Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some fled too
quickly to retrieve documents, others came from nomadic
cultures where identity documents are uncommon. 77 And
others, as in Kosovo, had their documents taken from
them.
Convention refugees must provide satisfactory identity
documents in order to obtain permanent resident status,
although Citizenship and Immigration now allows
undocumented refugees from Somalia and Afghanistan to
apply for permanent residence after five years. Families
cannot be reunited until permanent residence is granted
and for undocumented refugees, it is a long wait. The
Canadian Council for Refugees says that:
The most consistent message to emerge from
the public hearings conducted by the task force
was the cry for help from individual refugees
who are forced to endure the anguish of
prolonged separation from their families. The
individual stories each have their own tragic
twists. 78
Until refugees are accepted for landing they cannot:
• be reunited in Canada with their families;
• travel out of the country to visit their families;
• enjoy the right to full health coverage. 79
Canadian immigration policy also prevents the children
of refugee claimants from visiting their parent in Canada
until the parent is accepted for landing. 80
Right-of-landing Fee
In 1995, the federal government began charging a $975
right-of-landing fee for every adult refugee applying for
permanent residence in Canada. The Canadian
Ethnocultural Council says this so-called head-tax is
“prohibitively high” and “poses a significant barrier for
genuine refugees in need of protection.” 81 While
refugees can apply for a loan under the Immigrant Loans
Program, the “review of the loan application also adds
another step in the process, meaning further delays in
family reunification.” 82 Refugees who do not qualify for a
loan are faced with further delays in sponsoring family
members still abroad.
COSTI, the largest immigrant-serving group in Toronto,
says that “the right-of-landing fee was ill-considered and
should be abolished. This fee has created a tremendous
H O W D O E S C A N A D A M E A S U R E U P ?
111
barrier for many who are struggling with the considerable
expense of moving from their impoverished country to
Canada.” 83 The Canadian Council for Refugees adds that
“no other country charges refugees such a fee.” 84
Deportation
The best interests of the child do not have to be considered
in deportation hearings. Children who have lived in Canada
for years can be deported. And the parents of Canadianborn
children can be deported without consideration of the
children. Take, for example, Mavis Baker who has lived in
Canada since 1981. Ms. Baker never became a permanent
resident and was ordered deported in 1992, although she
has four Canadian-born children. (Ms. Baker, who had
supported herself for 11 years in Canada, had since been
diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was on
welfare.) The decision was appealed because of Canada’s
obligations under the CRC. In Baker v. Canada (Minister
of Citizenship and Immigration) (1996), the Federal Court
of Appeal said that since the CRC has not been adopted
into Canadian law, that the Convention cannot prescribe
the obligation to give the best interests of children superior
weight to other factors. However, the Supreme Court of
Canada recently said that the decision to deport Ms. Baker
was not sensitive to the interests of her children.
In Sellakkandu v. Canada (Minister of Employment and
Immigration) (1993), 85 “the court concluded that it did not
have to decide if the Canadian child’s interests would be
affected, because only the parent who would be separated
from the child was a party to the proceedings, not the
child.” 86
However, in Francis (Litigation guardian of) v. Canada
(Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (1998), 87
Ontario Court Justice McNeely said that if “the choice
referred to is the choice between abandoning six and eightyear-old
children by leaving Canada without them or
taking them with her away from the country of their birth,
residence, education and citizenship...then it is a choice
compelled by government action.” 88 The Court found that it
would be in the best interests of the children for them to
remain in Canada with their mother and in her care. This
case has been appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on
Citizenship and Immigration believes that the interests of
children, with regard to the criteria for humanitarian and
compassionate consideration, should be given more
emphasis. 89