« Judge's ruling warns Brethren | Main | Children of Waco »

February 20, 2007

B.C's blind eye to polygamy

National Post

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/
news/issuesideas/story.html?id=20
cec99c-5986-48d8-a375-
28456c81a3e2&k=35990


RAY ARGYLE
February 20, 2007

The Creston Valley opens up dramatically as one approaches it by road through the Purcell Mountains, a range that towers over this remote district in southeastern British Columbia. The Valley is filled with cherry and apple orchards, hay fields, a bird sanctuary and plush golf courses. Its bountiful crops include the renowned Kokanee beer, brewed by 90 employees of the Columbia Brewery in Creston, a town of 5,000.

More notable is the fact that the Valley's girls produce a lot of babies. Most are fathered by much older men who admit to having several wives. In the most recent period measured by the B.C. Vital Statistics Agency, 69 girls 18 or younger gave birth. All were members of the breakaway sect of fundamentalist Mormons who have created, on the tablelands outside Creston, the polygamous settlement of Bountiful.

Polygamy is illegal in Canada and is punishable by up to five years in prison. Some of the fathers, by virtue of their church status, occupy positions of authority over the young mothers. Normally this would put them in violation of the Criminal Code sanction against sexual touching of their charges. Neither of these seemingly clear-cut legal certainties has prevented the 1,000-strong colony from thriving unchallenged by the RCMP, the courts or the B.C. Attorney-General for nearly 50 years.

As one who grew up in Creston and observed the arrival of families where girls were raised to have babies and boys were taught to defer to their male elders in their choice of wives, I was able to see how this affected the children. The fact I had mainstream Mormon relatives who followed the dictates of their church and rejected polygamy, enabled me to look on the Bountiful experience with some empathy.

The uneasy stand-off at Bountiful raises the question of whether polygamy has now gained de facto legal status in Canada.

Equally worrisome is the legal limbo into which Bountiful residents have been cast. Families are forced to live a quasi-legal existence, mothers are denied access to government social benefits and police and social workers will act only if they receive complaints of child abuse. The rule of silence and obedience imposed by sect leaders ensures none are ever received.

Despite several police investigations, the latest of which is still under review by B.C.'s Criminal Justice branch, authorities have so far declined to prosecute. Two retired B.C. judges told the government that leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints would likely convince a court that the Charter entitles them to engage in polygamy as a religious practice.

The current Attorney General, Wally Oppal, says he doesn't subscribe to that view. He told me he instructed the RCMP to "resurrect" its investigations, adding that "our greatest problem is in getting witnesses who will testify." He is hopeful that may change.

"Invariably where there's polygamy there's abuse of women," Mr. Oppal added. "I'm most concerned about the sexual abuse of young girls."

Winston Blackmore, who leads one of two factions in the Bountiful sect and is reputed to have more than 100 children and 20 wives, has strong views on the Charter of Rights. He told me "the Charter should protect all Canadians as it does the journalists, politicians, homosexuals, swingers and swappers." He bemoans the fact that because the B.C. government declared Bountiful to be a commune in 1988, "no one here has been able to get any social services assistance. The Child Tax Benefit seems to be available for every other Canadian family but not for mine."

Polygamists like Blackmore legally wed only one wife but take "sister wives" in "celestial unions." This is a violation of section 293 of the Criminal Code which outlaws conjugal unions with more than one person at the same time, regardless of whether a binding marriage has taken place.

Were the law against polygamy to be overthrown, Canada would face yet more wrenching changes in family law. Immigration barriers that keep out polygamous families could fall.

In contrast to the advice given B.C., four of five reports commissioned for the federal government urge prosecution of polygamists.

One expert, Rebecca Cook of the University of Toronto, has told Ottawa that "Polygamy is a form of discrimination and therefore a violation of international law. Canada has an obligation to take all appropriate steps."

A dissenting view, and here may lie a solution to the Bountiful stand-off, came from Professor Martha Bailey of Queen's University. She urged that the polygamy law be withdrawn because it does not adequately "address the harms associated with polygamy." A new law could then be framed to deal with such harms. Prof. Bailey would even permit foreign polygamous marriages to be recognized in Canada, arguing that only in this way can the wives and children of these unions be protected.

Few Canadians care today about the sexual proclivities of their neighbours. They do care, however, about brain washing of young girls in fundamentalist Mormon communities who are coerced into entering multiple marriages as a religious obligation.

Winston Blackmore has admitted in an interview that he had been married to at least one girl under 16. In the U.S., Fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs is on trial for statutory rape for his involvement in the coerced marriage of a 14-year-old.

While authorities ponder their next step, public concern is rising. Susan Lambert of the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) says her group is petitioning Premier Gordon Campbell and is "hugely worried about trafficking in women and children from one closed community to another."

Ms. Lambert says the BCTF also opposes diverting public money to schools where there is "obvious subjugation of rights of the children to a quality education." Bountiful's two independent schools now receive $600,000 a year from the B.C. government.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has called on Premier Campbell to look into allegations of "inadequate education and the mistreatment of women and children in Bountiful" but president Jason Gratl says "there's little evidence the province has investigated the underlying problems." The Ministry of Education, he adds, "has done little or nothing."

A continuation of the stalemate at Bountiful will serve only to put women and children at further risk. The Criminal Code's polygamy section and laws on sexual abuse must either be enforced, or replaced with legislation that respects individual rights while protecting women and children from institutionalized sexual and emotional entrapment.

rayargyle1000@msn.com

- - -
- Ray Argyle has reported from the B.C. legislature and is author of Turning Points: the Campaigns that Changed Canada.

Posted by Perry at February 20, 2007 04:25 PM