CRESTON, B.C. -- Members of a group dedicated to helping women and children living in the B.C. community of Bountiful say they are overjoyed polygamy charges have been filed against two of the colony's spiritual leaders.

The effect, said Linda Price, co-chair of Altering Destiny Through Education, will be that some men living in the Fundamentalist Mormon community won't want to take more than one wife.

"We're so pleased that (B.C. Attorney General) Wally Oppal has stepped forward, against a lot of advice from inside his department, and gone ahead with this," Price said yesterday.

"(Oppal) is saying, 'alright, if it's against the law, let's have a judge say it is against the law, if it's not, it's not' -- we can finally make a decision one way or the other whether polygamy is illegal.

"I think as Canadians we have to decide, do we obey the laws of Canada or does religious freedom come first?"

Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, considered the competing spiritual leaders of the roughly 1,000-member Fundamentalist Mormon colony near Creston, B.C. -- about 500 km southwest of Calgary -- were arrested Wednesday by RCMP and held for several hours in Cranbrook before being released. Each faces one count of polygamy and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 21.

Fellow co-chair Audrey Vance said the group's goal is not to change the belief system of women living in Bountiful, but to better educate them so they can make informed decisions.

"We're not going to change the women, we're not trying to change the women, we're just trying to educate people to realize that children are not commodities and they have human rights in this country," said Vance.

"The Charter of Rights says people have religious freedom, as long as it doesn't infringe on human rights and to me, these children are being denied their human rights as Canadian children.

"Bountiful is not a religion, it's a cult."

Formed five years ago, Vance said one major reason the group wants to stop polygamy in Bountiful is to end the alleged practice of bringing underage females to the community from similar colonies in Utah and Arizona.

"It's because of the gene pool, they're trying to spread it out a little bit," she said.

"If this was between two consenting adults I wouldn't care, but it's not."

Price said she would like to see further charges brought against Blackmore and Oler, namely under Section 153 of the Criminal Code.

"A person in a position of authority having sex with someone under the age of 18," she said.

"They're both leaders of the community and Winston was the superintendent of the school. If the superintendent of a public school had sex with anyone under the age of 18, they'd be in jail."