Canada: Leaders Of Polygamist Group Arrested

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Two top leaders of a polygamous community in western Canada have been arrested and charged with practicing polygamy, British Columbia's attorney general said Wednesday.

Attorney General Wally Oppal said Winston Blackmore is charged with marrying 20 women, while James Oler is accused of marrying two women. Oppal, who said the charges carry a maximum penalty of five yeras in prison, said the case will be the first test of Canada's polygamy laws.

"This has been a very complex issue," he said. "It's been with us for well over 20 years. The problem has always been the defense of religion has always been raised."

Blackmore, long known as "the Bishop of Bountiful," runs an independent sect of about 400 members in the town of Bountiful. He once ran the Canadian arm of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was ejected in 2003 by that group's leader, Warren Jeffs.

Oler is the bishop of Bountiful's FLDS community loyal to Jeffs. Even though many of the town's residents are related or have same last name, followers of the two leaders are splintered and are not allowed to talk with each other.

FLDS members practice polygamy in arranged marriages, a tradition tied to the early theology of the Mormon church. Mormons renounced polygamy in 1890 as a condition of Utah's statehood.

Last June, Oppal appointed a special prosecutor to look into allegations of criminal abuse at Bountiful despite two earlier legal opinions that said it would be difficult to proceed with criminal charges for polygamy itself.

Blackmore openly acknowledges having numerous wives and dozens of children but has said his community abhors sexual abuse of children.

Story continues below

advertisement

Oppal said some legal experts believe polygamy charges won't withstand a constitutional challenge in Canada over the issue of freedom of religion.

"I've always taken the position that's a valid offense in law," Oppal said. "And if someone says that it's contrary to their religion, let a judge make that decision."

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said Oler and any other FLDS member who might be charged would face their accusers.

"No one is running," Jessop said. "We believe that our religion is being discriminated against and that there are many goverment officials working with each other to carry out a vendetta of hatred and are determined to end our way of life."

Jessop said the FLDS church does not condone or practice underage marriage.

Last April, Texas authorities raided an FLDS ranch and put more than 400 children into foster care. The children were returned to their parents in June after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state overstepped in removing all the children when it only had evidence of abuse or neglect involving about a half-dozen teenage girls.

The FLDS, with an estimated 10,000 members, is headquartered in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. In 1947, a small group moved just across the border into Lister, British Columbia. The newcomers dubbed the pristine spot at the base of a snowy mountain range Bountiful.

Besides an estimated 1,000 Canadians living in Bountiful, the U.S. Embassy estimates there are about 300 Americans there who are loyal to Blackmore and 200 others who follow Jeffs, who is in jail awaiting trial in Arizona on four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

Comments

[themodernleader]

The Mormons in our country and the Muslums elsewhere understand that a man must be able to support more than one wife to have more than one wife. The women understand that criterion also. And it is an established practice in Muslum communities outside the United States.

[Retrofuturistic]

The Mormon religion was designed to justify pedophilia.

All religions are based on lies and were designed for the following purposes: power, control (of women), and profit.

[chayefsky]

What's Jessop's definition of "underage"? 4 years old?

[totalliberal]

No religion should ever be "above" the law. He'll lose.

[PastelDresses]

BANKING ON HEAVEN . COM

[longnow]

Where do you think L Rod Hubbard got his "inspiration" for Scientology
and their tax exemption? He figured if the LDS can do it (with God living
on the planet Kolob) he could do it to, and he did.

[longnow]

HA! Big Love Blackmore bites the dust. Who will testify against this mob capo pedo?
Ask 20 Mormon women 5 questions and you'll get 40 different answers depending
on the time of day. Of course these aren't officially Mormons. These are Mormons the day
after local and federal government and law enforcement disappears, which could be about
5 yrs off.

[ericmiami]

Not good news for MItt Romney!

[williamina]

weird

[nobozos]

I might add.....
In addition to Krakauer's book, which does document mental and sexual abuse (i.e. teen age girls forced to marry icky old men in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s) -- check out the exceptional HBO series "Big Love".
The acting and writing is excellent, and you really get the human view of the religiosity of polygamy.

[nobozos]

Krakauer's excellecnt book is titled "Under the Banner of Heaven", which opens with the 1984 brutal murders of a woman and her baby by her two FLDS brothers-in-law, and traces the history of the church back to Joseph Smith. Fascinating reading from the award winning journalist who also wrote "Into the Wild", which Sean Penn made into a movie, and "Into Thin Air", about the deaths of so many renown mountaineers on Everest in 1996.

[longnow]

Want the hair to stand up on the back of your neck?
Read "Under The Banner Of heaven" by Jon Krakauer.
You will find out what makes them such good lawyers
and con artists.

Feeling a little out of touch with the world? After reading
this book you will feel sane by comparison. Very therapeutic.

[trisha08]

Go the the Salt Lake Tribune online. They have a section for polygamy. Even though the Mormon church backs away from polygamy, they don't to anything to discourage it either. In fact, they will defend them tooth and nail. It's sick.

[watchingthings]

Somehow I think he's darn good at it. I doubt that he's just practicing.

[S1m0n]

That's my attorney-general in my province, and I'm among the many Canadians who don't think this law can survive a charter test., nor should it.

There are a great many reasons to be skeptical of the goings on at Bountiful, but not one of those things has a thing to do with the number of wives, or of husbands.

Yes, investigate the participants' ages; the power relationships going on; concerns about the traffiking of brides between various of this sect's compounds--look into it all. Things don't smell so good up there.

~~

But the only cases which warrant an actual criminal prosecution must be those in which the alleged act is just as illegal if done monogamously as it is done in any other way. If not -- if the only criminal element is the number of people involved--then it's none of the government's business, and should be thrown out of court at the first hurdle.

~~

One of the Supremes hearing the famous "Loving v. Virginia" (mixed marriage) case issued a concurring dissent, and said simply that no act can be a crime which is so only because of the race of the actor.

The same principle applies here: nothing which is legal for two to do should be criminal because it is done by three.

[Downix]

that is partly the point, what is being done in many cases *is* illegal if done by two, such as pedophelia, rape, incest, forced marriage, abuse....

[Name Not In Use]

Thank-you for posting.

That is a very succinct principle.

"The same principle applies here: nothing which is legal for two to do should be criminal because it is done by three."

Does it matter if two are adults and one is a child or is that an issue here?

If it turns out that polygamy is legal in Canada as part of a religious practice what are the long-term implications for Canada?

Some things are just plain wrong and illegal no mater what.

We wouldn't allow any religious practitioners to commit human sacrifice.

Is human sacrifice the only exception to free practice of religious freedom?

We will be watching how Canada manages this with interest and the usual fascination with anything having to do with other peoples sexual relationships.

[Furby]

Polygamy will not be challenged in this case. I think the case will be built on statutory rape or child abuse or at least that's the impression we're getting. Canada doesn't take kindly to these a-holes, we've managed to send a few of them away already.

[Fight4Freedom2008]

"The divorce between church and state ought to be absolute. It ought
to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no church property
anywhere, in any state, or in any nation, should be exempt from taxation,
for if you exempt the church property of any church organization, to that
extent you impose tax upon the whole community.­"
[US Pres. James A. Garfield,
speech to Congress, June 22, 1874]

[nobozos]

I couldn't agree more. I live in a small city with a church on every other corner, often prime real estate, many Mormon and Nazarene.
Both churches preach politics from the pulpit, forcing their religious views on the rest of us from the voting booth, yet it is MY tax dollars that pay for the church properties' fire and police protection, school bonds that support their many children (Mormons are directed to have 7), sewer, water and road infrastructure, etc., and it is unfair.

If, say, a riding club gets a tax exempt status, they have to open their books to prove they're non-profit and have no political agenda. Not so with churches. A church should pay property taxes at the very least to relieve the burden placed on the rest of the community.

Anyone really interested in the history and current status of the FLDS should read Jon Krakauer's excellent book "Under the Banner of Heaven". The names Blackmore, Oler, Jessop and Jeffs feature prominently.

[lizziekw]

I don't really care if people marry more than one person. As long as everyone's an adult and it's not some kind of cult that's brainwashing and forcing young girls to marry. They should also be able to afford it. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a guy marrying 15 women, having 40 kids and most of them getting welfare.

But if they're going to have cults, which it seems they are, then is there some sort of religious prohibition on hairdressers? Every time they bust one of these polygamous marry-sisters-at-13 cults, there's not a decent haircut in the bunch. I'm concerned.

[AmandaBC]

"I don't really care if people marry more than one person. As long as everyone's an adult and it's not some kind of cult that's brainwashing and forcing young girls to marry. They should also be able to afford it. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a guy marrying 15 women, having 40 kids and most of them getting welfare."

No government could ever check and enforce all of that. Just think about the costs! The current law in Canada is a good compromise.

You want to live with 10 partners? Fine, but why do you have to marry them?

[pjlowry]

I'm not sure if this can stand up to a constitutional challenge. if this is a case of consenting adults getting into a marriage, how can banning this be any different than banning gay marriage? Don't get me wrong, I don't want additional spouses, but if they do and it works for them... who are we to tell them how to live their lives as long as no other laws are being broken?

[SiberianRat]

I agree. Maybe it should be allowed, just as long as both genders are allowed to do it. There should be some guidelines though, no? Even Islam has some pretty strict guidelines about it in the Quran.

[Mort]

One word... children!

[Seldon]

What about children?

[terry52]

I don't care what religion they are, I am in agreement with the comment that church should be taxed. We know that in the general election many church leaders in the evanglicial community were telling their parishioners not to vote for obama,here again we see church and state committing fornication with each other just as the bible clearly says they would.

[11907281]

If they can go out in to the "real" world and find another person who is not part of their cult to agree to this, then fine ... enjoy. But they don't, they essentially trade their daughters to each other once they reach the right age "in gods eyes". I would be fine with polygamy if everyone involved reached that decision on their own, but that is not the case with FLDS.

[tay tay]

It's the abuse of the rights of others that should be outlawed, and that includes the indoctrination of young minds being poisoned in the name of religion.
The ruse is that religions give the oppressor the convenient escape clause when it comes to bigotry and domination, 'its god's will'.

[terry52]

Touche!!!!!!!!!!!!