Politically expedient and popular but it could be a mistake
 Oppal will meet with a special prosecutor before moving on the Mormon fundamentalists in Bountiful
 
By Ian Mulgrew
Editorial
Vancouver Sun
 
B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal is itching to follow the lead of Texas authorities and step in at Bountiful, near Creston, to seize the children of the breakaway Mormon cult that has been living there for 60-some years.

As politically expedient and popular as it might appear, it could also be the mistake of his career. Some of the best legal minds in the province have considered whether polygamy charges would succeed in the 21st century and concluded, no.

Let's think about it.

If a man and three, four or more women want to live together, copulate and tell people they're "married," who cares? That's not a crime, that's a commune.

Maybe 100 years ago, you could find enough religious bigots to defend a law like that, but not in an era of gay marriage and moral laissez-faire.

Now, start talking about forcing teenage girls to marry ugly old farts, bride bartering, physical abuse and things like that, and you've definitely crossed the line.

But that's not something you can invent or conjure according to a political timetable.

It took the apparent cry for help from an abused teenager on the cult's U.S. property to bring child welfare and police swooping down April 4.

Now there are 437 kids in U.S. government care, most with their own government-appointed lawyer, all demanding their rights.

Individual hearings will be set over the next several weeks, and a judge will determine whether they are moved into permanent foster care or can be returned to their parents.

A mobile DNA lab has been moved in just to identify who's who. The cost will be enormous. And, if all this is based on a hoax, as has already been suggested, watch out.

The raid on the so-called Yearning For Zion Ranch purportedly came from a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. She has not been identified, or found for that matter.

It has been suggested a former, disenchanted activist member of the group made the call to authorities. The repercussions of that, if true, will be staggering.

I can understand why Oppal wants to do something about our own backyard concerns, especially given the media pressure he has been under over his failure to act.

The situation in the southeastern corner of the province is distasteful and ugly.

These people are old-time followers of a fundamentalist branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church itself disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

Winston Blackmore, the branch leader, was on Larry King Live a few nights ago as smooth as Satan, denouncing what is happening in Texas. Although some of them are his relations and they're all his religious brethren, he also kept his distance by saying he hadn't talked to them in six years.

It's important, however, to remember the truly disturbing allegations against this sect have been made against imprisoned U.S. leader Warren Jeffs, jailed last year in Utah as an accomplice to rape, and his followers.

Blackmore has so far managed to win a clean bill of health from everyone who scrutinizes him or puts his community under the microscope.

Still, it's obvious Attorney-General Oppal doesn't want to give Blackmore and his band the benefit of the doubt -- the presumption of innocence, if you will.

He is getting together next week with the special prosecutor, Leonard Doust, to talk about how they might take action. And afterwards he may roll the dice.

Doust recommended in a special report April 7 that the issue be referred to the B.C. Court of Appeal for a ruling on the legality of Canada's polygamy laws.

Oppal doesn't like that idea. He'd rather prosecute.

That might be a mistake that blows back in his face.

The problem here isn't multiple-partner, adult consensual sex under the banner of "marriage" -- it's the spectre of child abuse and exploitation.

Winning convictions on such charges is always incredibly difficult.

Criminal prosecution requires evidence and it's tough to get children to testify against their parents, mothers against fathers. And it doesn't look like the answer here.

Regardless, stripping kids from their parents care is rarely a good idea even when the situation is bizarre.

But the bottom line is, the criminal law is too much of a cudgel to dispel the kind of poisonous and noxious miasma that has arisen here.

Instead of aping the Texas Rangers, unless he suddenly comes up with a wealth of evidence no one has seen, Oppal should consider alternatives to address the concern that girls at Bountiful are at perilous risk and that the isolated, esoteric environment is turning boys into potential predators.

And to do nothing isn't an option.

imulgrew@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published Wednesday, April 23, 2008
 
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