Canada can be soft with deportation orders

Montreal: In the wake of Laibar Singh case, a Punjabi who is awaiting deportation, Canada has shown its soft face too. In the case of Montes Gonzalez, Minister Diane Finley specially intervened and stopped the deportation orders of her three grandchildren awaiting deportation and an uncertain future in Mexico.

As she heard the order that she should escape possible deportation, she cried in her small Montreal apartment. Fighting back tears, as she learned through an interpreter that she was not to have to return, she said she is happy that her grandchildren can grow n safety.

The family has lived in the city since October 2005 after fleeing Mexico following the murders of the children’s parents in an apparent drug-related settling of accounts.

Montes Gonzalez said she feared returning to Mexico, where she had been threatened following the murders of her daughter and son-in-law by criminals and law enforcement officials.

Despite acknowledging the slayings, the Canadian government had ordered the family deported on Jan. 21 before the minister granted a two-year temporary ministerial permit allowing them to stay in Canada.

The decision followed pleas from the family in December.

The grandchildren said they were pleased to continue to go to school and stay with their friends in Quebec.

"I’m happy, but at the same time nothing is 100 per cent sure," said Javier Montes Gonzalez, adding his family will have to wait and see what happens next.

"The decision is not completely clear at this point," said William Sloan, the family’s lawyer. "It certainly means they’re not planning to deport them in the immediate future, but does it mean that they’re accepting to review the negative decision?"

Sloan said he’s seeking clarification from the government.

Refugee advocate Rick Goldman, who has been working on behalf of the family, said the reprieve was a good sign.

"It would seem that the government has had a change of heart otherwise it could have proceeded with the deportation," Goldman said.

Its impact on other cases remain to be seen as Punjabi community have been quite often been allegding that immigration authorities are softer in cases of other communities than with them . This case is going to give fodder to Laibar Singh case who is facing deportation to India.