help for those who left. “There’s nothing for these women,” she said. “They have little education, absolutely no financial support and no status on the outside as a married woman.”
The emotional turmoil the apostates suffer is immense. “We don’t know how to deal with flashbacks and post-traumatic stress,” Palmer said. “We’ve been raised to always be sweet, to love the person you’re assigned to and to believe that you are safe in a community, apart from the world and its sins.” Of the ugly goings-on inside the colony—things like rape, molestation and abuse—she said, “We didn’t have names for that.”
Winston Blackmore, who is Palmer’s stepgrandson, brother-in-law and nephew, told me that he too is upset with any form of abuse: “As a long-time bishop, husband and father, I have been especially saddened when I see it among plural families.” But he also wrote that monogamists don’t have bragging rights on good behaviour. “When you monogamists can show us a system that is without abuse, divorce, infidelity, neglect, jealousy or any of the other things that you love to gasp at us over, then and only then should there be a story written about us.”
As I drove out of Bountiful, a thunderstorm was brewing over the mountains. One woman, whose identity had to be protected, matched the mood of the mounting storm. “What’s happening in there is pure evil,” she said.
Later in 2004, Plant said he had encouraged police to reopen the Bountiful file. He claimed that he had also begun looking into the school’s funding and the overall welfare of the young girlsin the community. “It has reached a point where there is enough concern in the public that we’d better be doing something about it, as opposed to standing by and doing nothing.”
Eventually, after a maddening collection of miss-starts and after much stomping and denying and accusing, a charge of practising polygamy was finally laid in January 2009 against the two most prominent men of the Bountiful community, Winston Blackmore and James Oler. But the prosecution failed to convict them, and the charges were stayed. Crown prosecutors were reluctant to try again because of that same old fear that charges would be declared unconstitutional on the basis of religious freedom.
By then there was another new attorney general of British Columbia, Wally Opal, who decided that the situation could not be sustained. On October 22, 2009, the B.C. government asked the provincial court for clarification—a process known as a reference—of whether Canada’s 121-year-old law against polygamy is consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As the case began, Rebecca Cook explained: “The polygamy reference case being heard in Vancouver is extremely important, not only for issues here but in different parts of the world. The documents that come out of this case will be important to other groups in other parts of the world by raising awareness about how these cases can be brought to court.” The gathering of expert testimony from around the world was fascinating, too, in illustrating the different ways that women’s groups were addressing polygamy. Cook said, “One way to try to eliminate it is to criminally prohibit it. Another way is to limit it: for example, in Indonesia a man needs the permission of his first wife to take a second wife.” She examined what the law in each jurisdiction actually says and found that though in one place all the wives must agree if a manis to take another wife, in others they don’t. Similarly, some jurisdictions say women must inherit equally regardless of the type of marriage they are in. Others claim that women in polygamous marriages cannot inherit at all.
Cook wondered whether there is any instance where women could freely choose a discriminatory structure of marriage. The question she posed is this: Should the state sanction an unequal form of marriage that is unfair to women? “The
The emotional turmoil the apostates suffer is immense. “We don’t know how to deal with flashbacks and post-traumatic stress,” Palmer said. “We’ve been raised to always be sweet, to love the person you’re assigned to and to believe that you are safe in a community, apart from the world and its sins.” Of the ugly goings-on inside the colony—things like rape, molestation and abuse—she said, “We didn’t have names for that.”
Winston Blackmore, who is Palmer’s stepgrandson, brother-in-law and nephew, told me that he too is upset with any form of abuse: “As a long-time bishop, husband and father, I have been especially saddened when I see it among plural families.” But he also wrote that monogamists don’t have bragging rights on good behaviour. “When you monogamists can show us a system that is without abuse, divorce, infidelity, neglect, jealousy or any of the other things that you love to gasp at us over, then and only then should there be a story written about us.”
As I drove out of Bountiful, a thunderstorm was brewing over the mountains. One woman, whose identity had to be protected, matched the mood of the mounting storm. “What’s happening in there is pure evil,” she said.
Later in 2004, Plant said he had encouraged police to reopen the Bountiful file. He claimed that he had also begun looking into the school’s funding and the overall welfare of the young girlsin the community. “It has reached a point where there is enough concern in the public that we’d better be doing something about it, as opposed to standing by and doing nothing.”
Eventually, after a maddening collection of miss-starts and after much stomping and denying and accusing, a charge of practising polygamy was finally laid in January 2009 against the two most prominent men of the Bountiful community, Winston Blackmore and James Oler. But the prosecution failed to convict them, and the charges were stayed. Crown prosecutors were reluctant to try again because of that same old fear that charges would be declared unconstitutional on the basis of religious freedom.
By then there was another new attorney general of British Columbia, Wally Opal, who decided that the situation could not be sustained. On October 22, 2009, the B.C. government asked the provincial court for clarification—a process known as a reference—of whether Canada’s 121-year-old law against polygamy is consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As the case began, Rebecca Cook explained: “The polygamy reference case being heard in Vancouver is extremely important, not only for issues here but in different parts of the world. The documents that come out of this case will be important to other groups in other parts of the world by raising awareness about how these cases can be brought to court.” The gathering of expert testimony from around the world was fascinating, too, in illustrating the different ways that women’s groups were addressing polygamy. Cook said, “One way to try to eliminate it is to criminally prohibit it. Another way is to limit it: for example, in Indonesia a man needs the permission of his first wife to take a second wife.” She examined what the law in each jurisdiction actually says and found that though in one place all the wives must agree if a manis to take another wife, in others they don’t. Similarly, some jurisdictions say women must inherit equally regardless of the type of marriage they are in. Others claim that women in polygamous marriages cannot inherit at all.
Cook wondered whether there is any instance where women could freely choose a discriminatory structure of marriage. The question she posed is this: Should the state sanction an unequal form of marriage that is unfair to women? “The
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