Mother's Complaints Lead to Canadian Investigation of F.L.D.S. Church
 
Mormon News
 
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Lenore Holm objected when her Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Church leaders determined that her 16-year-old daughter should marry a 39-year-old Utah polygamist. But her daughter was then taken to British Columbia to an FLDS commune there without Holm's permission.

Holm, who has been excommunicated by the FLDS Church, is now fighting back, filing complaints with Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and with Utah's special investigator of "closed societies," Ron Barton.

Holm believes her daughter was taken to Canada illegally and has probably wed illegally also. "I am concerned my daughter may have been married in secret and I want to know how she got across the border without parental consent," she said Wednesday.

A report by child advocate Jay Beswick, of the advocacy group For Kids Sake, claims that as many as 30 under-aged girls have been married to polygamists in British Columbia, Utah and Arizona. He is compiling a more complete list of these cases with the help of the Salt Lake City-based anti-polygamy group Tapestry of Polygamy. Beswick says that in some cases the marriages have happened with the consent of parents, "In these cases we are seeking investigations and charges for parental endangerment," he said.

Police in both Utah and British Columbia seem ready to cooperate, and say they have opened investigations. "I definitely plan to investigate this issue," said Utah investigator Barton. RCMP Cpl. Doug Barron says "a file has been opened and we will start an investigation." He confirms that his office in Creston, British Columbia has received Holm's complaint.

The Canadian complaint centers around the FLDS Church's Bountiful commune located in Liston, British Columbia. The main body of the FLDS Church is headquartered in Colorado City, Arizona and Hillsdale, Utah. It is not related to the larger and better-known LDS Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City.
 
MormonNews.com
Originally published November 2, 2000
 
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