Polygamy leader sues BC for unlawful prosecution
POLYGAMY / Blackmore and his family were put under 'extreme stress and anxiety,' says statement of claim
Jeremy Hainsworth / Vancouver / Thursday, February 04, 2010
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Southeastern BC polygamous leader Winston Blackmore is suing the province of British Columbia for unlawful prosecution after charges of polygamy were quashed last year.

BC Supreme Court Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled in September that former provincial attorney general Wally Oppal had no authority to appoint a second special prosecutor in the cases of Blackmore and James Oler after the first special prosecutor recommended against charging the two fundamentalist Mormons from Bountiful, BC.

Stromberg-Stein ruled the appointment of the second was “unlawful” and quashed the appointment.

As a result, any decisions in the charging made by the men were also unlawful.

Blackmore’s lawyers called the situation one of “prosecutor shopping.”

Now, in a suit filed in BC Supreme Court the week of Jan 10 by lawyer Joe Arvay, Blackmore says he suffered loss of business and other economic costs as well as pain and suffering, mental distress, anxiety and public embarrassment.

“He and his family were put under extreme stress and anxiety,” the statement of claim reads.

Blackmore has admitted to having multiple wives.

He is seeking general damages, aggravated damages, punitive damages, special damages and costs for the suit.

The suit maintains Blackmore should receive damages since the case, which caused the suffering, was ruled unlawful.

The original case has spurred a constitutional reference before the BC Supreme Court to determine the legality of the anti-polygamy law.

Current Attorney General Mike de Jong called for the reference, telling Xtra West “we believe polygamy is against the law and should remain against the law.”

Members of Canada’s polyamorous community are expected to take part in the case.

The reference to determine if Section 293 of the Criminal Code violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will be heard by BC Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman. No date has been set.

Arvay was the lawyer who took the Little Sister’s bookstore case against Canada Customs book seizures to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Blackmore’s former lawyer suggested the men might use Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage as part of their defence. Parliament extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples in 2005.

Blackmore was long known as “the Bishop of Bountiful” until he came into conflict with now-disgraced and jailed Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) “Prophet” Warren Jeffs.

Blackmore runs an independent group of about 400 people in the hamlet, only hundreds of metres from the US border.

He once ran the Canadian wing of the Utah-based FLDS but was ejected by Jeffs.

Oler is the bishop of Bountiful’s FLDS community and is one of Jeffs’s followers convicted by a Utah jury in 2007 on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice.

FLDS members practise polygamy in arranged marriages, a tradition tied to the early theology of the Mormon Church. The mainstream church renounced polygamy in 1890, but several fundamentalist groups left the main church in order to continue the practice.


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Reader Comments


 
WINSTON BLACKMORE
The goings-on in the illegal polygamous community of Bountiful, BC, are a sick joke. In 2009 the RCMP presented an Affidavit in BC Supreme Court stating that Winston Blackmore has impregnated NINE underage girls whom he took as his "celestial wives." There is nothing celestial or heavenly in impregnating underage kids. In spite of having this irrefutable proof, the AG has not approved charges against WB. Religious practices do not give middle-aged men carte blanche to impregnate underage girls and our A-G's department knows that. So why have they got this "hands off" policy for this criminal? As for WB's claiming that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows him to legally practise his religion, WB carefully ignores the fact that Canada ratified the Protocol on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states in Article 18 (3) that everyone is allowed to practise their religion BUT ONLY TO THAT POINT WHERE THOSE PRACTICES START TO CONTRAVENE THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER. It is the human right of girls and women NOT to be ordered to become concubines in Bountiful's harems or in ny other harem. This is backed by sections 15 and 28 of the Charter, which guarantee women equality with men, a part of the Charter that WB, again, carefully ignores. As well, Canada ratified the Protocol on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and is legally obligated to uphold it. It states that polygamy contravenes women's equality rights and also harms their children. The upcoming court case is not really about religion but about whether or not Canada will uphold women's guaranteed equality rights. A religious practice should never be allowed to trump people's human rights. It is way past time that the ancient patriarchal practice of polygamy was kicked into the garbage can of history. The year is 2010 AD, not 2010 BC.
Jancis M. Andrews, Sechelt BC
02/04/10 9:55 PM EST
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Winkie Blackmore
There are several interesting facts not addressed in the criminal complaint. Lorraine Johnson was American and clearly underage. Ray Johnson her father was recorded in a news interview and offered damning conclusions of his daughters age. When he wrote his own tabloid he detailed the correct version of Vanessa Rohbocks plight of being under judgement of "blood atonement" from Warren Jeffs, while publicly denying that the FLDS ever taught the death theology. In addition interviews with both the press and RCMP as the threat had occured, at that time Uncle Wink denied the teen was under any threat at all. I know because Wink and I argued via email over what he knew and when. I retained those emails should Canada ever get a backbone! American teens transported across state or federal boundaries for sexual exploitation should be a violation of both the MANN-Act and the Human Trafficking Act, but the USA has no backbone either!
Jay Beswick, Lancaster USA
02/04/10 10:13 PM EST
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They are not Mormons!!!!!!!!
There is no such thing as a Fundamentalist Mormon. Are Lutherans Fundamentalist Catholics? No, they're Lutherans. Study history if this is over your head. The 19th century Mormons who practised polygamy... 1-Were not isolationists 2-Believed in modernity 3-Started Universities 4-Settled over 400 cities and towns in the American West 5-Helped build the Trans-Continental Railroad 6-Sent Missionaries all over the World 7-Never did any more than 10-15% of all adult Mormon males ever practise polygamy 8-Marriages were not arranged 9-And they certainly were not marrying their nieces Incest has always been a grave sin in LDS theology These people would not be allowed membership in the Mormon (LDS) Church. For over 100 years those who enter into polygamy are excommunicated in the Mormon-LDS Church. Your inacuracies and false comparisons is by design to confuse and smear the Actual Mormons or LDS Church. Stop referring to these people as Mormons, you are violating the AP Style Guide by doing so.
aj arizona, slc utah
02/05/10 10:18 AM EST
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Go Back
Pack up your bags and go back to the states where you came from...there is nothing, that discuss's me more than the crimes that you commit with women and children...the women should get a grip on things to and look after thier children, they are aware of what is being done to them, and pass a blind eye to it. In my marriage there was a the dominate husband who felt it was his right to take the liberty of sexual acts with my children, without my knowledge and while I was working to get his a law degree, well eventually the kids told me once there were no more threats from him ..He eventually went to jail for his crimes, but should have gotten life for the lives he destroyed while he practised what he believed in too!! Sick!!!!!!
maggie, Delta B C
02/05/10 1:06 PM EST
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