Get your copy now and avoid the Ramadan rush.
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.
Posted on 02/08/2008 8:05:12 AM PST by fanfan
Islamic leaders: Hundreds in GTA (Greater Toronto Area) get extra welfare for polygamous unions.
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."
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.
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.
FAMILY LAW ACT
In addressing the issue of polygamous marriages, the preamble to the Ontario Family Law Act states: "In the definition of 'spouse,' a reference to marriage includes a marriage that is actually or potentially polygamous, if it was celebrated in a jurisdiction whose system of law recognizes it as valid. R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3, s. 1 (2)."
"There are many people in the community who are taking advantage of this," Ali said. "This is a law and there's nothing wrong with it."
Immigration officials said yesterday that polygamous marriages aren't allowed in Canada, but that contradicts the provincial law.
"Canada is a very liberal-minded country," Ali said. "Canada is way ahead of Britain in this respect."
He said Britain recently began permitting husbands to collect benefits for each of their wives.
The British government recently admitted that nearly a thousand men are living legally with multiple wives in Britain. Although the families are entitled to claim social security for each wife, the department for work and pensions said it has not counted how many are on benefits.
In Canada, Ali said, the man and his main wife and children enter Canada as landed immigrants. The other spouses are sponsored or arrive as visitors to join their husband to share one home.
POSSIBLE FRAUD
The families receiving benefits didn't want their identities released because it can lead to questions by authorities on how they entered Canada and can mean an end to their benefits, Ali said.
Brenda Nesbitt, the city's director of social services, said benefits are only paid to one spouse and names and addresses are cross-checked for possible fraud.
"There may be polygamous cases we are not aware off," Nesbitt said yesterday. "They can apply as single people and we won't know."
Ontario Community and Social Services spokesman Erike Botond said a social assistance benefit may only include one spouse. "Other adults residing in the same dwelling place as a recipient and their spouse may apply as individuals."
"I can assure you that polygamy is not recognized under immigration legislation," immigration spokesman Karen Shadd-Evelyn said yesterday. "A conjugal relationship, whether involving marriage or a common-law partnership, must be exclusive."
Councillor Rob Ford said taxpayers' money should be spent on education and schools instead.
"This is wrong," Ford said yesterday. "They should put a stop to this immediately."
Of course. It dovetails perfectly with the progressive, multicultural, kangaroo-court socialism of Canaduh.
When will the NHL finally be open minded enough to stop a game to allow Muslim hockey players to lay down prayer mats in the middle of the ice to do their prayers?
That's one of the biggest problems I have with the demands for gay marriage. Gay marriage opens the door to the "next step" in "progressive" views of marriage. If gay marriage isn't the end of civilization, I guarantee you that plural marriage, and the "next steps" after it--namely, child marriage and incestuous marriage--are.
Welfare on demand.
Multi-culturalism run amok.
This is what the Dems have in store for us...
Get your copy now and avoid the Ramadan rush.
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.
We can’t impose our White Western Cultural Values on these brown people, that would be discriminatory.
Oh, CanaDUH!
the whole business is an analogy for a virulently spreading cancer..
If I were retiring right now, it would be to Uruguay or Argentina. Great food, educated populations, beautiful women, and the exchange rates are good (unlike in Europe or even Canada).
For now, I will stick it out and fight the good fight in the People's Soviet of New Jersey, aka Sopranostan.
When a nation abandons the conservative principles that guided it from its infancy, new ways to destroy that nation pop up in steady succession.
Costa Rica is overrated, overpriced and has sh-t infrastructure.
I was under the impression (from REAL Muslims!) that in order to have a second wife, a man must be able to support both wives equally. I was told that he would have to be affluent enough to provide a house, car, burqa, beating stick, whatever for both wives equally.
Being on the dole is not what Mohamed meant. Bad MUSLIM!!! NO BOMB BELT FOR YOU!!!
I wonder if Mormons allowed to have multiple wives in Canada?
What everyone in this thread has failed to notice is that the polygamists who are collecting for multiple wives are doing so *illegally*. So this is not an issue of bad rules but one of lax enforcement.
There are two problems illustrated by this story:
1. Ontario is recognizing marriages that are illegal under federal law. When an immigrant has more than one wife, Immigration will only recognize the first marriage, but provincial law seems to grant recognition to all the marriages.
2. We should not be giving welfare to non-citizens, period.
If you read the whole article you will find that neither Mormons nor Muslims can have more than one wife here. There is some ambiguity in the law related to the recognition of foreign marriages by the feds and the province, but no such ambiguity exists in the case of Mormons because Ontario only recognizes marriages that were legal in the country where they took place. Last time I checked, polygamy was illegal in the USA.
Further on this, it appears that the Ontario law recognizing polygamous foreign marriages applies to divorce law. That means a Muslim with more than one wife can be sued for divorce and alimony by all of them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.