Ignoring rights of kids

PAULA KLINE and RICK GOLDMAN

Montreal Gazette
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Are Canadian immigration officials "just too nice" as Pete McMartin asserted recently on this page ("Immigration officials are just too nice," Jan. 14)? The Laibar Singh case he describes is surely unprecedented in Canada - several hundred persons forming a human wall around a paralyzed man to prevent his physical removal from Canada - for now, at least.

Does the fact authorities have wisely avoided resorting to force, which could involve many injuries, indicate "niceness is a hallmark of our immigration system" as McMartin put it? Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has noted the exceptional nature of the Laibar Singh standoff, pointing out his department "carries out more than 12,000 successful removals a year." A glimpse at one case that narrowly avoided becoming one of those "successful" removals shows Canadian immigration officials do not always err on the side of undue compassion.

Javier Ceja Corona is just 6 and doesn't fully understand what happened to his parents, but he knows it is bad. He cries at the thought he might have to go back to his native Mexico, where he lost them. Javier says he's afraid something bad will happen to him, too.

Javier's parents were killed by drug traffickers in Mexico in 2005. They were found in the trunk of a car, shot point-blank, leaving Javier, his sister Renata, 11, and older brother Eduardo, 17, all orphans. They came under the care of their grandmother, who says she was also threatened. The family fled to Canada.

Although Amnesty International Canada has stated it "fears for the lives and security of these persons as the Mexican government does not appear willing or able to protect them," their refugee claim was denied, as was their subsequent application to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Their deportation was set for Jan. 21.

This seems to raise the question: How bad do things have to get to warrant Immigration Canada's compassion? No one, immigration officials included, disputes the three orphans and their grandmother came here following the murder of the parents. The three children have now been in school in Montreal for more than two years. They chat with new friends in French and have managed to re-establish a semblance of normalcy in their lives. If this is not a case with strong humanitarian considerations, what is? Indeed, after a public pressure campaign of several weeks, Immigration Minister Diane Finley stepped in at the 11th hour last week to issue the family temporary residence permits for two years and give them a chance to file a new humanitarian application - albeit with no guarantee of acceptance. The imminent threat of deportation is, thus, lifted, but the family's uncertainty is far from over.

This also raises a more general question about the concern of Canadian immigration officials for the well-being of children. According to the leading Supreme Court decision on the issue (the Baker decision of 1999), Canadian immigration officers are supposed to be "alert, alive and sensitive" to the best interests of children.

The immigration officer who denied the original humanitarian application in this case was effectively ordering three orphans back to the country where their parents were brutally murdered. By what stretch of the imagination can this be described as being "sensitive" to their best interests? In another case that has come to our attention, an immigration officer refused a humanitarian application stating it would be safe for two young children to go to live in Iraq. The children, age 7 and 11, have never even been in Iraq, having lived in Canada since birth. The only reason the family is still here is, ironically, because the public safety minister has decided it is too dangerous to send anyone - whether adults or children - back to Iraq at the present time.

In the light of these and other troubling cases, the United Church of Canada in November 2007 called on Immigration Minister Finley to carry out a departmental review of the handling of children's interests by Canadian immigration officials. The Canadian Council for Refugees and the International Bureau for Children's Rights have added their voices to this call. We are still awaiting the minister's response.

 

Paula Kline is director of the Montreal City Mission, a community ministry of the United Church of Canada, and chairman of the church's Montreal Presbytery.

Rick Goldman is the co-coordinator of the Montreal-based Committee to Aid Refugees and co-chair of the Inland Protection Working Group of the Canadian Council for Refugees.