Polygamy charges for Canadian sect leaders

Published: Jan. 8, 2009 at 9:38 AM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Two rival religious sect leaders in British Columbia were arrested and charged with 21 counts of polygamy by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Eight plainclothes RCMP officers arrested Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, Wednesday in the town of Bountiful, The Province newspaper in Vancouver reported.

The two are rival leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Globe and Mail said.

Blackmore is charged with 19 counts of "practicing a form of polygamy or practicing a kind of conjugal union." Oler faces two similar charges.

The provincial government has been pushing for charges for several years, but there was legal dissent that charges would contravene Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantees freedom of religion, the reports said.

However, special prosecutor Terrence Roberts spent seven months assessing the case, and the decision to prosecute was ordered by the provincial attorney general, the Globe and Mail said.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Rams' Bulger out with broken shinbone (4 min)
Ravens in Alaska in flying 'memorial' (24 min)
Low amounts of alcohol may hurt health (25 min)
Nordqvist captures LPGA Tour Championship (28 min)
Eye doc in trouble over blunt advice (35 min)
Wyatt out as FB coach at Bethune-Cookman (39 min)
Man creates 26-foot-tall gingerbread man (42 min)
fark
Food-safety lawyer says he no longer eats raw oysters, raw fish, sprouts, bagged leafy greens, hot...
Japanese anime industry is struggling. Will be pushed to the brink of defeat before finally using...
Bethelehem police drop charges against non-tippers. They must have been wise men
Some ugly ass deep-sea creatures discovered in a Census of Marine Life. #8 will haunt you forever...
Woman fingers man snapping pubics at Publix
Grandparents are cool because they let you do things mom and dad won't. Like, say, hanging onto...