Mother of five loses bid to stay in Bountiful
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
Edith Barlow's life is falling apart. After living for years in Bountiful, B.C., on a visitor's visa, she is facing deportation.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has rejected her plea that she be allowed to stay in Bountiful on humanitarian grounds because she is the mother to five children, all born after her plural marriage to Winston Blackmore.

But that's not all. Barlow is estranged from her family, who are loyal followers of Warren Jeffs -- the fundamentalist Mormon prophet, who is on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list.

And she believes that, within a few weeks, Winston Blackmore will be charged for having taken under-aged girls as plural wives.

"If they do charge him, they really have to take into consideration the number of people it will affect," Barlow said in a telephone interview. "He's my children's father. He's my partner and someone that I love with all my heart. We [his wives] will help each other through it, but my concern is that he is someone I love with all my heart and nobody wants to see him hurt."

Blackmore has more than 20 wives and close to 100 children.

But for now, Barlow says deportation is at the top of her mind.

"Every day, I'm hoping that this won't be the day that I have to leave. It's a roller-coaster ride," Barlow said in a telephone interview. "I just don't understand why they [CIC] don't want me here. I haven't broken the law. I don't make any trouble and I've contributed five beautiful children."

Barlow came to Bountiful in June 1995 right after graduating from high school in Colorado City, Ariz., headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has as a principle tenet that only men with three or more wives will be eligible to enter the highest kingdom of heaven.

She was 18 when she was assigned by church leaders as a plural wife to Blackmore, who was then the FLDS bishop in Canada. Barlow didn't apply for immigration. She knew she didn't have a chance. Not only was she not legally married, with only a Grade 12 education she could not qualify as a skilled worker.

So like several of Blackmore's other American wives, Barlow went back and forth across the border every six months. Each time, it renewed her status as a visitor.

And while that's legal, in every way Barlow had made her home in Canada. She now has five children ranging in age from eight to 16 months.

But in January 2003, the FLDS was in chaos.

Warren Jeffs had grabbed control, anointing himself prophet after his father -- Rulon Jeffs -- died in September 2002. Warren Jeffs excommunicated dozens of men in Colorado City, threw them out of their homes, took their wives and children and re-assigned them to men loyal to him. Among those he excommunicated was Winston Blackmore.

Jeffs declared all those men apostates and ordered his followers to shun them and eventually to have no communication with them whatsoever.

It split the community of Bountiful nearly in half. But it left Edith in limbo. Except for her sister, Leah (one of Bountiful's midwives and another of Blackmore's wives) and two sisters in Idaho, Edith had no family left in the United States that would take her in.

Their father, Alvin Barlow, and all of his wives and other children in Colorado City stuck with Jeffs. Barlow was the superintendent of the Colorado City school until the Arizona government seized control of it for financial mismanagement that included buying an airplane for Jeffs' use.

"That's the reason that this is so emotional," Barlow said. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

Barlow and two of her sister-wives -- Marsha Chatwin and Zelpha Chatwin -- applied to immigrate to Canada in early 2003. Together, they have 16 Canadian-born children.

Marsha Chatwin's five range in age from 18 months to 10 years, while her sister, Zelpha's, range from a baby a few months old to 10.

"We did that because there was no other way to immigrate as far as a spouse or as a skilled worker," she said. "Some of the ladies have student visas and are going to school. But, well, it's not something I wanted to do."

Their first application was rejected and about 10 days ago they received letters from CIC dated April 21, 2006 that said their appeals on humanitarian and compassionate grounds had been denied.

They were told to make arrangements to leave the country.

Their children can stay in Canada, but they also have a claim to American citizenship. But Barlow says Blackmore doesn't want them to take the children to the United States (even though he owns property in Porthill, Idaho that's almost within walking distance of Bountiful.)

The women have two last chances of appeal. They can ask the Federal Court for a judicial review to determine whether CIC erred in law. They can ask the Canada Border Service to do a pre-removal assessment to determine whether they would be safe if they were sent back to the United States.

But if those fail, they will be deported as soon as possible.

Edith Barlow, Marsha Chatwin and Zelpha Chatwin and their 16 children are in a terrible situation. What mother could face leaving her children behind? What child could bear to be left behind?

It's also a terrible situation for the Canada Border Service officials who may have to physically remove the women and the prospect that those images of crying children being ripped from the arms of their mothers will dominate the news.

But these women jumped the queue of hundreds if not thousands of others who are better educated, richer or who have legitimate claims to family reunification.

Plus, even if they are separated from their children, the prospect of relocating a few kilometres south to Idaho is not even close to as frightening as that of Haleh Sabha, the Starbucks employee who was deported from Vancouver and then beaten when she arrived in Iran.

The FLDS leaders who assigned these young women in marriage and sent them across the border, knew the rules of immigration and knew that polygamy is illegal in Canada.

But once again, it's the women and children who will suffer for their mistakes.

dbramham@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published May 11, 2006
 
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