B.C. commune quiet about underage marriage investigation
 Members feel victimized
 
National Post
 
LISTER, B.C. - Members of what has been described as a polygamist commune say they are being persecuted but declined yesterday to discuss their lifestyle or comment on reports they are being investigated by U.S. authorities for arranged marriages of underage girls.

"You have to understand what we have been through recently and the sensitive nature of it," said Merrill Palmer, principal of the school on the Bountiful commune, located in the Creston Valley, just north of the British Columbia-Idaho border.

The commune and school is run by Winston Blackmore, 44, who is alleged to have 30 wives and 80 children. On Friday, Utah's State Attorney appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of child abuse in the 30,000-member fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon Church. The fundamentalist branch is reported to have communes on the Utah-Arizona border and here in Lister, just south of Creston.

Mr. Blackmore could not be reached for comment on the investigation or allegations he married several new wives last year, including a 16-year-old American identified as Lorraine Johnson.

Mr. Palmer described Mr. Blackmore as an "honest and politically correct man" who is not willing to talk to reporters about the alleged arranged marriages of underage girls to priests in the church.

"People will accept alternative lifestyles, but they will not accept our way of life, so you can appreciate here why people are very guarded in what they say."

Lenore Holm, of Colorado City, Ariz., said she was ex-communicated from the church and declared "a tool of the Devil" for refusing to give consent for her 16-year-old daughter, Nichole, to be married as the second wife to a 39-year-old church member with 10 children. Her daughter was married at the Utah-Arizona border and allegedly taken to the Bountiful commune. Ms. Holm filed a police report in Colorado City last week alleging her daughter was married in violation of state laws. She said she intends to file a complaint with the RCMP.

Corporal Doug Barron of Creston RCMP said yesterday a complaint has not yet been filed.

A California-based organization against child abuse, For Kids Sake, charges that between 30 and 40 underage girls have been married off to church members in British Columbia and the United States in the past two years.
 
National Post
Originally published September 26, 2000
 
Back