One wife and several "concubines" not acceptable? Wait until some lawyers spin this trial. Perception will be at the forefront of interpretation. Oh, yes. And Freedom of Religion, too.

wow, getting told what to do from one woman was enough for any man.

Whipped are ya He speaks

A can of worms to say the least. Nothing says that if persons consents that common living arrangments is against the law. There is a law on the books about the legal age of consent which I beleve is 18. If that law has not been broken I am afarid that the taxpayer and the defendents are going to br the losers. The only winners are going to be the lawyers. Watch this drag on for years while the court is tied up and the real crimnals will escape prosicution.

Gather thee thy nookie whilst thou can.

Old Gordo & wee Wally have to appear to be tuff on crime as an election looms on the horizon. Maybe that way we will all forget about the raid on the legislature and the BCR fiasco coverup the Liberals are trying to pull off.

Matthew Chapter 6:
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

more thoughts:
• 20 wives means 20 mothers in law?
• The first wife to file for divorce gets half? The second wife to file gets the other half?
• This guy is 52 years old and has that many wives? He is going to need a splint.

This is going to prove to be an expensive waste of taxpayers dollars. They have no case to go on other than the reference to an antiquated section of the Criminal Code. What will only amount to religious persecution. If there was claims or charges to child abuse and such, it would be a different matter, and in that instance I'd say throw the book at the two.
But these are charges of polygamy, a religious right offered as allowable by a few religions, accepable or not. There is a constitutional contingent here.

James Olen and Winston Blackmore will make a laughing stock of our judicial system. They can choose to air their beliefs or alternatively refuse to testify against themselves, although I believe they will chose to participate in this circus. Their wives will offer testimony against them. What purpose will that serve? A group of low self-esteem women that allowed their children to live in a ridiculous situation, at worst contributing to child rape and incest, all in support of an ideology or faith. I can't sense any merit or credibilty to their testimony, the defense will tear these women apart.

Now why after decades of allowance has this come to the forefront of our societies
woes.

How are these marriages administered? Are they even legal? If not, then these men have many girlfriends, not a crime. Currently there is no law prohibiting, living with or seducing many adourners, or providing them with offspring.

At the end of the day, Justice Wally Oppal will have offered to spend enough resources to pay off the Olympic debt fighting a no win battle.

As for serving two masters, ???. The wives serve one man, and the master many wives.

James Olen and Winston Blackmore will make a laughing stock of our judicial system---organized crime is already doing a good job of that.

It goes deeper than Bountiful. Although the original law against polygamy was drafted with the mormon church in mind (it was specifically mentioned in the original) the law would reach out to a lot of others as well. 'Conjugal relationship' is not restricted to marriage. By using the vague term 'conjugal unions' the law could apply to people having affairs, people with more than one girlfriend, people who are with a new person before finalizing their divorce, etc. Pretty scary if think of it. Also pretty rediculous for the state to meddle in such things if you ask me.
I read a recent article describing how mullas in Canada have performed a large number of ploygamous marriages in Canada. While not exactly a tenet of their religion, islam does allow for multiple wives. It is pretty hard to see how a country which allows same sex mariages can find grounds banning multiple conjugal unions. (On a side note, what exactly is the time frame involved with going from one union to the other? I mean, if i leave my wifes house in the morning, to sleep with my mistress in the evening, does that mean i am in more than one confugal union? or did i end the first at around lunch. Maybe i would have to leave a little note after i left each house, explaining that 'i am leaving for another woman, i will see you tomorrow!'
As a PS i will add that i hope most pople will not descend to the level of piss pulper and start denegrating the women of Bountiful as having low self esteem, and alowing child rape and all that jive. There is no evidence to suggest these statements are true about these women and that community. Certainly i would chalenge most folk in BC to emerge from an intensive, prolonged investigation as unscathed as these folk have . After all, the charges laid could have been laid without any investigation at all. Mr Blackmore and the rest have never denied being polygamists after all. I doubt pisspulper or anyone else in this forum is qualified to comment on the self esteem of these people. Certainly they show adevotion to their faith nd way of life that few if any of us show for, well lets face it, anything. Stay off your high horses people! Just because you can't understand it, that doesnt make you qualified to judge.

Good points caranmacil. My reference to the low self-esteem of the women wasn't meant to denegrate them, and perhaps I worded that poorly, or perhaps you don't equate events in the same manner.

Now as some of these women will be testifying as witnesses for the "special prosecution", one has to wonder why and what do they have to say. Now if they show a devotion to their faith and way of life that is so exemplary, I fail to understand why they would be airing it to the masses. Perhaps Bountiful is not exactly as you see it.

There is another reality to the dark side of polygamous sects, I'll let you research that yourself.

Men like Olen and Blackmore have control issues. Men who seem to need several wives in order to feel superior to others always have their women under the thumb if you will. The women are usually suffering from low esteme which makes them easy targets. Hell.... there is a lot of that going on right here under our noses...only they call it cheating on your spouse 80% of men are fooling around on the wife....no one needs a proper marriage certificate for that.

The age of consent used to be 14...it is now 16.