In Being Canadian -- Canadian Values

"Honour-based killings are nothing more than murders. We will be working through this bill to make sure that such killings are considered the murders that we know them to be. There is absolutely no room for ambiguity."
"We intend on sending a strong message to those in Canada and those who wish to come to Canada that we will not tolerate cultural traditions in Canada that deprive individuals of their human rights."
"With this bill, we would be standing up for immigrant women who have come to Canada for a better life. [The bill would] show quite clearly that our Canadian values do not extend to barbaric acts."
Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

Canada's Immigration Minister Chris Alexander speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa November 4, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

The bill under discussion is the awkwardly named but quite explicit Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act. Any action that would represent a cultural practise clearly against the bill would represent a criminal offence. It would represent a criminal offence to participate in or officiate at the marriage of an underage child. The act of travelling with a child or sending that child out of Canada for a forced marriage would also represent a criminal act. As it does morally.

The government's proposal to set the age of 16 as the national age of marriage was introduced in legislature in the House of Commons this week; its purpose is, to help keep "barbaric cultural practices" out of the country. The Justice department has recommended the provinces have judges sign in permission of marriages involving people between the ages of 16 and mature adulthood.

At the present time parental consent only is required. By some interpretations someone as young as seven is able, with parental consent, to marry.

The Criminal Code will be amended to reflect that the defence of provocation may no longer apply in cases of "honour killings". Two dozen criminal cases involving honour-based violence have surfaced since 1995.

The practice of polygamy would be unequivocally outlawed as a criminal practise. Those practising polygamy would be disallowed to emigrate from a country of origin to Canada with a spouse. Those discovered after the fact to be in polygamist relationships would be found inadmissible, and removed.
African and Arab countries may find their practices reflected in these Canadian culture-taboo values.


The Department of Foreign Affairs has revealed it has received about 100 requests for consular assistance in forced marriage cases. In Ontario alone agencies reported 219 cases of forced marriage in the last two years with over a third of the victims between the ages of 12 and 18.

Officials with the Canadian Society of Muslims were reported to have estimated that hundreds of men in the Toronto are are practising polygamists. And all too often society picks up the costs of those relationships through social welfare. In the matter of polygamy there has been some controversy related to the reality that polygamy is recognized and is legal in many countries of the world, notably Muslim-majority countries.

"This new admissibility provision related to polygamy, even with the availability of tools to mitigate impact, will certainly create bilateral irritants since polygamy is recognized under civil law in 50 countries (e.g., United Arab Emirates) and under customary law in 12 countries (e.g. South Africa). This could also lead to reciprocity-related decisions by partner countries."
"[Foreign Affairs and Immigration] will work closely to develop an engagement strategy with bilateral partners to not only make them aware of impending changes, but also to mitigate the expected negative impact of this tabling of the bill and its expected rapid coming into force."
Internal government briefing

Both distinctly Canadian as a values compact, and reflective of a free society for whom gender equality is a right, not a privilege.