![]() ![]() Justice Sheri Ann Donegan, according to news outlets in the courtroom in Cranbrook, British Columbia, discussed how both men had religious beliefs that encouraged their polygamy. Prosecutors had asked that Blackmore be sentenced to up to six months in jail. ![]() The polygamy charges carried the possibility of up to five years’ incarceration. Blackmore and co-defendant James Oler are the first fundamentalist Mormons to be tried for polygamy in Canada. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake TribuneA Holy Bible pin on the suit of Winston Blackmore, as he leaves court in Cranbrook, B.C., Tuesday April 18, 2017. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2006 recommended Blackmore and Oler be charged with sexual exploitation, Bramham has reported, but no such charges have ever been filed. The only chilling effect of the sentences, Bramham wrote, will be on the family and other witnesses who came forward to testify against the defendants. Oler had five wives, two of whom were under 18. Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham, who wrote a biography of Blackmore and has been Canada’s harshest critic of him, began her column Tuesday with the words: “It’s a travesty.”īramham cited trial evidence showing Blackmore married and impregnated nine women who were under 18, including the two 15-year-olds. Mereska was not the only person to focus on Blackmore’s marriages to teens. FLDS President Warren Jeffs excommunicated him in 2002. Blackmore testified he married one of the teens in Utah with her parents’ consent.īlackmore was the bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints enclave in British Columbia. That was within the age of consent in Canada at the time. At least two of Blackmore’s 27 wives were 15 years old when he married them. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press, via AP, File)īlackmore and Oler were only charged with polygamy - no sex crimes and no charges accusing them of underage marriages. He was found guilty Monday, July 24, 2017, by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Sheri Ann Donegan. Blackmore has been convicted of practicing polygamy after a decadeslong legal fight. ![]() This is a black mark for Canadian history and, hopefully not a precedent for other ‘religious’ groups who want to practice polygamy in Canada.”įILE - In this April 21, 2008, file photo, Winston Blackmore, the religious leader of the polygamous community of Bountiful near Creston, British Columbia, receives a kiss from one of his daughters as a son and a grandchild look on. She added: “Blackmore has never been charged for his marriage to two 15-year-old girls. “The sentence shows deep disrespect for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which gives equality rights to women.” “He still lives among all of his wives and will never stop propagating children,” Mereska wrote. In an email to The Tribune, Mereska wrote she is “terribly disappointed” in the sentences, especially Blackmore’s. 23, 2011, and lose the war today? I think so!” Then after the sentences, Mereska wrote a post with the headline, “Did we win the battle Nov. ![]() 23, 2011, ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court found that polygamy is inherently harmful to women and children, and that built Mereska’s hope. Nancy Mereska, who operates the website Stop Polygamy in Canada, had hoped a prosecution and sentence would help fulfill the dream implied in her site’s name. Sally Armstrong, a Canadian journalist and activist who has written about polygamy and child marriage, said in an email to The Tribune: “The cults won. The Canadian Press reported Tuesday that some of his family cried in court as the sentence was read.Ĭritics of polygamy and of Blackmore’s marriages to teens expressed frustration and even defeat. In anticipation of the sentencing, some of Blackmore’s 149 children launched a public campaign in which they described themselves as a family that relies on one another, and for Blackmore to go to jail would be a hardship on the family. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP, File) The court found James Oler married five women in so-called "celestial" marriages involving residents in the tiny religious community of Bountiful. Two former bishops of an isolated religious commune in British Columbia were convicted Monday, July 24, of practicing polygamy after a decadeslong legal fight launched by the provincial government. 3, 2017, file photo, Gail Blackmore, right, and James Oler arrive at the courthouse in Cranbrook, British Columbia. ![]()
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