When a foreign national is ordered to leave Canada, the organization that is responsible for the removal (CBSA) has to execute the deportation as soon as practically possible. Sometimes, there are ways to delay this deportation if the foreign national has a reasonable ground for this delay. To postpone this removal, a foreign national can apply to the CBSA to DEFER their deportation. If this request is denied, there is an option to request the Federal Court to STAY the deportation. This is the story of how breastfeeding helped our client to stay in Canada.
When Angelique delivered her baby, she was sure she wanted to breastfeed. She has read enough about the benefits of this approach, and wanted to give as much nutrients and protection to her newborn, as possible. Unfortunately, this meant that Angelique couldn’t go back to work full time and had to rely on her partner, Lina, to help her. To add more problems, Lina was under an enforceable removal order – meaning that she could be deported back to her home country at any time. When Lina received her deportation date, she reached out to LC for assistance.
There was only one way to help Lina and Angelique – both new parents- to stay in Canada together to care for their newborn Canadian child. We filed a request to defer Lina’s deportation, because she was the only available support person for Angelique. We relied heavily on the need to breastfeed the newborn and that both Angelique and the baby needed someone to take care of them during the first few months of the baby’s life. Unfortunately, this application was refused by the CBSA.
We helped Lina to file a Stay application with the Federal Court. At the hearing we argues, among other things, that the baby will suffer irreparable harm if one of the parents is removed from Canada.
So what happened?
Our Stay application was approved by the Court. Lina can stay in Canada for the time being as she provides support to her family, and proceeds with other applications to obtain a legal permanent status in Canada.