Miriam Pinkesz  |  August 20, 2020

Category: Civil rights

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Canadian flag depicting immigrant mind COVID-19 delays

Canadians have taken to the streets protesting immigration delays blamed on the pandemic, that have allegedly prevented many families from reuniting. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Canadians have spoken out against several government-related issues potentially affecting human rights, among them, claims of unreasonable confinement in Quebec and prison quarantine measures described as “hell” by prisoners. Now, COVID-19’s impact on immigration is under fire.

Protests Denounce Immigration Delays

Some 100 protestors gathered in front of Montreal’s Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada offices in support of reuniting couples and families separated by the sluggish immigration process turned even slower by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The protest was one of five taking place in major cities across the country, including Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver.

“Over 40,000 letters were sent to the offices of Justin Trudeau and Minister (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship) Marco Mendicino and no response was received,” says Misha Pelletier, co-organizer of the Montreal protest.

Misha told reporters that couples and families separated due to COVID-19 were able to be reunited on June 8, but only in cases where the family member outside Canada was in a country for which no entry visa is required, such as the U.S. or France.

For New Democratic Party MP Alexandre Boulerice, this two-tier system is reportedly creating a new type of discrimination between citizens of rich countries and citizens of developing countries. “It is completely unacceptable in an egalitarian society with liberal values like ours,” criticized the Montreal MP.

The protests were organized on Facebook by families whose spousal sponsorship applications were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman taking part in Toronto’s immigration protest told CTV News that she had been waiting for almost two years after submitting a spousal sponsorship application to bring her husband to Toronto from Cuba. Now she fears that the wait will be even longer due to COVID-19 immigration delays.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, sponsoring a spouse can reportedly take up to 12 months under normal circumstances.

Mother holding child separated from fatherAbout 30 families, all facing COVID-19 immigration delays, attended the demonstration at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, calling on the federal government to expedite their spousal sponsorship applications.

The group of families have petitioned before the House of Commons, requesting the creation of a “Special Temporary Resident Visa,” which would allow for immediate family members, such as spouses and children, to safely reunite during a global crisis while they await decisions on their sponsorship applications.

Over 4,000 people have signed the petition, which is expected to be brought before the House of Commons in September.

Canadian Immigration Class Action Lawsuits Make Headlines

Aside from COVID-19 immigration delays, several Canadian immigration-related class action lawsuits have been launched in recent weeks.

In Manitoba, an immigration lawyer is facing a class action lawsuit Canada alleging that he defrauded individuals hoping to immigrate to Canada by directing them to invest in companies he or his former romantic partner controlled.

Lead plaintiff Haokuang Tian claims he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after he hired immigration lawyer Paul Hesse for assistance with his immigration application.

“The scheme was: invest money in businesses that were controlled by either Hesse and or his partner, and you will become a permanent resident of Canada,” according to Haokuang’s lawyer.

However, none of the businesses had actual assets or operations, rendering them, “shell companies, established solely for the purpose of obtaining money from these individuals.”

Another class action lawsuit, commenced in Ontario, also targets alleged disreputable immigration lawyers. A class action lawsuit Canada claiming discrimination against Roma refugees recently reached a proposed settlement of $550,000.

The Roma refugees asylum class action lawsuit settlement was proposed after the defendants, Viktor Hohots, Joseph Farkas, and Erzsebet Jaszi, were found guilty of “failing to properly serve their clients.” The Hungarian Roma refugee claimants allege that they were insufficiently represented by the defendants due to discrimination.

A proposed class action lawsuit was filed in Quebec against the provincial government, alleging that the provincial government violated the Health Insurance Act as well as the Canadian and Quebec Charters of Rights and Freedoms by discriminating against children born in Canada to immigrant parents.

The plaintiffs’ daughter, like many other children born to immigrants in Quebec, was denied provincial health insurance coverage due to her parents’ migratory status.

In response to the Canada-wide immigration protests, the government reportedly announced that it has assured sponsors and applicants that no application will be closed or refused due to a lack of documentation or an inability to complete the application process under the normal timelines.

Do you think the government should provide immigration applicants with Special Temporary Resident Visas during COVID-19? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

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2 thoughts onHundreds Protest COVID-19 Immigration Delays Across Canada

  1. Ontario Social Justice & Welfare Corporation says:

    Many permanent residents who are here in Canada for years are facing delays in the processing of their Canadian citizenship applications well after 18 months. If the processing is a delay due to the sole reason of Covid 19, then how could the applications for permanent residents are being reportedly processed even in few months and much lesser time? It seems unfair to give ‘Priority Processing’ of new applications for permanent residents and temporary workers as compared to previously submitted citizenship applications.

  2. Marla says:

    The statements made by Marco Mendicino about the spousal sponsorship applications have not held up. Many couples are being asked to provide new documents that have expired during the pandemic after the existing documents were already approved by an IRCC officer such as medicsl documents or police background checks).
    Mendicino has stated that applying for a TRV under dual intent would mean couples can be reunited while waiting for their Sponsorship application to be processed-I have only seen two people get approved, and the applicants have similar backgrounds to those that have been refused. There needs to be more media coverage and push for changes. These couples and families have been separated for over one year and a majority up to two or three years with nothing changing. These issues existed before covid, and need to be addressed and fixed immediately. The disparity between how Canada treats the rich versus the poor has been made abundantly clear-especially now that the CFO of Huawei who is living in Vancouver while she is wanted by the United States for her crimes has had her family granted TRVs to visit her. A criminal. The entire immigration system is a joke paraded as equality and opportunity for all while behind the scenes there is discrimination and racism at play.

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