http://ca.news.yahoo.com/shafia-jury-enters-second-full-day-deliberations-kingston-090532874.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Shafias+guilty+first+degree+murder/6069325/story.html

Editorial by Sally Armstrong in January 30 Ottawa Citizen.  Sally is the author os Veiled Threat: the Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan and Bitter Roots Tender Shoots: the Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan’s Women  Her third book: Daughters of the Revolution will be published in October.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/tradition+shame/6070455/story.html

The conversation continues from Afghanistan with another brutal murder of a young mother who failed to give her husband a boy!

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Afghan+killed+giving+birth+girl+police/6071976/story.html

Does anyone out there know how many followers Winston Blackmore has in the States and if they pay a tithing to their “leader” which would be another source of undeclared income, wouldn’t it?

Thank you, Rebecca!

Holding Out Help is a volunteer organization founded by Tonia Tewell in Utah.  It helps those fleeing the FLDS.  I featured this organization some time ago when it first started.  Unfortunately, I could not get any Canadian press on the organization because I could not find a Canadian connection of someone from Canada who has been helped by this group.

dbramham@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Will+taxwomen+bring+down+polygamist/6060271/story.html

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/01/26/b-c-polygamist-tells-court-hes-paid-church-for-15-separate-apocalypses/

Mr. Winston Blackmore certainly does have a problem with numbers!  On page 309 of Daphne Bramham’s book The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect, Ms. Bramham writes:  “. . .In 1993, Blackmore had three wives.  Four years later, “Uncle Wink” (as Blackmore is called by his admirers) had seven wives.  By 2002, he had twenty-six wives–only seven of whom were Canadians–and close to ninety children born in Canada and entitled to both Canadian and U.S. citizenship.”

If any of his “ex” wives are reading the news reports on this trial, I wonder what they think of his memory loss regarding their relationships with him?

Also, Sheila Pratt of the Edmonton Journal did a feature article last summer on the slave labour camps of the FLDS.  It reran on December 28th as it was voted best feature article of the year.

http://www.theprovince.com/health/From+archives+Journey+from+Bountiful+Sundre/5919976/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Canadian+polygamist+Winston+Blackmore+names+wives+court/6046205/story.html

Article on study:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Polygamy+leads+increased+crime+study+says/6040343/story.html

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Polygamist+leader+Winston+Blackmore+takes+stand+evasion+trial/6038672/story.html

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120123/bc_winston_blackmore_tax_trial_120123/20120123/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTU0MDU1NzY=

•  personal counseling based on client-centered psychology,
• a qualified/certified educational section,
• a play centre for the children,
• a music/recreation area,
• a fully-equipped library,
• life-skills training coaches,
• a medical facility,
•  dental care specialists
• Legal assistance and advice especially regarding the best interests of the children in polygamy custody battles

In this type of centre, ex-FLDS could interact not only with the professionals there to help them, but with each other as they move from having minds and bodies bound by the dictates of a cult leader to becoming independent, free thinkers able to make positive choices for their lives and the lives of their family members.  Yes, I know it sounds impossible, but I believe that if you are going to dream, you might as well dream big!

Dear Honourable Minister,

Thousands of British Columbians, as well as other concerned Canadians, are encouraged by your decision to investigate Bountiful for the alleged trafficking of underage girls in to and out of the USA. We hope that this is merely a first step towards cleaning up the horrendous lawlessness that has been allowed to fester for years in that infamous polygamous cult.

Canadians (especially female Canadians) urgently want to be reassured that polygamy remains a crime in this country. On 23 November 2011 Chief Justice Robert Bauman ruled in BC Supreme Court that polygamy is indeed a crime that harms all society, particularly women and children, and that  S. 293 CC, proscribing polygamy, is constitutional.

Given that sections 15 and 28 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee equality to women, and given that Canada has ratified the Protocols on several UN documents pertaining to women’s equality rights, including the right to be free of the ancient patriarchal practice of polygamy, it is unthinkable that a prosecution under S. 293 CC will not take place.

Canadians need certainty. Canadians are entitled to be reassured that concubines and harems will never be allowed in Canada.

We trust that charges under S. 293 CC will be laid soon.

Yours very truly,

Jancis M. Andrews

I have highlighted a line in this report that has been misconstrued by the press over and over again since Chief Justice Bauman’s decision was handed down.  I am quoting paragraph 15 of the decision:

“I would answer the essential question before me:  while s. 293 offends the freedom of religion of identifiable groups guaranteed by s. 2(a) of the Charter and the s. 7 liberty interests of children between 12 and 17 married into polygamy, the provision, save in its application to the latter group, is demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.  My reasons for that conclusion and the specific answers to the questions on the reference follow.”  (My emphasis on the word “offends”.)

Nowhere in any dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedic dictionary can I find the word “offend” being equated with the word “violate”.  If anyone out there can find otherwise, please advise.  This is my plea to the press to stop misrepresenting the words of Chief Justice Bauman.  I find this misrepresentation very offensive.

While, Stop Polygamy in Canada Society is not entirely pleased that polygamy is not in newly appointed Special Prosecutor Peter Wilson’s mandate, we are very pleased that he is moving forward on the allegations of teen brides being trafficked across the border (both ways) for forced marriage in the polygamous commune of Bountiful.  This means that both parents of these girls, fathers and mothers could be charged and prosecuted.  There are those who may disagree with me saying that the women are only brainwashed and following the dictates of the male leaders; but, with the number of times Bountiful has been investigated over the years, the number of DNA samples procured, the times when charges of polygamy have been dismissed, these women know they are living outside the law.  They know they are helping to condemn their daughters to the same sexual crimes they themselves endured in their own forced marriages to keep the baby factories running at full tilt.  But most of all, it means that the men who married these girls could be charged and prosecuted.

Onward, Mr. Wilson.  We cannot wait for the charges to start being laid and prosecuted!

Nancy Mereska, President
Stop Polygamy in Canada Society
780-768-2180

Subject: New prosecutor for Bountiful, B.C., but mandate doesn’t include polygamy

New prosecutor for Bountiful, B.C., but mandate doesn’t include polygamy

Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

01/18/2012

VANCOUVER – A new special prosecutor has been appointed to look into allegations involving the religious commune of Bountiful, B.C., but his mandate doesn’t include considering charges of practising polygamy.

Instead, Peter Wilson has been appointed to consider charges related to the movement of teen brides across the U.S. border to marry much older men, the province’s criminal justice branch announced in a news release Wednesday.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled last month that the Criminal Code prohibition on polygamy is constitutional as long as it’s not used to prosecute children.

The attorney general has yet to say how her ministry will respond to that decision, but the news release announcing Wilson’s appointment makes it clear polygamy charges aren’t currently on the table.

“At this time, Mr. Wilson’s mandate does not include consideration of polygamy-related offences,” said the release.

Specifically, Wilson has been asked to look into potential charges including sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, procuring prohibited sexual activity and failure to report a child in need of protection, among others.

A previous prosecutor announced this month he was no longer interested in working on the case, prompting the government to announce it would be appointing a replacement.

Two leaders in Bountiful were charged in 2009 with practising polygamy, but a judge threw out those charges because of how the province chose its special prosecutors.

Rather than appeal, the B.C. government launched a constitutional reference case to determine whether the anti-polygamy law violated the religious guarantees in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Residents of Bountiful are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, which teaches that multiple marriage will allow them to reach a higher level of heaven. The FLDS is a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

The constitutional case heard allegations that dozens of girls as young as 12 were spirited across the U.S. border to marry men decades older than them, while several American girls were moved to Bountiful.

Those revelations prompted the RCMP to launch a renewed investigation focusing specifically on the movement of children over the border. The Mounties have confirmed their investigation isn’t looking into multiple marriage.

In the end, Justice Robert Bauman concluded the law does violate the right to religious freedom, but the harm that polygamy causes to women and children outweighed that violation.

A lawyer appointed to oppose the government in the case announced last month he will not appeal.

The B.C. government and Ottawa have the option of referring the matter to a higher court, either the B.C. Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court of Canada, but neither have said whether they will do that.

Bauman’s decision is not binding on any level of government or other judges, as constitutional reference cases serve only as advisory opinions.

However, legal observers have suggested Bauman’s ruling will still have considerable weight if another judge hears a polygamy case, as it is currently the only case in Canada to examine whether the law is in line with the charter.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/new-prosecutor-for-bountiful-bc-but-mandate-doesnt-include-polygamy-137592488.html

This picture titled “Truck Load of Gold” was taken by Sam Brower, author of Prophet’s Prey, released 2011 by Sam Brower, published by Bloomsbury USA, New York.

Note:  I find it hard to continue reading a book about the FLDS when there appears to be a dreadful wrong in the research done by the author, as is prevalent on pages 100 and 101 regarding Brower’s relationship with Winston Blackmore.  Blackmore (page 100) admitted “to having taken at least two underage brides”.  This book was printed in 2011.  In 2009, RCMP Constable Shelly Livingstone went before a BC Judge with a list of nine underaged girls impregnated by Winston Blackmore.  Yet, on page 101, Brower maintains that if he had found out Winston was lying to him “(which I have not)” Brower “would still have maintained a relationship with him.”  I find this very disappointing, but will continue reading the book.

There are 54 names (initials only) on this list dating back to 1996!  The ages of the girls are given, the names of their parents, who they married and the parents of the men.

By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun

January 10, 2012

Nearly a year after lawyers in the B.C. attorney-general’s minis-try learned the details of how a father from Bountiful delivered his 13-year-old daughter into a forced, polygamous marriage with the now-jailed prophet of a fundamentalist Mormon sect, Attorney-General Shirley Bond has instructed that a special prosecutor be appointed to look into the evidence.

Among the charges the prosecutor may consider are human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, sexual assault and procurement.

It’s welcome news. Still, one can’t help wonder why it’s taken so long.

The evidence has been kicking around since September 2008. That’s when a team leader in the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development got a fax from Texas following a raid on the compound built by Prophet Warren Jeffs.

The 13-year-old Canadian girl is one of Jeffs’s 79 wives and one of his 24 wives who were under the age of 18. She was among nearly 400 women and children taken into government care. Texas officials thought some-body in B.C. might want to do some-thing about it.

Apparently, no one in B.C. did. And it’s never been clear whether the fax was passed on.

Last January that fax re-surfaced in the midst of the constitutional reference case. Lawyers for the B.C. attorney-general heard about it after they began pressing Texas for help.

In February, the lawyers filed the details of the 13-year-old’s surreptitious entry into the United States along with information about two, 12-year-old Canadian girls being taken by their parents and forced to marry Jeffs in an affidavit and presented it as part of the B.C. government evidence in the constitutional reference case.

By March the list of Canadians involved in the trafficking had grown to include the names of 31 under-aged girls, the names of their fathers/ mothers/brothers who had delivered them into religious marriages and the names of their husbands.

Some of that information taken from Jeffs’s diaries and other church documents seized in the 2008 raid was used to send Jeffs to jail for life-plus-20-years and to convict nine other top-ranking members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of sexual offences involving children.

Bond’s press release Monday hints at the convoluted history of the B.C. government’s attempts to prosecute members of the Bountiful community.

The first attempt in the 1990s was stymied by lawyers in the criminal justice branch who had opinions from at least one former chief justice that the anti-polygamy law was unconstitutional. They recommended nothing be done until the constitutional question was cleared up. Presented with new evidence after another RCMP investigation in 2006, the criminal justice branch of the attorney-general’s ministry refused to lay any charges. Again, the concern was that the anti-polygamy law might not be valid.

Instead of accepting that advice, then-attorney-general Wally Oppal instructed Bob Gillen, the assistant deputy attorney-general, to hire a special prosecutor. Gillen hired Richard Peck, who in 2007 recommended a constitutional reference to determine whether the anti-polygamy law was valid.

Oppal disagreed. Lawyer Len Doust was hired to review Peck’s recommendation and agreed with Peck and the AG‘s lawyers.

Oppal asked that another special prosecutor – Terry Robertson – be hired. Robertson recommended that two of Bountiful’s leaders be charged with one count each of polygamy.

But those charges were stayed by a B.C. Supreme Court justice, who ruled that there could be only one special prosecutor and that was Peck.

So Bond had to ensure that Peck didn’t want to continue as special prosecutor to clear the deck for a new one.

But once again, the choice is Gillen’s. So, who will he hire this time? It can only be hoped that Bond is get-ting good advice and doesn’t make any mistakes that delay it any further.

dbramham@vancouversun.com
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Bountiful+evidence+review+long+time+coming/5971585/story.html