TRNCOUVER JUL 14 2010 ww Lee courr seve Affidavit #1 of Truman Oler ‘Sworn July F 2010 No. $-097767 Vancouver Registry IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE MATTER OF: THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION ACT, R.S.B.C. 1996, C.68 AND IN THE MATTER OF: THE CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS AND IN THE MATTER OF: A REFERENCE BY THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR IN COUNCIL SET OUT IN ORDER IN COUNCIL NO. 533 DATED OCTOBER 22, 2009 CONCERNING THE, CONSTITUTIONALITY OF S. 293 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF CANADA, RS.C. 1985, c. C-46 AFFIDAVIT I, Truman Oler of the town of Marysville in the Province of British Columbia, MAKE OATH AND SAY THAT: 1. Thave personal knowledge of matters deposed to in this affidavit. 2. Tam currently 28 years old. I was bon and raised in the FLDS community known as, Bountiful. I lived in “Canyon” which is where my dad Dalmon Oler had his house. 1 left Bountiful, and the FLDS church, about 6 or 7 years ago.My biological parents are Dalmon and Memory Oler. Memory Oler’s parents were Annamae and Ray Blackmore, Memory Oler had 15 children with my dad Dalmon, including my brother Jim Oler. I am the 13th of the 15 children. My dad had five other wives. His other wives were Joanne Gallup (the first wife), Andrea, Lois, Alaire and Wanda. My dad had 47 children all together. The Canyon area is nearby, but geographically separate ftom, the main Bountiful community in Lister although we were all part of the same religious community. Growing up I lived in the big house in Canyon. While I was growing up in Bountiful Winston Blackmore was the bishop in Bountiful and the prophet was Rulon Jeffs. Rulon lived in the United States. Iwas aware of other FLDS communities in Hildale (in Utah) and Colorado City (Arizona), and travelled down there a number of times. On one occasion I stayed for about three months. People in the FLDS often travelled back and forth between these communities and Bountiful. Lots of people travelled from Bountiful to these communities for the April Conference (a yearly meeting). Other reasons for travelling between Bountiful and Hildale and Colorado City included marriages. Because there were lots of marriages between people in Bountiful and Hildale/Colorado City people travelled between these communities to visit family members. Rulon Jeffs came to Bountiful one or two times a year. lived in the big house in Canyon. My mother lived in the big house the whole time I was growing up. My dad’s other wives lived there too at various times. The other wives would move to other locations with their kids now and again. There were also lots of kids in the big house. I don’t remember spending much time with my dad when I was young. Once I ‘was between the age of 9 and 12 I spent more time with my dad. My brothers and I who were around the same age would help my dad with jobs like working on the farm, fixing trucks and all kinds of farming equipment of our own. Dad also fixed other farmers’ equipment in the valley and he would take us along, My dad died when I was around 16 years old. He was 63 years old.10. uM. I went to school in Bountiful from kindergarten through grade 9. I do not remember getting any practical education at the Bountiful school that would have prepared me for life as an adult. When I was growing up, the boys were encouraged to leave school early to work. The girls were taught that their role was to have lots of children and to obey the men. I do remember that we were taught religion for 1-2 hours per day. We were taught that the boys should follow their priesthood duty, obey everything you were told by the prophet or the bishop and in this way show that you were worthy to have one or more wives assigned to you. This was a lesson the boys and girls were taught every day, not just at school but also at home. also recall the boys were taught not to interact with the girls and that the girls were to be treated like “poison snakes”. We were not allowed to talk or play with them. ‘That seems stupid to me when I think about it now because in my situation we were all related to each other — those girls were our nieces or cousins or sisters. I never remember being taught that being related to someone means that morally you should not think of that person as someone you would marry or have kids with. After I completed grade 9, I went to work for .R. Blackmore & Sons, a company run by Winston Blackmore. At the time I attended schoo! in Bountiful it was common for boys to leave school before grade 9 to go to work at J.R. Blackmore & Sons. At the time, the school in Bountiful only went up to grade 10. When I lived in Bountiful, most of the girls would finish grade 10 and then get married. I was 15 years old when I started working full time for J.R. Blackmore & Sons. Prior to that, I had worked during the summers since I was about 13 years old. When I was 17 years old I went to Sundre, Alberta, still working for J.R. Blackmore & Sons. When | first started working I was making fence posts and running some of the machinery. I worked about 85 hours every two weeks and was initially paid $60 in cash for that. When you tumed 18 years old, the amount was increased to $100 for two weeks’ work. While I worked for Blackmore & Sons I was issued cheques that I was told sign and I never12. 13, 14 -4- received the cash. The expectation was that when we reached 18 - 20 we would get a vehicle from the company along with a fuel card and insurance. However, when I became that age, there were more and more of us reaching that age, we were no longer provided with a truck. Instead of getting a truck we were provided with $600 a month and told that wwe had to purchase vehicles, insurance, and fuel on our own. Just before the split between Winston Blackmore and Warren Jeff’, Ken Oler took over the Sundre operations and started a logging company named Oler Brothers. The majority of the Sundre crew who had been working for J.R. Blackmore & Sons, including me, went to work for Oler Brothers. When I went to work for Oler Brothers I started to get about $400- 500 per month more. When I was in my early 20s I pushed to be paid by the hour. I asked Ken Oler, who said that I had to speak to Jimmy. Jimmy said I had to talk to Warren Jeffs. Typically when we worked in Sundre we would go back to Bountiful every other weekend. Every other Saturday there was usually a meeting where Warren spoke to us over the speaker phone. This issue was discussed and eventually we were paid $15 per hour. We were all required to pay a tithing to the church. You had to pay 10% of all your eamings just to keep your standing, and there was always pressure to pay more. After the split between Winston Blackmore and Warren Jefis, Warren would request that we pay $1000 almost every other month. All men over 18 were expected to pay this. I often did not have enough money and my mother would subsidize the difference. Growing up in Bountiful, we were always taught that a man could not get to the highest degree of heaven unless he had plural wives. A man or woman in the FLDS could not decide who to marry, it was the prophet’s decision. No one in the church really spoke about the fact that polygamy was illegal, but we were told that we would be prosecuted for living like we did. The church always justified polygamy by saying that it was no different from a man wanting to sleep with someone other than his wife. This is the explanation I always remember — “how is polygamy any different?”15. 16. V7. 18. 19. eae The role of the man in the Bountiful community is to be a good “priesthood man”, get married and have a family. The woman’s role is to have babies, be a good wife and obey her husband, That is the path to follow. If you don’t follow the path you will lose everything. This was taught to everyone from a young age, in church, at home, in school and at work. Shortly before I left the FLDS I was told by Jim that if I was willing to take the “extra step” I might be given a wife. By “taking the extra step” I understood Jim to mean that I should do things like work extra on Saturdays, check in with him and Warren more often to ask if there was anything different I should be doing, give extra money to the church, follow all the rules, and never miss any of the meetings. I left Bountiful when I was about 21 years old. It was after Winston Blackmore had been Kicked out of his position as bishop by Warren Jeffs, and my brother Jim became the bishop. The community became split in allegiance to Winston and to Jim. Family members stopped talking to each other depending on which side of the split they were on At this time, I was still living in Canyon in a house with my brother Jim. 1 began to question the practices of the FLDS church especially after the split. There were family members, brothers and sisters, parents and children not allowed to sce or talk with each other. This is one of the things that led me to leave. We were always taught growing up that we would go to hell if we ever left the church. I still believed that when I left but I also considered life in Bountiful living hell so I was prepared to leave, 1 went through a party phase which involved lots of drinking after I left Bountiful. One reason for this was that I felt I had nothing to lose as I was doomed and going to hell so what could it hurt, The party phase seems pretty common for kids coming out of Bountiful perhaps because of their new found freedom, Sometimes it does not work out. It is hard to adjust to life on the outside after that kind of upbringing.