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	Offshoot of Utah's Polygamous FLDS Sect under Canadian Scrutiny Associated Press, carried in The Salt Lake Tribune August 1, 2007 http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6517764 Victoria, British Columbia - No charges will be filed against members of a Canadian polygamous community affiliated with a sect in Utah - but the Province of British Columbia province may determine the validity of the law against multiple marriages by referring it to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the attorney general said Wednesday. Provincial Attorney General Wally Oppal said he has reviewed a report by special prosecutor Richard Peck and agrees no charges should be pursued against members of a sect in Bountiful, British Columbia. The group is part of the southern Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as the FLDS and headed by Warren Jeffs. Oppal said the government could find no witnesses on the sexual-assault allegations because investigators were told that all consented to the acts that took place. More serious allegations of sexual exploitation of young women also could not be substantiated, Oppal said. He said he was surprised by the number of young women who told police they were the aggressors and wanted to have sex with the older men. Oppal says Peck has recommended referring the case to the Court of Appeal to determine the validity of the province's polygamy law. He said it is an issue that relates to the equality of women and that he personally believes the law against multiple marriages is valid. The FLDS migrated to Canada in 1947 to avoid U.S. and Utah laws that banned polygamy. The group once numbered about 1,000, although a leadership struggle fractured the sect in 2004. Church doctrine that touts plural marriage as a path to exaltation in heaven is rooted in the early theology of the Salt Lake City-based mainstream Mormon church. Mormons, however, abandoned polygamy in 1890 as a condition of statehood and disavow any link to fundamentalists who continue the practice. Jeffs, 51, is in the Washington County, Utah, jail awaiting a September trial on felony charges of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 religious marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
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