Polygamist wants his guilty verdict stayed
CRANBROOK — Winston Blackmore wants the guilty verdict in his polygamy trial stayed, claiming that he was unfairly prosecuted, his marriages to multiple women were induced by the B.C. attorney general’s failure to prosecute and that his conduct doesn’t merit punishment because his multiple marriages were done out of religious belief and not criminal intent.
The former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was found guilty in July of having had 24 wives. That verdict was not registered pending the outcome of this week’s hearing.
In B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday, Blackmore’s lawyer, Blair Suffredine, said he is seeking a stay of that verdict or, alternatively, that Blackmore be exempt from punishment because “he did nothing with criminal intent and was motivated by religious belief.”
Among the arguments he plans to make is that because Blackmore was excommunicated from the FLDS in 2002 and divorced his only legal wife in 2004, Blackmore had no wives — only common-law partners.
While Suffredine is raising constitutional issues including that Blackmore has a guaranteed right to religious freedom, including the practice of polygamy, Blackmore is not seeking to have the polygamy law quashed.
In his opening statement, Suffredine said Blackmore’s conduct between 1992 and 2007 was “induced by the public position of the attorney generals 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.
The hearing got off to a slow start with Judge Sheri Donegan asking Suffredine to provide “a clear articulation of what was being sought,” saying it was “critically important.”
Suffredine then spent a few minutes re-reading sections of the charter that he has listed in the application before reading the agreed statement of facts.
Among the facts is that in 1992, Blackmore’s application states, the then-bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was “expressly told (by the provincial attorney general) no charges would be laid against him and his religious practices were protected.”
That position was reiterated in 2006 when the attorney general’s ministry again rejected the RCMP’s recommendation that charges be laid.
In 2007, special prosecutor Richard Peck disagreed, saying he believed that the law “may well be upheld by the courts as consistent with the charter’s commitment to religious freedom.”
Peck went on to say that he believed there was a good case for the law to be upheld because “religious freedom in Canada is not absolute.”
He recommended the provincial government refer it to the B.C. Court of Appeal for a ruling.
Peck’s recommendation was rejected, but eventually the law was upheld after a reference hearing in the B.C. Supreme Court — years later, in 2011, after charges laid by another special prosecutor were stayed because a judge ruled that the prosecutor had been improperly hired.
The polygamy charge against Blackmore was laid in 2014.