Here be polygamistsLast October, BC Attorney General Wally Oppal said his office was contemplating laying charges against members of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints sect at Bountiful for alleged child abuse, sexual exploitation, and polygamy.  (Actually, the polygamy isn't alleged; it's a known fact.)  Today, seven months later, he's still thinking about it—only much harder than he was before.

B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal told CBC News that taking action against the community is one of his top priorities.

"I would expect we will have some kind of answer within the next week or so as to whether or not we'll be laying charges," he said.

Mr Oppal was forced to speak only because another government agency said its mandate does not allow it to take action, thus passing the buck back to law enforcement.

Oppal's comments came after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found it doesn't have the authority to hear a complaint against the provincial government, which was accused of failing to protect young girls from sexual exploitation.

Jancis Andrews, one of the women who filed the human rights complaint three years ago, alleges the province had a policy not to prosecute men in Bountiful for polygamy or the sexual exploitation of young girls.

Is this another issue on which Canada's putative leaders prefer to bury their hands in the sand?  Another issue on which the government's policy is not to have a policy?

Mr Oppal denies that BC has a no-policy policy on polygamy and child abuse.

"They were alleging we weren't taking a serious enough approach to the polygamist issues that are said to exist there, and that's just wrong."

We shall see, Mr Politician.  Is this really the same fellow who leaped immediately into the fray when Indo-Canadian women were abused and assaulted by their husbands?

h/t: Religion News Blog

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