Last week a special prosecutor was given the go-ahead to consider polygamy crimes in Bountiful, the Canadian branch of the polygamous FLDS sect. Now Canadian police have renewed their investigation into allegations that dozens of teen brides were spirited across the U.S. border to marry older men.
A special prosecutor looking into potential crimes linked to the community of Bountiful, British Columbia, now has the mandate to weigh polygamy charges after the Canadian province decided a recent court ruling is strong enough to make them stick.
The sect in Bountiful is the Canadian branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Winston Blackmore may have finally met his match: the taxwomen — whom he is facing in a landmark Tax Court trial.
Also on his case: Canadian author and columnist Daphne Branham.
Canadian polygamist Winston Blackmore revealed in a Tax Court he was compelled to pay money to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to prepare for the end of world as prophecied by the sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs.
To date at least 15 different deadlines set by Jeffs have gone and gone.
Polygamous sect leader Winston Blackmore claims he is minister to approximately 400 followers in Bountiful and that they constitute a congregation, which should provide them an enormous break on taxes.
The Government of Canada is seeking to prove that he repeatedly understated his income on tax returns, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars being owed to the government
The polygamous community of Bountiful is not a congregation and by insisting that it is, community leader Winston Blackmore is trying to offload a tax bill on to those who can ill afford to pay it — including young men shipped out of the community to work at low-paying jobs, a federal tax lawyer said on Monday.
Vancouver lawyer Peter Wilson has been named as the new special prosecutor to look into potential criminal offences in Bountiful, British Columbia.
He will be considering potential offences relating to sexual offences against minors, including sexual assault, sexual interference and parents or guardians procuring sexual activity.
Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force will be in Texas from Dec. 12 to 16 to gather information about underage Canadian girls believed to have been victimized by Warren Jeffs, the convicted pedophile and leader of a fundamentalist Mormon group.
Earlier this year, RCMP contacted Texas authorities after learning of 31 child brides with connections to Bountiful.
A judge in British Columbia has decided that Canada’s ban of polygamy does not violate the country’s Charter of Rights.
B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman issued his decision Wednesday, saying that while the ban does indeed violate the freedom-of-religion rights of those practising polygamy, polygamy brings such harm to women and children that they outweigh those rights.
The husbands and wives in the isolated polygamous commune of Bountiful, B.C., are about to learn whether the 121-year-old law that has overshadowed their lives violates their religious freedoms.
A British Columbia judge will rule Wednesday whether Canada’s anti-polygamy law is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms