MONTREAL - A family from France who were told they could not remain in Canada because their 8-year-old handicapped daughter would be an “excessive burden” on social services has won a reprieve after the intervention of Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil.
David Barlagne’s family will be allowed to stay in Montreal, after an agreement between the federal and provincial immigration departments, Weil’s spokesperson Renaud Dugas said Wednesday.
“We had discussions with (Ottawa) and found a solution that will allow the family to stay,” Dugas said.
The family were facing expulsion from Canada in July after Canadian immigration officials rejected Barlagne’s application for permanent residency status, saying his daughter, Rachel, was deemed “medically inadmissible” because she has cerebral palsy.
Her “excessive burden” on social services would have amounted to $5,259 a year in special educational costs.
After the family held a news conference last week, asking federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to let them stay on humanitarian grounds, several federal and provincial politicians gave the family their support.
Barlagne moved to Montreal from the French island of Guadeloupe in 2005 on a work permit after he says a Canadian embassy official in Paris told him his daughter’s medical condition would not prevent him from staying here permanently.
The embassy official maintains he told Barlagne no such thing.
Immigration officials in Ottawa contend Barlagne withheld details about Rachel’s medical condition on immigration documents both before and after he arrived in Canada.
Barlagne maintains he has been honest with immigration officials every step of the way.
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