NDP ignored polygamy warning:
 Successive governments refused to protect women and kids in Kootenay community
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
If the B.C. government is serious about protecting the rights of the women and children in the polygamous Kootenay community of Bountiful, it doesn't need to waste time and money doing a study.

The work was done in 1993 and the report -- Life in Bountiful: A report on the lifestyle of a polygamous community -- has been gathering dust in the library ever since.

It provides the single most detailed insight into the life and beliefs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"The group's religious beliefs are so encompassing they have shaped a distinct culture. It is a culture that limits individual rights to the point of virtually eliminating them," it concludes.

But it also poses the rhetorical question that governments have been running from ever since.

"When does a culture stop being a culture and start being abuse?"

Commissioned by the NDP government, the report describes young women forced into polygamous marriages, often with considerably older men, and then expected to have as many children as possible to ensure their husband's spot in heaven.

It describes how men are forced to pay punishingly high tithes to the church, which often makes it difficult for them to support their many wives and children. And if they have any personal property, land or a house, the men are pressured to hand it over to the United Effort Plan trust, which is controlled by the leadership.

The writers maintained that "the frustrations resulting from these extreme demands of obedience have no outlet in the group beyond furtive, abusive behaviour towards self and others."

The community began in 1947 when a few men ex-communicated by the Mormon Church over the issue of polygamy moved north from Utah in search of a safe haven. And they found it. Even though polygamy is illegal in Canada, the practice has never been kept secret.

"For several decades, it has been common practice among plural wives in the group to have their surnames legally changed to the surname of their husbands once they have been united in the religious ceremony," the report says.

"As well, in recent years, it has become common practice for fathers to include their names on vital statistics paternity recordsregardless of whether the children are by their first or subsequent wives."

It explains that FLDS believe they are God's Chosen People. As such they must create a superior race by practising polygamy. Believing themselves "vastly superior to the rest of society," FLDS followers distrust outsiders and frequently lie to them.

In 1993, the report says "genetic distance seems to be maintained." But, in terms of living relationships, some of these relationships are incestuous. Children of "sister-wives but different fathers are married to each other (many of the women have been placed in successive marriages with multiple children by each husband). Step-children of men and women may be married to their step-parent."

If people leave Bountiful, the report notes that they are ill-prepared for life outside and often become despondent, self-destructive or even violent. And, it says, the financial consequences are punishing.

With no legal recognition for their polygamous marriages, it is almost impossible for women to sue for support payments for themselves and their children. Even child custody is difficult to obtain.

If women do succeed, paying tithes to the church keeps the men poor. And the amalgamation of property under the United Effort Plan keeps them landless.

Even in 1993, the report says "the situation [in Bountiful] is becoming increasingly serious" largely because leaders were emboldened by a 1990 decision not to charge the leaders with polygamy.

Officials in the attorney-general's ministry believed then (and still do today) that the anti-polygamy law may be trumped by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

Despite descriptions of the tyranny of the church leadership, unquestioning obedience of followers and alarms about abuse, the NDP government packed the report away.

It ignored the red flags about lack of oversight of the government-funded school, the psychological damage inflicted on the children and the curtailment of basic rights.

Since the report was written, life in Bountiful has indeed become much worse. The population has doubled to about 1,000. A whole new generation of kids has been born into a community that has become much more insular and self-sufficient. And with still no prosecutions for polygamy, much younger girls are being assigned as "celestial wives" than a decade ago.

It's shameful that successive governments knew what was happening and did nothing.

Worse still, for more than a decade they have had a blueprint for action that was not only ignored, but buried.
 
Vancouver Sun
Originally published Friday, June 25, 2004
 
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