Women deny abuse in polygamous British Columbia town
 
The Associated Press
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
BOUNTIFUL, British Columbia -- In a note on the town message board, women from a polygamous commune are vigorously disputing claims that they have been abused.

The notice in this southeastern British Columbia town lashed out against an equal rights group that believes women in the commune have been brainwashed by abusive husbands.

Eight women from across the province have filed a complaint with the human rights tribunal on behalf of women in a breakaway Mormon sect, accusing four provincial ministers of gross dereliction of duty.

The complaint accused the provincial government of failing to protect girls in Bountiful from an oppressive culture.

According to the complaint, top government officials knew girls in Bountiful were "being denied an education, pulled out of class to become concubines in harems, denied birth control and having motherhood forced upon them."

It also says the community school preached racism and sexism by teaching students, for example, that "females must obey males or their souls will burn forever in Hell."

British Columbia Attorney General Geoff Plant announced in July that an investigation would be conducted into accusations of child abuse, forcible marriage and sexual exploitation at the commune.

Among those who signed the complaint to the tribunal was former colony member Debbie Palmer, who says she was abused, made to marry for the first time at 15 and had seven children by three men she was assigned to marry.

Under the tribunal process, the complainants were required to post notices in the town to explain what they were doing and to ask other women to come forward.

Women in the commune, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, say they are furious and deny their lifestyle is wrong, let alone oppressive.

"We hope to set the record straight, and to notify the Human Rights Tribunal ... that it is not the Government of British Columbia that has violated our human rights, but the continued false accusations of a few self-serving activists, fanned by the frenzy of a story-seeking media, that has violated our constitutionally guaranteed rights of religion, association, privacy and peaceful assembly," said the rebuttal notice, which was pinned over one posted by the equal rights group.

The retort, which appeared over the weekend in a rare response from the commune, stated that 80 women, "actual members, past and present, of the Bountiful community" have signed a counterclaim to be sent to the tribunal and the government.

"We have not been discriminated against nor neglected because we are female," the poster reads.

Jancis Andrews of Sechelt, who also signed the complaint, believes the Bountiful wives are under the spell of a cult.

"I know that sounds very derogatory, and I don't mean it to be," Andrews said Monday. "It's an attempt to understand the mindset of people brought up in a cult. It is not to judge them harshly."

"We can't judge them by normal standards. We are concerned for them."

Allowing open polygamy in Bountiful is a great insult to Canadian women, she said.
 
seattlepi.com
Originally published Tuesday, October 12, 2004
 
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