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Bigamy is still a criminal offense under the Canadian Criminal Code, one which is liable to up to five years imprisonment. Although modern social values and a certain relaxation of specific gender expectations make it easier for women to commit bigamy, in the popular imagination bigamy is a masculine crime. A close analysis of the Criminal Code and its application reflect differentiation of roles based on gender—that is, gender socialization. Yet evidence from the Edmonton judicial district between 1886 and 1969 shows that both men and women engaged in the crime. Indeed, considering the historical context, women committed bigamy at a higher rate that one would normally expect.

In 1985, the Canadian Law Reform Commission recommended to keep both polygamy and bigamy as criminal offences. Its rational to still outlaw polygamy rested on the grounds that such an accommodation would support patriarchal religious practices denigrating women, while bigamy as a criminal offence had its roots in two fundamental institutions of Canadian society: marriage and the family. Two different crimes, but in the mind of the Canadian population they are often blurred.The popular image of bigamists involve family men juggling two wives, a few children, and two homes, each family not knowing of the existence of the other. If we do not imagine this kind of "double life", at the very least, the first impulse is to picture a male villain, a scoundrel. This hardly corresponds to the reality. A systematic study of bigamy cases brought to legal authorities in a number of Canadian local jurisdictions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reveals that very few of the prosecuted bigamists led a "double life".

To make a distinction between political and social reform may appear simplistic, especially when one considers that many turn of the century social reformers were advocates of prohibition, temperance, child welfare and they turned to the pursuit of female enfranchisement, to achieve their goals. Yet, for social reformers contemporary critics, there was a distinction between political and social reforms, and in their eyes, the ones that needed to be urgently implemented were the latter. The review of social reformer Herbert Brown Ames' municipal career shows that he chose to focus on political reform. He did not envision reforms that would radically transform society. Instead, he asked those with means to assume what he believed should be their moral and financial responsibilities towards the less fortunate. He still believed in the hierarchy of classes. He emphasized the importance of honest businessmen holding positions of potential authority, stressing that the key to a better society resided in the establishment of a professional, accountable, and "scientific" municipal government made up of men like himself. His attempt at professionalizing the municipal government should be seen as a first effort at creating a bureaucracy. Ames should be remembered as a paternalist philanthropist businessman who advocated political reforms.

D’origine française, le journaliste Jules Helbronner (1844-1921) fut l’un des plus importants réformateurs sociaux montréalais du début du XXe siècle. En effet, il consacra une importante part de ses écrits aux questions touchant la classe ouvrière, cernant ses problèmes tout en leur proposant des solutions. Dans l’ensemble, son objectif était d’accorder un réel pouvoir politique, économique et social au prolétariat. Rarement condescendant à l’égard des travailleurs, Helbronner cherchait à développer une réelle conscience ouvrière. Il tenait également à réduire, voire même à éliminer, la dépendance des ouvriers envers les élites de la société. Les réformes que Helbronner prônait témoignent de sa grande confiance dans les travailleurs et en leur capacité d’autogestion.French-born journalist Jules Helbronner (1844-1921) was one of Montreal's foremost social reformers of the turn of the century. He wrote extensively on working class issues, identifying problems and proposing solutions, and sought to empower workers. His attitude towards the less fortunate was radically different from that of his Montreal peers. Indeed, Helbronner's discourse rarely took a patronizing turn and he strove to develop a working-class consciousness. He wanted to reduce, and even eliminate, workers' dependence on society's elite. The reform strategies that Helbronner proposed reveal a tremendous faith in the workers' potential and in their ability to rule their own lives