Constitutional arguments begin in case of B.C. man found guilty of polygamy
CRANBROOK, B.C. — A British Columbia man found guilty of marrying two dozen women says he believed he was entitled to practice polygamy because he wasn’t charged when police investigated the allegations in the 1990s.
Winston Blackmore appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in Cranbrook on Tuesday, where a judge is hearing arguments on whether Canada’s polygamy laws infringe on his rights to freedom of religion and expression.
Blackmore is a leader of the small community of Bountiful, B.C., where the court has heard residents follow the tenants of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sect that condones plural or “celestial” marriage.
He was found guilty earlier this year of one count of polygamy after the court heard he had married 24 women, including three who were 15 years old at the time.