Justice for Brides of Bountiful, Calgary Herald, August 14, 2011

Justice for Brides of Bountiful

Calgary Herald
August 14, 2011

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Justice+brides+Bountiful/5253612/story.html

The RCMP is investigating the alleged unlawful movement of girls from Bountiful, B.C., to the United States.
Photo by Ian Smith, Postmedia News Files, National Post, With Files From Postmedia News

The conviction of fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs in Texas on charges of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault this week should spur British Columbia's government to take action against the group's Canadian offshoot, headquartered in the Creston Valley town of Bountiful.

Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon splinter group that broke off from the main church over the latter's condemnation of polygamy. Jeffs' church believes that its doctrine of so-called celestial marriage is a divine requirement that allows men to attain salvation after death. Women are thus assigned to marry male members of the community and can be reassigned to other men (along with their children) if the husband is deemed to have transgressed against the church. In practice, this has meant that girls, in some cases as young as 13 or 14, have been forced into marriage with older men, while younger men have often been excommunicated for trivial offences to reduce competition for the brides.

Jeffs was convicted for entering into "spiritual marriages" with two girls, one of whom was 15 and bore him a child; the other was 12. The jury found him guilty after deliberating less than half an hour. Despite his protestations of religious persecution, Jeffs knew his behaviour was criminal. In notes found on church property in Texas, he wrote that the world would hang him from the highest tree if it knew what he was doing.

B.C. should apply the American example to the community in Bountiful. Although the community is split between Jeffs' followers and adherents of the schismatic bishop Winston Blackmore, polygamy continues unhindered while the provincial government sits on its hands, curiously inert. This is unacceptable.

Allegations are rife that the Bountiful community has trafficked in child brides, sending Canadian girls to the U.S. in return for American girls. RCMP officers are scheduled to travel to Texas to investigate, but that's all. Claims of forced isolation, limited education and sexual, physical and psychological abuse directed at women and children in Bountiful to keep them obedient have been left unexamined.

Liberal democracy is founded on the notion of individual freedom, the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to make the most of their gifts in pursuit of their own ambitions. This right does not extend to thwarting others' ability to do the same, even in the name of God.

If any community elsewhere in Canada attempted what the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints allegedly routinely does to its young women, the authorities would crack down instantly. But in B.C., the government sits quietly while B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman decides whether polygamy is protected by religious freedom. This is absurd.

All children deserve to be shielded from abuse. It's time for B.C. Attorney General Barry Penner to extend this guarantee to Bountiful's child brides.