Canadian sect leader had 24 wives
A FORMER leader of a breakaway religious sect who had 24 “wives” and at least 146 children has been found guilty of polygamy by a Canadian court.
Winston Blackmore and another former bishop of the breakaway Mormon community of Bountiful, in British Columbia, were found guilty by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge of one count of polygamy each.
Blackmore, 61, was accused of practising “a form of polygamy” or “a kind of conjugal union” with 24 women between 1990 and 2014, according to court documents.
Media have reported he fathered at least 146 children. James Oler, 53, faced the same charge involving five women between 1993 and 2009. It is not known how many children Oler has fathered.
Under Canada’s anti-polygamy law, the government had been weighing prosecution since the early 1990s against members of the isolated community of 1500 residents.
Despite multiple police investigations into claims of abuse in the community, it had declined to pursue polygamy charges because of concerns doing so would violate constitutional freedoms of religion.
In 2011, the British Columbia Supreme Court affirmed that laws banning polygamy were constitutional and did not violate religious freedoms.