A Not-Quite Silent Night at the Toronto Refugee Jail

Carolers Bring Candelight and Songs of
Hope on Xmas Eve

                                                Outside the Toronto Refugee Jail, 2008

 

December 24, 2004, Toronto -- The stretch of Rexdale Blvd. between Martingrove Blvd. and Highway 27 is one of the dreariest in Toronto. A desolate airport area strip with the constant roar of transport trucks and flights overhead is home to a nondescript government of Canada building, a converted hotel which is now a jail for refugees.

Run by the Corbel Management Group, a private security company, the 72-room Heritage Inn, replacing the former Celebrity Inn refugee jail, but without any particular signage, is just another building that thousands of people pass by every day, few knowing the purpose of the facility. And while we do not know the details of the contract with Corbel, one might readily assume that, as with other privately-run prison facilities, profits are made by keeping as many people behind bars as possible.

What used to be advertised as a "pet and dog-friendly" airport area hotel is now "home" to a range of people including young children, for whom there is a small token slide in the barbed wire-enclosed outdoor area. Some are detained awaiting deportation, others until someone can provide impossibly high bond for their release.

Few likely know when they are getting out, a form of indefinite incarceration without charge which the International Red Cross has condemned at Guantanamo Bay -- that criticism could apply equally here at home and in refugee detention facilities around the globe.

On Christmas Eve, while Prime Minister Paul Martin's Xmas message of respect for cultural diversity was released to the media, this prison for refugees was serenaded for 90 minutes by a group of carolers who brought a series of songs and placards to support freedom for those detained simply because they are refugees.

While Martin may be blissfully unaware of such injustices (indeed, his choice of vacation spot for the next two weeks is one of the world's worst human rights violators, Morocco), Immigration Minister Judy Sgro should certainly know better, her concern for the rights of women ringing hollow considering who is jailed here, and why.

Detention of refugees and immigrants is increasingly common in Canada, with upwards of 700 women, children and men behind bars on a daily basis because of minor paperwork screws-ups, "failure" to follow complex rules that are not understood without hard-to-access translation or support services, coming to Canada with a false ID (incredibly common, but recognized even by Canadian courts as a necessity for one's protection) and a black-booted immigration force which likes to play SWAT in the middle of the night, hauling people out of their beds and whisking them away to jail.

While it is bitterly cold this night, with a wind chill at minus 20, there is a certain warming, emotional pull towards this building and its inmates. Inside are hundreds of stories of folks who have escaped persecution in one country only to be re-persecuted upon their arrival in Canada or, in numerous instances, after spending several years here.

Our plan is simple. To light candles, to hold placards, and to sing holiday songs of hope and resistance, with updated lyrics to traditional favourites. About 15 of us huddle close to the back barbed wire fence, from where we can see a group of men in a far window. We launch into a version of The 12 Days of IRPA, a listing of the 12 reasons why, under the immigration and refugee "protection" act, some folks are likely to be detained. By the 12th verse, the songs goes like this:

On the 12th day of IRPA why did they detain me?
For going to this vigil
Standing for our rights
Not speaking English
Being called Mohamed
Jokin' bout Bush-laden
Not owning millions
Having Screwed up Papers
Pro-test-ing War!
Taking flying lessons
Reading suspect books
Being born an Arab
All for your national security!

Sometimes solidarity can only be standing in one place and singing out loud, hoping one's voice and one's love can climb over the 12-foot high barbed wire fences that serve as a last line of defence for Canadian society against those "housed" inside. One by one individual refugee detainees come to their windows, noticing the small group lit by an outdoor light and the odd flicker of one or two candles which have resisted the cold wind and continued flickering, refusing to give in to the night.

One of the first to wave is a young man, probably no more than 13 or 14. We suddenly see two very young children peel back a curtain, their eyes filled with wonder at the site of the shivering singers and their placards. It's hard to tell who is more excited: us at seeing them, or them seeing us. They are blowing us kisses, some jumping up and down with elated surprise to see us there, others waving frenetically and giving us the peace sign. Others write messages in the window with their fingers: whatever their language, we feel a strong bond as we sing The Twelve Days of IRPA, Rudy the Racist MP and Away in Detention (see lyrics below).

It reminds us of similar trips to the back of the Metro West Detention Centre, where our presence is greeted by a pounding on the thick glass windows, an amazing sound which speaks of the inmates' desperate disbelief: there are actually people who care about them, who have not forgotten them, and it is a reminder of their own humanity in an institution which does everything to rob them of their human identity.

After a rousing rendition of Silent Night, we wave goodbye and move towards the front of the jail, where we are greeted by a second round of half a dozen latecomers, who will take up a later shift singing and waving to the detainees. The signs which read "It's not a crime to be a refugee," "Stop Jailing Refugees," "You are not Forgotten" and "You Shall be Released" stay behind, affixed to the barbed wire fences.

It's a small thing that we've done, but perhaps we've been able to inspire a bit of hope in some folks who could use some after the way the government of Canada has treated them. For even though it is the holiday season, and hollow entreaties to peace and human kindness echo through the halls of Canadian power, the deportation assembly line continues apace, with news a few hours earlier that a Somali man who has lived here for 15 years is set to be torn apart from his wife and four children.

As we warm up in our vehicles on the way back downtown, we hear the odd report about refugees flooding across border points in advance of the deadline for implementation of "Safe Third Country."

The reports do not describe the true situation, though, of refugees without proper winter clothes shivering for hours on school buses, with others forced to wait in bathroom stalls which proved one of the few sources of warmth on the coldest day of the year.

The Canadian government has known about this last-minute rush of refugees who will try and come to Canada, but has done nothing to make sure there is room at the inn on this Christmas Eve.

It's yet another reminder that we need to continue challenging the government on its racist immigration and refugee rejection policies, its detentions, its secret trials, its two-faced approach to the issue. And that we need to continue reaching out a hand in friendship and solidarity to those struggling in this winter wonderland.

Our next vigil in Toronto is Friday, December 31, 12 Noon, at CSIS headquarters, 277 Front Street West. "Free the Five in 2005" will highlight the ongoing incarceration of five Muslim men detained indefinitely without charge or bail on secret evidence neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see. All are at risk of deportation to torture.

 

STRUGGLING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

(To the tune of "Winter Wonderland")

Immigrants for cheap hires
And their bosses, cheatin' liars
Failed Refugee Claims
On reasons that shame
Struggling in this winter wonderland

Try to come across the border
To this land of law and order
If your skin is brown
You can't go to town
Struggling in this winter wonderland

At the airport they will ask you questions
Have you ever been to Pakistan?
Are you hiding something in your suitcase?
Welcome to our democratic land!

Later on, in detention
Hopefully they'll pay attention
To your human rights
This season of lights
Struggling in this winter wonderland
Struggling in this winter wonderland

 

PJ, THE AGENT

(To the tune of "Frosty the Snowman")

PJ, the agent thinks the world is black and white
If your name's "Hassan", he thinks you're wrong
If it's George Bush, you're all right.

PJ, the agent fears a Muslim with a book
And a video of the CN Tower
will make him lock you up.

There must have been some trauma
When PJ was just a boy
Cause he never learned to trust or love,
Just to torture girls and boys.

PJ, the agent thinks ignorance is bliss
He knows nothing but what he's been told
By his bosses at CSIS

He'll never catch a terrorist
Cause he's blinded by his fears
He'll only torment innocents
with his spying and his jeers.

PJ, the agent has to hurry on his way
Cause Canadians don't want CSIS
And they've got to go away.

Bumpety, bump, bump
Bumpety, bump, bump
Look at PJ run
Bumpety, bump, bump
Bumpety, bump, bump
We've got CSIS on the run.

 

AWAY IN DETENTION

(To the tune of "Away in a Manger")

Away in detention, no crib for a bed,
The little child refugee lays down her sweet head.
The guards look at her through the cracks in the door,
The little child refugee asleep on the floor.

The airport is noisy, the baby awakes.
Her mother is sickly, she shivers and shakes.
We will not forget you, so please don't lose hope.
We're sorry that Judy Sgro has played this cruel joke.

We're near you child refugee, we're not far away.
We're working to speed up your new Freedom Day.
Bless all the dear children who are detained tonight.
You've called us to conscience for you we will fight.

Away in detention, no crib for a bed,
The little child refugee lays down her sweet head.
The guards look at her through the cracks in the door,
The little child refugee asleep on the floor.

 

RUDY THE RACIST MP

(To the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer")

Rudolph, the racist MP
Had a crappy attitude
And if you ever heard him
You might even say he's crude

If you were not a white male
He would laugh and call you names
He'd call for closed up borders
And hope we'd all look the same!

Then one freezing Christmas Eve
Carolers came to sing
Rudy with your racist blight
You could be transformed tonight!

Rudy then saw the error
Of his narrow minded views
Rudy the refugee sponsor
Came to love all Muslims and Jews!

 

Report from Toronto Action for Social Change.

 

tasc@web.ca, (416) 651-5800, www.homesnotbombsnow.ca

We Did It! Baby Zoe Wins Citizenship, Enters Canada With Her Long-Exiled Parents

We are thrilled to share that, due to your public support and pressure, a Calgary family’s nightmare has come to an end. After being exiled by the Canadian government for over a year, the Muth family – Derek, Emilie and Zoe – returned home on November 30.

 

What should have been a simple matter was turned into a traumatic odyssey for this young family. Ottawa had refused to allow entry to their legally adopted 2.5-year-old daughter Zoe, who faces complications from her Sickle Cell Anemia that have been life threatening. This crisis – which took a huge emotional and financial toll – resulted from an administrative failure by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to finalize Zoe’s Canadian citizenship in a timely manner.

 

On November 16, Zoe was finally granted her Canadian citizenship, opening the door to finally coming home. As the Muth family shared in a statement, it was the combination of media attention, the petition with over 38,000 signatures, and the letters people sent to officials, that saw their case reclassified as “High-Profile.”

 

Throughout this nightmare, the Muths have recognized that their ordeal is not an isolated case, but rather part of a systematic lack of care for far too many vulnerable people, as well as a failure by Ottawa to follow its own legal obligations to children and families.

 

“If this is the treatment of Canadian citizens, then I can't imagine what refugees go through,” Derek told CBC, adding that they saw first hand the “systemic prejudices and systemic injustices” faced by so many. In a statement released by the Muth family, they declared: “In the end, it was not the merit of our case, International Conventions or urgent medical needs that put our process in motion, but rather the public outcry. Who knows how long we would have been waiting without your support?”

 

If the Canadian government thinks this matter is now closed, they have another thing coming. Putting the Muths through this impossible nightmare has turned them into advocates who have pledged to work for the changes needed to reunify families and welcome newcomers.

 

The Muth family want the 38,300+ people who supported them to know:  “You reminded us that we are never alone, and words will never be able to fully express our gratitude.” (See original petition at https://www.change.org/p/marco-mendicino-allow-baby-zoe-into-canada-with-her-calgary-parents-now)

 

It is so gratifying to celebrate such victories. But as we celebrate, we also remember that there are countless thousands of others in their shoes who deserve our support to ensure equally happy resolutions.

 

Thanks again. Your support has helped so many during this challenging year. We have much more work to do. 

 

Stay tuned!

 

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

tasc@web.ca   

December 2, 2020 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++

BELOW:

The Muth Family Statement

CBC Coverage

 

Message from the Muth Family: 

It is likely that without public support, we would still be waiting on Canadian Immigration, and would continue to wait until the pandemic subsides. We could not have done this without you. Thank you to the 38,000+ people who read our story, signed and shared this petition, and sent e-mails advocating for this positive outcome. Watching the signature count rise not only urged the government to do the right thing, but also personally encouraged us during a dark season. You reminded us that we are never alone, and words will never be able to fully express our gratitude. 

 

Petitions like this make a difference. The combination of articles in the media, this petition, and the letters to officials, reclassified our case as “High-Profile.” This designation was significant in bringing IRCC leadership attention to the Accra office. It meant that a staff member in the Minister’s office was brought into the details of our case, and it enabled them to hold the mission to account on our file. In response to the attention, a visa officer was flown to Accra ahead of schedule to look at our file. In the end, it was not the merit of our case, International Conventions or urgent medical needs that put our process in motion, but rather the public outcry. Who knows how long we would have been waiting without your support?

 

Unfortunately we know this will not be the last time an adopting family experiences injustice, so we will continue to advocate the best we are able until there is reform. We observed numerous systemic issues that need to be addressed and changed. Until change comes, the public will play an important role in reunifying families and welcoming new Canadians. 

 

We want to publicly acknowledge a few key people, without whom we could not have done this: 

Alicia Backman-Beharry – Lawyer, Holthe Immigration Law 

Matthew Behrens – Advocate, Rural Refugee Rights Network 

Sarah Rieger – CBC Journalist 

 

 

WE’RE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! THANK YOU!!! 

 

 

 

CBC Article: 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/muth-family-adoption-1.5821401 

Advocates Urge Canadian Intervention in U.S. Case of Detained Cameroonian Refugee Facing Death Penalty if Deported

 

Kenneth. Hoping Canada will ensure his life-saving appointment at the border is kept

(this piece will appear on rabble.ca)

By Matthew Behrens

            When Canadian government lawyers appeared before the Federal Court of Appeals last week to argue that the United States is a “safe” country for refugees, they neglected to mention that just two weeks earlier, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were choking, beating, pepper-spraying, and breaking the fingers of detained Cameroonian refugees in an effort to force them onto a deportation “death plane” that, upon landing in that strife-torn country, would result in torture and execution.

            As the death plane prepared to taxi down the runway, a last-minute reprieve spared a half dozen of the refugees, who were taken off the plane and returned to detention. One of those refugees, “Kenneth,” has a scheduled risk assessment with the Canadian Border Services Agency on the morning of October 30. But significant concerns have been raised that, absent diplomatic pressure from the Canadian government, US. officials will feel no obligation to ensure Kenneth is transferred from ICE detention to the Fort Erie Port of Entry.

As of this writing, it is an unanswered question whether this young man will be returned to torture and the death penalty in Cameroon – all for participating in peaceful protests that were attacked with lethal force by government forces – or whether he can be transferred for the scheduled border interview that experienced Canadian immigration counsel have written would like prove successful in illustrating why Kenneth is a person in need of protection.

Kenneth is a member of the persecuted Anglophone minority in Cameroon, against whom government attacks rising to the level of crimes against humanity have been documented by the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. Last year, Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Amy Milles said that Canada condemned “violent acts and deplore the significant loss of human life since the beginning of tensions in both regions” of Cameroon where the violence has been most focused.

 

Deportations as Death Sentence

Three weeks ago, Amnesty International USA’s deputy director of Advocacy and Government Relations Adotei Akwei declared, “Given the current conditions in the country, it is extremely likely that anyone who is returned to Cameroon will face a high risk of being detained, beaten, disappeared , tortured, or even killed.” Amnesty further called on the U.S. Government “to halt all deportations during this deadly pandemic and are alarmed that it is pursuing these deportations to Cameroon. The United States has both a legal and moral imperative to welcome those fleeing conflict and persecution to the country.”

Despite this call, the US subsequently organized the abovementioned deportation flight with about 60 Cameroonian and 28 Congolese refugees aboard. Notably, this same flight is the subject of a major multi-individual complaint launched by a series of US immigrant rights groups for coercive ICE mistreatment tantamount to torture.

“An ICE agent came to see me Sunday, September 27, 2020 to try to get me to sign a deportation document,” reports a Cameroonian asylum seeker, identified as D.F. in the complaint. “I said I didn't want to sign a deportation order. I said I am afraid to go back to my country. He promised me he would torture me. Monday, September 28, 2020, he came again while I was outside to try to force me to sign, I refused to sign. He pressed my neck into the floor. I said, ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I lost my blood circulation. Then they took me inside with my hands at my back where there were no cameras.”

 

Targeting Black Migrants

According to the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, it appears that deportation efforts have ramped up throughout the pandemic against largely Black refugees. In addition to the death plane to Cameroon, over 600 Haitians have reportedly been deported this month alone (despite the risk of spreading coronavirus to the poorest country in the hemisphere), while in September, mass expulsions deported refugees from Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, and Sri Lanka.

The Alliance notes that Black immigrants are subjected to higher rates of

asylum claim rejection, solitary confinement within the world’s largest immigration detention system, refusal of parole, and eventual deportation. In addition, ICE retaliates against those who speak out about degrading, inhumane conditions of detention and related policies. Notably, the Alliance says Cameroonian migrants have been at the forefront of organizing inside detention centres to expose ICE abuses and demand everyone’s freedom. Some of the Cameroonian migrants recently deported had protested in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, while others helped expose ICE’s role in forced hysterectomies and other sterilization procedures forced upon women at the notorious Irwin County Detention Centre. 

            The U.S. Detention Watch Network explains that the high rates of refugee and immigrant detention are in part due to Obama-era legislation mandating the incarceration of 34,000 human beings at any one time. While that quota existed from 2009 to 2017, its elimination did nothing to stop the Trump administration’s campaign to throw more and more vulnerable individuals and families behind bars. The Network’s report, Banking on Detention: Local Lockup Quotas & the Immigrant Dragnet, illustrates how “Local quotas, referred to as guaranteed minimums in detention facility contracts, ensure a profit-stream and can be found in at least half of ICE’s field offices. These contractual provisions promise that ICE will pay for a certain number of detention beds regardless of how many people are detained to fill these beds. And as a perverse incentive, ICE agents are then encouraged to increase enforcement in order to maximize taxpayer dollars that are being spent to detain people.”

            Asylum claimants face the additional burden of a system stacked with Trump administration appointees. Human Rights Watch reports that  88% of Immigration Judge appointees in 2018 were former Department of Homeland Security or other government lawyers who had prosecuted asylum seekers. The Board of Immigration Appeals, meanwhile, has seen new appointments from Attorney General Barr that include two judges who denied every single claim they heard in 2019.

 

Canada Turns Blind Eye

            While the brutality of the ICE dragnets, detentions, and deportations has been well documented (especially with respect to the separation of children from their parents at the border, a topic that even made it to the final Presidential debate last week), the Canadian government continues to insist that the U.S. is a safe country for asylum seekers. Last July, the Federal Court of Canada rejected the so-called Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) with the U.S. as a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court said it was clear that Canada is actively turning away individuals seeking asylum here with the full knowledge that those refugees will be immediately detained upon return to the U.S., where standards for refugee acceptance continue to decline and conditions for those behind bars are cruel. 

            Justice Ann McDonald clearly stated that “Canada cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences” of its actions in turning away refugee claimants coming from the US. In appealing the judgment, Canadian government lawyers last week stunningly argued that Canada would suffer “irreparable harm” if the ruling stood, and that the U.S. asylum system has “available and effective” safeguards for migrants behind bars, concluding, “When everything else is equal, it is prudent to maintain the status quo.”

            But everything else is not equal. Last Friday, organizations including the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International, and the Canadian Council of Churches shared updated – and even more damning – evidence that conditions of immigration detention have deteriorated even further during the pandemic. 

“The evidence before this Court … documents harsh and often inhumane, cruel and unusual immigration detention conditions in the U.S., including for those returned by Canada under the STCA,” read their brief. "These conditions include: Detention facilities with punitive conditions; Solitary confinement; Inadequate and/or delayed medical care; Staggering rates of sexual assault and sexual harassment; Cold temperatures; Inadequate/unsafe food/water and lack of accommodation of religious dietary customs. Detention has particularly severe effects on vulnerable asylum seekers, with many survivors of torture or gender-based violence being re-traumatized by the experience. Detainees with sensitive claims including LGBT claimants and survivors of sexual violence may be unable to prepare for their case as a result of the lack of private meeting space and fear of attacks by other detainees.  Other detainees suffer because religious practices are not accommodated. Racialized detainees often suffer racism and abuse motivated by hate while in detention. Most notoriously detention in the U.S. often includes the detention of children or separation of children from their parents.”

            The refugee advocacy groups also reminded the Federal Court of Appeal that “Contrary to Canadian law and international norms the U.S. interpretation of the

refugee definition excludes protection for women fleeing gender-based persecution

at the hands of private actors.” They concluded that with respect to harm, “it is not in the public interest to maintain a regime that exposes refugee claimants to a risk of detention in conditions that are now even worse” than those which Justice McDonald found “shock the conscience.”

 

Saving The Life of Kenneth

            It is under such conditions that Kenneth has spent the past two years of his life. While he is currently in solitary confinement in a Texas ICE facility, he fears once more being placed on a deportation flight. Kenneth fled Cameroon as a member of the persecuted English-speaking minority. Following his participation in peaceful political protests that were violently attacked by government forces, he was sought by authorities, arrested, and beaten in jail. His family home was attacked and his sister raped by military forces. After escaping, he learned that he was the subject of a warrant issued by the Cameroon Ministry of Justice. He faces charges of Secession, Insurrection and Hostility against the Fatherland (all for taking part in peaceful protests). Under Cameroonian law, Secession is punishable by imprisonment for life, or by death when there is a state of emergency; Insurrection is punishable by imprisonment for ten to twenty years; and Hostility against the Fatherland is punishable by death. 

Affidavits from a family lawyer, village chief, and family members subsequent to Kenneth’s escaping Cameroon attest to the fact that he is still wanted by authorities, and that the family itself has faced continued repression as a result, including beatings, the arrest and indefinite detention of a brother, the burning down of the family home, and the resultant need for remaining family members to live in hiding in the bush.

With the support of his adopted American mother Florence, a retired special education teacher in Leeds, Alabama, Kenneth has been fighting to be freed from detention and accepted as a refugee in the US. But the clock is ticking for him as a Trump administration operating at breakneck speed is ramping up deportations and engaging in illegal activities to ensure those deportations are executed.

While Florence has been engaged in non-stop advocacy on Kenneth’s behalf – including reaching out to Canadian contacts to arrange what is a very rare port of entry interview with the Canadian Border Services Agency – she is gravely concerned that unless Ottawa intervenes with its U.S. counterparts, that October 30 appointment will not be honoured by ICE, and Kenneth will either remain detained or deported to his death.

A petition calling on the Canadian government to act decisively in Kenneth’s case is available for signing and sharing, part of a last-minute effort to make a huge difference in the life of a 29-year-old man whose dream of a new life seems so close – and yet so elusive – as the calendar counts down to October 30.

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

Some Good News to Share About Ottawa Roma Refugee Mama Celina, Plus an Appeal to Reunite Her Family

 

Mama Celina (right) and a very happy health care worker give the thumbs up at Ottawa's Riverside Hospital, one of the many recipients of thousands of handcrafted face masks that continue to be sewn and distributed by for free by Mama Celina for as long as the need exists.

Thank you so much for your support of Mama Celina Urbanowicz in her 23-year struggle to win permanent residency. We were recently informed that her application has been approved in principle and, subject to processing fees and medical exams, is now on her way to this long-sought goal. 

 

Our next step is to sponsor Celina's husband, who was cruelly deported in June, 2019, after living here for 22 years, and is now living hand-to-mouth while in hiding overseas. In order to complete her husband's sponsorship and finalize Celina's status in Canada, the family face the huge burden of raising approximately $6,500 in new fees which must be paid asap. 

 

The Rural Refugee Rights Network, which has worked with the family for well over a year, is hoping to raise those funds so that this family can be reunited after so much trauma and pain. You can help reunite this family by sending an etransfer to tasc@web.ca or writing a cheque (memo: Mama C) to Homes not Bombs, PO Box 2121, 57 Foster Street, Perth, ON K7H 1R0. If sending a cheque, please let us know at tasc@web.ca so we can keep a running tally, as deadlines are short.

In the meantime, please read this outstanding piece on the family’s odyssey, just published in Broadview, at https://broadview.org/roma-family-separation-canada/

Thanks for your support!

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

A Thanksgiving Wish: Allow Baby Zoe into Canada with her Calgary Parents NOW!

 

Dear Friends,

Calgary’s Emilie and Derek Muth have been exiled abroad almost a year. Ottawa refuses to allow entry to their legally adopted 2.5-year-old daughter Zoe. They’re thankful to all who signed the petition (see brief video at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C-QqQ7Aaqs&feature=emb_logo) and ask for 2 minutes of your time this weekend to send an email (details below) asking that Zoe’s citizenship be finalized so the family can finally return home. 

You can also sign the petition at https://www.change.org/p/marco-mendicino-allow-baby-zoe-into-canada-with-her-calgary-parents-now

Thanks for your help! 

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Below is a template email you can send. You can also cc your own MP. (Feel free to add in a personal statement at the end—ie, “As a parent, I cannot imagine how hard this situation must be” or “A baby's life should not be at risk because of bureaucratic paperwork issues”, etc.)

Subject Line: Allow Baby Zoe into Canada with her Calgary Parents NOW! Finalize the Muth Daughter's Citizenship NOW! 

To: IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca; Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca 

Cc: Francois-Philippe.Champagne@parl.gc.ca; bill.blair@parl.gc.ca; tasc@web.ca; ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca, Soraya.MartinezFerrada@parl.gc.ca 
 
Dear Minister Mendicino, 

I am writing to ask you to help a Canadian couple, Emilie and Derek Muth of Calgary, get home after almost a year spent exiled abroad. This is due to the failure of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to respond to urgent pleas and finalize their legally adopted, 2.5-year-old daughter Zoe’s Canadian citizenship. The fact that this family has had to undergo such emotional and financial stress because of administrative shortcomings is disappointing. The fact that 10 months after their final application went in, it had yet to be opened as of late September, is unacceptable. 

While I appreciate that there are many files to be dealt with at IRCC, there is a simple solution here that would prevent this loving family from being forced to travel the globe, searching for medically capable countries that will grant them visitor visas. Zoe’s citizenship files are electronic and can be reviewed by Canadian officials abroad or here at home, including at your offices in Quebec and Nova Scotia (according to the Canadian Citizenship Program Manual). I am asking that you direct your staff to open the file, confirm the documents, finalize the citizenship, and allow Zoe to travel home to Calgary with her mother and father. 

The Muths have done everything loving parents would do for their legally adopted child, and they should not be forced to choose between repatriation and leaving their baby behind. As your files would indicate, Zoe faces complications from her Sickle Cell Anemia that have been life threatening. She needs to come to Canada with her parents to receive the medical care she so critically requires.  

Emilie and Derek also need to get home to return to work. At a time when Canada’s health care system is facing the pandemic’s second wave, Emilie, a Registered Nurse, is ready to help maintain the health and safety of patients here, but instead, she is forced to stay abroad until your department deals with this urgent matter. Clearly, the ripple effects of IRCC’s failure to act are many. 

The family's visitor visas in Barbados expire next month. They should not be forced to continue wandering the globe, unable to return home with their baby child.  

Please direct your staff to immediately prioritize and finalize Zoe’s citizenship so they can come home as a family. It’s the right thing to do. And equally important, it’s not too much to ask. 
 
Thank you. 
 
NAME 
 
TOWN, PROVINCE

Allow Baby Zoe into Canada with her Calgary Parents NOW!

Please sign and share this link: https://www.change.org/p/marco-mendicino-allow-baby-zoe-into-canada-with-her-calgary-parents-now

Many of you have been supportive of other families we have helped reunite in Canada over the past year. The easily fixed bureaucratic holdup in this case has taken a huge toll on this young family. All that needs to happen is for Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to immediately prioritize and finalize Zoe’s citizenship so they can come home as a family. That process takes a mere few hours. This family has been waiting almost a year. It is not too much to ask, and with Zoe’s health imperilled the longer she is abroad, the more dangerous any delay becomes.

Thanks for your support

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

Canadian couple Derek and Emilie Muth have been stranded abroad for almost a year. Ottawa refuses to allow entry to their legally adopted 2.5-year-old daughter Zoe, who faces complications from her Sickle Cell Anemia that have been life threatening. This crisis – which has taken a huge emotional and financial toll – resulted from an administrative failure by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to finalize Zoe’s Canadian citizenship in a timely manner. It takes only a few hours to complete Part 2 of the Citizenship process (a simple matter of confirming documents), but it has taken IRCC over 10 months, with no end in sight.

The couple is asking that IRCC Minister Marco Mendicino direct his staff to immediately finalize Zoe’s citizenship so the whole family can come home and end their international exile. All the necessary documents and paperwork have been sitting before the ministry for almost a year. After 10 months of waiting and suffering, it is not too much to ask that the government do the right thing.

Derek and Emilie write:

“Due to administrative delays, and a failure to properly triage and prioritize Zoe’s application, the IRCC is effectively exiling our family outside Canada during a time of global crisis. They are forcing us to rely on the hospitality of foreign nations to provide refuge, and ignoring our many pleas for urgent assistance. It is, very simply, in the best interest of Zoe to be granted travelling papers to Canada as soon as possible. The Canadian government is failing to uphold it’s international obligations to protect the best interests of our child. We need your help to get us back to Canada.”

The Muths left their home in Calgary for Lagos, Nigeria in October 2019 to adopt their now 2.5-year-old daughter, Zoe Muth. Zoe’s adoption was legally finalized in court on October 28th, 2019, officially making them a family of 3! They have followed all provincial, federal and international laws required for this adoption. However, due to administrative failures on the part of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), they are still stranded abroad indefinitely.

(See some media coverage of the case at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/muth-family-adoption-abroad-nigeria-1.5732121 and also at Emilie’s blog: https://emiliemuth.wordpress.com/)

BACKGROUND

The Muths filed for Zoe’s Canadian Citizenship (Application for Canadian Citizenship of an Adopted Child Part 2, aka “Part 2”) in November 2019. Once approved, Zoe would be granted Canadian citizenship and be able to travel to Canada. The application was sent to the IRCC field office in Accra, Ghana last November. According to a September, 2020 Access To Information and Privacy (ATIP) request, it appears Zoe’s file has not even been opened.

The IRCC has ignored their pleas for assistance. There have been no substantive updates from the IRCC, despite numerous requests for assistance. In addition to their attempts at communication, letters requesting urgent processing sent by MPs, physicians in Canada & Barbados, and Alberta Children’s Services/International Adoption Services Ottawa have also been unsuccessful.

WE CANNOT “REST ASSURED”

The recent reply from the Minister’s Office says for the family to “rest assured” because they’re “in the queue,” but the IRCC cannot provide estimated processing times due to staffing shortages caused by the Accra office’s COVID-19 repatriations.

Derek and Emilie write: “Let’s be clear: this delay is due to Canada alone; it is not a foreign or legal issue. The IRCC had failed to properly triage our application prior to the evacuation of their field office, and have failed to consider intervention requests, even by their own head office. We cannot ‘rest assured’ and continue to wait indefinitely.

Even though the Accra office has operating challenges, the Canadian Citizenship Program Manual clearly states that the file could be completed right in Canada. In fact, we submitted all of our documentation electronically months ago, so this step could be completed in Montreal, QC or Sydney, NS. However, the IRCC has refused to prioritize the case by transferring the file.”

ZOE’S HEALTH IS ENDANGERED

To compound damaging delays, Zoe’s Sickle Cell Anemia has been a major concern throughout the past year. After a life threatening hospitalization in Nigeria, the family chose to relocate to Barbados (one of the few places a Nigerian can travel visa-free) in search of a medical system better suited to meet Zoe’s needs. While care in Barbados has been better, the pandemic has led to other concerns for safety, including only intermittent pharmaceutical supplies. While Zoe’s health has recently stabilized, the nature of this disease means her health status has the potential to turn catastrophic in a matter of hours. Zoe is also considered high risk and vulnerable to COVID-19 complications. Zoe needs the safety and comprehensive medical care provided by the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

As Emilie and Derek point out, “It is, very simply, in the best interest of Zoe to be allowed into Canada as soon as possible. The Canadian government is failing to uphold its international obligations to protect the best interests of our legally adopted, dependent child.

In addition to Zoe’s health considerations, every day we are stranded abroad in limbo, unable to come home to Canada, it costs us undue financial and emotional stress. Through its own bureaucratic failures, the IRCC is effectively exiling our family outside Canada during a time of global crisis, forcing us to rely on the hospitality of foreign nations to provide refuge while ignoring our many pleas for assistance.”

Time is running out. The Muths’ visa in Barbados expires shortly, and there is no guarantee it will be renewed. If they are not able to return to Canada with their dependent, legally adopted daughter, they do not know where they will go.

The solution is very simple: Zoe’s citizenship needs to be processed NOW!

The only action required by the IRCC to approve Zoe’s travel is a review of Part Two, which can be completed in as little as a few hours in Quebec or Nova Scotia. It ultimately consists of a basic administrative task: to confirm the documentation the Muths submitted (from the Alberta Government, Lagos Family Court, Lagos Ministry of Youth and Social Development, and Nigerian Federal Government) is legitimate and not forged.

The Muths are begging the government, “Please immediately prioritize and finalize Zoe’s citizenship so we can come home as a family.”