How can a child seeking protection in Canada be taken out of the country — and how can allegations of sexual abuse be dismissed as a “cultural difference”?

I am a mother of two young girls, and I am asking for urgent public support because my family has been trapped in a devastating system where the institutions that were supposed to protect my children have, in my view, repeatedly failed them.

My six-year-old daughter, Elaine, is a refugee claimant in Canada. Despite her immigration and protection status, and despite my repeated objections, she was removed from Canada and taken abroad under the authority of a Canadian court order.

I did not voluntarily send my child away. I repeatedly raised concerns about her safety and objected to her being taken outside Canada. The police enforced a Quebec court order in Ontario — without that order ever being registered or recognized by an Ontario court, as required by Ontario's Children's Law Reform Act. Yet my daughter was nevertheless taken out of the country, with police involvement, and placed outside the protection of the Canadian system.

But this is only part of what happened to my family.

My 11-year-old daughter, Sarah, has made serious disclosures concerning sexualized conduct and alleged abuse involving her stepfather. These concerns were communicated to professionals. Instead of receiving the level of protection I expected, I was confronted with the suggestion that perhaps the problem was related to “culture.”

Sexual abuse of a child is not a cultural difference. A child disclosing sexual abuse deserves to be heard, protected and properly investigated — regardless of the parents' nationality, culture, immigration status or family circumstances.

Where is the accountability?

My experience has left me deeply concerned about institutional failures and possible conflicts between family-court decisions, child-protection responsibilities, police intervention and immigration/refugee protection.

I am asking for independent scrutiny. I want the decisions and actions surrounding my children's cases to be independently reviewed. I want allegations of sexual abuse to be investigated objectively. I want authorities to examine how a child seeking protection in Canada could be taken outside the country while serious protection concerns remained unresolved.

I want my children to be treated as human beings whose safety comes before institutional convenience.

Children are not property. They are not case numbers. A refugee claimant child should not become invisible because different institutions are pointing at one another. When a child reports sexual abuse, the first response should never be to question whether the child's protection concerns are merely a matter of culture.

Children deserve to be believed, heard, protected and investigated fairly.

I am therefore asking Canadians, international organizations, child-protection advocates, journalists, lawyers and human-rights organizations to stand with us and demand:

An independent review of the circumstances surrounding Elaine's removal from Canada and her continued situation outside Canada. Urgent protection and a safe return process for my refugee-claimant child. An independent review of how the sexual-abuse allegations concerning my daughter Sarah were handled. Accountability where institutional failures, negligence, intimidation or conflicts of interest are established. Protection for children regardless of culture, nationality, immigration status or family circumstances. An end to the treatment of children's safety as secondary to procedural or jurisdictional disputes.

I am one mother, but this is bigger than my family. If this can happen to my children, it can happen to another child.

Please sign this petition. Share it. Demand an independent investigation. Help make sure that children seeking protection are actually protected.

My children are not a case file. They are not property. They are human beings. And they deserve to be safe