Two leaders of a controversial religious sect in Bountiful, B.C. have been arrested and charged with polygamy.
Winston Blackmore and James Oler were arrested Wednesday, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal confirmed.
Oppal said Blackmore is alleged to have committed polygamy with 20 women and Oler, with two women.
"This has been a very complex issue," he said. "It's been with us for well over 20 years. The problem has always been the defence of religion has always been raised."
Two previous legal opinions have said that polygamy charges might be thrown out under a Charter of Rights challenge.
"I've always disagreed with that," Oppal said of using freedom of religion to defend the practice of polygamy.
Oppal said that in 2005, when he was appointed attorney general he was concerned about polygamy in Bountiful "because of the exploitation of women and children."
In June 2008, Oppal appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of abuse at Bountiful.
About 800 to 1,000 people live in the community, all members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) or an off-shoot sect based on the teachings of Blackmore. Both religions believe in the practice of polygamy.
The FLDS broke off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the early 1900s when the Mormon church renounced polygamy.
Blackmore is the defacto leader of Bountiful, even though he was excommunicated from the FLDS in 2002 following a power struggle with the sect's disgraced prophet Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs is now jailed for life on two counts for being an accomplice to rape for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.
Blackmore's first wife has gone on the record to say that he has about 25 wives. Blackmore himself has made public statements admitting to have numerous wives and dozens of children but has said the community does not sexually abuse children.
Oppal was under fire to investigate Bountiful by both politicians and activists and relented after the community entered the national spotlight after authorities in Texas raided a similar polygamous sect, because of suspicions of child abuse.
Blackmore has refused to comment on allegations that teenage girls are pushed into marriages with much-older men or that other girls are sent to other polygamous sects in the United States.
RCMP details investigation
According to a news release issued by the RCMP, an investigation into allegations of polygamy and sexual exploitation in Bountiful by "two separate individuals who hold positions of authority" was initiated in the fall of 2005.
The investigation was completed in September 2006 and a report to Crown Counsel recommended charges of polygamy and sexual exploitation be laid.
A follow-up investigation commenced in September 2008 with additional information being supplied to the special prosecutor on Nov. 25, 2008.
On Dec. 9, 2008 the RCMP was notified by the special prosecutor that polygamy charges were approved against both men.
The polygamy charges were officially laid on Jan. 6, 2009 and the two men were arrested Wednesday morning. They are expected in court on Jan. 21, 2009.
The RCMP release does not identify the two men charged.
Charter vs. Criminal Code
CTV's legal analyst Steve Skurka said on Â鶹´«Ã½net that the case will be a "legal minefield for the prosecution."
"On the face of it there appears to be clear contravention of the Criminal Code section, but on the other hand you have this Charter protection," Skurka said.
"I think you are going to have a very firm, vigorous constitutional challenge to this section that will go all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada. This case will not be over, in my view, for at least five years."
Blackmore has said that he believes the freedom of religion provision in the Charter would trump any Criminal Code clause. It has been noted that he has a framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms hanging on his office wall.
Blackmore has also said that the investigation against him is a form of religious persecution.
"It can't possibly be about polygamy," Blackmore wrote in an email to The Canadian Press last June.
"It must be about (Oppal's) own religious bias and now he wants the Liberal government to persecute some of the citizens that they have an obligation to serve and protect."
Activists say polygamy hurts women, children
In April 2008, Vancouver-area NDP Dawn Black wrote to Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson saying that the federal government needs to abandon its hands-off approach to Bountiful.
"As an advocate of women's and children's rights, I strongly oppose the polygamy practiced in Bountiful, and I share the concerns of many Canadians about the treatment of young girls there," Black wrote.
Also in 2008, Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham released a book titled "The Secret Lives of Saints: The Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect," detailing the world of Bountiful.
In an interview with CTV.ca in 2008, she said that Bountiful has managed to thrive because authorities were too worried about a Charter of Rights decision to actually lay charges.
She also commented on the irony of Canada fighting for women's rights in Afghanistan but then allowing a polygamist sect to run unchecked within its own borders.
