Tag: Bountiful

Cult leader Bert Potter dies; a look at how Jim Jones manipulated politicians in San Francisco; and Kate Bornstein is no longer afraid to speak out about Scientology.

Also in this religion news briefing: the rise of paid, online worship in India; plus: 15 years after committing suicide the website of the Heaven’s Gate cult is still online.

Plus: why more Ugandans are turning to Witchcraft, and why a lawer thinks trafficking in brides might be OK.

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.

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.

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.

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.