Former bishop guilty of polygamy involving isolated sect in Bountiful, B.C.

“His adherence to the practices and beliefs of the FLDS is not in dispute,” she said as she read her ruling in a Cranbrook, B.C., courtroom.

“Mr. Blackmore … would not deny his faith in his 2009 statement to police. He spoke openly about his practice of polygamy.”

Blackmore was shown a list of his alleged wives and actually made two corrections to the details, Donegan said.

“Mr. Blackmore confirmed that all of his marriages were celestial marriages in accordance with FLDS rules and practices.”

Donegan praised the testimony of Jane Blackmore, calling her a highly credible and reliable witness.

“She was a careful witness,” Donegan said. “There was nothing contrived or rehearsed in her answers. She was impartial.”

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

The 12-day trial earlier this year heard from mainstream Mormon experts, law enforcement who worked on the investigation and Jane Blackmore, a former wife of Winston Blackmore who left the community in 2003.

Oler was self-represented in the trial but had the services of Joe Doyle, an amicus curiae, a so-called friend of the court appointed to ensure a fair trial, though he could not offer any legal advice.

Doyle pointed to Oler’s police-seized records from a Texas raid in 2008, saying important events were missing, such as his client’s elevation to presiding elder in the community in June 2004. He also argued the Crown didn’t prove Oler continuously practised polygamy between 1993 and 2009.

Blackmore’s lawyer also attacked the credibility of marriage and personal records pertaining to members in the United States and Canada. They were seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, an FLDS church compound.

However, Donegan rejected claims that the records were unreliable.

“I find that the FLDS marriage records are ultimately reliable,” she said.

The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based in Utah, officially renounced polygamy in the late 19th century and disputes any connection to the fundamentalist group’s form of Mormonism.

Blackmore and Oler were charged in 2014 for the second time with practising polygamy, more than two decades after allegations of multiple marriage, sexual abuse and cross-border child trafficking.

The charges were the latest step in a series of investigations and failed attempts at prosecutions dating back to the early 1990s involving Bountiful, located in the southeastern corner of the province and close to the U.S.-Canada border.

About 1,000 people were believed to be living in the community in 2014.

Uncertainty over whether the Criminal Code section of banning polygamy violated religious rights outlined in the charter hovered over the case until 2011 when the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the law was in fact constitutional and that polygamy is a crime.

A constitutional reference case heard that the harms of polygamy outweigh any claims to freedom of religion and include physical and sexual abuse, child brides, the subjugation of women, and the expulsion of young men, the so-called lost boys, who have no women left to marry.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Former bishop guilty of polygamy involving isolated sect in Bountiful, B.C.

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