Global Courant 2023-04-25 16:00:00
A national group of child psychiatrists is calling on Ottawa to stop deporting parents of Canadian children.
In their May issue, the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (CACAP) says the federal government’s approach to deportations is endangering the mental health of Canadian children.
“(CACAP) notes that the best interests of the child are almost always served when the parent is NOT removed,” says the article, signed by the editor-in-chief and the chair of the CACAP advocacy committee.
“The mental health needs and rights of the child should take precedence over other state obligations, except in situations where there are specific and significant risks to the child and/or society if no deportation takes place.”
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it does not track how many Canadian children have been separated from their parents through deportation or the impact.
CBC Edmonton follows the stories of two such families who say their children are facing a range of mental health issues.
In a response to CBC, the agency claims it “always considers the best interests of the child before removing anyone.”
A spokesperson said this could mean delaying a move to finish the school year or to go to a medical appointment. The CBSA will also facilitate travel “if the parents choose to take their children back to their country of nationality,” a spokesperson wrote.
Marco Mendicino, the federal minister of public safety, declined CBC’s request for an interview.
Edmonton’s mother went into hiding to avoid deportation
Community advocates are calling on Ottawa to reconsider the deportation of Halima Abdi to prevent harm to her Canadian-born children.
“What we can’t get over is how they decide that separating children from their parents could potentially be in the child’s best interest,” said Dr. John McLennan, the editor-in-chief of the CACAP Journal and a physician at the University of Calgary who researches children’s mental health.
In a recent interview, McLennan said it’s hard to imagine what kind of scenario would warrant separating mother and child, aside from abuse or terrorism.
He said the CBSA’s job is to publicize its decision-making process to build confidence or enable experts to advise on necessary changes.
“Who makes that decision? Is it someone who has expertise in children’s mental health? It seems unlikely because people who are aware of children’s health and children’s mental health can see how harmful this would be .”
By rationalizing that deportees can take their children, the government can abdicate its responsibility to ensure that citizenship rights are fully realized and that children are safe, McLennan said.
A CBSA spokesperson told CBC that the agency “engages mental health experts if medical concerns are brought up in arranging a removal from Canada.”
Our government still doesn’t understand what racism looks like– Dunia Nur
In Edmonton, Halima Abdi has been hiding for almost a year to evade an eviction order. She faces the terrible choice of leaving her children with her husband in Edmonton or taking them to Kenya, where she says her family is the target of extrajudicial killings.
According to Abdi’s lawyer, her self-imposed exile is already taking its toll.
Dunia Nur said it has undermined the bond between Abdi and her children, who are anxious and aggressive.
“As chair of the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council and my background as a social worker, I will tell you that those kids are being prepared for the industrial prison system,” said Dunia Nur.
“If you want to ruin a child’s life, take away their primary caregiver, remove and break that attachment and bond between the child and their primary caregiver.”
Nur said Abdi’s children are discriminated against by the Trudeau administration, despite its recognition of anti-black racism and the continued harm of slavery and colonialism, as a signatory to the UN Decade for People of African Descent.
“Their mother happens to be a black woman of African descent who is Muslim, so she won’t get the same treatment and consequently the children will pay a high price because our government still doesn’t recognize what racism looks like,” Nur said.
Additional commentary in the CACAP Journal, written by two refugee lawyers from Legal Aid Ontario, says Canada’s current approach also undermines its legal obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Andrew Brouwer and Allison Rhoades say that the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration that cannot be easily outweighed by other considerations.
“The status quo is causing serious damage and it must end,” they wrote. “We as advocates for children from all disciplines must work together to ensure that our government takes children’s rights seriously.”
The agency says Canada is trying to balance UN obligations while complying with legal requirements, including removing people who are ineligible in Canada as soon as possible.
“Having a child born in Canada does not prevent removal of a foreign national.”
