Canadian Politics Today

There should be jail time for the church elders, lawyers, etc.

There should be.  But until the justice system reverses its "hands off" policies on religion, there is little that can be done.  It's being challenged more and more in the courts, and some rulings (such as the one above) are showing a change in thinking - religious rights are not coming out on top as much as they used to.

The biggest way governments can curb the impact of cults is to revoke their charitable statuses.  Without that, most of them would be forced to shut down or would certainly have their power and influence greatly reduced.

The JW's do zero - as in NONE - charitable work.  They claim their door-to-door knocking is a "community service".  They operate no charities, no soup kitchens no shelters, no programs for single parents or poor families, there are no services or programs for children - children are expected to sit through all the adult stuff.  And in fact, JW's greatly discourage their members from donating to any causes because Armageddon is coming "soon" and God will take care of all that, so to them - charity is a waste of time and money.