Deportation Of The Blackmores

[ecnarf]

One of Canada's polygamist family (the Blackmore's) went off on the media because of last weeks story about Warren Jeffs being put on the FBI 10 most wanted list for sexually exploiting underage girls. They (the Blackmore family) claim that the FBI are violating the Charter of Rights guarantee for freedom of religion.

Okay, maybe the pedophile comment was out of hand.

 

However.

 

Sexual abuse and exploitation of underage girls in the Mormon community in Utah is not uncommon. In fact, it's almost mandatory. Basically, a father will take his teenage daughter and teach her how to sexually please a man. It's fucking disgusting and everyone knows that it goes on. Yes, even the mothers. No, they don't object.

 

So, if the accusation of exploitation of underage girls (which for all intents and purposes is pedophilia) turns out to be similar to what I've just described, then these women sure as hell knew what was going on. That means they would have aided and abetted horrific abuse. There should be no space in this country for people like that.

[Bizud]

Except that this is not in Utah, this is in British Columbia. Different mormon sect, and yes, we have to be wary and act to protect children, but there have been no accusations that these children are suffering abuse, the father isn't being charged with anything and the children aren't being taken away from him. What the mothers are being deported for is not being Canadian - their application to stay in Canada on compassionate grounds has been rejected. I would have assumed that having Canadian children would be enough.

Edited May 27, 2006 by Bizud

[ecnarf]

Yes, I know this is in British Columbia, but these people are originall from the States. "Birds of a feather flock together", as they say. I know that what I said was purely conjecture, but it's not unreasonable to assume that what goes on among mormons in Utah may be consistent with other North American mormon communities.

 

How is the father not being charged with anything? If he's on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, one assumes that he would most certainly be charged with something when caught.

 

I'll admit that, right now, they shouldn't necessarily be deported, as there hasn't been any criminal charges proven against them (other than polygamy, I guess). But just because they are parents of Canadian children doesn't mean they shouldn't face extradition if criminal charges are laid against them.

 

FYI: some CBC articles...

 

CRANBROOK, B.C. - A distraught Cranbrook, B.C., woman has asked police to help her find her daughter, a member of a controversial, polygamist Mormon sect with whom she has lost contact.

 

Jane Blackmore has filed a missing persons report with police, saying 23-year-old Susie has broken off contact with her, and officials of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints won't tell her where her daughter is.

 

Her report comes as B.C. police prepare to probe allegations of sexual abuse and white supremacist teachings at the sect's Canadian site in Bountiful, B.C.

 

Several families in the U.S. have raised similar concerns about missing children, and the group's leader Warren Jeffs faces two lawsuits in Utah, the sect's other base. In one he's accused of ritualistically sodomizing a young boy; in the other, teenage boys accuse him of evicting them from the community.

 

Blackmore was a member of the breakaway sect, but left the Bountiful compound three years ago when she began to question the faith. Since then she had been in regular touch with Susie, who lived with her three children and husband in one of the Utah communities.

 

But the family moved without warning. When Blackmore called church officials in Utah to find Susie, they refused to reveal her whereabouts, saying only she's fine, and was doing God's work.

 

"I'm concerned because I feel like she's being coerced and not being allowed to talk to me," Blackmore said.

 

She described her daughter as a strong-willed young woman who always spoke her mind in the past: "Susie was always able to say when crap was crap that it was crap, and [now] she can't do that. Whatever the prophet says, is right."

 

Fears daughter is being brainwashed

 

She lost contact with Susie when Jeffs set down strict new rules after he succeeded his father as leader in 2002. Followers are told to play audiotapes of his teachings hour after hour. The church believes followers will be lifted up to heaven during Armageddon. Blackmore says she thinks this means her daughter is being brainwashed and is cutting all ties to the outside world at her church's command.

 

Blackmore fears it could all end in a mass suicide like Jonestown, or a showdown with the outside world, like Waco.

 

Warren Jeffs's followers say she's exaggerating. The sect won't talk to the media, but its lawyer, Rod Parker, said Blackmore and others have an agenda.

 

"The only time I've heard those kind of concerns is from former members who are very hostile towards the church," Parker said.

 

The RCMP has accepted Blackmore's missing person's report, but has not said what action it would take.

 

Blackmore has been in touch with police in El Dorado, Tex., where Jeffs is building a new compound. Sheriff Dave Doran spoke to a woman he believes was Susie Blackmore.

 

"She would not give her whereabouts. I asked her if she was on the Texas ranch and she would not disclose her location. It's out of the ordinary, but what we're finding is this group doesn't give much information. They're pretty secretive about their ways." Doran said.

 

Blackmore said she would not rest until she knew Susie was safe.

Edited May 27, 2006 by ecnarf

[Bizud]

How is the father not being charged with anything? If he's on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, one assumes that he would most certainly be charged with something when caught.

 

He's not, Warren Jeffs is. For like the tenth time, reread the original post.

 

I'll admit that, right now, they shouldn't necessarily be deported, as there hasn't been any criminal charges proven against them (other than polygamy, I guess). But just because they are parents of Canadian children doesn't mean they shouldn't face extradition if criminal charges are laid against them.

 

I don't think it's in the best interests of Canadian children to have one of their parents deported just because our government doesn't recognize their kind of spousal arrangement. I'm not defending polygamy, but the way we're deporting them, on a technicality, even though polygamy has been effectively decriminalized for years and will undoubtedly be legalized one day as many other countries have (because criminalization isn't the best way to deal with the problems of polygamy). Immigration must have something important to worry about.

[ecnarf]

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