The Winnipeg Sun - "If we didn't like it, we wouldn't be here," a 28-year-old Bountiful mother of five who shares her husband with another woman told Sun Media last week. "It's as normal as a family can be."
"(the above) comments reflect the devastating damage that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and its polygamous lifestyle is having on Bountiful girls.
Females raised to believe that sharing their partners with multiple sister-wives is normal have been psychologically stunted by a sex-driven patriarchy. They just don't know it."
"Canada does not permit female genital mutilation -- a barbaric cultural/quasi-religious practice."
"Nor do we condone so-called honour killings of women deemed to have breached the norms of sexual behaviour. Such killings, tragically, are slowly creeping into western societies."
"her comment reflects the devastating damage that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and its chauvinistic heterosexual lifestyle is having on young homosexuals who are programmed to live as heterosexuals.
Lesbians raised to believe that traditional marriage roles are normal have been psychologically stunted by a sex-driven patriarchy. They just don't know it."
Shane Hensinger - "I've stated this again and again. Persecuting and arresting polygamous Mormons is based on nothing more than a distaste and revulsion with polygamous relationships, which are fundamental to their religion. Despite all the claims to the contrary (FLDS practices welfare fraud (debunked), FLDS beats their children (debunked), child brides (happens but much less than claimed) and others the governments of the US and now Canada continue to harass FLDS members with failed raids and even more poorly thought-out prosecutions. History is littered with examples of these kinds of failed raids, from Short Creek in 1953 to Eldorado in 2008 and guess who has come out on top every single time? The FLDS.
I'm willing to bet this time things won't turn out any different but Canada is going to look a whole lot different when polygamy is legalized in the inevitable challenges the FLDS and other polygamous people are now sure to bring against the law currently prohibiting its practice."
Hat tip to "VESTA Status of Womens News" for noticing this one. I wouldn't say it's a blog populated by fellow travelers, but it's about the funniest thing the opposition has come up with. There is also a reprinted and well reasoned piece immediately below this cartoon, Joey Thompson writes;The Daily News (Nanaimo) - "Previously, there were two significant societal changes that I believed were instituted solely because of idealism.
The first was the implementation of the metric system by Trudeau. There simply wasn't a need or desire for that change.
The second was the fast ferries. Again there wasn't much desire or demand for faster ferries but an elected official knew better than the rest of us.
I suggest the same is true of the polygamy charges laid by Wally Oppal. He had to shop this idea to three people before he found someone who agreed. Since there are no sexual exploitation charges, there is no interest. I would suggest that if the province were to ban plastic bags the talk shows and editorial pages would be burning up compared to this yawn fest. Oppal may be fighting the good fight but for whom?
He has stuck his neck out a long way here and many believe he will lose. The risk/reward ratio on this is far too high."
I tend to agree with Grant, that the fight is not being fought for anybody, unless you count busibodies that stare in bedroom windows and become even more excited (YFZ) when they cannot. If Oppal tries to really win the case, it will probably be along the lines of abuse, which they will now have to find, and they will need witnesses, who claim to be victims.
The cartoon may have to be rewritten, with Wally Oppal down on his knees, Romancing the Stone carving of Blind Justice.
Trial dates are now set for the Jessop custody case in September, and the alleged adult molesters in October. What goes on in between? Well, for one, a little legal jury tampering.
The Salt Lake Tribune - "Willie Jessop met with the four-member commission during a recess in a criminal hearing for 10 FLDS men being held on an upper floor of the county courthouse.
Jessop, spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, invited the commissioners to 'mosey out' to the ranch as part of a plea that the county 'acknowledge we exist.'
More pointedly, Jessop said the FLDS feel they aren't fairly represented in the county despite the ranch's status as the third largest property taxpayer.
'Do we have a say on what goes on in the county at all?' Jessop asked.
He questioned why no FLDS had been called to serve on juries in the small county, which has a jury pool of 2,500.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran explained the random selection process, which draws jurists from voter's registration and drivers license records. About 140 FLDS members registered to vote after the April 3 raid on the ranch."
Several trials, and 2500 available potential jurors represent an interesting problem as there are now several FLDS related trials, the custody trial of Merrianne Jessop coming first, from another article;
"(Barbara Walther) acknowledged that seating a second jury in Schleicher County after the initial trial could be difficult. There are 2,500 people in the county's jury pool, she said. She recently had to cull through 175 names to get 45 people qualified for an unrelated criminal case."
Willie also said after pointing to the prodigious amount of Tax YFZ contributes;
"(I)t now feels like 'we're paying for our own demise.'
Jessop told the commissioners that the sect needs 'your help in giving us some ideas on what we can do to be the best neighbors.'
The response from the commission? 'Duly noted,' said commissioner and county judge Charlie Bradley."
We're now getting an idea of what jury trial in small town America used to be like. There weren't a lot of available jurors, they all knew you if you were local. They had to balance what they knew about you, what they knew would be the result of the trial with what they believed about your guilt. They could also, in the end, practice jury nullification, deciding as a "jury of peers" that the law, not the defendant was wrong. Jury nullification is an old principle, dating back to the days of our founders, and part of the principle behind the idea of jury trial. It is rarely included in any kind of jury instruction by the judge, but it is not a constitution twisting idea, rather it is an anti despotism idea. "If you make laws that don't apply to us, fine," the idea goes. "We'll just vote against them one by one as they come up, in our community." It's the American Citizen's right to hold a little revolution, right in their own town, and go home in time for dinner. It is designed to prevent dominance of one branch of government over another, through criminalization. Texas can make it illegal to have open pit barbecues, but Scheicher County can just refuse to convict.
If Texas has trouble coming up with neighbors who will convict the FLDS after they've had all year to campaign with the locals, that's their problem. If Texas can't find enough jurors without including those of a major religion in Scheicher County, they should have thought of these things first. It's going to be a literal hot house environment, as well as a political hot house. The courthouse in Eldorado, has no air conditioning.
KTVX - "After years of investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Crown's prosecuting attorneys in British Columbia charged the leaders of two polygamist groups (one is F.L.D.S., the other a splinter group) with one count each of polygamy.
Just one count each. A test case.
Backed by a strong anti-polygamy law, section 293 of the Canadian Criminal Code, B.C. District Attorney Wally Oppal argues he doesn't have to look for crime within polygamy, polygamy itself is the crime. His case may well hinge on proving that polygamy by definition is abuse. Whether the man is kind or mean, principled or ruthless, polygamy is inherently abusive of women and children.
That is very different from the approach of Shurtleff and Goddard. The question is, which is the better?
If Oppal succeeds, it could open the door to hundreds of prosecutions in Canada. Even the mere threat of such prosecutions could lead to a mass exodus of polygamists from Bountiful -- that's what they call their community in the Creston Valley of British Columbia.
And where do you think all those Canadian polygamists would end up? Yep. Here. In polygamist enclaves in South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Arizona and Utah.
We should pay close attention to what happens in a Canadian courtroom. It may well have irrevocable consequences for those of us in the States."
"Since I am not going to take your questions upon advice of legal counsel, and since you all know that whether I have liked it or not I have always tried to accommodate the media, I will try to anticipate your questions in this statement.
Almost nineteen years ago we were discovered by the media. We didn’t even know that we were lost. It has taken three AG’s, many special prosecutors, and millions and millions of tax payers dollars, almost nineteen years to arrive at the conclusion that Fundamentalist Mormons want to practice the fundamentals of their faith.
Canada has a law against polygamy. It was made in or around 1892 and was made specifically against the Mormons. Canada also has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guarantees every person the right to live their religion, and I guess now, every person except those of us who are Fundamentalist believing and practicing Mormons.
This is not about the police. They kindly waited until my children would be all at school before they came to arrest me. They certainly did not expect that school would be delayed for two hours because a foot of heavy snow had fallen in the night and all my school children were still home. They also did not know that my three children that want to be police officers when they grow up, a 16 year old girl, a 12 year old boy, and an eleven year old boy got to witness the process. My children hated the police all day long and were still hating them when I got home. I have met dozens of police officers over the years and made many good friends among them. I was treated very kindly by the arresting officers but can honestly say to them, you have some pr work to do with some of my family members, and perhaps since Canada has chosen to disregard our basic charter rights then you should at least work in some sensitivity when it comes to dealing with our children.
This is not about Polygamy. Tens of thousands of polygamists among many different cultures are hiding in plain sight all across Canada. They are known by their neighbors, policemen, legislators and media just as we are. I am sure that they are an active valued part of the economic structure of the communities in which they live just as we are. But they are not fundamentalist Mormons! To us this is about religious persecution. Persecution has always been about politics. Whatever else is involved with it, it is still about politics. It is therefore no surprise to us that this spectacular grandstanding event has happened in the face of an up and coming provincial election. I hope this government has calculated all the risks. Time will tell.
My family reaction was negative and yesterday was a hard day for them. There was no way that we could talk. They listened to the news, collectively fielded hundreds of phone calls and waited. My little children couldn’t do their school work, and were emotional and traumatized by the uncertainty of the event. My college children couldn’t focus. I didn’t know about it all day but a number of my dear family members waited outside to see me when I was released. We had a wonderful reunion and as I stood there in Cranbrook with a dozen grown up sons and daughters, all struggling in their own way to understand this religious persecution, not to mention the inevitable question of why a government presiding over this economy, would target them as employers, students, workers, taxpayers, all the while wasting enormous amounts of their hard earned dollars waging a political religious campaign. One quipped, “wouldn’t it be nice if this government focused their political and financial energy on creating jobs”? I had this huge feeling of gratitude that these fine men and woman are what my life is really all about. My family will be just fine.
Where do we go from here? I have to make an appearance on January 21. You will all be welcome to stay home from that event. I plan on doing what I have always done. I will get up and get my children up for school. We will live each day as we have done for the last nineteen years. We will teach our children the best we can, help them get a good education, and I will try and encourage my children that want to be police officers to do so, because Canada needs good, fair, unbiased officers, from coast to coast that will honestly deal with the diverse multicultural society that it has become, without discriminating against those visible or invisible minorities, whether racial, religious or simply cultural. I want my children to respect the First Nations People of our great country, to stand in honor with them and recognize according to our Book of Mormon teachings that they were preserved by the hand of God upon this land. I want my children to grow up, get a good education, go to work and do a good job for the business that hires them, and a better job for the people that they employ. Naturally, I want them to cherish my faith, but if they do not, they are growing up knowing that their dad will always till the day he dies be there to joy in their joys, sorrow in their sorrows, and encourage them to do right along the way. I am what I am, we are what we are. We are descended from a long line of Mormon believing people. My family did not make up our faith nor did we establish the fundamental teachings of Mormonism. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. He has taught us, and I have taught my children that they should pray for their enemies as well as their friends. That is what we will continue to do.
I want to thank the hundreds, if not by now thousands who have called in their support. You guys are the best."
As always, I am not remotely LDS/FLDS/Mormon. I think their faiths are deceptions. Nevertheless, we all have a place in God's grand device, and more than that, we are all in his image. Justice is justice for us, and for all. For the stranger, and for the believer. I am grateful to Winston for getting this issue before the courts of Canada.
The Deseret News - "28 individuals have asked for an administrative review of Texas Child Protective Services' findings, the agency said. It came after letters were sent out over the past several months, identifying individuals in 91 cases as perpetrators of child abuse or neglect."
"The 439 children were returned to their families in June, after two Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly and the children were not at immediate risk of abuse. The phone call itself is believed to be a hoax. Only 15 children remain under court jurisdiction in what was once the nation's largest child custody case. The rest have been "nonsuited" after CPS found either no evidence of abuse and neglect, or said that parents had taken appropriate steps to protect their children from abuse."
The Cranbrook Daily Townsman - (Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett) - "I can't say enough about Wally Oppal's doggedness on this file. He's really been responsive any time I've talked to him about Bountiful. He wanted evidence, obviously, to lay a charge, but couldn't lay a charge until they had it. I think he deserves a lot of credit here."
"(Audrey) Vance said she doesn't care who gets the credit as long as Blackmore was charged with polygamy instead of sexual assault or some other charge that would leave the polygamy law unchallenged.
'We've been skirting around this issue for a long time. Polygamy is against the law of Canada. So for me, I'm glad he was charged with that. As Canadians, I think it's time we made up our minds on the polygamy issue.' "
"A member of Altering Destiny Through Education, a Creston-based group, which has fought for years for the right of Bountiful children to attend the public school system, Vance said her main concern is the children of Bountiful.
'For those of us that have learned so much the last six years, it isn't about consenting adults. It's about taking any young female that the 'prophet' feels should be married to an old man. So to me it's about children's rights in this country. That's the way I've always felt about it.' "
"Bennett, meanwhile, said the Province is going to great lengths in the Bountiful prosecution to separate it from any possible taint of politics by putting independent prosecutor Terrence Robertson in charge of the case."
"Bennett agreed the case could be long and expensive, but said that's not the issue. The polygamy law must be tested, he said. 'This, I believe, is in the public interest. I agree with the special prosecutor and the attorney general on that.' "
Castle Rock, Colorado - "Probation revocation hearing for Rozita Swinton, a person of interest in hoax calls that triggered Texas polygamy raids, on her conviction in an unrelated false reporting case in Colorado."
The Victoria Times-Colonist - "I've seen high Anglicans genuflecting, Quakers quaking and holy rollers rolling in their places of worship, and it has occurred to me that something has happened to their brains. But when they emerge, shriven or whatever, they seem perfectly normal again.
It's the same with people of other faiths I've seen on TV, lacerating their bodies, beheading live chickens and crawling with their faces in the mud. I presume they have families to look after and jobs to go to.
What the Bountiful women have done, though, is more permanent. They've hitched themselves, like sled dogs, to one man so that he can 'raise up seed' and qualify to get to the celestial kingdom.
If they, and their man, really believe this is their religious duty, what right has any non-believer to stop them from performing it? And how can anyone presume to tell where religious instruction ends and brainwashing begins?"
"A lot of people seem to assume that these young, healthy women in a polygamous relationship have been brainwashed by those with religious authority over them. They believe no self-respecting sister would subject herself to this kind of arrangement of her own free will. Ergo, this must be stopped."
"Attorney General Wally Oppal's determination to lay criminal charges against Winston Blackmore, with 26 wives at last count, and James Oler, with two, is something that a lot of people would have applauded about 60 years ago when it was supposedly first considered by the government of the day.
The opinion of most legal experts seems to be, though, that it's too late. The Charter of Rights' guarantee of religious freedom, they say, overrides the Criminal Code's section outlawing polygamy, the section the Crown has chosen to use to prosecute the two men."
(Photo by Leah Hogsten/ The Salt Lake Tribune)
The Salt Lake Tribune - "(Willie) Jessop and two companions were stopped at noon and allowed to enter the country at about 4:15 p.m. MDT. During the wait, Canada Border Service Agency officials searched their laptops and a camera. They earlier had searched the men's Lincoln Navigator and their personal bags, Jessop said."
"So what did we do to pass the time? The reporters chatted. Caseworkers and ad litems (there were 13 in the courtroom by my count) chatted. And read.
Copies of an article were being passed around among the state workers, and I got a glance at the headline: 'CPS dykes want to groom [girl’s name omitted].' Yikes, I thought, not exactly material you want CPS caseworkers reading dur(i)ng a hearing on whether you are capable of caring for your daughter."
Wikipedia - "From 1789 through 2005, the swearing-in has been administered by 14 Chief Justices, one Associate Justice, three federal judges, two New York state judges, and one notary public. Though anyone legally authorized to administer an oath may swear in a President, to date the only person to do so who was not a judge was John C. Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge's father, a notary whose home the then-Vice President was visiting in 1923 when he learned of the death of President Warren G. Harding."
