Friday, January 27, 2012

Living with Plural Wives

On the stand in federal tax court, Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore confirmed that he had 21 wives, including sisters whom he married on the same day in the same ceremony.

“These are pretty much the list of people who lived with me as wives,” Mr. Blackmore said on Tuesday, following a series of questions from a Department of Justice lawyer that outlined the names and home communities of the women to whom Mr. Blackmore was “sealed” in ceremonies sanctioned by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS.

Preparing for the End of Days?

B.C. polygamous leader Winston Blackmore says he took out a $25,000 loan from the bank to prepare for the end of the world. 

During testimony in the Tax Court of Canada on Thursday, Mr. Blackmore said a patriarch in the community directed him to get the money to “prepare for the worst.” 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Money, Money, Money .....

Polygamous leader Winston Blackmore acknowledges he may not be a prophet, but he’s a little less clear about whether or not he’s the leader of a church in southeast B.C

Mr. Blackmore is trying to make a case in the Tax Court of Canada for special status for his community in Bountiful, B.C

Under heated cross-examination Wednesday by federal lawyer Lynn Burch, Mr. Blackmore at first refused to answer whether or not he thought himself a prophet.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

So Many Wives .........

Despite struggling Tuesday in tax court to name all of his wives, Winston Blackmore admitted Wednesday that he'd forgotten one.

Instead of having 21 wives between 2000 and 2006, Blackmore said he had 22. 

During that period, Blackmore said he had approximately 67 children – 47 of whom were born in that six year period alone.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Blackmore's Unpaid Taxes Under Scrutiny

The polygamous community of Bountiful is not a congregation and by insisting that it is, community leader Winston Blackmore is trying to offload a tax bill on to those who can ill afford to pay it – including young men shipped out of the community to work at low-paying jobs, a federal tax lawyer said on Monday.

New Special Counsel for Bountiful

Vancouver lawyer Peter Wilson has been named as the new special prosecutor to look into potential criminal offences in Bountiful.

B.C.’s Criminal Justice Branch announced Mr. Wilson’s appointment Wednesday.


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

B.C.'s Special Prosecutor Steps Down

Spurred by details of underage marriages that came to light in a landmark court reference on polygamy, the B.C. government is looking for a special prosecutor to weigh criminal charges relating to activity in Bountiful after the person who had been in the role declined to take another look.

“I made my decision on this case 4½ years ago,” said Richard Peck, the Vancouver lawyer who was appointed as special prosecutor on the polygamy file in 2007. “And the government decided to go in a different direction and, as far as I was concerned, I wasn’t going to be involved any more.”