VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — Prosecutors charged two leaders of a fundamentalist religious sect with polygamy in Canada's westernmost British Columbia province.
Winston Blackmore and James Marion Oler were each charged with "practicing polygamy," an offense under Canada's criminal code.
"Two charges have been laid, one count against each person," British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal told reporters at a news conference here.
In Blackmore's case, "it's alleged he has committed polygamy with about 20 people. And as far as Oler is concerned, it is alleged that he has committed polygamy with two," said Oppal.
Blackmore, 52, and Oler, 44, each lead two rival groups in the religious community they call Bountiful, near Creston in the remote mountains of the southeastern corner of British Columbia.
The groups are linked to the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway group from Mormons in the United States also embroiled in criminal charges related to polygamy and marriage of underage girls.
For more than 20 years in Canada former residents, social workers, teachers and journalists have alleged that girls as young as 12 were being matched with much older men in what the group calls "celestial" marriages.
Traditional church teachings, abandoned by mainstream Mormons since 1890, say a man requires numerous wives to find a place in heaven.
In 2006, after a major investigation, Canada's national police force recommended prosecutors charge the sect's leaders with both polygamy and sexual exploitation.
But no witnesses came forward to back up allegations of sexual exploitation, and legal opinions remain hotly divided over whether the polygamy charges will hold up under constitutional protections for religious and individual freedoms.
Two prominent special independent prosecutors previously recommended against untested charges.
But Oppal, a senior judge in British Columbia before he entered politics, publicly disagreed with those opinions.
In 2008 he appointed a third special prosecutor, Terrence Robertson, and on Wednesday Oppal said the charges resulted from Robertson's seven-month charge assessment review.
A decision in this case, he said, would provide "legal clarity."
Lawyer Michael Vonn, policy director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, said while allegations of human rights abuses and crimes should be "thoroughly and vigorously investigated at Bountiful... we do not believe that the way to go is to prosecute on the grounds of polygamy."
"The current polygamy's statute is a Victorian anachronism that is ripe for constitutional challenge and it will be going through the courts for years," Vonn told AFP.
Additionally, she said, US prosecutions of the church's American leaders have been "terrible and traumatic" for the women and children involved.
In the United States, the church's "prophet" Warren Jeffs has been convicted of being an accomplice to the rape of a minor in Utah, and also faces charges in two other US states related to the sect's practice of marrying young girls to church leaders.
Investigations of those cases have led to numerous children being apprehended.
Vonn said the civil liberties group believes the state lacks a "legitimate interest" in plural relationships between consenting adults, and "polygamy has come to stand for a catch all stew of alleged abuses and violations."
The prosecution of Bountiful's leaders under polygamy laws will cause the isolated community to further close ranks, she warned.
"We are concerned about all kinds of human rights concerns in Bountiful," said Vonn. "If they become more isolated and defensive that does not serve the vulnerable members."
Canadian police arrested Blackmore and Oler on Wednesday.
Sergeant Tim Shields told a news conference federal police recommended that a court release them under conditions including surrendering their passports and "not entering into or performing 'celestial' marriages."
The Canadian branch of the sect settled six decades ago in Bountiful, near the US border.
Former residents have alleged that young girls from the sect's American and Canadian branches are regularly shipped back and forth over the border for marriage.
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