Marriages not lawful, polygamist testifies

CRANBROOK, B.C. • Convicted polygamist Winston Blackmore has testified that his religious marriages to 24 women — nine of whom were underage — were all legal under his god’s laws, but conceded those marriages are illegal in Canada.

It was a stunning admission in court, since a mainstay of Blackmore’s application to have his guilty verdict thrown out is that he had no criminal intent and believed plural marriages are legal because of the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and freedom of association.

His application in court, which contends Blackmore was unfairly charged, says when the attorney general decided not to charge him with polygamy in 1991, Blackmore was “expressly told no charges would be laid against him and that his religious practices were protected.”

Under cross-examination, Blackmore admitted no one from the attorney general’s ministry specifically told him that.

Blackmore’s concession that he knows polygamy is illegal in Canada came after nearly a full day under crossexamination and at the end of an at-times testy exchange with special prosecutor Peter Wilson.

“You told us it’s your belief, and I respect it’s sincerely held, that you consider your celestial marriages to be legal, lawful and proper in the eyes of God. Yes?” Wilson asked. “Yes,” Blackmore said. “I’m suggesting that you know that they’re not considered to be legal, lawful and proper in the eyes of the Government of Canada. Fair statement?” Wilson asked.

“Fair statement,” Blackmore replied.

The former fundamentalist Mormon bishop of Bountiful, B.C., contends in his court application that his many marriages between 1992 and 2007 were “induced by the public position of the attorneys general over many years.”

That public position — based on legal opinions from a former provincial chief justice and a retired appeal court judge — was that Canada’s polygamy law was unconstitutional because it infringes on the guarantee of religious freedom.

So, if Blackmore believed polygamy was legal, why didn’t he follow the marriage laws in British Columbia? Why didn’t he get the written consent of the parents of the girls who were under 19 when he married them? Why didn’t he get the required court approval to marry Lorraine Johnson, who was only 15 at the time?

“I think in the hundreds of years of Mormon plural marriage, no one has ever done that,” Blackmore responded.

“Because it’s unlawful,” Wilson interjected.

“I don’t think anyone would have given them the time of day if they would have applied,” Blackmore continued.

“Because it’s unlawful, right?”

“It’s not unlawful,” Blackmore insisted, noting Canadian law allows men and women to “freely associate in any sort of capacity, sexual or other” with multiple partners.

Winston Blackmore