Canadians among children taken from Texas polygamist ranch
Last Updated: Friday, April 18, 2008 | 5:35 PM ET
CBC News
Some of the more than 400 children taken from a West Texas polygamist compound are Canadian citizens, a state official said Friday.
Angie Voss, who is with Texas Child Protection Services, didn't say how many are Canadian or give their ages or sex. The judge ruled on Friday that all children must remain in custody and undergo genetic testing.
Two members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leave a courthouse in San Angelo, Texas, on Friday.
(Eric Gay/Associated Press)
British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal later confirmed he was alerted by officials in Ottawa that some of the children taken from the polygamist compound were Canadians.
"I received the same report from Ottawa, so it seems that that is accurate," Oppal said in Vancouver.
Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, however, would not confirm the report. "To date no confirmation has been received on the citizenship status of the children," said Eugenie Cormier-Lessonde, a department spokeswoman.
She said Canadian consular officials have been in contact with Texas officials.
Oppal said, "This has been an issue for quite some time in that it has been said that at Bountiful there are said to be some Americans there as well."
Bountiful, located in southeastern B.C., is home to a polygamist compound.
"It sort of adds another dimension to the problem here," Oppal said. "That is, that people move in and out of these communities and it's sometimes difficult to find out who's where and what."
Custody hearing underway
A second day of custody hearings was underway in San Angelo to determine what should be done with the 416 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch near the town of Eldorado this month.
Authorities raided the compound after receiving reports a 15-year-old girl had married a 50-year-old man and given birth to his child. Officials have not yet located the girl, now 16, who called authorities to say her husband abused her.
The ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect. Built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, the sect came to west Texas in 2003. It includes about 1,000 followers in the religious community of Bountiful, B.C.
Jeffs is in jail in Arizona, where he is awaiting a second trial on charges of incest and sexual conduct with a minor.
Mike Watkiss, a reporter with Phoenix's KTVK, said the citizenship revelation took everyone at the custody hearings a little off guard.
"We all sort of sat up and took note," he said, adding that it's been alleged children within the sect have travelled back and forth between the U.S. and Bountiful.
"It's long been suspected that when media or the law enforcement officers start looking for a child [who] may be in distress, that they are often spirited across the border to Canada and vice versa," said Watkiss.
Friday's testimony was the first mention of Canadian children, said Watkiss, adding that he didn't know if Canadian authorities were involved in the case.
'Abusive' culture: psychiatrist
In testimony earlier in the day, psychiatrist Bruce Perry said teenage girls do not resist early marriages because they are trained to be obedient and compliant. Perry said the belief system and culture at the compound is "abusive" and "very authoritarian."
He said that while the teenage girls in the breakaway sect believe they are marrying out of free choice, it's a choice based on lessons they've had from birth.
"Obedience is a very important element of their belief system," said Perry, who interviewed three of the children seized in the April 3 raid on the compound, a secluded ranch south of Eldorado.
"Compliance is being godly, it's part of their honouring God."
State District Judge Barbara Walther, who is leading the trial, must decide whether the children will remain in state care in a child custody hearing that is turning out to be one of the largest and most convoluted in U.S. history.
Child welfare officials claim the children were abused or in imminent danger of abuse because the sect encourages girls younger than 18 to marry and have children. Experts have told the court that many of the women in the sect had children when they were minors, some as young as 13.
Voss testified Thursday that at least five girls who are younger than 18 are pregnant or have children. Voss said some of the women identified as adults with children may be juveniles, or may have had children when they were younger than 18.
Identifying children and parents has been difficult because members of the sect have given different names and ages at various times, Voss said.
The state has asked that DNA be taken from all of the children and their alleged parents to help determine biological connections. The judge has not ruled on that request.
With files from the Associated Press
