Canada finds FLDS guilty - No polygamists allowed

Winston Blackmore, a former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has been found guilty of practising polygamy after a decades-long legal fight launched by the provincial government.

Blackmore, Canada’s most outspoken, prolific and unapologetic polygamists, was alleged to have married 24 women as part of so-called “celestial” marriages involving residents in the tiny community of Bountiful

In a Cranbrook courtroom on Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan says the collective force of evidence against Blackmore proves that he was married to Jane Blackmore and 24 other women at the same time.

Co-accused James Oler, another bishop in the church, is accused of having five wives and is still waiting for his verdict to be announced.




Blackmore’s lawyer, Blair Suffredine, has already told the court that he will launch a constitutional challenge of Canada’s polygamy laws if his client is found guilty.

Suffredine argues Canada’s polygamy laws infringe on Blackmore’s constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion.

During the trial, the judge refused to hear Suffredine’s constitutional argument because he failed to properly notify the judge, the other lawyers and the federal Justice Department of a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/former-bishops-found-guilty-in-decades-long-b-c-polygamy-case-1.3516281

BC finally nails the Canadian branch of the FLDS with polygamy charges. What happens after the court challenge is a good question.

 

[RJ MacReady]

I'm always a little disturbed and disappointed that polygamy laws seem to be the only consistent way to prosecute child raping death cultists like the LDS.

 

[Cosmos]

I have a morbid fascination with FLDS cults. "Terrifying" and "disgusting" aren't strong enough words to cover what goes down in those compounds.

But yeah, most of the time, gross old men end up "marrying" and raping 3-4 (or way more, if they're influential enough) teenage girls and force them to become baby factories. The fact that we let it happen within our own borders is unacceptable.

 

[AnOminous]

I have a morbid fascination with FLDS cults. "Terrifying" and "disgusting" aren't strong enough words to cover what goes down in those compounds.

But yeah, most of the time, gross old men end up "marrying" and raping 3-4 (or way more, if they're influential enough) teenage girls and force them to become baby factories. The fact that we let it happen within our own borders is unacceptable.

We've made an okay start with Warren Jeffs but it shouldn't stop so long as one of these fucking cult compounds is in operation.

 

[Goofy Logic]

I'm always a little disturbed and disappointed that polygamy laws seem to be the only consistent way to prosecute child raping death cultists like the LDS.

I'd like to point out the main motivation for the government here is welfare fraud. Since the laws only allow them to be married to one woman, they will marry one then get the others to apply for welfare as they sit around knocked up.

They nailed Winston a few years back for tax evasion and were initially going to bring up polygamy in that case, but stayed those charges as the crown procecutor was worried about the FOR challenge to those untried laws.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

I'm always a little disturbed and disappointed that polygamy laws seem to be the only consistent way to prosecute child raping death cultists like the LDS.

Meanwhile, Canada continues to import people who are more likely to rape a child, man, or woman than your average Westerner.

 

[escapegoat]

I don't know how Canadian courts work, really, but given all the bending over backwards they seem to do for non-Christians, I am sort of confused about how he got nailed for polygamy. You think they'd do the same with a African Muslim with 4 wives? It'd be endless articles about the Mounties ripping apart happy families. Bountiful is garbage, but I am confused.

 

[Cosmos]

I'd like to point out the main motivation for the government here is welfare fraud. Since the laws only allow them to be married to one woman, they will marry one then get the others to apply for welfare as they sit around knocked up.

They nailed Winston a few years back for tax evasion and were initially going to bring up polygamy in that case, but stayed those charges as the crown procecutor was worried about the FOR challenge to those untried laws.

Yep, welfare fraud is rampant in FLDS cults and that's usually what the government nails them for. I remember reading an autobiography from a woman who escaped from a FLDS cult (I forget what the book was called, though) and where she mentions how being a "first wife" is a big honor; a "first wife" gets her name on the marriage certificate and gets all the legal benefits of being married while second, third, forth, and so on wives get nothing. Not even the status of being legally married.

 

[AnOminous]

Yep, welfare fraud is rampant in FLDS cults and that's usually what the government nails them for.

They should go after them for child molestation and incest and rape.

 

[Goofy Logic]

They should go after them for child molestation and incest and rape.

Without proof it's hard to do that. A lot of the women would be afraid to testify because the church is quite good at cutting them off from families, and they do practice 'frontier justice' to a degree.

Warren Jeffs was only nailed for CP because the fucker made sex tapes.

I don't know how Canadian courts work, really, but given all the bending over backwards they seem to do for non-Christians, I am sort of confused about how he got nailed for polygamy. You think they'd do the same with a African Muslim with 4 wives? It'd be endless articles about the Mounties ripping apart happy families. Bountiful is garbage, but I am confused.

They would have to if they want the law to be held in court. The main reason they are going after the FLDS is because Winston was unrepentantly announcing "Yeah, I got 25 wives, what'chu gonna do about it?"

 

[Positron]

Polygamy laws are so unwoke. How about them kebabs?

 

[Goofy Logic]

Winston Blackmore was making no apologies Monday after he and another former bishop of an isolated religious community in British Columbia were found guilty of practising polygamy.

"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 a judge announced a verdict against him and co-defendant James Oler.

"Twenty-seven years and tens of millions of dollars later, all we've proved is something we've never denied," Blackmore said. "I've never denied my faith. This is what we expected."

Blackmore, 60, was married to Jane Blackmore and then married 24 additional women as part of so-called "celestial" marriages involving residents in the tiny community of Bountiful. Oler, 53, had five wives.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan said the "collective force of the evidence" proved the guilt of both men, who were practising members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that believes in plural marriage.

Blackmore's lawyer Blair Suffredine told the court he would launch a constitutional challenge of Canada's polygamy laws. A hearing date is expected to be set next Monday.

Blackmore said it's not religious persecution that bothers him, but that it's political persecution, and he hopes the challenge will bring about change.

"Twenty-seven years ago adultery was a criminal act. Twenty-seven years ago, when they started with us, same-sex marriage was criminal," he said.

"Those people all successfully launched constitutional challenges on the basic right to freely associate. For us I imagine it will be (that) this is entrenched in our faith and I would have been hugely disappointed if I would have been found not guilty of living my religion."

Someone is salty about losing.

 

[76LD910]

Someone is salty about losing.

If anyone is interested, this guy is the subject of the documentary 'Inside Polygamy: Life In Bountiful'. Its pretty interesting because he and his family broke away from the FLDS on account of differences with the way Warren Jeff's was leading the church. It used to be available on YouTube in its entirety but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore.

 

[Goofy Logic]

A judge has rejected the constitutional challenge of the charges.

A judge has rejected a challenge of Canada's polygamy laws that was launched after two men were found guilty of the offence in British Columbia.

Winston Blackmore and James Oler were found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court last July of having multiple wives, but a lawyer for Blackmore argued the law infringes on the charter right to freedom of religion and expression.

Justice Sheri Ann Donegan dismissed all arguments today that the charges should be stayed, including a claim that the prosecution was an abuse of process.

Both men have been leaders in the small community of Bountiful in southeastern B.C., where court heard residents are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which condones plural marriage.

Blackmore was found guilty of marrying two dozen women, while Oler was found to have five wives.

Donegan did not set a date for sentencing in the case, but registered the convictions against the two men, which had been delayed while the constitutional arguments were made.

In December, Blackmore argued that he believed he was allowed to practice polygamy because he wasn't charged when police investigated allegations about his multiple wives in the 1990s.

His lawyer, Blaire Suffredine, argued the unions were never legal marriages, but common-law relationships sanctioned by Blackmore's church, which carry no legal weight.

Special prosecutor Peter Wilson argued Blackmore was always at risk of prosecution, even though Canada's polygamy laws have in the past been constitutionally vague.

Wilson said the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in a 2011 reference case that it is not unconstitutional to charge someone with polygamy.

"The release of the polygamy reference was a sea change in the legal landscape,'' he said during legal arguments in December. "Nothing could have been more significant to a charging decision, in the circumstances of this case, than that.''

 

[Kari Kamiya]

A judge has rejected a constitutional challenge of the charges.

I'm thinking this has ties to being more accepting of Islam, in which the religion allows men to have four wives. Therefore, in order to not come off as a bigot (or at least too much of a cuck for Islam), they allow another religion to have the same rights and the cycle of abuse continues.

Slippery slopes, am I right?

 

[Marvin]

They should just buy up some guns and go down to Mexico if they want to have their polygamy. Mexico won't give a shit.

I'm thinking this has ties to being more accepting of Islam, in which the religion allows men to have four wives. Therefore, in order to not come off as a bigot (or at least too much of a cuck for Islam), they allow another religion to have the same rights and the cycle of abuse continues.

Slippery slopes, am I right?

She rejected the argument that they had a constitutional right to marry their harem. So they're being convicted.

 

[Bassomatic]

Thank you Canada for not going bat shit crazy on diversity and punishing these sickos.

 

[Star Wormwood]

Fucking Cucknada stealing my right to marry the entire cast of K-On fuck those frozen freedom haters.

Also, how did this case take literal decades? I know the legal system is slow but comon, this seems pretty cut and dry.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

She rejected the argument that they had a constitutional right to marry their harem. So they're being convicted.

My mistake for reading the post several times and my brain interpreting it differently. Good for her to do that, but with Canada starting to bend over backwards for Islam, they'll come off as hypocrites for this if the whole "everything is Islamophobic" shit goes where I think it's going, and someone's going to be pointing it out in court. With polygamy being illegal, Islam shouldn't be treated any differently.

Though I think it'd be pretty hilarious if the FLDS start to follow in the footsteps of Islam in that regard. With all the legal trouble they've been getting into, they're probably a bit desperate to stay protected as a "religion".

 

[Marvin]

My mistake for reading the post several times and my brain interpreting it differently. Good for her to do that, but with Canada starting to bend over backwards for Islam, they'll come off as hypocrites for this if the whole "everything is Islamophobic" shit goes where I think it's going, and someone's going to be pointing it out in court. With polygamy being illegal, Islam shouldn't be treated any differently.

Though I think it'd be pretty hilarious if the FLDS start to follow in the footsteps of Islam in that regard. With all the legal trouble they've been getting into, they're probably a bit desperate to stay protected as a "religion".

I don't think Canada would outright legalize polygamy.

What I think we're going to see are a lot of "non-traditional" family setups. They'll be polygamist marriages in every relevant way except for the lack of an actual marriage certificate. Then they'll start petitioning the government for financial benefits that they really don't qualify for (or at least not covering all the unofficial wives). The government will then try to bend the rules to placate the muslims, to avoid being seen as culturally insensitive.