| The Blackmore Family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CBC News The Fifth Estate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Winston Blackmore For two decades Winston Blackmore was the Bishop of Bountiful, a secretive and secluded community living in the Creston Valley of British Columbia. His first wife Jane claims that he has 26 wives and some 80 children. But in an interview with Hana Gartner from the fifth estate, Mr. Blackmore didn't want to confirm any details. Hana Gartner: WELL, HOW MANY WIVES AND HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE THEN? Winston Blackmore: Well I'm certainly not here to talk about my private life. I have agreed to say that I have more wives than one. Hana Gartner: THAT'S YOUR PRIVATE LIFE -- I'VE GOT ONE HUSBAND. I'LL TELL YOU. Winston Blackmore: Well good for you. And I hope you love him and take care of him and don't criticize him and support him and do all the things that wives should do with their husbands. And I sure would hope you wouldn't sit around here with people and talk about your private life, because I'd scold you for doing that. Hana Gartner: I BET YOU WOULD. Winston Blackmore: Yes I would. I'm no more interested in that, than I think that public should be interested in mine. Hana Gartner: SO, HOW MANY WIVES DO YOU HAVE? Winston Blackmore: I have enough so that I don't have to worry about anybody else's. Winston Blackmore adheres to the polygamist rule book called "Purity in the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage." It explains that plural marriage is the way to become a God. For polygamists it's a holy law that stands above anything else. He, as the most powerful man in Bountiful, decided who should marry whom, and who deserved additional wives. But he insists that he discourages the younger girls from marrying too soon. Hana Gartner: HOW COME IN YOUR COMMUNITY OLD MEN MARRY YOUNG GIRLS? Winston Blackmore: There's not very many people that are much older than I am in our community. Hana Gartner: BUT THEY DO GET MARRIED AT 14 AND 15. Winston Blackmore: There's been nobody getting married at 14 to my knowledge. Hana Gartner: YOU TELL ME THIS SERIOUSLY? Winston Blackmore: Yes I can. That I know of. There has been at 15 but they have to have their parents consent and they have to have a reason. Hana Gartner: FIFTEEN IS KIND OF YOUNG DON'T YOU THINK? Winston Blackmore: Well I certainly do think it is. So, I think it's kind of young. Hana Gartner: DO YOU DISCOURAGE GIRLS AS YOUNG AS 15? Winston Blackmore: I discourage them from doing that, yes I do. Not so, says his ex-wife Jane who insists that girls in Bountiful have been married as young as fourteen. When questionned Blackmore didn't want to talk about his own family and sex life. Hana Gartner: WHAT ABOUT SEX, HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE INTERCOURSE? Winston Blackmore: Uh. We are not talking about our private life, that’s pornography. I wouldn't ask you how you organized your sex life. Hana Gartner: YOUR WIVES CAN AND HAVE BEEN SEEN AS JUST BABY MAKING MACHINES FOR YOU. Winston Blackmore: Uh. Well. (sigh) That kind.. They can be seen as being anything. They’re certainly way more than that. Hana Gartner: AND THE MORE WIVES THE HAPPIER A GUY IS? Winston Blackmore: I .. I don't think so. But if you can get a group of people who love one another, there can be happiness there, the same way I hope you have happiness in your family. Do you have children? Hana Gartner: YES. Winston Blackmore: Well, do you have happiness in your family? Hana Gartner: YES. Winston Blackmore: Well, God bless you then. Hana Gartner: BUT WHAT IS THE POINT YOU’RE MAKING? Winston Blackmore: The point I’m making is is that, why would you think that it would be possible for you to have children and have happiness in your family, and not think it’s possible for me to?? Hana Gartner: I THINK IT’S POSSIBLE AND I’M GLAD YOU HAVE HAPPINESS. I’M NOT UNDERSTANDING HOW.. Winston Blackmore: (laugh).. Well.. (laugh).. Hana Gartner: .. 10, 12, 20 WIVES DEAL WITH YOU? Winston Blackmore: Well. And I don’t understand how your husband deals with you? Must be a challenge. Blackmore has accumulated considerable personal wealth to support his growing family. He has business interests in British Columbia, Alberta and Idaho which include grain, cattle farming, forestry and transportation. His estimated worth is more than 15 million dollars. Blackmore is betting that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will protect his community's lifestyle. Because his marriages are celestial and not legal he says, he's not really a polygamist, just an adulterer. Winston Blackmore: Polygamy by the definition, is to have two relationships going at the same time. And there are far more people than we are that to that. I know there are. Hana Gartner: BUT THE TENENT OF YOUR RELIGION IS THAT POLYGAMY IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION. YOU ENDORSE IT, YOU LIVE IT, YOU ADMIT TO IT. SO I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HAVING A LOT OF WIVES IS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Winston Blackmore: Well do you understand the Charter’s allowance for association? Hana Gartner: YES… Winston Blackmore: Then you certainly ought to be able to understand the Charters allowance for freedom of religion. And you certainly aught to be able to understand that we all have the right to freely live so long as we honour the code of decency which allows that everybody mind their own business. Jane Blackmore Forty six year old Jane Blackmore was Winston Blackmore's first wife. She was born into a prominent polygamous family. Her father, Dalmon Oler helped found Bountiful and had six wives and 47 children. He expected his girls to be demure, unobtrusive and obedient. Jane Blackmore: Men are the head of the household and are very very gifted in knowing what women should do. If a man is very good, and has found favour in the eyes of the prophet, then he’s given a position, and more wives. And women should do what men tell them to do. Dalmon Oler had so many children it was difficult to remember all of their names. So children born in a certain year were all given names beginning with the same letter. Jane was married to Winston for nearly three decades. She had the privileged position of being the first wife of the most important family in Bountiful. Hana Gartner: HOW ARE POLYGAMOUS FAMILIES ORGANIZED? HOW DOES SOMEBODY WITH MORE THAN TEN WIVES AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF CHILDREN ORGANIZE THEIR LIVES? Jane Blackmore: Usually the women do the organizing, about how things are going to be run. Who’s going to cook the meals, who’s going to tend the children. And .. those sorts of things. Hana Gartner: WHAT AND THE MAN JUST SHOWS UP FROM TIME TO TIME? Jane Blackmore: Basically. Hana Gartner: DO YOU ALL FEEL LIKE ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY? Jane Blackmore: Well if you get 20 children or 25 children under five all trying to eat at the same table, that can be a little bit chaotic. And consequently a little less than happy. Hana Gartner: HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Jane Blackmore: Mm. (laugh) We won’t talk about that. While it may not entirely be a happy table - according to believers in polygamy - having lots of wives is crucial to have a place at God's table. Hana Gartner: THAT’S WHY MEN WANT A LOT OF WIVES SO THEY WILL BECOME A GOD. SIT AT GOD’S TABLE? Jane Blackmore: Well they want their own table I think. Hana Gartner: WHAT ABOUT WOMEN WHERE DO THEY SIT? Jane Blackmore: All around the head table I guess. I guess all around their God. Hana Gartner: IS WINSTON BLACKMORE THE KIND OF MAN WHO WILL BECOME A GOD? Jane Blackmore: I think that’s what he would like to be. Hana Gartner: IS HE GOING TO MAKE IT? Jane Blackmore: Huh, huh I don’t know. During that time she became a midwife, delivering the community's many children. She's so successful her services are in demand all over the Creston valley. But she was disturbed when she saw some of the girls getting married too early and confronted her husband about it. Jane Blackmore: Just since I have been a midwife I have a very close relationship with a lot of women in the community. And there was this 15 year old girl who was married and she became pregnant just very soon after she was married and she was crying and she didn’t want to be married. She didn’t want to be pregnant. She was 15….This girl’s mother was married to Winston and she is not Winston’s daughter and I said Winston 'weren’t you supposed to be this girl’s parent? Like this girl's mother is married to you. Like aren’t you supposed to be her parent?' And I said 'how come, how come she was married – she was 15?' And he said 'well mother, I want you to mind your own business because you are not the bishop'. And I said 'this is my business, these girls come to me and I deal with it.' So I said,' I think this is my business, I don’t think these girls should be married.' Jane also felt the children were being deprived of an education. The school at Bountiful only goes up to grade 10 and she says many of her children cried when they had to quit. Today Jane has seven children and four grandchildren. She's left Bountiful and dreams of providing a better life for her nine year old daughter. Jane Blackmore: I don’t want to be part of this - and I have a 9-year-old girl who is very intelligent and I don’t want her to be married when she is 15 or 16 or 17. I want her to go to school and be the scientist that she dreams about being. Hana Gartner: YOU PRIDE YOURSELF ON BEING A STRONG WOMAN. Jane Blackmore: Well I…I’m often not a strong woman … Hana Gartner: WHAT IS MAKING YOU UNHAPPY NOW… SO SAD? Jane Blackmore: I’m not really sad - I’m just emotional… There’s a lot of years of emotion here. Carol Anderson Carol Anderson is a Canadian Immigration Officer who works on the Idaho/BC border. She's seen alot of American girls visiting in Bountiful but few ever come back. But she knows that they are coming to Bountiful to get married so she turns them away. Carol Anderson: I’ve refused admission to them because I didn’t think they were visitors. I’ve refused admission because I felt they were coming here to get married. There is no class under Canada’s Immigration law by which they can be sponsored in as a plural spouse. The law prohibits it. Hana Gartner: BUT THIS IS VERY INTERESTING, UNDER THE IMMIGRATION ACT IT’S ILLEGAL TO HAVE MULTIPLE WIVES, BUT NOBODY IS PROSECUTING ANYONE IN CANADA FOR POLYGAMY. Carol Anderson: It’s a very interesting position and that’s one I feel the government is going to have to deal with. Carol Anderson has in informed perspective on life in Bountiful. She was born to a polygamous family but her mother Aloha got most of her siblings out of Bountiful 35 years ago. But she left behind dozens of half sisters and brothers including Winston Blackmore's sister. Many years later Winston approached Carol to ask if she could teach some of his girls. She thinks education may the only way out of a polygamous life for these girls. Carol Anderson: It makes me uncomfortable to talk with them, to talk with members of the community who have no education who might have Grade 1 or Grade 2 and we’re talking adults, one’s with Grade 7…they don’t have an education. That makes me nervous because if you do decide you no longer want to practice polygamy or you no longer want to be in that community what are your options? She holds daily classes for the girls where she teaches them to read and write ... and listen to some ideas they have never heard before. Like many people who live in Creston Carol Anderson says the community of Bountiful is a major economic force. Carol Anderson: Bountiful generates a lot of money, they have a big crew, they have a big business and that money doesn’t stay in Bountiful it goes into the community. When Wal-Mart in Cranbrook opened, every female in that community was there and they spent a lot of money. Money talks and that's why she believes people in Creston turn a blind eye to the polygamists living in Bountiful. Carol Anderson: They are a major economic force and if you’re in a capitalistic society that the bottom line is business, - the bottom line is - Don’t bother Bountiful because they are good business. Debbie Palmer Debbie Palmer spent 34 years in Bountiful. She was also one of Dalmon Oler's daughters. Her father gave her away to be wife number 6 to a 57 year old man when she was only 15. She immediately became a stepmother to 32 children, most of whom were older than her. Hana Gartner: EVEN IF YOU WERE A FERVENT BELIEVER, THIS IS A 57 YEAR OLD MAN IT’S GOTTA BE SCARY. Debbie Palmer: If that’s all you’ve ever known and you see girls that age being married to men that age and older all the time it’s really not that difficult of a stretch of the imagination. The statistics of Palmer's former life are overwhelming: six mothers, 46 siblings, 3 husbands, 8 children, 86 stepchildren - one of whom is Winston Blackmore. Debbie Palmer: I was his stepmother, several of his sisters were married to my father so he was an uncle to me. I was actually ended up being a step grandmother to him as well. She left Bountiful when she was 34 because she couldn't keep quiet about the lifestyle any longer. Hana Gartner: IS LIFE IN BOUTIFUL ABOUT SEX OR SALVATION? Debbie Palmer: It’s all about sex, it really is. There is great pretence that it’s a very moral sort of back to basics family fundamentalist type of community but there’s sex everywhere. Hana Gartner: WHAT ARE THE LOGISTICS OF INTERCOURSE? HOW DOES IT WORK? DOES SOMEBODY KEEP A BIG CHART AND SAY – OH, BETTY YOUR OVULATING – THURSDAY IS YOUR NIGHT. Debbie Palmer: I know in the larger families, they do, do that, they have to. Hana Gartner: REALLY? Debbie Palmer: Well like I mean in a good size dairy, you have to know when a cows going to come around so she can be serviced properly by the bull, or you don’t have calves and you don’t have your cows freshened properly and if you’ve got very many wives in your family then somebody needs to keep track of that...one of the really horrific things about some of the inbreeding that has happened in the polygamist communities is that most of the men that have been in positions of control that have instigated these marriages are men that have studied breeding stock in animals.” Hana Gartner: THIS IS ALL BASED ON ANIMAL HUSBANDRY? Debbie Palmer: Yes it is. Examine the twists and turns of a Bountiful family tree. Download a copy of Debbie Palmer's family tree. Craig Chatwin Craig Chatwin lives in Colorado City, the headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, home to some 10,000 polygamists. He was born into a large polygamous family and has some 32 siblings. He passionately opposes polygamy. He worries about the sisters he left behind. Twelve of them have been married off in Bountiful, Canada. In fact, two of his sisters are married to the same man, Winston Blackmore. Craig Chatwin: Bountiful ended up being particularly interesting to me because that’s where the majority of my sisters were married. I’m from a large family. I have about 30 brothers and sisters – 32 and the majority of those live in Canada now. They’ve all been married up there. And that’s about 11 or 12 sisters all shipped up there. He views the polygamous community there and in Colorado City as a cult. Craig Chatwin: Girls raised in this cult, and there’s just an enormous amount they have no comprehension of an outside world. It bothers me that males here with authority use their authority to leverage sexual favours from young girls. And that is essentially what they are doing- they take young wives, these older men and they’re using their authority positions to gain access to young females and they do it - by the hordes. The brothers here in the top positions have 50 plus wives - unbelievable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CBC News Original broadcast January 15, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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