Police complete complex Bountiful investigation
 The Crown must now decide whether charges should be laid for alleged misconduct
 
By Neal Hall
The Vancouver Sun
 
A police investigation into the Bountiful polygamist commune in southwestern B.C. has been completed and is in the hands of the criminal justice branch to determine whether charges should be laid.

B.C. Crown spokesman Stan Lowe said Thursday a report was received from the RCMP Sept. 28 after a lengthy and complex investigation into alleged misconduct of some residents of Bountiful, a community near Creston.

"It's now in the charge assessment stage," Lowe explained.

"It's a massive file and it will require a substantial period of time to complete."

The Crown will determine "what, if any, offence under the Criminal Code of Canada has been committed," he said.

Lowe could not estimate how long the assessment will take.

The branch will not comment further on the file until a charge assessment decision is made, he added.

About 700 people live at the commune.

They are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons.

Winston Blackmore, leader of the Bountiful group, has admitted to having had several child "brides" but has never been charged.

In Utah, polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs, a Mormon prophet, awaits trial on charges related to marriages he arranged between underage girls and older men in both Utah and Arizona.

Although polygamy is illegal in Canada, more than 1,200 polygamists exist in B.C. and southern Alberta. The country hasn't enforced its anti-polygamy law for about 100 years.

The majority of North American polygamists follow Mormon founder Joseph Smith's revelation that only men with three or more wives can reach the highest realm of heaven.

They believe in assignment marriages, in which the prophet or church elders determine which man a woman will marry.

They teach women that they must be obedient to God, the prophet, the priesthood and their husbands, in that order.

Immigration Canada has consistently rejected Muslim and Chinese polygamists' applications to immigrate with multiple spouses.

Those decisions have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 2002, three of Blackmore's wives were granted landed immigrant status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds because of their children.

nhall@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published Friday, October 20, 2006
 
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