As I noted in April and May, the polyamory “community” has begun their push for legal recognition with earnest. This campaign really ramped up in 2024, and activists are using the LGBT playbook to spearhead the next phase of the sexual revolution. I predicted at least one major news article a month sympathetically profiling the agenda of polyamorists, using almost identical language and tactics.
Well, here we are again. This time, the propaganda column appeared in Canadian Affairs, which is a bit on the nose, but I will refrain from too many jokes if I can. The title lets you know where the publication stands right from the get-go: “Love outside the law.” The subtitle: “A sizable number of Canadians are in polyamorous relationships. Canadian law does not recognize them.”
Now, for comparison, here is CTV’s headline from only a month earlier: “Polyamory is growing in Canada, but the legal system hasn’t caught up.” Notice any similarities?
Well, perhaps that’s just coincidence. Let’s try another paragraph. Here is how Canadian Affairs describes the situation:
Data suggest a sizable number of Canadians are in polyamorous relationships. Yet polyamorous families are not generally recognized in Canadian law — leaving them to rely on informal agreements or private contracts to define their rights and responsibilities.
OK, let’s check in with CTV:
As non-traditional relationships become more visible across Canada, a growing number of people are entering into polyamorous relationships. The legal system is struggling to keep up. While polyamory itself is legal, experts say gaps in Canada’s legal framework leave multi-partner families navigating uncertain terrain when it comes to property, parenting and financial protections.
Right. Let’s see what Canadian Affairs frames this … ahem … state of affairs:
“I think this must have been what it was like for same‑sex couples 40 years ago, going to lawyers trying to get their … rights and responsibilities of their relationship defined,” said Hilary Angrove, a family lawyer in Toronto.
Back to CTV again:
(Lawyer Marcus) Sixta said his west coast office is seeing more people in polyamorous relationships seek legal advice, as clients try to navigate the lagging legal system. “The laws are generally slow to catch up with social changes,” Sixta said. “Usually the social changes occur first … and then there’s pressure on the government to make changes.”
Just for fun, back to Canadian Affairs:
Loignon, the Toronto therapist, says institutions are lagging behind social reality. “Love doesn’t always exist within one simple container,” she said. “A stigma still exists culturally, but people are evolving faster than institutions … which largely operate from a more archaic relationship framework.”
See what they did there? Paragraph by paragraph, Canadian Affairs and CTV are making the precisely same case in almost precisely the same language, with nearly identical quotes from interchangeable yet different polyamory advocates. I’ll give Canadian Affairs only one bit of credit — it did, at least, call Peter Jon Mitchell at Cardus and quoted his defense of monogamy as the preferential family unit. But this nod to objectivity did nothing to disguise the thrust of the article, and no reader was left in doubt as to their position.
I am not suggesting that Canadian Affairs plagiarized from CTV. I am observing that they are both players in the same propaganda effort, and that thus their efforts strongly resemble a “copy-and-paste” — because of course they do. They’re taking their talking points from the same playbook for the same purpose. These aren’t the first articles to make the same arguments using the same language, and they won’t be the last. The activists and their propagandists are just getting started.
