Canada

Is there anything you would like to say about the Court decision yesterday?

Only to say that I am thankful for this win. I thank God, and I thank Joe and Bruce and their team. I thank all the people that have called in their support. I thank Blair, John, Chuck, and the host of others who were with us in the beginning and pulling for us all the way through.

I thank my family for enduring this trying summer. This was our first win and we needed it. Today we are once again proud to be Canadians. Oh yea, thanks to you media guys that actually wrote a fair story. I hope you don’t get fired!

Source/Full Story: Winston Blackmore’s Blog:  Share The Light
Technorati Tags: Winston Blackmore, FLDS

The Globe and Mail

Madam Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein found that the former attorney-general of B.C. had unfairly gone “special prosecutor shopping” when he ignored the advice of two prosecutors and kept searching until one was found who wanted to press charges.

By doing so, Judge Stromberg-Stein said, the attorney-general “upset the critical balance that … should be kept between political interference and accountability.”

Source: NYTimes.com

A judge dismissed polygamy charges on Wednesday against two leaders of a fundamentalist Mormon sect based in Bountiful, British Columbia. In January, after an extensive police investigation, Winston K. Blackmore, was charged with being married simultaneously to 19 women and James M. Oler was charged with being married to two women. But Justice Sunni S. Stromberg-Stein of the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the province’s attorney general did not have the authority to appoint a third special prosecutor after two other special prosecutors had recommended not charging the men. Mr. Blackmore’s group is associated with the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Tex., where the authorities seized 468 children in a raid in 2008.

Technorati Tags: polygamy

Yes indeed folks, now it’s Canada’s turn to trample all over some of it’s citizens. If the USA can do it so can they.

Via: globeandmail.com

The special prosecutor looking into polygamy in British Columbia says he intends to ask the RCMP to reopen their investigation into the polygamous religious community at Bountiful to find out whether men in authority fathered children with underage girls.

“The law says it is an offence for a person in a position of authority over another to sexually touch someone if they are under 18,” Vancouver lawyer Terry Robertson said in his first extensive interview since his appointment this month in the high-profile case.

Some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who live in Bountiful have spoken openly about their polygamous relationships as part of their religion. Some women who have left the community say girls as young as 14 have been married to men more than 20 years older.

Reinvigorating the police investigation is only part of the work that Mr. Robertson said he plans to undertake before submitting his report this fall. He also indicated he intends to head in a new direction in his analysis of the crime of polygamy, as set out in the Criminal Code.

Via TheStar.com

The attorney general for British Columbia said yesterday he was alerted by officials in Ottawa that some children taken from a Texas polygamist compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are Canadians.

The confirmation came hours after Angie Voss, of Texas Child Protection Services, testified at a custody hearing for 416 children– seized in a raid earlier this month based in allegations of physical and sexual abuse – that some of the children before the court are Canadians.