Same-sexmarriagelegalization defense for polygamists

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage will be used in the defense of two men with ties to Boundary County charged with polygamy.

Polygamist leaders Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Marion Oler, 44, of Bountiful, B.C., on Jan. 21 appeared in court in Creston, B.C., on a single charge of polygamy.

A lawyer for one of the men said he planned to use the same-sex marriage defense.

Blackmore is charged with marrying 20 women and Oler is accused of marrying two women.

Blackmore once ran the Canadian arm of the Utah/Arizona-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but was ejected in 2003 by leader Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is jailed and awaiting trial in Kingman, Ariz., on four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor.

Police on Jan. 7 arrested Blackmore and Oler in Bountiful, which lies along the north Idaho border. It is a self-named community of about 1,000 people who practice the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. Similar sister communities exist in the United States that follow these same religious practices.

Blackmore owns a settlement near Bonners Ferry, just yards away from Canada.

Since 2005, law enforcement on both sides of the border have been looking into allegations of child brides and trafficking of young girls between the two countries, police said.

According to police, the investigation focused on Blackmore and Oler, who hold positions of authority or trust within Bountiful.

The investigation into these allegations was completed in September 2006 with a report to Crown Counsel being put forward. A follow-up investigation commenced in September 2008 that resulted in additional evidence being supplied to Special Prosecutor Terrence Robertson on Nov. 25.

On Dec. 9, police received written correspondence from Robertson that one charge of polygamy was approved.