Please sign and share: https://www.change.org/p/urgent-bring-at-risk-father-and-young-daughters-8-and-12-home-to-canada

We have one week to prevent a tragedy. During the week of June 15, the LAST Canadian flight out of Haiti for the foreseeable future will be taking off from Port au Prince airport. We need you to sign and share this petition to ensure these two girls can board the plane with their Canadian-born father. Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino needs to Issue Temporary Resident Permits to Save the Lives of Rosena (12), Amaika (8) and their fragile father, Sebastien. 

These girls MUST be allowed to board that plane with their father and keep this family together and be reunited with the girls' mother, Marie Paule, in BC.

How can the Canadian government justify its position, which is currently to allow a fragile Canadian father, Sebastien, to return home, but bar entry to that same flight for his two adopted daughters, who would have no one to care for them in an increasingly desperate country? What parent would abandon their kids? What government would force such an impossible "choice" on a family when there are plenty of precedents to end the fear and uncertainty they have experienced every day for the past two months?

You can also send a letter or call:

Sample email
Subject Line: Please Issue Temporary Resident Permits to Rosena Luz Saint Louis, aged 12, and Amaika Clairazur Celestin, aged 8

To: IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca, Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca

Cc: Francois-Philippe.Champagne@parl.gc.ca, Soraya.MartinezFerrada@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca

Dear Minister Mendicino,
During the week of June 15, the LAST Canadian flight out of Haiti for the foreseeable future will be taking off from Port au Prince airport. We need your help to reach out your hand and save three members of a family who have been desperately trying to come home for the past two months.

I am writing to demand that you exercise your power under Section 25.1 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Humanitarian and compassionate considerations) to issue Temporary Resident Permits to Rosena Luz Saint Louis, aged 12, and Amaika Clairazur Celestin, aged 8, of Jacmel, Haiti, so they can accompany their fragile father Sebastien De Marre home to Canada and be reunited with their mother, Marie-Paule.

As you likely know from the news, the situation in Haiti – the country in the Americas least able to handle the pandemic – is deteriorating rapidly. All family members are at grave risk. Testing and tracing is almost non-existent, and health clinics are being attacked. One of the girls' school teachers has died from the virus. A pandemic clinic was burned to the ground.

Your office has issued similar permits to other Canadian parents, allowing them to bring adopted Haitian kids to Canada. The children’s application for permits – with all the necessary supporting documents that show what a loving, strong family they are – was sent to your office April 24, 2020. The family has been trying to resolve this matter since the beginning of April.

There is nothing complicated in this request. You can issue a permit immediately. Failure to do so will have tragic consequences. Should Sebastien succumb to COVID-19, the girls will be left abandoned in a country where they are ripe for sexual exploitation. This is unacceptable and easily preventable.

(Feel free to add in a personal statement at the end—ie, “As a parent, I cannot imagine the impossible choice before Sebastien right now” or “People’s lives should not be at risk because of bureaucratic paperwork issues”, etc.

Your Name
Address

Call Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino at 613-992-6361, 416-781-5583
Sample phone message (leave one if you get the answering machine)
Hi, my name is XXXXX and I'm calling from TOWN, PROVINCE. I’m calling to support Sebastien De Marre and his two daughters, Rosena and Amaika. The Canadian government must allow the two girls onto the flight from Haiti next week. The girls need Temporary Resident Permits immediately to escape Haiti, where the COVID-19 virus is spreading rapidly and threatening all of them. Please issue the permits today so they can get on a plane next week with their dad and be reunited with their mom in Canada. It's the right thing to do. Thank you."