.
Earlier the judge dismissed an application by a lawyer for the B.C. government to ban the use of video affidavits filed in the case on the Internet. One of the affiants, an ex-wife of Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore, had complained about the use of her video testimony on the Internet.
The judge is tasked with the job of deciding whether Canada’s polygamy law is constitutional.
The issue was referred to the court when polygamy charges against Blackmore and another leader in the fundamentalist Mormon community were stayed in 2009.
The trial is expected to run unti the end of January.
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