Dear Canada

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

STOP the NUFFER Nomination NOW!

Can you squeeze a call into Senator Cornyn's office into your day, to say you oppose the Nuffer nomination?
Main: 202-224-2934
Fax: 202-228-2856

On Monday the US Senate is about to confirm an Obama nomination, based on Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) appointment...of a former FLDS attorney, to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Judge David Nuffer was also responsible, when he was an attorney, for removing 6 children from their non-polygamist biological home, and allowing an FLDS Colorado City polygamist family, who was NO BLOOD KIN to the children to legally adopt them, partly on the claim they were being raised in a home "with Christian values."

One of those children's children is now one of the 12-year-old girls that Warren Jeffs ritually married in an illegal ceremony, and then raped and used in group sex sessions in the sect's temple on the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas.

We have to act right now....lifetime appointment to the federal bench? Really?
Main: 202-224-2934
Fax: 202-228-2856

Like Hell I Won't

On Wednesday night I spent the evening at a security briefing by John Guandolo.

He covered a bunch of stuff I already knew.

During Q&A I asked him, in light of Daniel Pipes', with the Middle East Forum, assertion that polygamy is the most prevalent and dangerous aspect of Shariah law that the U.S. faces today, what did he think the federal government should do? I plainly identified myself as an anti-polygamy activist.

He shook his finger at me, strongly, and told me polygamy was not an issue and "You will not stop polygamy! You cannot stop polygamy!"

As you might imagine, I've been ruminating on that one for a while now. I walked out of that briefing, not upset, but resolute.

I'm certainly not surprised that this is the federal government's position on polygamy now. I'd just never heard one of them come right out and say it--out loud--for real.

The funny thing was as he was shaking that finger at me I wasn't thinking, "Oh no! What shall I do?" I was thinking, "Screw you, Bubba, screw you."

That's about what I left thinking of him, too.

I've tried telling people that the feds are already absolutely corrupt to the crime of polygamy, and people just look at me as though I have announced I was once abducted by an alien race... It's too much for them to process. The implications are too... well, nasty.

The subjugation of American women and children into a harmful form of slavery based on nothing but religious beliefs, called polygamy, is for some inexplicable reason considered not only harmless to women and children but something of "a right" for some men, as long as they continue to operate the whole slavery scam on a religious pretext... Good grief.

The only useful new information I learned at that "security briefing" Wednesday night, with Mr. Guandolo, is that the federal government has decided not to prosecute polygamy as a crime..and is now, obviously, with the nomination of Judge David Nuffer going to really rub it in all our faces.

I don't have anything else nice to say about Mr. Guandolo or the federal government, so I should probably just stop here but you know I won't.

I think I understand you, now: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/john_guandolo/

Like Hell we won't, Mr. Guandolo. Hide and watch.

A Review of Anderson Cooper's interview with the Brown family

A Review of Anderson Cooper's Interview with the Brown Family of TLC's "Sister Wives" and the FLDS children who were disposed of, like trash by their parents, who follow convicted sex offender Warran Steed Jeffs.

By Chana Bogsted

Just finished watching Anderson Cooper: here's my take on the show as someone who didn't grow up in polygamy and wasn't exposed to it except by what I've learned from reading about it and talking to all of you.

Kody et al are pretty good at presenting themselves. I think most people who aren't familiar with polygamy are going to take them as they present themselves: nice people who just happened to choose 'this lifestyle.' People who get along and work out their differences and all love each other. They dress like "normal" people, talk like "normal" people, so that's what they must be.

The kids from FLDS, however, were able to see the hidden side because they lived it. From years of hearing to "stay sweet,' they understand the emphasis on deceit, on pretending that things aren't what they are, in order to survive. One of the boys, Holden, I think, talked about how his parents would pretend to get along and talk about how happy they were to have other wives to take care of the kids - until the door closed and reality emerged.

I think most Americans are going to take the Browns and maybe the Dargers at face value, because most Americans are pretty naive and trusting. The Browns were very careful to distance themselves from Jeffs and the FLDS so that the public can distinguish between "good" polygamists and "bad" polygamists. If they can get most Americans to identify with them, they may be able to persuade the country that polygamy shouldn't be punished, but child abuse should.

Unless we can get people who have grown up in polygamous families that are more like the Browns' than Jeffs', then I think they have a fighting chance of winning the war of public opinion. Even Cooper, who is very critical of the fundamentalists who don't look and dress like us, the "bad" polygamists, sounded fairly sympathetic.

Sorry I can't give a different review of the show, but this is how I saw it.

Polygamy is an adult choice?

Thanks to Rebecca Kimble, who is a survivor and a supporter of the efforts of the AAAP

Rebuttal to Polygamist Propaganda by Rebecca Kimbel MscD DTM

Polygamy is an adult choice?

We polygamist born children were taught from birth we had to live polygamy or lose our salvation. Only polygamists were accepted in our family, our society and by our God. To not live polygamy was to be damned. Our choice in marriage was confined to polygamy. Some had a choice between one of two older married men to be “spiritually” married to, but choosing any man outside of the polygamist culture was not a choice.

If we chose not to live polygamy, the basic doctrine of our “religion” said we would be “destroyed”and blood atonement to save our souls was sanctioned by God, even if the leaders chose not to carry it out. Some of us, like myself, had friends and family murdered in the name of “blood atonement”, the same blood atonement all fundamentalists’ polygamists include as the word of their “prophets”. To choose to not be obedient can be a dangerous choice in fundamentalist Mormon and Islamic polygamy.

There is no adult choice. Children are indoctrinated with fear to force them into polygamy.

Polygamy is voluntarily maintained?

Women stayed in polygamy because we had children when we were children. We were never allowed to think for ourselves or to learn to provide for ourselves, yet we had a houseful of children to provide for. Many women stay in bad marriages because they can’t support their children. Polygamist women have a double problem; few of them know how to support themselves. They stay because they don’t know any other way to survive and keep their children. Most of them are threatened if they try to leave and take their children. Fundamentalist polygamists teach that the children belong to the men.

Single mothers are often attracted to polygamy, believing it will be easier to provide for their children with the help of a sister wife. What they fail to realize is that the number of children to provide and care for will increase, not diminish. The emotional, financial and educational rescores will diminish. This attributes to the fact that polygamist women by percentage do not live as long as other women. Is this “voluntarily” maintained life style what they want to decriminalize as an adult choice?

There is no adult choice. The glue that binds them together is poverty and fear. They don’t believe they have a choice. The pathetic reality finds that those enslaved by fear soon perpetuate the same lack of choice onto their own children. Those who don’t understand this have not experienced the devastation and the life style most polygamist women experience. Polygamy is not an adult choice. When CHILDREN are indoctrinated with fear from birth to accept polygamy and have CHILDREN, to perpetuate polygamy. The fact that it involves the lives of CHILDREN makes it NOT AN ADULT CHOICE. The non coerced adult choices in polygamy are the male converts who have not been indoctrinated, but see an opportunity to expand their narcissistic behavior. If they are married, their wife has one choice; accept polygamy or be abandoned. For the wife, it is not an adult choice. It is a coercive threat.

The statement that men can choose another sex partner if one wife is unwilling, is a side show to distract attention away from what is going on in the main tent of polygamy’s “circus”. In the main tent, he always has all the sex he wants. Women are the ones who are lonely and unfulfilled. He is not a lover, he’s a breeder. He cares only about his own satisfaction. In his mind he’s a “cowboy” who thinks an eight second ride makes him a champion. Women are capable and entitled to sexual fulfillment but that’s against his religion. Fundamentalists teach women that sex is for propagation only. We were taught that it must be accomplished without lust. ( We were too uneducated to know that was a physical impossibility). His needs are “God’s commandments”, her needs are “weaknesses to over come”.

All humans find it stressful and emotionally painful to share their mate. Narcissistic men force women to share their mate, but they would never tolerate it for themselves. Women are not sexually inferior. If men had the sexual capacity of women, polygamist men would be prostitutes instead of polygamists. Polygamists justify their breeding practices by blaming the nature of bulls in cattle breeding. If they want to blame nature they should check out the life of a male sea horse. He is the one who carries the baby sea horses. Check out the black widow and the praying mantis. Some species have a built in responsibilities that go with breeding. Blaming animal behavior for human behavior is greed justified through ignorance. The right to breed carries a responsibility. Polygamy produces lots of people, but comparatively few responsible adults.

Polygamy offers career and a sister wife to help with the children?

The odds of a career for a polygamist woman are rare indeed unless you consider working as a cashier, house maid, or any other low paying job a career. I’ve seen many polygamist women work out of the home for long hours and little money and return to a home bulging with children where they try to fill in the gaps of motherhood which couldn’t be filled by the exhausted sister wife who tried to manage on the domestic front.

The economy of everyone living in the same house is not an asset of polygamy. Go down to a day care center and spend the day. Imagine four or five times more children in the room than were actually there. If you can imagine this, you get some idea of the joys of polygamy. My mother moved into a chicken coop with no heat, in Utah, because she had to be alone (with her six children). Massive numbers of people in the same quarters is difficult at best.

Polygamy does NOT help financially; on the contrary, it creates poverty. It is a financial disaster for the family and the nation. Polygamy creates an unusually high percentage of demands for Government funds, bankruptcies, and other means of assistance. Polygamy produces more children than it supports. In all countries where polygamy flourishes, poverty isn’t far behind.

Most polygamist women are poor. The big houses you see on TV don’t compute with the income levels. Follow the money trail and prepare your self for a shock.

Polygamy is a “pyramid” scheme. The one at the top is wealthy and the wealth spreads out and dwindles down, diminishing as it goes, until it reaches the wide base at the bottom which consists primarily of women and children who live below the national poverty level. Yet they are the base, the foundation upon which the pyramid stands. They are the means of its expansion. Women constantly produce more workers, tithe payers and believers into the system.

The one at the top (the prophet) receives 10% tithing from the wages of each person below him, plus the dedicated free labor they donate to ( him) God. Followers are encouraged to build their homes on church land ( held in title by the prophet, not the parishioners) and many also create businesses on church land, which puts them in a position of great lose if they question authority. Many men have lost their wives, children, homes and land when the “prophet” finds them “unworthy”.

Polygamy is a system that “fleeces its own sheep”, becomes a parasite to government coffers and violates the human rights America stands for. Polygamy is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship. When you are told you have freedom of choice and blind obedience, you can be sure your choices will be limited to what they tell you to do.

Polygamy and freedom don’t exist together. One inhibits the other and that fact remains true in every culture, every nation and in any century.

The concept that “traditional norms” of historical and modern polygamy, should vary across continents or centuries, is incorrect.

Polygamy carries the same percentage of dysfunction regardless of its place in geography or history. One fact of cause and effect remains constant; the degree of abuse is always in direct proportion to the degree of distance between the powerful and the powerless. Polygamy ALWAYS has a higher percentage of abuse than monogamy because it is a system based on inequality. In all human relationships, those who have no equality receive more abuse. This fact alone creates more abuse in polygamy.

Polygamy is notorious for propaganda. Propaganda and truth are not the same. Knowing the difference can determine your freedom or the loss of it. Our nation would be wise to educate itself about polygamy.

You can read more about Rebecca Kimbel and her personal story here.

Sister Wives of TLC Affiliated with a criminal Polygamist Group.

Reported by Rebecca Kimbel

Eureka Tribune Reporter

Kody Brown’s (star of Sister Wives TV reality Show,) Affiliated with a criminal Polygamist Group.

In an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Kody Brown said his family was part of the Apostolic United Brethern.

The current leader of the AUB is LaMoine Jenson. LaMoine and the late leader Owen Allred involved in a 1.5 million dollar theft, (Hill vs. Allred). The verdict was awarded in Hill’s favor. Owen Allred told his congregation Virginia Hill had given the money as “tithing. The congregation is currently paying the money back. In between the theft and the congregation being stuck with the bill, the court documents show that Owen recorded the meeting where he decided not to return the stolen money. Like Warren Jeff’s, Allred was found guilty from the recordings he had made. Despite these facts, Owen convinced his congregation that it was all because they are persecuted for polygamy. Jeff Norman went to prison, but Jeff Norman had no power of decision at any time. Owen Allred and LaMoine Jenson were in power. Owen died. LaMoine now leads. In between the theft and the congregation being stuck with the bill, money was laundered into directions the congregation has no legal claim to. This too is in the court documents.

Criminal behavior isn’t new to the AUB. Three of their priesthood members were accused of child molest: Joseph Thompson in 1994, George Maycock in 1998, and Shevroll Palacios in 2002. Palacios went to prison. The AUB distanced them selves from Shevroll Palacios only AFTER he was under investigation. Thompson remained affiliated in the AUB with so much authority their own members didn’t realize he had been “released from his position” (on the AUB records only) and Maycock’s behavior was likewise ignored.

Kody Brown admits affiliation with the AUB, but refuses to name his employer. According to the “reality” show Kody had money of his own. Sources tell us he drove a Lexus. Yet he admits his plural wives have to work to help support themselves. Public information show Kody and first wife, Meri filed for bankruptcy 6-6 2005, plural wife Christine Brown in 2010 and new plural wife Robyn, in Mexico 6-15-2011. That’s three bankruptcies in one family in six years. Why is Kody having more children when he can’t support the ones he’s got? Is using laws to protect you from the bills you have created, the life style we want to legalize in America? How many children can a man produce without financial obligations that stick? Who knows, he isn’t through yet. Is Kody’s “belief” system and the group he is affiliated the life style we really want to promote in America?

A Simple Sexist Test

"If this were done to a man or would it ever be done to a man—has it ever been done to a man?"
~Gloria Steinem

Is the practice of polygamy inherently sexist or abusive? Take a long look at this photograph of Warren Jeffs' concubines and put it to the simple test one noted American feminist recently suggested.

With that simple test taken, now I invite you to review a piece I wrote in February of 2009. It angered some and offended others. I still stand by it, though.

An Open Letter to My "Sister" Feminists

Dear American Feminists,

Although I have contacted numerous national feminist organizations, which I will not attempt to embarrass by naming here- because I would still like to see you step up to the plate, about the gross abuses occurring to women and children living in polygamy, in the American west, none of you has responded, not one. You have ignored me.

To my "sisters" on the East and West Coasts, I have concluded you must not think I am a real woman or a real feminist. I suppose, I've failed to attend Vassar, Brown, Berkley, or NYU, and abort a baby or two along the way to protect my academic career and prove I'm worthy of being considered a real woman.

To my "sisters" in Atlanta, who are diligently working to ensure that road signs are not sexist, by spearheading a campaign to change them from "MEN AT WORK" to "WORKERS AHEAD", all I can say is, bless your hearts.

It is to the rest of America's women, who may not fall into one of those groups, I now appeal. We have a problem here in Texas, with a sex cult run by Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints leader, Warren Steed Jeffs.

We have hundreds of eyewitness testimonies from men, women, and children who have left, been abandoned, abused, or exiled from polygamy in the states of Utah and Arizona, where the FLDS residents of the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas came from. We now have evidence of sexual abuse perpetrated against young girls, Texas citizens, on Texas soil.

Our other "sisters" continued silence indicates they are indeed flirting with the trendy, liberal idea of allowing legalized polygamy in America, as another valid alternative lifestyle choice. In doing so, they are allowing their sophomoric, fantastical, and unrealistic ideals about political correctness and liberal tolerance to endanger every woman in America.

If they go along with legalizing polygamy as a valid alternative lifestyle choice, here, based on my four-year investigation of the FLDS in Mohave County, Arizona, is what you can look forward to as an American woman:

• Your husband can come home one day and tell you that he has taken a new wife or three...
• You will now have to compete for his time attention and affection, daily, or divorce him.
• You will now share the financial resources of your family with the other woman or women, and any children who come along.
• The more that come along, the less there is for your children, or their futures.
• If you leave, you are no longer entitled to half of everything in your marriage. Now you get one third, or depending on the number of concubines in the marriage, one sixteenth, or one hundredth?
• Muslim American men, now free to build American harems, pressure masses of Muslim American women to wear the burqa.
• Other costumes, uniforms, or "coverings", such as long prairie dresses emerge from Middle America, as men claim "religious inspiration" to pressure their concubines to dress "appropriately".
• These same masses of women will be secluded, and as they give birth to more children, their access to communication with the outside world and education cut off.
• Emotional, mental, sexual, spiritual, and physical abuse will thrive in environments where one man is now the focus of the complete attention of multiple women.
• When a polygamist man dies, and his multiple unions recognized as legitimate marriages, each wife is now entitled to receive a check from Social Security.
• Each now legally legitimate child also gets Social Security benefits.
• Thousands of women will find themselves thrust into abject poverty, because their husband is unable to support all of his concubines and children equally.
• Thousands more will be forced to accept government assistance for food and medical care, for the same reason. Their family structure is legitimate in the eyes of the law, so they will qualify for multiple government assistance programs for the poor.
• Birth rates among polygamist marriages will skyrocket, more children = more benefits.
• Infant mortality and child death rates among polygamists families will soar – see the Colorado City, Arizona death rates.
• Accidental child death rates among polygamist's families will increase – see the Colorado City, Arizona death rates..
• The reporting of domestic violence shrinks to zero in entire communities, for decades at a time – see the Colorado City, Arizona history of zero prosecutions for domestic violence in over a decade.
• Competition to the older, more powerful men, underage boys and young men driven from their communities, with no education or job skills, become a burden on law enforcement and social services in neighboring, non-polygamist communities where they are abandoned - see the Colorado City, Arizona history of driving 400 boys out of their town.
• Trained from birth to expect assignment in marriage, complete submission to patriarchal religious authority, and acceptance of the "blessing" of an early marriage, millions of bright American girls, along with their potential talents and contributions to society, will be lost for generations.

We face that chilling future if polygamy remains either unchecked or legalized in America.

These sorts of things, however, are apparently unimportant to the average American Feminist.

Stay up there in your classrooms, drum circles and symposiums, where you can drone on forever about the suffering and ignorance of the typical American housewife, I mean homemaker. My grammar check doesn't seem to like the word housewife and has now twice suggested homemaker, as an appropriate gender-neutral job title.

You laugh when I support a Marriage Amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman. I'm not an intellectual, I'm a Southern conservative, so how can I know anything about the world?

On Gays and lesbians: Come let us reason together. Like Sara Palin, I am not against civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, the key word being couples. They deserve, when they are in loving, committed, stable, and monogamous relationships to enjoy the tax, ownership, inheritance and medical power of attorney benefits, or the same property/custody/relationship termination headaches of heterosexuals. Kinky Friedman is right, "Homosexuals should be free to be as miserable as the rest of us".

Go play with your words. I've got dozens of unexplained dead children, sexually abused little girls, abandoned little boys and abused women to think about. You know, the same ones that child advocates and anti-polygamy activist in Utah and Arizona have been begging for your help with, for years now? I am a Texan and a Southerner. I am a woman who believes in living in a free country, where I have rights equal with men.

Nobody is going to come down here to Texas and take away my right to be my husband's only living equal. I know many other people, straight, and gay, across America that feel the same way about protecting women and children from the cultural disaster of polygamy.

If we have to fight this alone down here, we will. Y'all just hide and watch how real Southern sisters take care of each other.

Don't, however, expect to own the words feminist or feminism when we get done, especially if you threw all your party invitations away.

P.S. Confidential to Phylis Chesler and Noni Darwish:

Help!

Polygamy: A Matter of Consent

By Marion Munn
April 2011. Written for an Analysis of Argumentation Class at the University of Utah

Polygamy: A Matter of Consent

Over the past few years the media has been filled with high profile debates about same- sex relationships, such as the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and the possible legalization of gay marriage. At the same time, another relationship controversy, that of polygamy, has been brought to both national and international attention in news reports featuring Warren Jeffs and his followers in The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or FLDS (Appleyard 48). This group is only one of several referring to themselves as Mormon Fundamentalists - all polygamist offshoots of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon, or LDS) which abandoned the practice around the turn of the last century. Tenacious in its practice of polygamy, one of these groups has spilled over into Canada, precipitating a major debate there that will affect Moslem as well as Mormon Fundamentalist polygamists, as British Columbia’s Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of its ban on polygamy (Wetzstein).

In the US, debates about polygamy take place in a society where grass-roots movements have promoted greater tolerance for alternative lifestyles, shifting away from biblical standards of morality towards a greater prominence for the bedrock American principle of individual freedom of choice. Because of this, some liberals who are pro same-sex marriage are now being drawn into support of polygamous unions. Society’s response to this issue is an important one, since its values are defined by what it condones, and some have identified problems inherent in polygamy, including “imbalances of power and psychological abuse” (Young 18). If this is so, responsible citizens would be well advised to withhold their support. As a 2006 Economist article states, “hardly anyone …is thinking about polygamy as social policy...” and that “for reasons that have nothing to do with gay marriage, polygamy is a profoundly hazardous policy” which includes implications of increased crime rates, male-female ratio imbalances affecting marriage prospects for men, and undemocratic processes (Rauch).

There are indeed multiple factors inherent in polygamy that should give cause for concern. One of these is the aspect of “consent.” Any factors limiting or compromising this vital facet of a relationship would certainly cast doubts upon its validity or desirability. Accordingly, this essay contends that polygamy, as typically lived in the United States, may violate accepted principles of informed consent. The term “consenting adults” has become familiar in the US, and implies freedom of choice, particularly in matters of sexual partners (Lawrence). To demonstrate the limitations of this term within polygamy, evidence will be presented including my personal insights as a past member of one polygamist community (the AUB or Apostolic United Brethren) for a period of approximately twenty years. It should be noted that the polygamy discussed here is more precisely termed “polygny,” i.e. one man with more than one wife, since this is the typical form (Valsiner 67-68). Additionally, the term “wife” or “husband” denotes a religious, not civil contract. Consent within these unions centers around two main factors: a woman’s agreement to becoming part of a polygamous union, and her consent for her husband to take more wives.

In considering a woman’s consent to entering polygamy, we will focus on adults, discounting the obvious abuses involving female children in sexual liaisons with adult males, which may not necessarily be typical. As Cassie Ambutter points out, “many of the women that opt for fundamentalism abandoned the mainstream LDS church in their later years, far beyond age of consent’s relevance” (14). This was true in my own case, and may appear to implicitly validate that choice in terms of free exercise of will, and to offer no grounds for challenge. However, there is an important qualifier to “consent” that has a bearing on decision making - even in the case of mature women not brought up or conditioned within societies where polygamy may be the norm, bringing into question even adult female compliance.

Definitions of informed consent include “Voluntary agreement by a competent person to another person's proposition” with ”competent” defined as “Able to act in the circumstances, including the ability to perform a job or occupation, or to reason or make decisions”(Nolo). In general it is conceded that an adult with no mental disabilities, not being physically coerced, usually has the potential of arriving at an informed decision. However a 2010 California Law Review article identifies another element relevant to this discussion, focusing on the word “imperfect.” It states that “imperfect consent… [is] where the ability of a person to consent to an act is questionable either because the act is arguably harmful to the person, or because social or cultural pressures compromise the person’s autonomy (Richards 200). Richards here identifies two important factors which he suggests may exist in polygamist culture– undue pressure, and compliance in spite of possible resultant harms to the individual - a view supported by others, writing on the subject of ethics (Arneson 42). It is important to identify these pressures and harms.

First, it should be recognized that within Mormon Fundamentalist culture polygamy is not optional. It is considered to be an essential commandment that must be followed to gain God’s approval and to enter the highest level of heaven (Walsh qtd. in Wetzstein par.6). Writings considered to be revelations directly from God to Joseph Smith (first leader of the LDS church) recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, clarify this. One passage states that “all those who have this law [polygamy] revealed unto them must obey the same" (132:3). Even more compelling is the penalty attached to its rejection, which is that if a woman is taught polygamy by her husband and refuses to live it “she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her....” (132:64). Early Mormon leaders hammered home these teachings to those who were unenthusiastic about polygamy, warning that such people would “go down to hell and be damned if they do not repent" (Pratt). Such threats may not carry much weight with today’s average member of the public, but Fundamentalists take a very literal reading of these passages; and emulate LDS leaders who, in the past, have defied the law and have been willing to risk imprisonment over the principle (Smith). In this context, however incredible it may seem, there are women who do agree to polygamy even though it may be repugnant to them and cause mental anguish (D’Onofrio 383). This was my own experience, and the experience of other women in my circle. For instance, a young woman whom I will call “Sarah “confided to me that she was angry with her parents for teaching her about “plural marriage” because that meant she “had to live it.” She also admitted that she was afraid of “being destroyed” if she “rejected the law [polygamy].” The result of this kind of experience is often emotional pain exacerbated by diminished time with the husband, and a reduction in resources that are spread increasingly thin (D’Onofrio 380). Some of the emotional effects have been noted by Dr. Lawrence Beall, Utah trauma psychologist, (Summary) and are also paralleled within Moslem communities, as will be shown later.

Not only do some women feel compelled to enter a polygamous relationship, once within such an arrangement their consent may be compromised in another important way. This is demonstrated in the ability of a man to take on new partners without the consent of existing wives. A man may solicit a woman’s agreement and sometimes obtain it under pressures already noted. However, if she does refuse, this may have no bearing on the outcome since the Doctrine and Covenants justifies her husband in taking new wives without her compliance (132:65). This renders a polygamist wife potentially powerless in this aspect of the relationship, once again with the potential for stress, unhappiness, and feelings of helplessness.

Some may argue that these pressures, limitations and harms are centered solely in Mormon Fundamentalist polygamy, and are atypical of other forms, but it should be noted that in Islam many women also view polygamy as a religious duty against which objections are “haram (not lawful)”(Polygamy). Alia Hogben, Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women states that some women are sometimes fearful of repercussions, including “bodily harm” for shaming their husbands by non compliance (qtd. in Dhillon). They too are subject to radical changes within their marriages that do not require their consent. Dr. Susan Stickevers, expert witness in the Canadian polygamy hearings writes to me, “Too many Moslem women I have known had their husbands arrive home from trips to Pakistan, only to be informed that there was a new wife in the picture...” As a doctor in New York she was able to witness firsthand the negative mental and physical symptoms presenting in women subjected to such stresses, as was Professor Dena Hassouneh (736-737) a Moslem who studied the effects of polygamy on women.

It may be difficult to quantify the percentage of women who feel pressured into entering polygamy against their will, since repression of what is deemed to be negative emotion is expected (Beall par 9). Within the FLDS the dictum is to “keep sweet” (FLDS Beliefs) and for wives in the AUB, it is to be “in harmony.” Additionally, a woman’s “worthiness” is measured by her outward expressions of approval for the lifestyle, and women are “strongly dissuade[d} …from having or expressing alternative perspectives on plural marriage… creating the appearance of unanimous satisfaction with the polygamous lifestyle, regardless of any internal disagreements…” (D’Onofrio 391-392). Moslem women also face similar pressures not to shame their husbands by open dissent (Hogben qtd in Dhillon).

Although the pro polygamy lobby is attempting to appropriate the “consenting adults” argument in order to win support from liberal elements of society as a stepping stone to legalization, the consent problems discussed here are clearly not paralleled within gay relationships, where there are no external forces such as threats of “destruction” pressuring either party to be involved, no expectation of other individuals being introduced against the will of either partner, (with the accompanying potential for emotional distress, loss of time with a partner, or reduction of financial resources) and no pressure to give outward approval to an inwardly galling arrangement. A society that prides itself on the defense of the freedom of the individual to choose should also be intensely committed to ensuring that it does not condone practices and institutions that violate accepted norms of consent. Despite some outward protestations to the contrary, polygamy hurts many women, and for this reason liberals should not be seduced into confusing support for same sex marriage with support for a practice that embodies such inherent harms.

Works Cited

Ambutter, Cassie. "On Religious Subject Formation and the Limits of Liberalism: A Case Study of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints." All Academic Inc. (Abstract Management, Conference Management and Research Search Engine). Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p360251_index.html>.

Appleyard, Bryan. “Church of the Child Brides.” The Sunday Times Magazine. London. 22 Jun.2008. LexisNexis. 12 Apr. 2011

Arneson, Richard J. “Mill versus paternalism.” Ethics 90. Jul. 1980.

Beall, Larry. “The Impact of Modern-Day Polygamy on Women & Children. “ TATC: Trauma Awareness. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. <http://www.traumaawareness.org/id19.html>.

Dhillon, Sunny. “Polygamy Court Case will examine Muslims.” The Canadian Press, updated 5 Aug. 2010. Web 7 Apr. 2011. <http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/cp-article.aspx?cp- documentid=25346982>.

Doctrine and Covenants. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc?lang=eng>.

D’Onofrio, Eve. "Child Brides, Inegalitarianism, and the Fundamentalist Polygamous Family in the United States." International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. Oxford. Dec 2005. Vol. 19(3): 373- 394 doi:10.1093/lawfam/ebi028. Heinonline. Web. 06 Mar. 2011.

FLDS Beliefs 101. FLDS Beliefs 101 – “Keep Sweet.” Web 7 Apr. 2011. <http://flds101.blogspot.com/2008/05/flds-101-keep-sweet.html>.

Hassouneh-Phillips, Dena. "Polygamy and Wife Abuse: A Qualitative Study of Muslim Women in America." Health Care for Women International 22.8 (2001): 735- 748. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Lawrence v Texas. 539 U.S., 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003).

Nolo. Dictionary. Web 7 Apr. 2011.

Pratt, Orson. Journal Discourses of the General Authorities of the LDS Church. Vol 17: 224- 225. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://www.journalofdiscourses.org/>.

Richards, Jacob. "Autonomy, Imperfect Consent, and Polygamist Sex Rights Claims." California Law Review 98.1 (2010): 197-242. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2011."

Smith, Joseph F. Reed Smoot Hearings Volume 1 page 197. 56th Congress Hearings Document No. 486 . Proceedings before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate, In the Matter of the Protests against the Rights of the Hon Reed Smoot, A senator from the Stat e of Utah, to hold his seat. Washington, Government Printing Office. 1906. Web 7 Apr 2011. <http://nboman.people.wm.edu/smoot.php>.

Stickevers, Susan. Email to the author. 18 Mar. 2010.

Valsiner, J. “Organization of children’s social development in polygamic families.” In J Valsiner (ed.), Child Development in cultural context. Toronto:Hogrefe and Huber. 1989. Print.

Wetzstein, Cheryl. “ Anti-polygamy law challenged in Canada court. “ The Washington Times 5 Jan. 2011:5. LexisNexis. Web 12 Apr 2011.

Young, Cathy. "Opening Marriage." Reason 35.10 (2004): 18-19. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2011.

Utah, Corruption Elevated

Federal Judge Dee Benson is threatening to have Federal Marshals sent to arrest Utah State Judge Denise Lindburg.

It seems Judge Benson, a former partner in the law firm of Show Christiansen and Martineau, which currently represents the FLDS doesn't feel he should recuse himself from the case. He actually thinks he can be their champion and no one will even notice. Funny that.


Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 1

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

THE FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH
OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY
SAINTS, an Association of Individuals

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

BRUCE R. WISAN, Special Fiduciary of
the United Effort Plan Trust; MARK
SHURTLEFF, Attorney General for the
State of Utah; TERRY GODDARD,
Attorney General for the State of Arizona;
and DENISE POSSE LINDBERG, Judge
of the Third Judicial District Court of Salt
Lake County, State of Utah

Defendants - Appellees.

No. 11-4066

NOTICE OF INFORMATION RELEVANT TO
EMERGENCY
MOTION TO STAY AND
REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE DECISION

Defendant Judge Denise Posse Lindberg, by and through counsel Brent M.

Johnson of the Utah State Administrative Office of the Courts, submits the following

notice in support of the Emergency Motion to Stay filed on April 13, 2011.

This notice is to advise the Court that the federal district court this morning

Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 2

informed counsel that an Order to Show Cause has been scheduled for tomorrow, April

15, 2011, against Judge Lindberg concerning her Order dated April 11, 2011.

Judge Lindberg’s order was included as an attachment to her motion before this Court to stay the federal court’s preliminary injunction order. Judge Lindberg is leaving for Arizona this afternoon to attend a memorial service for her recently deceased uncle, scheduled for tomorrow, and counsel is in St. George, Utah, several hours from Salt Lake City. When the undersigned informed Judge Dee Benson of this information, he suggested that it may be necessary to have the federal marshals bring Judge Lindberg before his court this afternoon to answer as to her order. This has created a crisis necessitating an immediate decision from this Court.

Judge Lindberg will do as directed by this Court. Judge Lindberg’s concern

remains that if her fiduciary is required to cede control of the property before Judge Benson’s order can be reviewed, Trust assets will be irretrievably lost. Moreover, because there are competing claimants to the authority to act on behalf of the Corporation of the President of the FLDS Church (the entity to whom Judge Benson’s order directs Trust assets be turned over), it is not clear to whom the fiduciary should turn over Trust assets, if that should be this Court’s direction. As a result, Judge Lindberg renews her urgent request that this Court issue an immediate stay of the federal district court’s order pending review of the various appeals that have been filed. Should the 10th Circuit deny the motion for stay, Judge Lindberg will follow any directive the 10 th Circuit may issue. In that event, Judge Lindberg requests specific direction from this Court regarding how

Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 3

Trust assets should be preserved in the interim.

Only through this Court’s immediate action can this extremely difficult and pressing situation between the courts of two sovereigns be de-escalated, and time given for appropriate review of the issues on appeal.

Dated this 14 th day of April, 2011.

s/ Brent M. Johnson

BRENT M. JOHNSON

Attorney for Judge Denise Posse Lindberg

Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 4

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

This is to certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing document was filed

electronically with the Court via the CM/ECF system on this 14th day of April, 2011 to:

Roger H. Hoole
Gregory N. Hoole
Hoole & King, L.C.
4276 South Highland Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84124

Joni J. Jones
David N. Wolf
Assistant Utah Attorney General
160 East 300 South, 6 th Floor
P.O. Box 140856
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-0856

Mark Philip Bookholder
Arizona Attorney General’s Office
1275 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007-2997

Jeffrey L. Shields
Zachary T. Shields
Michael D. Stanger
Callister Nebeker * McCullough
10 East South Temple
Gateway Tower East, Suite 900
Salt Lake City, Utah 84113

Andrew V. Collins
Mitchell & Barlow
6465 South 3000 E, Suite 203
Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121

Kenneth A. Okazaki
Stephen Clark
Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough
170 South Main Street, Suite 1500
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

Randy S. Hunter
Assistant Utah Attorney General
160 East 300 South, 5 th Floor
P.O. Box 140857
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-0875

James C. Bradshaw
Brown, Bradshaw & M offat, L.L.P.
10 West Broadway, Suite 210
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

Frederick Mark Gedicks
Richard A. Van Wagoner
Rodney R. Parker
Snow, Christensen & Martineau
10 Exchange Place, 11 th Floor
P.O. Box 45000
Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-5000

Michael H. Hinson
Office of the Attorney General
Liability Management Section
177 North Church Ave. Suite 1105
Tucson, Arizona 85701

Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 5

Ryan M . Harris
Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough
170 South Main Street, Suite 1500
Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1644

/s/Jeni Wood
Jeni Wood
Legal Secretary to Brent M. Johnson

Glorious and Free

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

The Canadian reference case on whether the ban on polygamy violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is, in essence, over. Closing arguments are scheduled for March 28th and B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman has been asked to determine whether the polygamy law is constitutional.


Late last week, special prosecutor for the state of Texas, Eric Nichols sent information gleaned from the 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch in Scleicher County to the prosecutors in B.C. This information included evidence that one 13-year-old girl child and two 12-year-old girl children had been trafficked from their homes in Bountiful B.C. to Mohave County, Arizona, and then on to Texas for the purpose of "marriage" to FLDS leader, Warren Steed Jeffs.

Activist have known for years that this trafficking of minor female children has taken place under the noses of both Mohave County and Canadian officials. But in the warped politically correct world of "can't touch that" religion, a blind eye was turned.

Now Texas has shown them all the truth, and like roaches I'm sure most Mohave County, Arizona officials are creeping into the dark corners of their filthy hives to do their best to ignore it. I'll give anyone a dollar who can show me a story run on this development in the Mohave Valley Daily "News" in the last week.

Moreover, I will also give anyone a dollar who can show me a link to a CNN story on the same development in the last week, and I will give you $2 if you can show me a link where they run this old interview of FLDS "mothers" from 2008, starting at about the 5 minute mark.

Pray for Canada. Get on your knees for her and pray like the future of your daughter, your grand daughter and her great grand daughter depend on it. For indeed, it does!

For if the court should decide to recommend the decriminalization of polygamy in Canada, then it will surely spread here. And that is when the future for all our children will change forever, and someday a girl child in the future will look back on the freedoms you have today and sigh, saying before she is led to the alter and then the bed of slavery, "What must it have been like in the golden age?"

Texas sends help

Breaking News in Canada

Texas sends help to B.C. prosecutors

Elizabeth Smart & Brian David Mitchell and Elissa Wall & Allen Steed

Brian David Mitchell, a fundamentalist Mormon polygamist, kidnapped Elizabeth Smart from her suburban Salt Lake City bedroom when she was 14-years-old. For weeks her family and law enforcement were stumped as to what might have happened to her but a relatively unknown anti-polygamy activist named Flora Jessop came forward not long after the kidnapping to warn law enforcement and the public that this had all the markings of the work of a fundamentalist Mormon polygamist.

She was ridiculed and laughed at, and as it turns out, she was right.

It took over 8 years but he was eventually convicted in a federal court for kidnapping Elizabeth and raping her every day, in order to fulfill his mission to his false Mormon god. You see, he needed her, because without participating in polygamy, according to his prophet, Joseph Smith, he could never reach the highest level of the afterlife, where he would become the god of his own planet and live out eternity having sex with all his spiritual wives in order to populate his planet.

A court rejected his argument that he was insane and a jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison for what he had done to Elizabeth. He stole her innocence and her childhood.

Elissa Wall was born into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints in 1986. At the age of 14 she was informed by her family that she was to be given in marriage to her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed. She resisted. She cried. She begged her family not to make her marry him. She stood sobbing as her mother and other family members made her stand still for her wedding gown to be fitted.

She was then transported across state lines [violation of Mann Act? Human sex trafficking?] to a motel in Nevada, where the sect's leader, Warren Jeffs performed a marriage ceremony for the two. She told her new "husband" that she did not want to have sex. She begged him not to violate her innocence, and he did it anyway. Later she went to Jeffs to beg him to release her from the "marriage", but he advised her only to go home and submit herself to her rapist, "mind, body and soul."

There you have it, two 14-year-old girls, both raped by fundamentalist Mormons in order to become gods and get their own planet in the afterlife. You see, they needed these girls, had to have them or they wouldn't "get to Heaven."

The difference?

Today the state of Utah offered Allen Steed a plea deal for raping then 14-year-old Elissa. He will serve 30 days in jail for his crime.

Brian David Mitchell raped a 14-year-old and got 15 years in prison.


What is the difference, when neither child was willing to submit to their rapes?

Elissa had the bad luck to be born into fundamentalist Mormon polygamy, and that my friends is a very dangerous place for any girl with her own mind to be born.

Someone please try to imagine your 14-year-old little girl being pushed down and having a man repeatedly forcing himself into her, over and over...and then being sentenced to only 30 days in jail for it.

Shame on Utah, it doesn't deserve to be in our Union, not today. Today you are VILE!

And to any polygamists here it Texas? You take a good long hard look at that flag at the top of this page. You will not succeed in coming here to Texas to rape us or our children, or in making us VILE like YOU. Got it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Correction! Thank you, Texas-1 for pointing this out:

"Brian David Mitchell has been convicted, but has not yet been sentenced, his sentencing will be 25 May 2011 in SLC.

Mitchell's wife Wanda Barzee was sentenced to to 15 years, which she is serving at a prison located in Fort Worth."

The debate goes national

The comments on this story, so far, are quite discouraging. The good news is that Mr. Heck, a Christian, is showing extraordinary courage in addressing this issue. I'd hope that anyone who follows this blog, or this issue, will visit the American Thinker over the next few days and help enlighten the public on the real issues surrounding the abuse of polygamy.

American Thinker
The Polygamists Make Their Move

By Peter Heck
The debate over whether or not those practicing homosexuality should be eligible to obtain the legal status of "married" for their same-sex relationships is persistently mischaracterized by activists on both sides as an attempt to redefine marriage. For those opposing such a move, this is most likely an error of ignorance, while for those favoring, it likely is an intentional tactic of misdirection. To be clear, in order to "redefine" anything, there must be an alternative definition being advocated. To this point, no such proposed substitute has emerged.... (Read Full Article)

Jeffs' "special needs" are fulfilled

So this week we were treated to the news that Warren Jeffs has finally found an attorney to fulfill his "special needs".

Who is Jeff Kearney from Fort Worth? It seems he is an attorney who specializes in fighting for some of the lowest scum to crawl the earth. He successfully defended one of the Branch Davidians from charges he killed a federal agent. The Branch Davidians were another group practicing polygamy and raping children. And Kearney unsuccessfully defended a Muslim client from Richardson, Texas; Hazim Elashi, who was co-owner of the Richardson-based company, InfoCom Corp, and one of five brothers convicted of doing business with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas [See above for their philosophy of life and the value of children].

"Hazim and Ihsan were convicted in the first of two trials on charges outlined in an indictment that also charged the defendants sent money to defendant Mousa Abu Marzook, an investor in Infocom and a self-admitted leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, a/k/a Hamas." Read the DOJ press release here.

I've had so many survivors of polygamy tell me that they see the FLDS as "The American Taliban." It makes so much sense that Jeffs would look for representation from someone very highly experienced defending what is essentially the indefensible.

Canadian case update

TODAY IN COURT



First witness: Dr. Steve Kent. Dr. Kent is a recognized expert in sociology of religion studies. He specializes in cult studies. He holds two M.A. degrees: one in History of Religions from American University, Washington, D.C. and one in Religion and Modern Western Society from McMaster University; and, his Ph.D. in Religion and Modern Western Society from McMaster, as well. He is the author of one book: From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era: Syracuse: Syracuse University Press (2001). He has authored several articles, peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. His first paper on Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy: “A Matter of Principle: Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy, Children, and Human Rights Debates,” was printed in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 10 Issue 1 (2006): 7-29. (I was very pleased and honoured to have assisted Dr. Kent with research for this paper.



I studied under Dr. Kent in 1985 at the University of Alberta, course, New Religious Movements. Dr. Kent was the first person I phoned when I decided to start a campaign to stop the practice of polygamy in Canada. There was a pause on the phone and he said, “Wel-l-l, you can try.”



What a privilege to have Dr. Kent as one of our expert witnesses.



Dr. Brian Samuels led the interrogation of Dr. Kent. He reviewed his C.V. and then the body of his affidavit which is written in report format. Dr. Kent’s Research Methodology involved qualitative research meaning “researchers receive similar, mutually confirming information from multiple sources and different types of resources.”



Dr. Kent has come to the opinion “that polygamy has widespread negative effects upon the human rights of children, as well as on the health of [sic] welfare of many people who live in and around the communities that practice it.”



Brian Samuels went through the various topics of harm Dr. Kent has associated with polygamy in the analysis of his research:

· Incest and Inbreeding wherein he cited the work of Janet Bennion;

· Infant Deaths, Genetic Disorders, and Unmarked Children’s Graves;

· Arranged Marriages;

· Displaced Young Men—“The Lost Boys”—and Working Conditions for Youth;

· Welfare Fraud; Marriages, Sexuality, and the State;

· Polygamy as a Threat to the Democratic State;

· concluding with Polygamy and Coercion.



(Dr. Kent’s affidavit can be found at www.stoppolygamyincanada.wordpress.com , click on the stop polygamy in Canada expert witnesses button)



Robert Wickett, attorney for the FLDS, rose to cross-examine Dr. Kent. He picked away at Kent’s research methodology and the use of the word “polygamy” when it should be “polygyny.” He also picked away at Kent’s definitions of polygamous groups saying that Green and Kingston are one (meaning I think, one entity or one person) and Hildale, Ut/Colorado City, AZ is a community.



I don’t know where Mr. Wickett was coming from because Dr. Kent had already described the Kingston polygamy group as having several family groups around Utah and similar for Tom Green’s group of families. Then Robert Wickett attempted to discredit Kent’s research through newspaper articles as reliable sources. Dr. Kent came back with his usage of credible reporters in credible newspapers.



Mr. Wickett also referred to an article “Raising Lazarus” by Professor Lorne L. Dawson who criticized Kent’s research methodology. Dr. Kent replied that he has written a rejoinder to that critique.



Then Wickett attempted to trip Dr. Kent on his research re the amount of government money given to the Hildale/Colorado City complex through the late 90s. (p. 14 of Dr. Kent’s affidavit). Dr. Kent countered that the quote Wickett was using from the Salt Lake Tribune speaks of the community in 2009—a ten-year lapse from his research analysis re “bleeding the beast” accounts of fraud.



In my opinion, the most poignant quote from Dr. Steve Kent today was:

In a democracy you need educated people with life options that when something goes wrong they can trust someone to help them receive justice.”



Dr. Kent said this when he was summarizing his explanation of FLDS Officer Sam Roundy “who admitted not having forwarded up to two dozen child abuse reports to Child and Family Services.” (p. 22, Dr. Steve Kent’s affidavit)



Witness Alina Darger



Contrary to my previous reports that this previously anonymous witness is from Bountiful, Alina Darger grew up in an independent polygamy family in Salt Lake City with two mothers. There were 32 children. Her own mother had 15. She said her parents shared parenting. Her mother worked outside the home. They are not members of any church group, e.g. Apostolic United Brethren, FLDS or LDS. They had Sunday School in their own home reading from the Bible, Book of Mormon and other Mormon scriptures. They attended Sunday School at various churches and children’s programs at the LDS church.



At the beginning of Alina Darger’s testimony, Craig Cameron, attorney for the AG of Canada, rose to say he objected to her affidavit because it was not properly written. Chief Justice Bauman said the court must clarify the witness evidence.



When Robert Wickett, who led the examination of Alina Darger, asked if she believed in placement marriage, Craig Cameron rose to say that this subject is not in the witness’ affidavit. Chief Justice Bauman said the objection was well founded; but, Wickett said other witnesses have gone well beyond their affidavits to tell their stories. Chief Justice Bauman said he would accommodate the witness’ testimony.



Wickett asked Ms. Darger many questions about her lifestyle, etc.



Alina Darger went to public school and finished high school. Her family lived in a “regular” neighbourhood but had to keep their polygamy a secret; and, were afraid to report any abuses they suffered, e.g. one time someone spray painted “polygamous bitches” on their driveway—and act of vandalism—but her father simply paid to have it removed. Another time she was walking home with a friend who came from a monogamous family and a man in a car called them over, he had his pants down and he was masturbating. Her friend’s parents called the police, but her parents didn’t for fear of an investigation into their lifestyle.



Alina decided at a young age, 17 or 18, that she wanted a plural family. She is the first, legal wife of her husband. Her two sister wives are themselves sisters. In answering questions about how they selected the sister wives, Alina said they went through a process, e.g. will everyone have the same values; and, will this union be good for the family, etc. Alina has seven children, the oldest is 20. There are 24 children in the whole group. She said there are a lot of sacrifices to be made and much commitment to make polygamy work.



Alina runs a residential and industrial cleaning business with one of her sister wives. She has done work with Mary Bachelor and Anne Wilde. She does public speaking.



Alina says that her husband interacts with the children. On each one’s birthday, he takes that child out for a special day. In decision making for the children, the final decision is made between her husband and the biological mother of that child.



Alina supports decriminalization by saying it would help people come forward and get help if they need it. She said she has a son who is a football player but he is afraid to go further with a football career because of his family’s polygamy.



Leah Greathead, attorney for the AGBC, rose to cross-examine Ms. Darger. The first thing she pointed out is that there is a professional basketball star with the last name of Darger who comes from a polygamous family. Darger had to concede that is true.



Greathead also was not happy with the way Darger’s affidavit was written. She wanted to know which part was specifically written by Darger and who the other authors were. Darger said she wrote paragraph 25 and the other paragraphs were authored by her sister wives and her husband.



Greathead wanted to know about Darger’s public speaking. Darger said she speaks to university groups, police officers, and service groups to bridge the gap between the two cultures.



Darger does not believe in placement marriage and has encouraged her own children to make their own decisions about life and religion. She would not disown a child who decided to live monogamy. She has a daughter who is interested in different religions and who has studied the Qur’an.



If a sister wife decided to leave, Darger would want her and her children to be treated fairly and taken care of.



Craig Cameron on his cross-examination asked the best question of all: “Would you be allowed to take another husband, and stay in your present relationship?” Darger’s reply, “No. That would not be possible.”



So much for the hunky, dory, every-thing-is-rosy depiction of polygamy. It makes my skin crawl.



And, tomorrow we get Mary Bachelor, the co-founder of Principle Voices, proponent of polygamy, who has lived MONOGAMY for two decades!



Until Thursday,



Nancy Mereska, President

Stop Polygamy in Canada