Canadian polygamist leaders arrested

Two top leaders of a polygamous community in western Canada have been arrested and charged with practicing polygamy, British Columbia's head lawyer said Wednesday.

Attorney General Wally Oppal said that Winston Blackmore has married 20 women, while James Oler is accused of marrying two women.

"This has been a very complex issue," Oppal said. "It's been with us for well over 20 years."

Blackmore, long known as the Bishop of Bountiful, runs an independent sect of about 400 in Bountiful, British Columbia. Blackmore once ran the Canadian arm of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was ejected from the sect in 2003 by its leader, Warren Jeffs.

Oler is the bishop of Bountiful's FLDS community loyal to Jeffs. Even though many the town's residents are related or have same last name, followers of the two leaders are splintered and are not allowed to talk with each other.

The FLDS practice polygamy in arranged marriages, a tradition tied to the early theology of the Mormon church. Mormons renounced polygamy in 1890 as a condition of Utah's statehood.

Last June, Oppal appointed a special prosecutor to look into allegations of criminal abuse at Bountiful, despite two earlier legal opinions that said it would be difficult to proceed with criminal charges for polygamy itself.

Blackmore openly admits to having numerous wives and dozens of children but has said the community abhors sexual abuse of children.

Oppal said some legal experts have believed that the charge wouldn't withstand a constitutional challenge in Canada over the issue of freedom of religion.

"I've always taken the position that's a valid offense in law," Oppal said. "And if someone says that it's contrary to their religion, let a judge make that decision."

The FLDS, with an estimated 10,000 members, is headquartered in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. In 1947, a small group moved just across the U.S. border into Lister, British Columbia. The newcomers dubbed the pristine spot at the base of a snowy mountain range Bountiful.

In addition to an estimated 1,000 Canadians who live in Bountiful, the U.S. Embassy estimates there are about 300 Americans loyal to Blackmore, and another 200 who follow Jeffs, who is in jail awaiting trial in Arizona on four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor.

Last April, U.S. authorities raided an FLDS ranch and placed more than 400 children into foster care. The children were returned to their parents in June after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had overstepped in removing all the children when it only had evidence of abuse or neglect involving about a half-dozen teenage girls.

Oppal has said British Columbia's attorney general's office has had a file on the Canadian community for two decades. Bountiful was previously investigated in a three-year review that was launched in 2004. No charges were brought.

Oppal said last year that investigators saw what happened in Texas and wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation.