“Canada should not deport people who do not have immigration status because of the failures of the state.”

BY PAUL JUNOR

On Saturday, October 29^th, 2022, the Back Legal Action Centre sent a letter to the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship regarding, “Our System, Our Children, Our Responsibility: A Campaign against the Deportation of Child Welfare Survivors.” 

This letter was penned as a response to the OCASI 2022 Leader’s Forum on October 27^th, 2022. BLAC steered a coalition which aspires to end the deportations of child welfare survivors and to address the related immigration issues. The letter can be seen at: https://www/blacklegalactioncentre.ca.

The letter states that there are a number of cases in which people:

• Came to Canada as children
• Were placed in the care of a child welfare agency, foster family, or in kinship care
• Were caught up in what is referred as the child welfare-to-prison pipeline
• Are now at risk of being deported because they have been deemed inadmissible due to criminality

The letter continues, “While they were in the child welfare system (i.e. in the care of the State), the State had an obligation to obtain citizenship for them. Now, because of the state’s failure, people are at risk of being deported from the only country they have ever really known. This is a grave injustice, an injustice that you can help address by creating a Public Policy under s.25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.”

BLAC released a draft public policy in which it calls on the government to:

• Suspend the enforcement of removal orders against foreign nationals (e.g., people without immigration status, or people who have only temporary immigration status) who came to Canada as children and spent any period of their childhood in a child welfare agency or foster family, or in kinship care.
• Provide an expedited pathway to permanent resident status through a public policy under s. 25 of the IRPA for any former permanent resident in Canada who came to Canada as a child, and spent any period of their childhood in a child welfare agency, foster family, or in kinship care
• Grant an expedited Temporary Resident Permit and accompany work or study permit, and waive any associated fees for any former permanent resident in Canada who came to Canada as a child, and spent any period of their childhood in a child welfare agency, with a foster family, or in kinship care, where permanent resident status cannot immediately be granted

BLAC is calling upon individuals to send a letter to your MP and to Minister Fraser. The letter states, “There are child welfare survivors who face deportations as I write this letter to you. They are people who were raised in our child welfare systems, yet the State did not apply for Canadian citizenship for them and they are now vulnerable to deportation. There are children in the system now who need citizenship so they don’t face deportation in the future.”

The campaign calls on government to do three things:

1. Halt all the deportations of child welfare survivors currently facing removal orders
2. Provide clear, accessible and quick pathway to permanent resident status for any/all child welfare survivors

3. Develop a clear and accessible pathway to citizenship for all child welfare survivors

The letter concludes, “Canada should not deport people who do not have immigration status because of the failures of the State. Many of these people shouldn’t have been involved in the child welfare system in the first place. Canada failed in its responsibility to provide for these children like their parents would have. The people facing deportations should not have to pay for these failures. It is our collective responsibility to take care of the people caught up in the oppression of the child welfare and immigration systems. It is my hope that you will take on your responsibility with respect to this issue.”