Former Bountiful bishops found guilty of practicing polygamy

CRANBROOK (NEWS 1130) – Two former bishops of an isolated religious commune in British Columbia have been convicted of practising polygamy.

The verdict against Winston Blackmore and James Oler comes after a decades-long legal fight launched by the provincial government involving the community of Bountiful.

BC Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan says the evidence against Blackmore proves he was married to Jane Blackmore and 24 other women as part of a practice called “celestial” marriages.

Donegan convicted Oler for having five wives.

Blackmore’s defence lawyer told the court during the earlier trial that he would launch a constitutional challenge of Canada’s polygamy laws if his client was found guilty.

Donegan told the Cranbrook court today that Blackmore did not deny his practice of polygamy in a 2009 police statement and spoke openly about his many marriages, which the mainstream Mormon church renounced over a century ago.

The legal fight dates back to the early 1990s when police first investigated allegations that residents of an isolated religious community were practising the “celestial” marriages.

A lack of clarity around Canada’s polygamy laws led to failed attempts at prosecuting Blackmore, followed by several efforts to clarify the legislation, including a constitutional reference question to the BC Supreme Court.

The court ruled in 2011 that laws banning polygamy were valid and did not violate religious freedoms guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Blair Suffredine, Blackmore’s lawyer, says he will apply for a stay of the decision because of its reliance on evidence that was gathered while there was confusion around the legality of Canada’s polygamy laws.

Oler was appointed to lead community members in Bountiful following Blackmore’s excommunication from the sect in 2002 by Warren Jeffs, head prophet of the US-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting two of his child brides.

Much of the evidence in the 12-day trial came from marriage and personal records seized in 2008 by law enforcement officials from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, an FLDS church compound in Texas.

 

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