Commune expands its power while B.C. plan gathers dust
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
A blueprint for how to deal with the polygamous community of Bountiful has been gathering dust on a legislative library shelf for more than a decade.

The recommendations made by a government-funded committee on polygamous issues carried a warning on the cover that they were confidential and to be "circulated only as needed within the government." For whatever reasons, the people on that limited circulation list buried the report and not a single recommendation was heeded.

In the 11 years since the recommendations were made, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' population has more than doubled. Now more than 1,000 followers live in and around the Creston Valley in the east Kootenays.

The leaders have prospered and have many more wives and children than in 1993. There are also many more brides and mothers in their teens. Winston Blackmore -- the bishop who was ex-communicated in a power struggle with Prophet Warren Jeffs two years ago -- now has 27 or more wives and close to 100 children.

Over the years, B.C. has paid more than $5.5 million in grants to Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School even though the number of Bountiful children graduating from high school has slipped.

What the committee recommended in 1993 was an inter-ministerial approach and "organizing a careful, thoughtful intervention, sensitive to the culture and needs of group members."

Despite the damage that it acknowledged polygamy does to children and women, the committee urged the government not to rip apart families by transplanting women and children to other communities.

"For individuals who believe producing children is the measure of their self-worth, the consequences of being separated from their children could be disastrous."

The report refers to an intervention in 1955 in the twin FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Police fromboth states swept into the towns and gathered up women and children who were scattered all over the United States. Some children ended up in foster homes, separated from both parents and even their siblings. The images of screaming children being grabbed from parents' arms outraged the public. The FLDS leaders successfully sued the government, forcing the return of the women and children.

The result has been that for the past 50 years, the communities have grown even more insular and suspicious of outside interference.

To avoid that, the committee urged a wide range of measures, including improved education, safe houses and counselling for anyone leaving Bountiful.

But it said, as a first step, the B.C. government must settle the legal status of Canada's polygamy law.

Since 1990, it has contended that the polygamy law is unconstitutional because of the Charter of Rights guarantees of religious freedom.

For that reason, B.C. has yet to prosecute a polygamist. But within the past month, Attorney-General Geoff Plant has said that perhaps if the federal government won't rewrite the polygamy law, it's time to take a case to court.

But that's not the only legal quandary the committee said needed sorting out.

If people do not agree to polygamous marriages of their own free will, but out of blind obedience to powerful authority figures, can they sue in civil courts ?

If people do not freely sign over their property to the FLDS's United Effort Plan trust, but do so out of obedience, are those transfers legally binding?

The committee also strongly urged the government to "consider what steps it can take to reduce the isolation and limited accountability of Bountiful School."

The school receives government grants under the Independent School Act. So, the committee recommended trustees not be drawn exclusively from the FLDS leadership, but include others from the wider community.

It urged the government to require the school's superintendent not be a member of the breakaway Mormon sect and that unannounced inspections be done.

It also said the children should have access to a counsellor from outside the sect who has psychological training in issues like brainwashing and who would provide confidential counselling as well as teach life skills courses covering issues such as sexual and physical abuse.

The committee did not recommend pulling funding from the group. However, 11 years later some of the committee members say that's exactly what needs to be done.

That suggestion has been taken up not only by a group in the Creston Valley, but by school trustees from the Bulkley Valley, Vancouver and, most recently, Quesnel. They question whether the children are getting a proper education.

The trustees also want an investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of Bountiful children.

Ten days ago, the attorney-general challenged his cabinet colleagues to figure out what needs to be done for the women and children of Bountiful.

Let's hope somebody has dusted off this plan and that work is under way on fine-tuning the recommendations so they can be put into action before another generation is lost.
 
Vancouver Sun
Originally published Saturday, June 26, 2004
 
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