An Edmonton man who admitted he was married to a city woman for a
decade despite already being married to another woman was fined $1,200
yesterday.
And that has the two angry and upset women feeling like they were just given another "slap in the face."
Both Sheila Westwong and Lucie Brunet said outside court they were extremely "disappointed" with the fine and felt their so-called husband should have been punished a whole lot more for what he has put them through.
"I mean, $1,200 for the 10 years and all the emotional and financial abuse," said Westwong. "It is pretty much a slap in the face."
Brunet agreed. "It's just not good enough," she said.
Gordon Howard Krell, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of bigamy and one count of careless storage of a firearm.
Crown prosecutor John Kennedy told provincial court police were called to a north Edmonton home in 2007 when Westwong reported her husband had left a rifle wrapped in a blanket in a closet.
When the officer arrived, he was told by Westwong that Krell, her husband of 10 years, had not been divorced from his second wife when he married her in 1999.
Court heard the two women had met and discovered the truth about the man they were both still married to.
Kennedy said Krell is a legitimate bigamist, but noted he was not trying to live two married lives at the same time.
"He wasn't ducking from House A to House B trying to conduct two marriages simultaneously," said Kennedy, adding that while in the 1950s a person could get prison time for bigamy, recent cases typically end up with fines.
Defence lawyer Jeffrey Klassen told court Krell is remorseful over what he did and handed Westwong $200 cash to pay for her costs to get an annulment.
"He admits he did this to the two women and he is not proud of it," said Klassen.
Judge Elizabeth Johnson said the proposed fine wasn't something that "leaps to mind" as a sentence, but ruled it was not inappropriate under the circumstances.
"This is certainly not a case of deception where he is running from one household to another," said Johnson. "Nevertheless, it is still a criminal offence."
In a victim impact statement, Westwong wrote she is now "almost scared of loving someone wholeheartedly."
Outside court, Westwong, 45, said she and Krell were married in a legal ceremony near Wabamun on July 3, 1999.
On March 14, 2007, she returned home to find him gone and his wedding ring left on a dresser. She ended up calling his sister and discovering he was already married to Brunet, whom she met a couple of days later.
Westwong said she was "totally devastated" when she learned her husband of a decade was already married.
"It shattered my whole world," she said. "For 10 years I've been living a lie. He stole that from me and I'll never get it back. How could someone do that to another person?"
By Tony Blais of The Edmonton Sun
The Edmonton woman should feel good that they even charged the man.
In Saskatchewan, a woman was not charged with Polyandry. Police refused to press charges, citing that it was only a common law marriage, so it could not constitute polygamy or bigamy. In Saskatchewan, persons who "cohabitate as spouses" have identical rights to married persons. Including the right to have multiple spouses in law. The woman, Tami Thurlow (married to a man in Ontario) was found to be the legal "common-law spouse" of the Saskatchewan man, who claimed he did not wish to be her spouse and had never consented to be her spouse.
The woman did not deny that he had not consented to be her spouse. The judge declared it didn't matter, because they "cohabitated" " "as spouses" for 2 yrs. The man claimed they did not because the woman was married for most of that time. He argued that to cohabitate as spouses the woman would have had to be capable in law of being married. Obviously, a married person is not capable in law of marrying again. The judge chose to ignore that small matter. In 1999, the same Saskatchewan justice department decided identically in the case of Winick. In both cases, the Saskatchewan justice system sent constitutional representatives to court to defend their multiple spouse law. The Canadian Attorney General declined to send representatives to defend Canada's polygamy law. The judgement is available online at canlii.org. The judgement went on to say it wouldn't matter whether they had married or lived common law (paraphrase)..it would have still been a legal conjugal union.
Polygamy is legal in Saskatchewan Canada!
Saskatchewan family law allows a married person to be the same time conjugal union partner (cohabitation as spouses) even while one or both of the cohabitants is legally married (not divorced) to another person.
In 2009 a Saskatchewan judge named Koch, proclaimed that despite the man's belief that he was not in a "married-state" or conjugal union with the married woman, they did cohabitate as spouses. They lived in the man's home, she was married to a man in Ontario with no seperation agreement, despite the fact she could have simply moved back in with her husband and stayed married...the Saskatchewan judge ruled them to be spouses under section 51 of the Saskatchewan Property Act. This act states "when a person becomes the spouse of a person who has a spouse....". The issue is that Saskatchewan Canada has now legalized polygamous unions in case law.
One judge who is on record in the trial claimed he felt four was a good number of spouses for a person to have although he admitted they could have as many spouses as they wished under Saskatchewan law.
Posted by: Shelly W | June 04, 2009 at 08:20 AM