CANADA
KSL
October 14th, 2005 @ 7:28am
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- "Banking on Heaven," a documentary on women who have fled a polygamist cult based along the Utah-Arizona border, has debuted at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Filmmaker Laurie Allen said at the movie's world premiere Thursday that the polygamists are in Canada, too.
Most of the estimated 10,000 followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints live in the twin border communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, but the church also has property in Colorado and Texas and an enclave in Bountiful, British Columbia, where polygamy has been practiced openly for decades.
Debbie Palmer, who fled the Bountiful enclave, said hundreds there are loyal to the church's leader, Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs is being sought by the FBI on charges of sexual conduct with a minor in connection with marriages between allegedly underage girls and older men. He also is charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, and a $10,000 reward has been offered by Arizona and Utah.