Dear Premier Clark and Honorable Minister Bond,
I am writing to endorse a letter sent to your offices this week by Janicis M. Andrews for the STOP Polygamy in Canada campaign, which read as follows:
Prize-winning columnist Daphne Bramham has written an article that appeared in the Calgary Herald on March 9. Its title is "Women's Votes Matter, as Republicans Are Learning -- Is Anyone in Canada Listening?" Ms. Bramham asks why no action has been taken against the elders of Bountiful, the Canadian branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Encouraged by the lack of action against them, Winston Blackmore et al continue to thumb their noses at Canadian law.
As you know, on November 23, 2011, Chief Justice Robert Bauman of BC Supreme Court declared that S. 293 CC, proscribing polygamy, is constitutional. He stated that this ancient patriarchal practice harms all society, but particularly harms women and children and contravenes their human rights.
Polygamy comes from the dark ages when women were considered chattels. It is mind-boggling that it is still extant in a First-World country like Canada. The year is 2012 AD, not 2012 BC, and we have a Charter that states in sections 15 and 28 that women have equality with men.
Concerned Canadians urge that:
1) You take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the constitutionality S. 293 CC, proscribing polygamy, is confirmed by all Canadian provinces, and that you charge those men who persist in this illegal practice that subjugates women.
(2) Using DNA and birth certificate evidence held by the RCMP since June, 2009, charges of contravening S. 153 CC be laid against Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler in particular, and against any other males who have impregnated underage girls.
(3) That charges of trafficking minors for sexual purposes in to and out of the USA be laid not only against Winston Blackmore, but also against those parents who knowingly sent their daughters to be raped by middle-aged FLDS elders.in the USA.
(4) That the Minister of Education ensures that polygamy no longer forms part of the curriculum of Bountiful's schools. BC taxpayers are incensed that their hard-earned tax dollars are used to teach children to break the law, and to teach girls they must be subservient to men and accept polygamy or their souls will burn for ever in hell. This is child abuse.
It is unique in Canada for a province to have both a female premier and a female attorney-general. It presents a golden opportunity for you to be the first politicians to bring the elders of Bountiful to justice, to put an end to the illegal practice of polygamy, and to restore the human rights of Bountiful's subjugated women and children which for years have so unjustly been denied them.
Very truly yours,
Janicis M. Andrews
Those of us in the United States who have followed this case closely, especially here in Texas, know that dozens of underage female children were trafficked back and forth from Canada to Texas for the purposes of religious ritual sex with grown men in the FLDS sect. They were able to successfully do this by raising these children to believe that unless they participate in the crime of polygamy, their souls will be doomed to an eternity of hell. This is unacceptable and we would like to know when the Canadian government will fulfill its responsibility to protect children from this criminal sex enterprise by prosecuting the predators.
Sincerely,
--
K. Dee Ignatin
Americans Against Abuses of Polygamy
