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Debbie Palmer, 64, in Jan. (Canadian anti-polygamist and former child bride)
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leno...@yahoo.com
Mar 6, 2020, 5:49:53 PM3/6/20
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She wrote an autobiography in 2006.
She also was famously quoted, when Elizabeth Smart was rescued from her kidnappers:
“Mitchell would never have been able to have such power over a non-Mormon girl.”
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-outspoken-activist-against-polygamy-dies
by Daphne Bramham
Updated: January 22, 2020
One of Bountiful's first child brides, Debbie Palmer was the first mother to flee the fundamentalist Mormon community with all her children and the first to shine a spotlight on it. She died last weekend at 64.
If it weren’t for Debbie Palmer, Canadians might not know anything about the polygamous community of Bountiful in southeastern British Columbia.
She was the first to lift the veil of secrecy that had protected the community from outsiders in the early 1990s.
By demanding criminal charges against the leaders for their abuse of women and children, she became a thorn in the sides of a succession of provincial attorneys-general, police and other politicians.
But she was shunned and shamed by family and childhood friends. Palmer’s activism took a huge toll. She died last weekend at the age of 64.
Palmer was the oldest in a family of 47 children. When she was only six, her mother died, leaving Debbie and her two siblings to be raised by their father’s other five wives, who had multiple children of their own.
At 15, Palmer was one of Bountiful’s first child brides. In a religious ceremony, she became the sixth wife of the community’s leader, Ray Blackmore. He was 40 years older than her. Palmer was a widow by 18.
The community’s elders – all men — placed her in another plural marriage to an man who was so abusive that she was released and later married Marvin Palmer with whom she had five children.
But life in Bountiful finally became intolerable and, in 1988, the mother of eight fled becoming one of the first women in either Canada or the United States to escape without leaving any of her children behind.
Almost immediately, Palmer began telling her story to journalists, including Sally Armstrong from Chatelaine and The Province’s Fabian Dawson.
When the RCMP ended its investigation in 1992 and recommended charges against Palmer’s father, Dalmon Oler, and against Winston Blackmore, the attorney-general’s ministry decided not to proceed. Taking advice from former B.C. Supreme Court chief justices, it was determined that Canada’s law against polygamy was unconstitutional...
(snip)
More:
https://www.google.com/search?ei=MdNiXpD6CNmpytMPh92S6As&q=debbie+palmer+polygamy&oq=debbie+palmer+polygamy&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.6040.8807..8926...1.0..0.117.776.9j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i67j0i22i30.3pfq6UMNRng&ved=0ahUKEwjQ1qKY94boAhXZlHIEHYeuBL0Q4dUDCAo&uact=5
Lenona.
She also was famously quoted, when Elizabeth Smart was rescued from her kidnappers:
“Mitchell would never have been able to have such power over a non-Mormon girl.”
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-outspoken-activist-against-polygamy-dies
by Daphne Bramham
Updated: January 22, 2020
One of Bountiful's first child brides, Debbie Palmer was the first mother to flee the fundamentalist Mormon community with all her children and the first to shine a spotlight on it. She died last weekend at 64.
If it weren’t for Debbie Palmer, Canadians might not know anything about the polygamous community of Bountiful in southeastern British Columbia.
She was the first to lift the veil of secrecy that had protected the community from outsiders in the early 1990s.
By demanding criminal charges against the leaders for their abuse of women and children, she became a thorn in the sides of a succession of provincial attorneys-general, police and other politicians.
But she was shunned and shamed by family and childhood friends. Palmer’s activism took a huge toll. She died last weekend at the age of 64.
Palmer was the oldest in a family of 47 children. When she was only six, her mother died, leaving Debbie and her two siblings to be raised by their father’s other five wives, who had multiple children of their own.
At 15, Palmer was one of Bountiful’s first child brides. In a religious ceremony, she became the sixth wife of the community’s leader, Ray Blackmore. He was 40 years older than her. Palmer was a widow by 18.
The community’s elders – all men — placed her in another plural marriage to an man who was so abusive that she was released and later married Marvin Palmer with whom she had five children.
But life in Bountiful finally became intolerable and, in 1988, the mother of eight fled becoming one of the first women in either Canada or the United States to escape without leaving any of her children behind.
Almost immediately, Palmer began telling her story to journalists, including Sally Armstrong from Chatelaine and The Province’s Fabian Dawson.
When the RCMP ended its investigation in 1992 and recommended charges against Palmer’s father, Dalmon Oler, and against Winston Blackmore, the attorney-general’s ministry decided not to proceed. Taking advice from former B.C. Supreme Court chief justices, it was determined that Canada’s law against polygamy was unconstitutional...
(snip)
More:
https://www.google.com/search?ei=MdNiXpD6CNmpytMPh92S6As&q=debbie+palmer+polygamy&oq=debbie+palmer+polygamy&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.6040.8807..8926...1.0..0.117.776.9j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i67j0i22i30.3pfq6UMNRng&ved=0ahUKEwjQ1qKY94boAhXZlHIEHYeuBL0Q4dUDCAo&uact=5
Lenona.
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