Decision said near on Canadian polygamy charges

July 31, 2007

Reuters Canada


VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A special prosecutor has completed his report on whether criminal charges should be filed against a Canadian polygamist community, but no decision has been made, an official said on Tuesday.

British Columbia's attorney general is reviewing the report that looked, in part, at whether prosecuting members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would run into constitutional problems.

"We're expecting to be able to release something in the near future," said Neil MacKenzie, a spokesman for the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched an investigation into the FLDS in Bountiful, British Columbia, two years ago after media reports raised allegations that underage women were being forced into marriages with older men.

Plural marriages are illegal in Canada, but prosecutors have been averse to press charges against the U.S.-linked group for years out of concern the law would be struck down over freedom of religion.

Attorney General Wally Oppal asked an independent prosecutor to review the police report because of his office's past position on the law.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the Mormon Church that is believed to have about 10,000 members in Utah, Arizona, Texas and British Columbia. The community in Bountiful on the U.S.-Canada border was established in the late 1940s.

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