Saturday is the second anniversary of then-B.C. Chief Justice Robert Bauman’s landmark decision upholding Canada’s anti-polygamy law.
Yet no charges have been laid against the Mormon polygamists of Bountiful, B.C., or against the imam in Ontario who performs second and third marriages for Muslim men there.
For months, B.C. special prosecutor Peter J. Wilson has had RCMP evidence recommending what charges should be laid.
The Federal Tax Court found polygamist leader Winston Blackmore guilty of under-reporting his income faster than any action that has yet to be taken regarding the human rights of the women and children, young men and boys of Bountiful.
Evidence from Texas trials that put 12 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints men in prison apparently sits gathering dust on the special prosecutor’s desk. This evidence shows 53 underage girls were trafficked across international borders for forced marriage to older men.
In Canada, human rights issues and ratified conventions protecting women and children appear to be just pretty words on paper.
Nancy Mereska
President, Stop Polygamy in Canada Society,
Two Hills, Alberta
Originally published in the Edmonton Journal