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Gail Blackmore unsuccessfully appealed her conviction and sentence.

Oler is still on probation following his 2018 polygamy conviction. Oler was found guilty of having had five wives, two of whom were under 18. He was sentenced last July to eight months of house arrest, 75 hours of community service and a year’s probation.

At both of his trials, Oler refused legal representation and never spoke in his own defence. So it was only during his sentencing that the court got a sense of who he is or was.

According to his pre-sentencing report, Oler has 24 children ranging in age at the time from eight to 32. He had not seen his family for five years because he had been ex-communicated from the FLDS by Jeffs for participating in a constitutional reference case in B.C. Supreme Court that eventually concluded the polygamy law did not infringe any guaranteed rights.

Since his ex-communication, Oler has been living and working in Alberta.

Oler told the report’s author that he “did not want to be seen as a martyr and does not want to be seen as defiant.” Yet, the former bishop “indicated that there was really no victims in his offence, but stated he would apologize if the opportunity arose.”

The FLDS is a breakaway sect from the mainstream Mormon church. Among the main doctrinal differences is the belief in the earthly practise of polygamy, which the mainstream church outlawed in 1890.

The community of Bountiful in southeastern B.C. was established in 1946. Oler’s father, Dalmon, was one of the original settlers.

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