Herald Column: Protecting Bountiful's Children

This week's Calgary Herald column from yours truly offers a suggestion to politicians eager to show their resolve in protecting children from sexual predators: apply our existing laws: 

Promising to get tough on hypothetical future offenders provides no excuse for inaction on current ones.

 

An affidavit filed last week in B. C. Supreme Court would seem to confirm that indeed we have failed to act. The Criminal Code is quite clear on the parameters of sexual exploitation, yet clear violations of the law are spelled out in a court document merely for informational purposes.

 

The affidavit contains information regarding Winston Blackmore, who, along with James Oler, has been charged with polygamy. The two men are leaders in the fundamentalist polygamous cult based in Bountiful, B. C.

 

The affidavit informs us that of the 25 wives taken by Blackmore, nine of them were under age; of those, four were just 15 when they married the much older Blackmore. In fact, one of those 15-year old brides gave birth to a child the following year, which should provide even further proof of the sexual nature of the relationships.

 

There may be solace in that these men could be jailed anyway -- a polygamy conviction brings with it a potential five-year sentence.

 

It is a charge, however, that makes no pretence of protecting children: it makes no distinction between a 15-year-old girl and a 35-year-old woman. Whether we need laws to protect consenting adults from one another is debatable, but it is most egregious that our top priority in this instance is not the children of Bountiful.

 

The problem is clearly not the law itself. Just recently we saw a Calgary teacher plead guilty to a charge of sexual exploitation over a relationship with a student that turned sexual when the girl was 15.

 

We will find out later this month just how long Blaine Harrison will spend in jail for his crime, but it is a glaring blight on the system that one man will be sent to jail for a crime being flagrantly committed elsewhere in this very country.