Posted on 05/12/2008 7:01:28 AM PDT by ansel12
The April 3 police raid of a polygamist compound in West Texas, which has mushroomed into the largest child abuse investigation in the nation's history, has unnerved polygamists across the country and into Canada. There, authorities have long wanted to halt the rituals of plural marriages and underage sex in Bountiful, British Columbia. "Clearly, they know that the spotlight is on them," Wally Oppal, the province's attorney general, said of the approximately 3,000 residents of Bountiful, near the American border and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Oppal said that for 25 years, law enforcement and justice officials in Canada have wanted to put a stop to certain activities in Bountiful, a community of reclusive residents without a store or a restaurant.
"We hear of events that are said to be taking place that involves the scenario of 55-year-old men marrying 15-year-old girls," he said.
But authorities have hit roadblocks over the years because of the refusal of Bountiful girls to accuse the older men of any wrongdoing. In fact, Oppal said, the girls nearly always claim to be the aggressors, or "pursuers," of romantic relationships with the men.
And while polygamy is a crime in Canada, drawing a maximum punishment of five years in prison, it is also a crime to infringe on someone else's religious rights, creating an impasse in finding ways to prosecute, according to the attorney general.
However, Oppal said he hopes the momentum that began in Texas will reach British Columbia, helping him pursue charges of polygamy against some Bountiful residents within two to three weeks.
"We know now that the problem is international and that there is movement of people between here, Utah, Arizona and Texas," he said.
Winston Blackmore, the leader of more than half the polygamists in Bountiful, said in an exchange of e-mails that he is angered by Texas' decision last month to raid the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch, 45 miles south of San Angelo, and take custody of 463 children. (The number rose to 464 when an underage girl gave birth, according to Texas officials.)
"I do not like what the state of Texas has done to those people, and strongly urge them to get the children back to their mothers," Blackmore wrote.
"The children have already been traumatized by their church and now the state," he wrote. "Oh, God, how much more suffering can the children stand?"
Blackmore's dislike of Texas authorities is equal to his aversion to Warren Jeffs, the jailed "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. An estimated 40 percent of Bountiful residents are members of the FLDS, which also operated the polygamist ranch in Texas.
Jeffs, who was convicted in Utah on sex abuse charges for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin, "has ruined hundreds of families of men who were in our faith," Blackmore wrote.
"Most of the people in the Texas compound are the spoils of ruined and ransacked families taken by Warren and those faithful to his new teachings," he wrote.
Blackmore, who is believed to have at least 20 wives and possibly more than 100 children, would only say, "I have lots of family." He also disavowed underage marriages, saying, "My daughters are finishing school, have no fear of being married off underage, have plans on going to [a] university ... and when they say, 'I do,' it will be because they really meant that they have found someone that they can spend all the rest of their life with."
Nevertheless, Blackmore did not rule out the possibility that his Canadian community would be raided, as was the polygamist ranch in Texas, in a move that Blackmore called "a religious campaign against those people."
"I don't know," Blackmore said, "what Wally Oppal is planning on doing."
"We know now that the problem is international and that there is movement of people between here, Utah, Arizona and Texas," he said."
Just the kind of dirty bag that needs to be invited to a neck tie party. He could be the guest of honor and have the first air dance.
It’s hard enough having a strong loving relationship with one spouse. Multiple spouses would make it impossible. Multiple spouses is all about control and sex unter the pre-text of “religion”. It’s really just a power play.
You can add in brain washing and abuse.
The caveat was - I believe, that anyone have the power and or trust of a person under 18 years, then using that to have sexual relations, can be charged. This is a criminal offence and the penalty is up to five years prison.
Out in Nova Scotia at the opposite end of Canada, headlines were made about a case in point. A high school teacher of 39 years of age, is being charged and will appear in July. The charge is sexual relations with a 17 year old student. His defenders, writing on the website of a Nova Scotia newspaper, said the publicity has already ruined him. This could be the case.
Blackmore is very press savvy. His well being depend on the brainwashing of females holding up. Only one is needed to put his freedom in jeopardy. One can imagine the psychological pressure he is exerting on those females at this time.
When the US government came down on the Mormons, the church was forced to give up “The Principle” and encouraged the polygamists to go to Canada or Mexico. Mexico turned out to be a bust because of the criminals.
“Blackmore is very press savvy. His well being depend on the brainwashing of females holding up. Only one is needed to put his freedom in jeopardy. One can imagine the psychological pressure he is exerting on those females at this time.”
That was my impression of him also, he comes off as charming and likable on camera and he seems cagey.
It also begs the question how does one man support 20 wives and 100 children?
Welfare fraud is how one man in the FLDS supports 20 wives and 100 children. A check from the Government they hate, despise, and distrust is what they use to live on....you know, like typical liberals.
Yea, they work the welfare system for everything they’re worth. So basically you and I are funding their entire clan.
Ping
Read this for more info on how these child-rape cults operate:
The Primer---Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities
You can add in brain washing and abuse.
The brain washing and abuse is a natural outcome of polygamy, IMO. There has to be some way to control all those people and that's going to end up being it.
“The children have already been traumatized by their church and now the state,” he wrote. “Oh, God, how much more suffering can the children stand?”
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“traumatized by their church” ????????
I thought polygamy was supposed to be “beatiful” and this lifestyle the way to “heaven” ????
Is this a case of send all those “suffering” children (read under-age girls) to me ????????
“beautiful”
Blackmore is playing to the media and politicians. He is castigating the FLDS led by Jeffs, etc and is trying to paint a wholesome picture of his compound in Bountiful CA. He doesn’t want the CA gov’t to come down on his group.
I'll just bet there are SOME who wishes that INFRINGING is equivalent to BASHING!!
And we say that THEY are the dumb ones!
Thank you for posting the article.
Well, there goes the insistence that no one has ever tried to put a stop to this before, and the insistence that it only occurred at the YFZ Ranch.
I think Blackmore may be part of the solution. He got excommunicated by Warren Jeffs a couple of years ago, and convinced over half the FLDS members in Bountiful to renounce Warren and follow him instead. He seems to be the most successful leader of the simmering rebellion against the paranoid extremism that Warren Jeffs imposed on the group. He may not be OUR idea of a fine upstanding citizen, but he’s definitely better than Warren Jeffs, and set a psychologically important example by emerging victorious from being ex’ed by Jeffs. The fear of being ex’ed seems to be Jeffs’ chief instrument of control over his people. And if Blackmore is telling the truth about his daughters finishing high school and heading to college (which I would think the Canadian media could verify pretty easily), then he’s not a hard core cultist who keeps people under his control by preventing them from having any first hand knowledge of other options.
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