immigrantscanada.com

Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Hospital Bed: Canadian Citizenship and Care Families

hospital bed: This is my homeland." The 33-year-old mother of four young daughters, who were all born in Ontario, only became aware that she was not a Canadian citizen following a recent drug conviction and incarceration, according to Guelph Mercury. The Canada Border Services Agency looked into her status while she was in custody, discovering that her parents and several foster care families that took her in at the age of 11 failed to secure her Canadian citizenship. Propped up in a hospital bed and groggy from pain medication, Fliss Cramman said she is terrified of being forced to return to England, where she was born but left at the age of eight when her parents moved to Ontario. "I'm just so scared to go back — I don't know anybody, I don't know anything," she said through tears, while two corrections officers stood guard in her drab hospital room. "If I leave here, I'm leaving my heart behind big time. As a result, the agency says it wants to deport her by Dec. 16, despite her physician assertion that she is in fragile health and needs to remain in the country for about 18 months to properly recover from a series of colon surgeries done after she was rushed to hospital from a prison facility in Dartmouth on Aug. 12. I came over when I was eight, I have a social insurance number, I have a health card, I pay taxes, I had kids in Canada, I voted, I say sorry and that a huge Canadian thing. At a hearing in the basement of the hospital late last month, the Immigration and Refugee Board agreed Cramman would not be able to travel for "at least a couple of months." It said it would review the matter, along with a possible release from custody, at another hearing Friday. "I just want to stay here," Cramman said in a voice thin from fatigue, but buoyant when questioned about her citizenship. "Hell yeah, I'm Canadian. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.