CANADA
Daily Courier
CRANBROOK, B.C. – Two leaders of an isolated religious commune in British Columbia have been charged for the second time with practising polygamy, more than two decades after allegations of multiple marriage, sexual abuse and cross-border child trafficking first attracted the attention of the outside world.
Winston Blackmore and James Oler, who lead separate factions in a community known as Bountiful, were each charged Wednesday with one count of polygamy. Blackmore is accused of having 24 marriages, while Oler is accused of four.
Oler is also charged along with two others — Brandon Blackmore and Emily Crossfield — with unlawfully removing a child from Canada for sexual purposes.
The charges are the latest step in a series of investigations and failed attempts at prosecutions dating back to the early 1990s involving Bountiful, which follows a fundamentalist form of Mormonism.
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