With less than one week until the removal date, Defence for Children International-Canada (DCI-Canada) today asked federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to stay the deportation of a 4 year old Canadian-born disabled boy and his family, so that their immigration case can be reconsidered.

The Carnales family—Daniel and Veronica, and their two children Aaron and Santiago— are facing deportation to Uruguay with a removal date of March 13, 2008. The family’s applications for refugee status and an exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds were both denied. Aaron Carnales, age 4, was born in Canada and has Down syndrome. As a Canadian citizen, Aaron is entitled to remain in Canada, but his parents and brother are not.

“We are pleading with the Minister to intervene before time runs out on the Carnales family,” stated Les Horne, Executive Director of DCI-Canada. “If this deportation order is enforced, the family will have to choose between leaving Aaron behind in Canada where there is no one to care for him, and bringing Aaron to Uruguay, where he will lose the health and developmental services that he relies on here in Canada.”

In a letter to federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley, DCI-Canada today asked the Minister to use her power under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to stay the deportation of the Carnales family so that they can make a fresh application for an exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. DCICanada argues that the government was missing an enormous amount of relevant information when it denied the family’s original application for an exemption, and therefore the case was not decided on its true merits.

Meanwhile, more than 700 people have signed an on-line petition calling on the federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister to allow the Carnales family to stay in Canada. The petition, available at http://www.petitiononline.com/verdasan/petition.html states that the Carnales family “deserves Canada’s compassion,” and asks the Minister to “give meaning to the words humanitarian and compassionate” by granting the family an exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Many of the signatories posted personal statements of support for the Carnales family.

Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has the power to grant permanent residency to a person who does not otherwise meet immigration rules. This is known as an exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1999 that the Minister must consider the best interests of affected children when deciding an application for a ministerial exemption on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. This decision recognized that the rights set out in United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child play an important role in defining Canada’s humanitarian and compassionate values.

“We remind the Minister that there are two children whose lives will be profoundly and severely affected by deportation to Uruguay,” said Les Horne. “In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we ask the Minister to make the best interests of these children a primary consideration when making this decision. Give this family some time to make a thorough and complete application.”