By Lorne Gunter
Edmonton Journal
August 14, 2011
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/Bountiful+children+deserved+better/5253021/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
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| 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 |
Finally, the RCMP have begun taking seriously allegations of child sexual exploitation in the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, B.C. The Mounties announced Thursday evening they had begun investigating reports that up to 30 girls aged 12 to 17 had been sent by the residents of Bountiful to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) in San Angelo, Tex. to be force-married to older men who lived in the FLDS compound there.
The story of Bountiful came to light again last week with the conviction of Warren Jeffs, the leader - or "prophet" - of the FLDS, who was also head of the San Angelo commune. A jury found Jeffs guilty of aggravated child sexual assault after hearing recordings of him ritualistically raping 12-year-old girls in the sanctuary of his Texas temple while other adults, including the girls' parents, looked on.
As part of court proceedings against Jeffs, it was learned that of his 78 wives, 24 were under the age of consent (17 years old) in Texas when they married and of those 24, at least five had been brought from Bountiful, B.C. to be "forever spiritually bound" to the cultish, charismatic leader. Up to 25 more had been brought for marriage to other men in the Texas branch.
In response to the evidence presented at the trial of Jeffs, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said, "the RCMP anticipates sending investigators . to Texas in the future."
It's curious, Cpl. Moskaluk said "future," rather than "near future." But then again, dawdling has long characterized the way B.C. childwelfare officials and Mounties have treated allegations against Bountiful's domineering leaders. Fearful of upsetting the leaders' Charter right to religious freedom, police and bureaucrats have been slow to the point of inert when looking into complaints that children and women have been physically and psychologically abused there.
For reasons that are hard to fathom, officers and social workers have seemed incapable of separating the religious/constitutional argument in favour of polygamy from reports that women and children are cut off from the outside world, threatened with corporal punishment and occasionally even tortured to keep them devoted to the insular community.
It's as if officials are worried that a court that is currently deciding whether Canada's ban on polygamy is unconstitutional might rule that child-bride trafficking and waterboarding toddlers are Charter-protected religious rights, too. So they have been unprepared to step in to protect children in Bountiful because their intervention might be taken as an infringement on freedom of religion.
The tragedy is that Mounties and child-protection bureaucrats have known of the complaints against Bountiful's leaders since at least 2008. That's when their Texas counterparts raided Jeffs' Yearning for Zion Ranch and escorted most of the children and many of the women there into state care after multiple allegations of abuse had been received. As they questioned the women and children, the Bountiful connection surfaced and B.C. officials were called.
The legal status of the polygamous B.C. community has long been questioned, which somehow seemed to freeze Canadian police and childprotection agents. The B.C. Attorney General has long sought ways to close down the Bountiful compound and end the multiple marriage occurring there, but has been held back by independent legal opinions explaining that any attempt to try Bountiful residents for polygamy would be unsuccessful. A Charter case seeking protection for the practice would likely strike down the laws forbidding it.
Still, whether or not a British Columbia court eventually decides that polygamy should be legal in Canada, there is no excuse to ignore credible reports of abuse of children and women in Bountiful. Even if a judge decides the Charter protects the right of FLDS believers to practice what they call "celestial marriage," that will never indemnify individuals within Bountiful (or any other polygamist community) against prosecution for criminal abuses they commit against their wives and children.
In addition to facts that came out in the Jeffs' trial in Texas, during the B.C. court hearings of the polygamy challenge - that ran from last November through to April - other disturbing activity at Bountiful was described, such as holding the heads of infants and toddlers under running water until they nearly drown to make them respectful of community leaders and use of substandard education and sequestration from the outside world to keep community members dependent on the leaders and willing to obey their orders.
One young man who fled Bountiful told the court that young people were discouraged from completing high school and that he personally had never heard of college or university until he left the isolated town. Other testified they had been kept illiterate as a way of keeping them fearful of what lay beyond their fences.
I can see where the courts might accept the argument that polygamy in and of itself is not abusive - that consenting adults could enter into such weird and creepy relationships of their own free-will.
But no child can make such an informed decision. So it is entirely unacceptable that officials have waited this long to step in on behalf of Bountiful's young people.
Contact: lgunter@shaw.ca
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