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Looking for a safe place to call home
Mother afraid child faces female circumcision in Nigeria
Government reviewing application on humanitarian grounds
The Toronto Star, Maureen Murray, Staff Reporter, March 16,
2004
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KEN FAUGHT/TORONTO STAR |
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Nigerian-born Joy Bernard is fighting deportation after
her refugee claim was denied. She fears her Canadian-born
daughter, Jennifer, 7, would be at risk back home but
doesn't want to leave her behind. |
Joy Bernard has no memory of when she was circumcised by a
village elder in her native Nigeria.
But she dreads the same fate befalling her 7-year-old
Canadian-born daughter if they return to Bernard's homeland.
"It happened to me. Definitely it is going to happen to her,
too, if I go back there," she said. "The environment is not
going to be good for her."
Bernard, 30, is a failed refugee claimant who has an
immigration removal order hanging over her head. She is the
sole emotional and financial support for her daughter in
Canada, and she can't bear the thought of simply leaving
Jennifer in the hands of child-welfare officials.
"Who am I going to leave her with? A stranger? How could I
leave my child with a stranger?" a tearful Bernard asked.
Her removal order has been temporarily stayed while
immigration officials consider her humanitarian and
compassionate application. It asks that she be allowed to
remain in the country on the grounds that she and her daughter
would be at undue risk back in Nigeria.
But so far things have
not gone Bernard's way. Last month an immigration
risk-assessment officer noted in his report that Edo State,
where Bernard hails from in Nigeria, banned female genital
mutilation in October, 2000. "The applicant has provided
insufficient evidence that she would be unable to approach the
authorities in Edo State for assistance," if Bernard's father
tried to force Jennifer to undergo the procedure.
Bernard argued that as a single mother, she would have no
choice but to live with her elderly and traditional father if
she returned to Nigeria. She said her father and community
elders would demand that the little girl undergo the
procedure, particularly since Jennifer was born out of
wedlock.
In certain cultures, female circumcision is seen as a way to
curb sexual promiscuity.
"In Edo State, most of the women have had it done. I don't
know anyone who has not had it done," Bernard said. "Who am I
going to report it to?" In the face of long-held tradition and
custom, new laws on the books have done little to do away with
the practice, she said.
A 2003 report by the World Health Organization estimated that
about 60 per cent of Nigeria's female population has endured
female genital mutilation. The report says that according to
local experts, the "actual prevalence may be as high as 100
per cent in some ethnic enclaves in the south," which includes
Edo State.
Bernard came to Canada in 1996, when she was about five
months' pregnant. She told the Immigration and Refugee Board
hearing that she fled Nigeria after she and her mother were
arrested and physically brutalized for participating in a
political demonstration. Her lawyer didn't raise the issue of
female circumcision and the board rejected Bernard's story.
Dorothy Igharo, 33, was in the same position as Bernard two
years ago, fighting to keep her then 2-year-old daughter in
Canada out of fear she would be circumcised on their return to
Nigeria. "I myself was a victim of (female genital
mutilation)," Igharo said.
"These local women who perform this ritual, they don't know
about sterilizing tools. You could be exposed to deadly
diseases, even death." Igharo said she wanted to speak out on
Bernard's behalf because she empathizes and understands how
difficult it is for a young mother to stand up against this
deeply rooted ritualistic practice.
"The only way you can stop it is to keep this child in
Canada," she said.
Geraldine Sadoway, a staff lawyer at Parkdale Community Legal
Services, which is acting on Bernard's behalf, said she's
concerned that so far, immigration officials don't seem to
have taken the best interest of a Canadian-born child into
account.
"The risk to her daughter is really outrageous," Sadoway said.
"We're dealing very clearly with a child, a Canadian-citizen
child who is very, very vulnerable."
The option of separating mother and child is equally
untenable, she said. "Depriving her of her mother, her only
caregiver, is a complete violation of the rights of a child."
Sadoway pointed out that the new Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act, which came into effect in June, 2002, now
includes a clause directing department officials to consider
the best interest of a child when making their decisions.
Sheilagh O'Connell took Bernard's case to family court last
October to ask a judge to prohibit the removal of her child
from Ontario. At the same time, O'Connell asked the judge to
confirm Bernard as Jennifer's sole guardian. "The hope was
that the (family court order) based on the best interest of
the child would stay the enforcement of the removal order."
In Igharo's case, immigration officials eventually allowed her
to stay after a family court judge awarded her legal custody
of her daughter and passed an order that the child not be
removed from Ontario.
In Bernard's situation, the court put the matter on hold,
after immigration officials agreed to delay sending Bernard
back to Nigeria until her case was considered one last time on
the basis of humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Tsering Nanglu, of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said
despite the finding that Bernard, a home-care worker, and her
daughter will not face undue risk in Nigeria, "the
(humanitarian and compassionate) officer is going to look at
all the other issues. They'll definitely look at the best
interest of the child and how well this person has established
herself."
Isaac Acheampong, assistant pastor of the All Nations Full
Gospel Church on Steeles Ave. W., said he has known Bernard
for six years. "She's in the choir singing or taking care of
children in the nursery. She's very close to her child.
Wherever she goes, the child is with her," he said. "She has
been able to lead a life that I admire."
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