state of Idaho following Blackmore’s excommunication from the sect in 2002 by Warren Jeffs, considered the prophet and leader of the group.Īuthorities have said Jeffs still leads the sect from a Texas prison, where he is serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides. Oler was chosen to lead the Canadian community just north of the U.S. The group’s main base is in a small community on the Utah-Arizona border in the United States. The two will be sentenced at future hearings.īlackmore and Oler are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that believes in plural marriage. Under Canadian law, the maximum penalty they will each face is five year in prison. This is what we expected.”īlackmore and Oler were prosecuted as part of an investigation first launched in the early 1990s by the provincial government. “Twenty-seven years and tens of millions of dollars later, all we’ve proved is something we’ve never denied. “I’m guilty of living my religion and that’s all I’m saying today because I’ve never denied that,” Blackmore told reporters after the verdict. His lawyer Blair Suffredine has already said Blackmore would challenge the constitutionality of Canada’s polygamy laws if his client was found guilty. ![]() “There was a resistance to being in the spotlight, especially in the spotlight as a plural wife,” said Campbell at the time.Winston Blackmore, 60, and James Oler, 53, were found guilty by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan, who said the evidence was clear that Blackmore was married to 25 women at the same time and that Oler was married to five women in the tiny community of Bountiful.īlackmore, 60, never denied having the wives as part of his religious beliefs that call for “celestial” marriages. This, they said, make it more difficult for women to seek help and support in times of need. What does harm to the community, the women said, is the prohibition of polygamy, as it fuels stigma and isolation. ![]() Some said they felt empowered and confident, as the practice of polygamy is a cornerstone of their religious faith. When it comes to the wives of Bountiful in particular, many in polygamous marriages told McGill researcher Angela Campbell in 20 that they did not feel oppressed or vulnerable in their relationships. The group has argued that any acts of violence, rape, or child abuse are already treated as crimes, and are mutually exclusive from the act of polygamy. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, in particular, has actively opposed the laws because they criminalize acts between consenting adults, something that is not a crime. While many religious and women’s rights groups praised that decision as one that would protect women and children, other civil libertarians and feminist scholars vehemently oppose the criminalization of the practice - and call for the decriminalization of polygamy. In that 335-page ruling, the judge acknowledged that while the law does violate freedom of religion, it’s nevertheless justified due to the harms that polygamy imposes on women and children. That prompted the government to launch a constitutional case that upheld the country’s anti-polygamy criminal laws in 2011. ![]() In 2009, polygamy charges against Blackmore and Oler were thrown out over the method that the province chose the special prosecutor. Oler then replaced him, but Blackmore continued to lead his own splinter group. In 2002, Jeffs excommunicated Blackmore, who was then the FLDS leader in Bountiful, for reasons that remain unclear. This includes the U.S.-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), formerly led by Warren Jeffs, who is serving life in prison for multiple child rape convictions. The mainstream Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in Utah officially renounced polygamy in the late 1800s and denies any connection to Blackmore and other fundamentalist Mormon congregations. Oler did not have a lawyer in the proceedings and did not defend himself, either. It’s unclear how many children Oler has.īlackmore’s lawyer has previously pledged to launch a constitutional challenge against the country’s laws prohibiting polygamy should his client be convicted. Blackmore has fathered a reported 148 children. The pair face the possibility of spending years in jail for the crimes.īoth Blackmore and Oler, 53, are former bishops over fundamentalist Mormon sects in Bountiful, a religious commune of about 1,000 people in southeastern British Columbia.
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