Canada has polygamists. Canada has criminal laws against polygamy. Canada also has laws that protect religious freedom. What to do? In British Columbia, a prosecutor has decided, after 20 years of debate and inaction, to enforce the polygamy law, arresting two leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS.

This will push the issue of the constitutionality of the polygamy law before the Supreme Court, who will be tasked with deciding whether the religious freedoms of the FLDS members protect are infringed by the anti-polygamy law. Unlike in the recent arrests in Texas, the province has let the two arrested men return to their homes, and those quoted in the article think it will take years before the constitutionality is decided.