Vancouver, Canada - The B.C. government has reached a negotiated settlement with a number of people who complained to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal over the polygamous community of Bountiful.
Two days of mediation late last week resulted in the agreement, details of which were released Monday.
Under the agreement, the government will provide funds for basic crisis intervention training for interested members of the Bountiful community, maintain the current level of services to the Bountiful community and work to refine the way those services are delivered to residents of the closed and secretive community.
Judith Doulis, the complainants' lawyer, called it a positive outcome in a "very difficult situation where no one can say you have to do this or you have to do that."
"They (the complainants) did what they could and hopefully it will assist people (in Bountiful) who want to make a lifestyle change," she added.
Bountiful is the 60-year-old community of about 1,400 fundamentalist Mormons. The group is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy in 1890.