VANCOUVER - RCMP investigators have added allegations of polygamy to their investigation of a religious sect in Bountiful, B.C.
The Mounties launched an investigation targeting Bountiful last year after a constitutional court case uncovered allegations that teen girls had been moved to the U.S. to marry older men.
But that investigation was not looking at the Criminal Code section banning polygamy because of questions around the constitutionality of the law.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says that changed this week after the province's attorney general said there would be no further reviews of the law and that polygamy had been added to the mandate of a special prosecutor.
Moskaluk says investigators, which have already been visiting Bountiful in southeastern B.C., will now be actively investigating allegations of multiple marriage.
Moskaluk says special prosecutor Peter Wilson has also been given material collected in previous investigations of Bountiful, which led to charges against two community leaders in 2009, which were later thrown out.
