CAMPAIGN 31 WEEK 2

A Tale of Protection: Grace

A family kept apart by Bill C-31
bureaucratic processes have already begun to take their toll on Grace. She has already been separated from her children for eight months and feels extremely isolated and disjointed in her new surroundings. Unfortunately, the road ahead for Grace is long and perilous. Currently the average wait time for someone to achieve permanent residency and be reunited with their families is between 4 and 5 years (much longer for some visa offices). In Graces current situation, thats another four years that she will feel isolated and constantly worry about the fate of her children. And thats under the current laws. The proposed bill, Bill C-31, threatens to tack another five years onto this waiting period. The new bill stipulates that refugee claimants will be denied the right to family reunification and to travel abroad for over 5 years. This means that claimants in situations similar to Grace will be forcibly separated from their loved ones for at least ten years. Ten years. In Graces case that means more than a decade of living in a foreign country without seeing her children. Anyone can appreciate the toll such a lengthy period of separation would take on a family. A lot can happen in ten years. At present, Graces 11 children are all considered at risk. After only a few months her brother could no longer care for all of them and was forced to separate them. Despite being dispersed between two households, the families are all living in overcrowded and unstable conditions, not suitable for healthy child development. By the time Grace is reunited with her children, most of them will have graduated high school. Some, if they survive the ongoing conflict in Burundi, may get married and have families of their own. And Grace will have to be absent for all of these milestone events. Research indicates that parents in these situations are often burdened by intense feelings of guilt and shame for unwittingly putting their children in precarious situations, or inconveniencing loved ones with their care. That guilt then will be added to Graces existing anxiety. Family separation therefore has considerable impacts. Beyond the traumatic experiences of the individuals, family separation affects society at large (both here and abroad). Once reunited, families will have to go through additional processes to appropriately reconnect. Populations affected will need counselling and additional services to recognize and become reacquainted with their loved ones. Some children may have been so young when their parents left that they barely remember them. In some instances, parents may also need assistance in accepting that their children have aged ten years in their absence that they are no longer babies but rather adolescents and young adults. The sum of these elements suggests that Bill C-31s restrictions on family reunification are more punitive than anything. Grace put her life on the line to escape to Canada and find a better, safer life for her and her children. Under the proposed Bill C-31 Grace risks losing exactly that which she set out to save.

t was late September 2011 when Grace arrived in Canada and made a refugee claim. For many years Grace and her family had faced very real danger in Burundi stemming from racial discrimination and economic motives. After losing her mother and other close family members, Grace feared for the safety of her 11 children and began the process to remove them from their precarious existence. Without the resources to bring her children with her, Grace was forced to make a difficult decision. She decided to leave her children in the care of her older brother while she came to Canada and began to lay the groundwork for a safer and more promising future for her family. At the moment of that decision, Grace was unaware that she would need to be separated from her family for so long. Based on the strength of her claim, Grace was accepted as a convention refugee early this year. She is currently in the process of applying for permanent residency in Canada. She wants to include her 11 children on her application, all of whom are under the age of 18, which needs to be submitted by mid-summer. Faring these