Bountiful leader not worried about police raid in B.C.
The leader of a polygamous sect in B.C. says the recent seizure of children from a similar group in Texas won't change things in his community in Bountiful.
Winston Blackmore says the situation in Texas has probably put pressure on Attorney General Wally Oppal to make changes in Bountiful, but the polygamist who's rumoured to have 26 wives cautioned that Oppal should respect the findings of two special prosecutors.
"I understand that Wally Oppal has selected a couple of the best legal minds in the country to give him an opinion," Blackmore told CBC on Tuesday.
"And if he was wise, I think that he would just follow their opinion. But I'm not Wally Oppal," he said.
Blackmore was referring to special prosecutors Richard Peck and Len Doust, who both recommended the government get a court ruling on the constitutionality of Canada's polygamy laws before attempting to press charges against men in the polygamous community based in the Southern Interior of B.C.
Oppal told the CBC he hopes to decide how the B.C. government will deal with the polygamous community in Bountiful after he meets with Doust next week to review the case.
In the meantime, Blackmore said he does not intend to worry about the possibility that something similar to the Texas raid might take place in his community.
"It's not going to be what I wake up and worry about tomorrow. I have lots of things to do. We're building an auditorium for our children at school. And there's plenty of things for us to do to get ready for the farming and harvest season. And that's what I'm going to be worrying about," said Blackmore.
Authorities in Texas raided the Yearning for Zion ranch earlier this month after reports a teenage girl married a 50-year-old man and had his child.
At the time, authorities said they had seized 416 children, but they raised the tally of children seized to 437 on Tuesday after discovering that some of the mothers who volunteered to stay with their children were younger than 18.
Oppal confirmed last week that U.S. authorities believe an undisclosed number of the children seized may be Canadians from Bountiful.
Blackmore said he has had no contact with B.C. authorities about the Texas raid, and he doesn't know if any former Bountiful residents were apprehended in the Texas raid.
"I don't know if they were here or if they weren't. I'm not that close to the people in that part of our community," said Blackmore.
Blackmore, the one-time bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Bountiful, is rumoured to have fathered about 80 children by his 26 wives.
In 2003 Blackmore and about 1,000 other members of the Bountiful community split from the church after rejecting Warren Jeffs, the U.S. leader, as a prophet.