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Bountiful

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Canada will not appeal a court ruling tossing out criminal charges against two men in polygamous religious sects, authorities in British Columbia said Thursday.

Provincial Attorney General Michael de Jong said that westernmost British Columbia will instead ask its provincial Supreme Court whether Canada’s law against polygamy is constitutional.
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Criminal polygamy charges against B.C., Canada religious leaders Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler were thrown out last Thursday — which, Canada’s National Post writes, means they can continue to practise what they preach: Accept multiple wives, including teenage girls.

But McGill University law professor Angela Campbell isn’t too worried. While she does not endorse polygamy, her research into the religious groups suggests Bountiful is neither a community of horrors nor a utopia.
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Criminal polygamy charges against B.C. religious leaders Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler have been thrown out.

Former attorney-general Wally Oppal did not have authority to appoint a second special prosecutor to the decades-long case after the first one declined to proceed, Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled.
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Winston Blackmore says charges of polygamy against him have not undermined his authority to offer advice on moral issues.

The Globe and Mail earlier this week reported that Mr. Blackmore was offering online advice to women in abusive relationships.

Nancy Mereska, who has campaigned against polygamy, was startled by Mr. Blackmore offering moral advice. All polygamous relationships are abusive, she said in an interview with The Globe and Mail
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Winston Blackmore has yet to enter his plea to the criminal charge of practising polygamy, but he’s already on his third lawyer, has filed for legal aid and asked Utah’s attorney-general for help in having his bail conditions amended.

Blackmore’s new lawyer is Joe Arvay, a well-known human rights and constitutional lawyer, whose firm successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Canada that the Constitution protects gays and lesbians from discrimination.
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Winston Blackmore and James Oler, leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Bountiful, B.C., were charged last month with practising polygamy.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is urging that the constitutionality of the anti-polygamy law be tested by a reference to the Supreme Court of Canada —a recommendation made in earlier legal opinions prepared for the B.C. attorney general.
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The arrests in Canada last month of two fundamentalist Mormon leaders are bringing renewed interest to their polygamous communities near Creston, B.C., and loyal followers living just across the border in Idaho’s Boundary County.

Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, who now head factions of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Canada, face prison terms if convicted of violating that country’s polygamy laws.
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The practice of polygamy sets neighbour against neighbour, parent against child, politician against politician and even some husbands against wives in this southeastern B.C. town.

It’s not that townsfolk here are polygamists. But Creston’s proximity to the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, where some men unabashedly have more than one wife, makes it a more frequent topic than most would like.
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The lawyer for a B.C. polygamous sect leader plans to defend his client’s right to marry more than one woman by citing gay marriage and cohabitation arrangements.

Blair Suffredine, who is representing Winston Blackmore in court Wednesday, will challenge the legitimacy of the Criminal Code’s ban on polygamy, arguing it contravenes religious protections under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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The bitter rivalry between two religious leaders in B.C. charged last week with polygamy could lead to two separate trials, increasing costs and prolonging a process that is already expected to stretch over a number of years.

Mr. Robertson would prefer to have both men on trial at the same time. But Mr. Blackmore and Mr. Oler have the option to ask for separate trials, Mr. Robertson said in an interview.
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The simple answer is that despite having interviewed more than 90 people in B.C., Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada, RCMP were unable to find anyone willing to testify to any of those offenses. And without witnesses or victims, the likelihood of getting a conviction is very low and one of the thresholds for laying charges in British Columbia is crown prosecutors must be convinced that conviction is not only possible, but likely.

The problem with the charge of polygamy against Blackmore and Oler is that there are those in the legal community — including many in the attorney general’s ministry — who believe that the polygamy offense is invalid because of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
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The leader of a fundamentalist Mormon community in Creston condemned polygamy charges laid against him this week, saying they amount to religious persecution tied to politics.

Blackmore’s statement, made at a news conference where he did not take reporters’ questions, point to the legal arguments expected to unfold in the coming court case — the protection of religious rights under the Charter of Rights versus a section of the Criminal Code prohibiting polygamy.
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After decades of controversy and allegations, RCMP swept into the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., on Wednesday and arrested two sect leaders, including one who had bragged of multiple wives and dozens of children and all but dared police to stop him.

Some anti-polygamists were jubilant at the charges laid yesterday but others were bitterly disappointed that B.C. officials chose not to proceed with sexual exploitation charges against Bountiful leaders.
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Two top leaders of the controversial polygamous sect in Bountiful, B.C., have been arrested and charged with practising polygamy.

Oppal said Blackmore is alleged to be married to 20 women, while Oler is accused of committing polygamy by being married to two women.

“This has been a very complex issue,” he told The Canadian Press. “It’s been with us for well over 20 years. The problem has always been the defence of religion has always been raised.”
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Winston Blackmore, who openly admits to having numerous wives and dozens of children, said parents at Bountiful protect their children from abuse.

But he declined to discuss allegations that older men in his community marry teenaged girls – a violation of statutory rape laws – while other girls are sent to sister polygamous groups in the United States to marry older men there.
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Over the past two weeks in two different countries and in very different circumstances, two sisters regained custody of their children. Those children now face vastly different futures.

One set of cousins was returned to their mother after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had improperly seized more than 450 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ walled compound in west Texas.

They will grow up within in a reclusive, polygamous sect where toys, television and books are banned and where church, not family, comes first.

The other cousins have been set free from its strictures. Their mother, Teressa Wall, got full and permanent custody after her estranged husband agreed to a negotiated settlement that was approved by the B.C. Supreme Court.
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Most Read about Bountiful

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1. Freed from Bountiful: a mother wins a battle
2. B.C. polygamist leader decries child sex abuse
3. Canadian polygamist may receive more than $10,000 from the government
4. Canada: two top leaders of polygamous sect arrested
5. Canadian polygamist leaders charged; reaction mixed
6. Canada: Top court must decide polygamy issue, government told
7. Canada: B.C. launches probe into polygamous community
8. Winston Blackmore condemns polygamy charges as religious persecution
9. Polygamist sect on Idaho-B.C. border drawing new scrutiny
10. Analysis: Why Bountiful charges relate to polygamy, not sexual exploitation or abuse

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