On August 5th, the Vancouver Sun's Daphne Bramham wrote a forceful article on the difference in attitude between Canada's concern about polygamy as freedom of religion, and Texas's proactive approach to accusing, arresting and convicting male polygamists for rape and pedophilia.
With the conviction of Warren Jeffs, and the revelation that he also sodomized his 5-year-old nephew, the Texas cases now reach their conclusion, with eight out of eight polygamists either in, or going to, prison.
Bramham wrote:
Laid bare in a Texas courtroom this week was the ugly, disturbing truth about the institutionalized pedophilia practised by polygamous leader Warren Jeffs and supported, tacitly if not overtly, by his 10,000 followers in the United States and Bountiful, B.C.
Unlike British Columbia, which has long failed to protect children as it dithered over whether religious freedom justifies polygamy, Texas aggressively pursued complaints about child rape and forced marriage within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Jeffs — the FLDS prophet — was convicted Thursday of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault of a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. He was the eighth FLDS member to be convicted in Texas since a 2008 raid on the church's compound.
Key to the conviction of the 55-year-old, fundamentalist Mormon leader was DNA evidence of his fathering a child with a 15-year-old and bizarre audio tapes. One tape was made as he ritualistically raped [a]12-year-old with others watching.
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