If you peer closely at Ana Gabriela Vega-Robertson's wedding photographs, you might notice that the cut and colour of her two bridesmaids' salmon-pink dresses don't quite match. It's a tiny detail in photographs that otherwise capture a couple's love on a perfect July day in Gibsons.
Yet behind that subtle mismatch is a story of borders slammed shut, a reunion of old friends halted and a wedding thrown into last-minute disarray.
And nearly a year after Canada denied visas to Mexican-born Vega-Robertson's three bridesmaids in the midst of new visa regulations, she's still looking for explanations as to why her new country failed her and her loved ones - and assurances that it won't happen again.
By any assessment, Vega-Robertson and her husband Chris Robertson were the victims of timing. Their wedding was planned for July 25, 2009.
On July 13, the government announced a new policy aimed at halting escalating Mexican refugee claims in Canada: new visa requirements for Mexican nationals. The policy took effect July 15. Following a mad scramble to assemble the necessary visa documentation, Vega-Robertson's mother, brother, aunt and three bridesmaids applied for visas. Her mother, brother and aunt were granted them; her bridesmaids - cousin Mybdi Vega and friends America Rosas and Emma Morales - were denied.
"It broke my heart because me as a Mexican, I know how hard it is to save the money for an event like this," Vega-Robertson said, relaying her bridesmaids' experience of joining the large crowd of visa applicants - many in tents - outside the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City, watching visa officers collect garbage bags full of visa applications, the visa officers' rudeness, and the eventual denial of the applications. "They spent the money: the dresses, the shoes, the airplane tickets, makeup, everything. And I know that it stretched their budget just to make it up here. And look what happened, how they were treated. I was just like, that's not what Canada is all about."
Upon hearing about the refusals, and with the hours ticking down until her wedding day, Vega-Robertson contacted John Weston, member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, to ask his office to intercede.
"Several of my office staff were involved, and we just couldn't pull it off in the short time that we were allowed," Weston said.
Having run out of options, Vega-Robertson and her then-fiancé re-jigged the Catholic wedding ceremony, redistributing the key roles her bridesmaids would have played - presenting the bride with gold coins to symbolize prosperity, a new Bible to symbolize the foundation for her family's faith, and the bouquet - to her sister and another friend, who managed to hastily rustle up nearly-matching stand-in bridesmaid dresses.
But for the couple, the story didn't end when the party ended late that night. Concerned that her bridesmaids' visa refusal might leave a black mark on their records and hamper their ability to travel to Canada or other countries in the future, the couple has been petitioning Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Weston's office for nearly a year to erase the bridesmaids' visa denial from their records.
Vega-Robertson said her husband's letter to Minister of Immigration Jason Kenny, asking him to revisit the file, resulted only in being sent a copy of the Ministry's notice to Mexican nationals announcing the surprise policy change.
Vega-Robertson said she spoke with Weston about her situation in October, but follow-up e-mails to his office produced no response.
"Unfortunately, as will be understood by people in this digital age, those letters went into a spam account and were never actually received by one of my staff or read until last night [Wednesday, March 17]," Weston said, when contacted last week.
Having now looked into her bridesmaids' files, however, Weston has said that Vega-Robertson is mistaken in her fear that her bridesmaids' ability to travel in future will be compromised by the earlier visa denial, which he said was due to insufficient documentation.
"In this case, there's no sense that these people are security risks or criminals - none of that at all. I've looked at the file. I can say in this case there's nothing that stops them from reapplying and that's what they should do," he said, extending apologies that her wedding was disrupted as a result of the policy change.
But Vega-Robertson said while she's hoping Vega may be able to come visit next summer, and Rosas may be able to visit in the spring, she doubts Morales will ever find another chance to visit Canada - and certainly Vega-Robertson never expects another chance to have her three bridesmaids up here together. But she's hoping the women will still get to wear their bridesmaids' dresses - if only once.
"I'll bring my wedding dress [to Mexico] and we can all take pictures together," she said wryly.
