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Yukon MP Ryan Leef

MP takes family’s plight to federal minister

MP takes family’s plight to federal minister

By Christopher Reynolds on February 24, 2015

Yukon MP Ryan Leef says he is working hard to help the Rojas Martinez family, who are effectively under a federal deportation order despite the medical condition of their three-year-old son, a Canadian citizen.

Last summer, the family applied for permanent residence in Canada on compassionate grounds, based on the apparent lack of accessible care in Mexico for their son Jonathan’s skull deformation and neck muscle disorder.

The Department of Citizenship and Immigration rejected the initial application as well as an “enhanced” second application, triggering the departure order — technically distinct from the more coercive “deportation” but with the same effect.

Now parents Sergio Rojas and Linda Martinez face a wrenching choice: leave their son behind as a ward of the Canadian state or keep the family together in Mexico but without reliable access to treatment.

Leef spoke twice with the family last weekend and met with Immigration Minister Chris Alexander on Monday.

“We should be able to find some means to a positive end ... keeping the family connected and seeing that Jonathan’s needs are being met,” he told the Star from Ottawa Monday afternoon.

The minister’s office is now considering permitting the family to stay based on the health interests of the child. A medical team is also being consulted.

Leef noted neither of the previous applications — nor a failed refugee claim from before Jonathan was born — included extensive documentation on the boy’s medical needs.

Documents from the Yukon Child Development Centre and the B.C. Children’s Hospital have now been obtained.

The toddler, born in Whitehorse, has received therapy and care from both facilities.

Leef stressed the independence of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s case-by-case assessment process. He saw his role as helping guide the family on how best to navigate the bureaucratic routes still available.

Jonathan suffers from plagiocephaly — sometimes referred to as “flat head syndrome” — and congenital torticollis.

While both conditions require constant therapy, especially in the first 12 months after birth, neither condition is life-threatening.

Both are partially self-correcting and affect “cosmetic appearance” rather than causing “developmental delays,” according to a B.C. Children’s Hospital document from 2008 co-written by the institution’s former head of pediatric neurosurgery.

Leef said the lack of dire medical urgency is somewhat beside the point.

“Jonathan is a Yukon-born resident. He’s a Canadian citizen. He’s one of ours.”

He emphasized the de facto deportation of a local toddler, as well as the circumstances — medical and otherwise — he faces on touching down in Mexico, his father’s home country.

“This is effectively sending away a Canadian citizen,” Leef said.

“It’s incumbent upon us to some degree that we understand the fate to which we’re sending people and that we’re not guessing at it.”

At Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport early Monday morning, Linda Martinez revealed her fears.

“We can’t go without him.... It’s scary. In Mexico, there’s not anything for Jonathan.... It’s no good because Jonathan is born here,” she said.

“I feel very bad.”

Martinez sobbed as she saw her partner and their oldest son off before their 8 a.m. flight to Vancouver, where Rojas, who held back tears as they hugged, will handle paperwork at the Mexican consulate.

She and Jonathan, the couple’s second and youngest child, are slated to join them there Wednesday.

Jan Stick, the NDP critic for Health and Social Services, called the family’s situation “a human tragedy.

“To me, this is just such a cruel decision that no family should have to face,” she said at the airport alongside Opposition Leader Liz Hanson and MLA Jim Tredger.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said in reply to a Star email that it cannot speak to the case without the family’s written consent.

The department’s website states immigrants should apply for residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds if they “would suffer excessive hardship” by returning to their home country.

Symptoms of torticollis in newborns and infants include damage to the neck muscles, especially on one side, which can lead to a flattened head from consistently lying or resting on the same side, according to the Stanford Children’s Health network.

The condition usually demands specialized therapy.

Plagiocephaly, a malformation of the skull that can develop in the womb or during birth, is “considered a medically benign condition,” according to a study published by the National Institute of Health in 2005.

Nonetheless, “children with this condition should be screened and monitored for developmental delays or deficits,” the study states.

The Yukon Child Development Centre wrote a letter stating Jonathan would have difficulty accessing therapeutic services in Mexico or Nicaragua — his mother’s country of origin.

Comments (11)

Up 2 Down 7

iceberg on Feb 27, 2015 at 1:05 pm

Proscience Greenie: If you have ever been to Mexico I suspect you haven't stepped outside your all inclusive resort. Parts of Mexico has some excellent health care but that is only available to rich people not the average poor Mexican family. This of course is not what faces us as Yukoners. Making a comparison to what is available in the Yukon for health care to what awaits this family in Mexico is simply ignorant and ridiculous.

Up 12 Down 0

ProScience Greenie on Feb 26, 2015 at 1:29 pm

So few details on how and why this family came to the Yukon.

Mexico is a fairly modern country with decent healthcare and it is full of wonderful people. It's not like they are being shipped back to a poverty stricken war zone of a country in which case a claim for refugee status could be taken seriously. This couple and their kids will be fine.

Up 1 Down 11

Pffff on Feb 25, 2015 at 10:10 pm

What a negative Yukon….I guess those of you posting such negativities don't have kids, or if you do, you wouldn't go to the ends of the earth for them. Ever been to Mexico? I know where I would rather live…in a safe, rich, stable wonderful country I call Canada. I would do whatever I had to do to stay here. Even more so to stay in the Yukon. I also know as a person involved with the younger generation what employers say…."Texting on the job, late, doesn't call in, antisocial due to phone…" reasons NOT to hire local. Not that I'm all for ousting Yukoners…but you'd better talk to the YP then about hiring across Canada and throwing out any local hire or FN hires….talk the the number of university graduates who accessed $25,000+ in Yukon grants and they can't even get a job interview. Look around at the government departments and who heads them---not a whole lot of Yukoners, and by Yukoner, I don't mean somebody who came here within the last 10 years and thinks they own the gd place. I hope something works out for this family but it looks pretty bad.

Up 20 Down 3

Francias Pillman on Feb 25, 2015 at 2:34 pm

What's with people from Mexico who think they can go to the States or Canada illegally and then have kids and get automatic citizenship? Oh wait, because it's the norm in the USA. But if I want to to live in the USA I have a million hoops to jump through?

Up 16 Down 1

Josey Wales on Feb 25, 2015 at 7:36 am

Sure Leef let us bend the law....it is after all an election year eh?
Leef I've voted blue near my whole time...till this year.
Since I cannot even give thought to voting commi orange, double/triple dipping red, nor engineered green...guess I do other things on voting day.

Your bosses TFL program has destroyed opportunities for many in this country, well for Canadians anyway.
I hope you and your boss are proud, as I did not think it possible...till recently.
When your team has heads rolling and fires/jails folks over the High River/Slave Lake AND G-20 Waffen SS exercises?
I may reCONsider...I ain't holding my breath on that one.

Up 4 Down 17

Julius Caesar on Feb 24, 2015 at 9:03 pm

I commend Ryan Leef for his efforts. That is the job of an MP, to serve the people of his riding and not only walk behind Big Brother Harper.

Up 26 Down 1

north_of_60 on Feb 24, 2015 at 7:53 pm

The politicians appear to be sending the message that it's OK to cheat the immigration system if your anchor baby has 'special needs'. That's a totally 'untenable' position for an elected politician. Oh right, it's an election year.
Anchor babies are not a viable excuse to bypass the law. This looks like pandering to the latest unjustified public opinion to garner votes.

Why are none of the social media do-gooders volunteering to let the child live with them while the parents go home and apply legally, just like every other immigrant must do? These are the same bleeding-heart do-gooders who will complain if the health care system can't respond to their needs in a timely manner while conveniently ignoring the burden that illegal immigrants place on our taxpayer supported health care system.

Up 29 Down 1

Thomas Brewer on Feb 24, 2015 at 6:01 pm

I understand that my comment is likely to prove itself unpopular and be lathered in vitriol however I feel hard questions need to be asked and it's apparent that the media isn't.....

3/4 of this family are not Canadian. What are the circumstances surrounding the birth in Canada of the child in question? Did they come to Canada specifically to abuse our immigration and citizenship rules? Is the family contributing to the Canadian economy or are they a drain on it (i.e. working vs. social assistance). What's their connection to Yukon/Canada and what's their support network?

There are so many demands on our health care (and other) systems in this country. We need to ensure they're being used effectively and legally.

Up 30 Down 0

June Jackson on Feb 24, 2015 at 5:30 pm

"Wendy Cukier, founder, Diversity Institute in Management and Technology at Ryerson University, in a presentation, cites a study (Watt et al.,2008) that shows that 40 per cent of immigrants who entered Canada in the skilled worker or business class left Canada within their first 10 years.
A previous study by Statistics Canada indicated that one-third of male immigrants (aged 25 to 45 at the time of landing) left Canada within 20 years after arrival. More than half of those who left did so within the first year of arrival." quoted from Baisakhi Roy.

All that being said.. is Canada actually doing anything right? 500 Tamil Tiger Sri Lankan warriors got to stay in Canada because they managed to get off an illegal boat..yet, qualified doctors, lawyers (not that we need any more of them), nurses, teachers, and other professionals wait in line trying to get here legally.. and Rojas got the press to fight his battle. I am sorry for the child.. how have this family been living? Are his tax records public domain? Have they put one penny into Canada that they are expecting millions of dollars of service in return?

There is a reason they are being deported.. too bad the paper didn't see fit to reveal it.

On another note..I think Canada is close to broke...our economy sucks.. how many more burdens can we afford to carry.. BTW..I am an immigrant..when I came to Canada you had to speak English, have a trade and someone willing to give you a job. The welfare office had a bus ticket out for you if you showed up there. Today they show up at the welfare office and get Yukon Housing, clothing vouchers, free dental, medical, drugs and preference over available jobs. Something is wrong in Canada.

Up 26 Down 0

wondering what's the full story? on Feb 24, 2015 at 5:18 pm

How did they get here? Why did they choose the Yukon? Where were they working? (or what funds did they use to live here?) What was the basis for the deportation order? ... a lot of unanswered questions in this article and the last one the Star did.

If this family and their supporters are looking for back up from the public for their application, it would be helpful to know what the full story is.

Up 17 Down 34

Frank Michigan on Feb 24, 2015 at 2:46 pm

Ryan's CBC interview may be his finest moment as our MP.
Thanks for your support in this situation Ryan- I hope things work out for this family.

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