Polygamous marriages in the religious commune of Bountiful, B.C. are once again under the scrutiny of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), following two decades of similar investigations that have so far failed to lead to a single conviction.

The Canadian Press reports

The Mounties have investigated plural marriages in Bountiful since the early 1990s, but persistent questions about the constitutionality of the law and a successful legal challenge three years ago have meant only two people have ever been charged and no one has been convicted.

The RCMP launched an investigation last year focusing on allegations that dozens of teen brides were spirited across the U.S. border to marry older men, but officers weren't actively considering charges of polygamy because of an ongoing constitutional reference case examining the law.

That changed this week after the province's attorney-general — buoyed by a court ruling last November that upheld the law — instructed a special prosecutor to consider polygamy charges.

"There's a renewed focus on it now," RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said Friday.

"The special prosecutor is in possession of some of our previous findings, and if we uncover further information that shows what we believe to be elements of this offence [of polygamy], we would forward that, as well."

Bountiful is the Canadian branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) -- the polygamous sect of Mormonism whose leader, Warren Jeffs, was jailed for life last year for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides in what his church deemed "spiritual marriages."

Last week Wendell Loy Nielsen, former president of the FLDS' legal entity, was convicted of bigamy. During the punishment phase of the trial more evidence turned up of his involvement in abetting illegal marriages.

The San Angelo Standard-Times reported

By Wednesday afternoon, jurors had been told about 30 bigamous wives Nielsen is alleged to have had in addition to the three he was convicted of having. The jury was shown a document listing 326 other marriages with which Nielsen was connected either by officiating or being a witness. Most of them were bigamous and 50 of which involved girls 12 to 18 years old, performed in locations from Texas to Canada.

Full story: Canadian police renews polygamy investigation into Bountiful

Religion News Blog -- A special prosecutor looking into potential crimes linked to the community of Bountiful, British Columbia, now has the mandate to weigh polygamy charges after the Canadian province decided a recent court ruling is strong enough to make them stick.

Bountiful is the Canadian branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) -- the polygamous sect of Mormonism whose leader, Warren Jeffs, was jailed for life last year for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides in what his church deemed "spiritual marriages."

Last November Supreme Court of B.C. Chief Justice Robert Bauman in a landmark decision ruled that Canada's ban of polygamy does not violate the country's Charter of Rights. The ruling cites harms to women, children and society that result from the practice.

The Globe and Mail reports

"I asked our team to take a very thorough look at the ruling — because we wanted to make sure we felt we had enough strength in that ruling to proceed with potential polygamy charges," Attorney General Shirley Bond said on Monday in Victoria.

"I'm very pleased to say today that our team believes that in and of itself the ruling was strong enough that we can move forward potentially with polygamy charges."

In January Vancouver lawyer Peter Wilson was named as the new special prosecutor to look into potential criminal offences in Bountiful.

The Globe and Mail notes that

At the time he was appointed, Mr. Wilson's mandate did not include polygamy, but focused on potential offences against minors, including sexual assault, sexual interference, and parents or guardians procuring sexual activity.

Details about activity involving minors — including young girls from Bountiful being whisked across the border to the United States to marry much older men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, now jailed for sex crimes — were discussed last year in the case that led to the ruling.

Successive B.C. governments have weighed polygamy prosecutions for decades, but charges didn't proceed, largely over concerns that they would not stand up to a constitutional challenge.

In November, 2011, Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force visited Texas to gather information about underage Canadian girls believed to have been victimized by Warren Jeffs.

Since the end of January Bountiful sect leader Winston Blackmore has been in Canada's Federal Court, fighting the taxman who says he owes as much as $4.3 million in unpaid personal income taxes, business income and GST.

Full story: Special prosecutor gets go-ahead to weigh Bountiful, B.C. polygamy charges

Winston Blackmore, leader of the polygamous community of Bountiful, may have finally met his match: the taxwomen.

In the Vancouver Sun, Daphne Bramham says

It's money - not polygamy, not a constitutional challenge to religious freedom and not criminal charges - that's landed Canada's best known polygamist in federal tax court testifying under oath and facing a pair of formidable, demanding and, at times, impatient women, Judge Diane Campbell and Justice Department lawyer Lynn Burch.

And it's so much money that it's possible the government could bankrupt Blackmore and financially ruin two of his brothers (Kevin and Guy) as well as the companies that the three of them operate.

Bramham's article provides a good overview of the problems the Tax Court trial represents for Blackmore.

In fact, if Blackmore is brought down from the pedestal he has placed himself on, it may not only be due to the taxwomen he now faces, but also the work of writers like Bramham.

Bramham has been a columnist at the Vancouver Sun since 2000 and has won numerous awards for her writing. Many of her columns deal with Bountiful -- and the plight of those raised within that polygamous community.

The non-profit group Beyond Borders -- which advances the rights of children everywhere to be free from sexual abuse and exploitation -- honoured her for a series of columns on Bountiful

Bramham also authored the book, The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous Mormon Sect

What goes on [in Bountiful] is not only illegal, it's anathema to the core values and principles espoused by Canadians. Even though polygamy has been illegal in Canada since 1890, men are marrying multiple wives.

Some of Bountiful's men are in their forties and fifties when they marry girls as young as fourteen, which is Canada's legal age of sexual consent. The legal age for marriage in B.C. is eighteen, with the consent of a B.C. Supreme Court judge required for any child under sixteen. But before they are even of legal age to be married, a third of Bountiful's girls are impregnated by men who are at least a decade or more older than they are.

Underage girls in Bountiful are two to seven times more likely to get pregnant than any other girls in the province.

Children — boys, mainly, but also girls — are frequently used as unpaid labourers in dangerous construction and forestry jobs. To ensure that those children don't have any other choices, the leaders encourage them to leave school well before high­school graduation to become either wives and mothers or indentured labourers.

It's all done in the name of God and religion by men who are aiming to be gods with dozens of wives and hundreds of children serving them for all eternity.
- Daphne Branham, The Polygamy Capital of Canada, Chapter 1 of The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous Mormon Sect

Full story: Will the taxwomen bring down the polygamist? How about a columnist?

B.C. polygamous leader Winston Blackmore says he took out a $25,000 loan from the bank in an effort to prepare for the end of the world.

The Canadian Press says

During testimony in the Tax Court of Canada on Thursday, Blackmore said he was directed by a patriarch in the community to get the money to "prepare for the worst."

The cash was to be used to gather supplies for a religious sect in southeast B.C., near the Canada-U.S. border, he said.

"Another deadline for the end of the world has come and gone. Some 15 deadlines have passed," Blackmore's self-published online newsletter later said in March 2004.

"Did you write that?" federal government lawyer Lynn Burch asked Blackmore.

"I could have wrote it," he said.

He acknowledged there had been at least 15 predictions for the end of the world from the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, an offshoot of the Mormon church.

"Perhaps many more," he added.

Burch asked if the predictions for the destruction of the world were part of the belief system of the FLDS faith.

"I don't think they're part of the tenet, but they certainly are part of the practice," he replied.

Blackmore is testifying at a Tax Court trial as he fights a claim that he owes an extra $1.5 million for his taxes from 2000 to 2004 and in 2006.

In The Province, Andy Ivens writes

Blackmore further testified at his landmark tax trial that he personally owned various properties which were not transferred to a trust fund for the polygamous commune he led. He admitted this contravened the dictates of the FLDS.

Under cross-examination by Lynn Burch, a lawyer conducting the government of Canada's case against him, Blackmore admitted that one of the basic principles of the FLDS is to "consecrate" — or transfer — all privately-held property to the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust.

The trust, of which Blackmore was the sole Canadian trustee up until his excommunication from the FLDS in 2002, held the title to the property at Bountiful, B.C.

To win his case, Blackmore must prove to the Tax Court of Canada, Judge Diane Campbell ,that it is more likely than not that the flock he led before and after 2002 is a "congregation," as defined in the federal Tax Act.

His personal holdings and his 40-per-cent share in the large, private company J.R. Blackmore and Sons (JRB) that dominated the commerce of Bountiful could lead a tax auditor to believe that the community did not share equally in it.

That is what brings him to Tax Court.

Though Warren Jeffs' track record shows him to be a false prophet many times over, the cult leader -- serving a life plus 20 years prison sentence for charges stemming from his 'spiritual marriages' to underaged girls -- has been mailing out lots of 'revelations' promising apocalyptic events should he and other FLDS members not be set free.

Research resources on Bountiful
Research resources on the FLDS

Full story: Polygamous leader borrowed $25K for end of the world, false predicted 15+ times by Warren Jeffs

On the stand in federal tax court, Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore confirmed that he had 21 wives, including sisters whom he married on the same day in the same ceremony, The Globe and Mail reports:

"These are pretty much the list of people who lived with me as wives," Mr. Blackmore said on Tuesday, following a series of questions from a Department of Justice lawyer that outlined the names and home communities of the women to whom Mr. Blackmore was "sealed" in ceremonies sanctioned by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS.

Those women, and their dozens of children, at some point lived in or near Bountiful, sometimes sharing his home on arrangements worked out among the families, he said. "The mothers pretty much decided that," he said. "They fit themselves where everybody fit best."

Some of the women — about eight or nine, he said — left following a religious split in the community in 2002.

The women were named in a tax proceeding in which the Government of Canada is seeking to prove that Mr. Blackmore, as the patriarch of a large, polygamous family, repeatedly understated his income on tax returns, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars being owed to the government. Mr. Blackmore and his lawyers, relying on provisions of the Income Tax Act that relate to congregations, maintain that Bountiful is a congregation and Mr. Blackmore's tax burden should be shared with the community.

The Province explains

Blackmore claims he is minister to approximately 400 followers in Bountiful and that they constitute a congregation, which should provide them an enormous break on taxes.

Blackmore is the main shareholder of J.R. Blackmore and Sons (JRB), a large logging and forest products company with many holdings in southeastern B.C. and Idaho.

But on his tax forms for the six years in question, he claims his and the other three directors' incomes were spread out over the entire congregation because they live communally and share their wealth, in accordance with their beliefs.

The four directors claimed they supported their large families on incomes of between $15,000 and $45,000 in one year of the years that was audited. [...]

Lawyer Lynn Burch of the federal Justice Department, cross-examined Blackmore on Tuesday on his living arrangements with his various wives and their more than 60 children.

Burch asked Blackmore to list all 20 "plural wives," after his first wife Jane Blackmore, whom he legally married in 1975 and with whom they have seven children.

Their marriage was recognized by the provincial government, but the next 20 are not.

Postmedia News says

The FLDS broke away from the mainstream Mormon church in 1890 over issues of polygamy and communal living.

Blackmore was ousted as bishop of the FLDS commune in Bountiful in 2002. He says he is now a minister and a businessman.

Federal lawyers are expected to argue Blackmore is not the leader of a recognized religious group and Bountiful is not a commune.

If they succeed, Blackmore's claim that he shared his tax burden with about 400 others in the community who follow him will deprive him of claiming expenses for a religious institution.

The case is reportedly the first challenge to Section 143 of the Tax Act, which defines what a religion is.

The case is separate from any criminal proceedings. A special prosecutor has been appointed to find out whether any criminal charges should arise from practices in Bountiful - other than polygamy - such as sexual exploitation, sexual abuse of a minor and human trafficking.

Research resources on the FLDS and on Bountiful (and why its members are referred as Mormon Fundamentalists)

Full story: Winston Blackmore describes living arrangements with his 21 wives

Polygamist sect leader Winston Blackmore is in Canada's Federal Court, fighting the taxman who says he owes as much as $4.3 million in unpaid personal income taxes, business income and GST.

The Province says

Blackmore is arguing through his lawyers that he is the leader of an organized religion that holds all property in common.

Blackmore, 54, who is believed to have at least 20 wives and more than 100 biological children, is the self-styled "bishop" of Bountiful, a polygamous community near Creston.

A high-flying businessman with logging, manufacturing and farming interests, who owns or leases many vehicles and even an airplane, Blackmore recently pleaded poverty and the inability to pay his legal fees in a separate court matter. That court ruled he could afford to pay his own legal fees.

The CRA audited Blackmore's books, then issued reassessment notices for his tax filings in the years 2000 to 2004, and 2006.

On Monday, Blackmore was appealing those notices, alternately quoting from the Bible, then reeling off a long list of the business interests of Bountiful's J.R. Blackmore and Sons.

Blackmore's polygamous community is an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) [See: Polygamy Leadership Tree]

At the Vancouver Sun Dahpne Bramham reports

Bountiful is not a religious commune and at best one of its leaders, Winston Blackmore, is nothing more than patriarch of a large, polygamous family.

That's what Justice Department lawyers will try to prove over the next three weeks in Federal Tax Court. In 2008, Canada Revenue Agency reassessed five years of Blackmore's personal income tax filings and deter-mined that he underestimated his earnings by $1.5 million.

This is the first time the Federal Tax Court has heard a challenge to Section 143 of the Tax Act, which describes terms such as congregation, community and even what a religion is.

Blackmore and his lawyer argue that the fundamentalist Mormon group fits all of the criteria, and because of that, Blackmore ought to share the tax bur-den of his personal and corporate earnings with others in the community.

But Justice Department lawyer Lynn Burch said in her opening statement that Blackmore and Bountiful fail on every count. They don't all live and work together. There's no doctrinal prohibition on members owning property in their own right. And the members do not devote all of their work and efforts to the common good.

Far from being a congregation as defined by the act, Burch said, "At best the appellant [Blackmore] represents a splinter group of a splinter group.

"He is twice removed from the episcopal legitimacy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [the main-stream Mormon church] ... his group is not a constituent part of any organized religion."

Blackmore and about 400 residents of Bountiful, B.C. - most of whom are his family members - broke with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or FLDS in 2002. The FLDS itself is a breakaway sect that is not even recognized by main-stream Mormons.

According to the Toronto Star

Blackmore testified that he is the appointed leader of a religious congregation in Bountiful, a position he claims can be traced back through six succeeding appointments all the way to Mormon founder Joseph Smith.

"Basically in my role, I was in charge of my community, I was the presiding member of the community," said Blackmore, who considers himself a bishop. [...]

[Lawyer Lynn Burch, representing the federal government,] said Blackmore was appointed a bishop in 2002, but shortly after that he was excommunicated by the FLDS Church and the polygamous community split into two factions, with James Oler heading the other group.

In 2009, the provincial government charged Blackmore and Oler, the spiritual heads of the two communities near the Alberta border, with polygamy. But those charges were stayed later that year after the province received expert legal opinion that said a decision was needed on whether the current polygamy law was valid.

The provincial government has maintained the 121-year-old law against polygamy was constitutional because of the harm polygamous relationship has on young girls who are urged into marriage with older men. Blackmore has argued the law violates his religious freedom.

In a landmark decision last November, B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman concluded that Canada's law against polygamy was constitutional.

Wendy Stueck, writing for The Globe and Mail, says

The polygamous community of Bountiful is not a congregation and by insisting that it is, community leader Winston Blackmore is trying to offload a tax bill on to those who can ill afford to pay it — including young men shipped out of the community to work at low-paying jobs, a federal tax lawyer said on Monday.

Mr. Blackmore directs what his family should do — "especially young men, who go out and work for a pittance," Justice Department lawyer Lynn Burch said in opening statements on Monday.

It's such young men, many making less than minimum wage, who are among community members to whom Mr. Blackmore wants to shift a tax burden "that the [government] minister says is properly his to bear," Ms. Burch said.

Mr. Blackmore, a long-time community leader in Bountiful, is appealing tax assessments under a little-used section of the Income Tax Act, maintaining that he was doing business for the benefit of the community and congregation.

The federal tax department, however, says Bountiful doesn't meet the requirements spelled out in the act and that Mr. Blackmore made and spent money to support his polygamous family, under-reporting his income along the way.

"If the appellant can be considered a shepherd to his flock, then the role of a good shepherd is to shear his flock, not to skin it," Ms. Burch said.

Special prosecutor to look into potential criminal offences in Bountiful, British Columbia.
Research resources on Bountiful

Full story: Polygamous sect leader Winston Blackmore owes $4.3m, taxman says

Vancouver lawyer Peter Wilson has been named as the new special prosecutor to look into potential criminal offences in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Globe and Mail reports

Bountiful, in southeastern B.C., is home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect that holds polygamy as a tenet of its faith.

Police have looked into allegations of criminal activity in the community several times over the past two decades but potential polygamy charges have foundered on questions of whether such charges would stand up to a constitutional challenge.

Mr. Wilson's mandate does not include polygamy charges. Rather, he will be considering potential offences relating to sexual offences against minors, including sexual assault, sexual interference and parents or guardians procuring sexual activity.

Details about activity involving minors — including young girls from Bountiful being whisked across the border to the United States to marry much older men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, now jailed for sex crimes — were discussed last year in a B.C. Supreme Court reference on polygamy. In that proceeding, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Bauman ruled that Canada's ban against polygamy should be upheld.

The Canadian Press says

The constitutional case heard allegations that dozens of girls as young as 12 were spirited across the U.S. border to marry men decades older than them, while several American girls were moved to Bountiful.

Those revelations prompted the RCMP to launch a renewed investigation focusing specifically on the movement of children over the border. The Mounties have confirmed their investigation isn't looking into multiple marriage.

Full story: New special prosecutor for FLDS community of Bountiful

Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force will be in Texas from Dec. 12 to 16 to gather information about underage Canadian girls believed to have been victimized by Warren Jeffs, the convicted pedophile and leader of a fundamentalist Mormon group.

The Vancouver Sun reports

Sgt. Terry Jacklin of the Southeast District Major Crime Unit said the officers will meet with state lawyers and members of the Texas Rangers to discuss the connection between Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), and girls allegedly sent to him by their families in Bountiful, a polygamous community in B.C.

The RCMP has been planning the trip for several months but it was delayed until authorities in Texas became available, he said, adding the timing of the trip has nothing to do with a B.C. Supreme Court decision this week upholding Canada's anti-polygamy laws. [...]

Earlier this year, RCMP contacted Texas authorities after learning of 31 child brides with connections to Bountiful. The information was based on Jeffs' dictated diaries and other records filed in advance of his Texas trial. The list was also filed as evidence in B.C. Supreme Court's constitutional reference case.

In Texas, the jury found Jeffs guilty of sexually assaulting two underage girls, aged 12 and 14, whom he had taken as "spiritual brides." He was sentenced in August to life in prison plus 20 years - a total of 119 years.

Research resources on the FLDS and on Bountiful (and why its members are referred as Mormon Fundamentalists)

Full story: Canadian police takes child-bride human trafficking investigation to Texas

A judge in British Columbia has decided that Canada's ban of polygamy does not violate the country's Charter of Rights.

CTV reports

B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman issued his decision Wednesday, saying that while the ban does indeed violate the freedom-of-religion rights of those practising polygamy, polygamy brings such harm to women and children that they outweigh those rights.

In his 335-page decision, Bauman said that polygamy fundamentally hurts women, their children, and society in general.

"Women in polygamous relationships are at an elevated risk of physical and psychological harm. They face higher rates of domestic violence and abuse, including sexual abuse. Competition for material and emotional access to a shared husband can lead to fractious co-wife relationships," he wrote.

"Polygamy has negative impacts on society flowing from the high fertility rates, large family size and poverty associated with the practice. It generates a class of largely poor, unmarried men who are statistically predisposed to violence and other anti-social behaviour," he added.

Bauman added that the polygamy ban law is only valid if it isn't used to prosecute child brides.

CBC says

The decision follows 42-days of legal arguments from a wide variety of groups interested in the constitutionality of Section 293 of the Criminal Code.

The ruling was welcomed by B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond in Victoria, who called the decision a "landmark" ruling that sends a clear message upholding the laws. [...]

Bond said she was very pleased with the result, but would not say if B.C. intended to launch a third attempt to prosecute polygamists in the religious community of Bountiful.

The ruling was also welcomed by Brian Samuels, the lawyer for the group Stop Polygamy in Canada.

"I think it's a well reasoned and comprehensive decision," said Samuels.

Likewise, Canada's polyamorists — people with multiple partners outside a religious context — said they were relieved because Bauman said the law shouldn't apply to them unless they decide to formalize their unions.

"The formality of marriage is really not a big issue in the polyamorous community," said John Ince, the spokesman for the Canadian Polyamoury Advocacy Association.

But George MacIntosh, the lawyer appointed by the court to argue against the law, said the decision unfairly criminalizes the actions of consenting adults and he may appeal the decision. [...]

Bauman spent several months hearing testimony and legal arguments about whether the 121-year-old ban on multiple marriages is constitutional.

The landmark hearings, which wrapped up in April, focused on the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., but the ruling is expected to have implications for polygamists in the Muslim community.

The constitutional test case was prompted by the failed prosecution of two men from Bountiful who were charged in 2009 with practising polygamy.

The B.C. government then asked the court to rule whether Canada's polygamy laws violated the Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Residents of Bountiful follow the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, which, unlike the mainstream Mormon church, holds polygamy as a tenet of the faith.

The court heard evidence that teenage girls in Bountiful were taken across the Canada-U.S. border to be married, prompting RCMP in January to announce a renewed criminal investigation into the community about 1,000 people in southeastern B.C.

The provincial and federal governments have pointed to the inability to lay charges, under the polygamy law or any other, as a reason to uphold the multiple marriage ban.

The polygamy law, the governments said, is the only way to prevent and punish such crimes in a closed religious community that shuns outside scrutiny and where the plural wives themselves are unwilling to co-operate with police.

Challengers argued the Criminal Code covers offences such as sexual exploitation, human trafficking and kidnapping. Polygamy, they claim, isn't the issue.

B.C. Supreme court reasons for judgement
Timeline of polygamy in Canada
Data supports hard truth about brides in polygamous Bountiful
New evidence about alleged child brides from Bountiful prompts application to re-open polygamy trial
Research resources on Bountiful, B.C.
Research resources on the FLDS
Research resources on polygamy
Polygamous sects of the Mormon Church (includes a chart that shows where the Bountiful communities fit in)

Full story: Canadian provincial court upholds ban on polygamy

The husbands and wives in the isolated polygamous commune of Bountiful, B.C., are about to learn whether the 121-year-old law that has overshadowed their lives violates their religious freedoms.

The Canadian Press reports

A British Columbia judge will rule Wednesday whether Canada's anti-polygamy law is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It's a case that will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The court was asked to weigh the constitutionality of the Criminal Code section banning polygamy after the failed prosecution of two religious leaders in Bountiful, where residents believe multiple marriage will allow them to reach the highest level of heaven.

The hearings included testimony from academic experts, former polygamist women and current plural wives. The case has focused an unprecedented public spotlight on an isolated community of about 1,000 residents, who have been investigated numerous times during the past two decades but have so far avoided prosecution.

In Bountiful, residents hope the long legal process will mean they will one day be left alone.

"Naturally, we hope that our charter rights will be protected," Winston Blackmore, who leads one of two divided factions within Bountiful, wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.

"It would be nice to not have discrimination and persecution from the government. It would certainly be nice to have the same charter protection as everyone else."

Blackmore was charged in 2009 with one count of practising polygamy, as was James Oler, who leads the other faction inside Bountiful.

A judge later threw out the charges after concluding the way the province chose its prosecutors violated the men's rights, prompting the government to launch the current constitutional reference case.

Bountiful residents follow the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, which holds polygamy as a tenet of the faith. The mainstream Mormon church renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

The case heard two months of testimony offering wildly diverging opinions about life in such polygamous communities and the effect of polygamy itself.

The federal and provincial governments, as well as several intervener groups who want the current law upheld, argued polygamy is always harmful.

They said allowing men to marry multiple women will inevitably lead to physical and sexual abuse, child brides, the subjugation of women, and the expulsion of young men who have no women left to marry.

Indeed, the court heard allegations of all of those harms happening in Bountiful. Most notably, the court heard evidence of cross-border marriages involving teen girls as young as 12-years-old. [...]

The court heard evidence of polygamous marriages elsewhere in the country, as well as so-called polyamorous relationships involving more than two people who may not necessarily claim to be married.

"The issue of polygamy is far broader than simply the people who live in fundamentalist Mormon communities. The way the Criminal Code section is drafted, depending on how the court interprets it, could have an impact on a lot more people in diverse personal relationships," he said.

Research resources on Bountiful, B.C.
Research resources on the FLDS
Research resources on polygamy
Polygamous sects of the Mormon Church (includes a chart that shows where the Bountiful communities fit in)

Note:

Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith

... described plural marriage as part of "the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on earth" and taught that a man needed at least three wives to attain the "fullness of exaltation" in the afterlife. He warned that God had explicitly commanded that "all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same ... and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory."
- Source: Under The Banner of Heaven John Krakauer, Doubleday (July 15, 2003), pages 5, 6.

Here's why the Mormon Church rejected the doctrine -- sort of -- anyway.

Full story: B.C court to rule whether polygamy is constitutional