Crooked in Canada

Laeticia Angba’s father lied to Canadian immigration officials when he and his daughter arrived in Canada when she was just seven years old, and because of that lie Laeticia has been fighting to stave off deportation since 2005.

She is claiming that immigration officials aren’t being fair because they are making her accountable for her father’s actions. That being said, here’s what I think happened in 1996 and the ensuing years.

In 1996, perhaps even sooner, Laeticia’s father decides that he wants to leave the Ivory Coast to make a better life for him and his daughter, but for whatever reason Laeticia’s mother isn’t included in those plans.

Now depending how desperate her father was (since the Angba’s lived in Ivory Coast it’s almost certain he would have been very desperate to start a new life somewhere), he would have done whatever it takes to get refugee status or some sort of immigration status in Canada, including marrying a Canadian woman if that’s what it took.
 
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that in order for his plan to work Laeticia’s father would have had to tell his seven-year-old daughter that when they get to Canada they will have to pretend that “mommy” is dead. He would have had to convince his daughter to lie otherwise his plan wouldn’t have worked. Laeticia at this point can’t be blamed for her father’s actions, and for lying to immigration authorities/caseworkers herself, who undoubtedly would have asked her about her mother if they were doing their job properly.
 
During the next nine years Laeticia’s father marries a Canadian woman while he still has a wife in Ivory Coast. He would have had to have lied when he applied for his marriage license too.
 
Laeticia goes to school, gets an education during that nine years and her father applies to sponsor Laeticia so that she can stay in Canada. Once her father does that, the lie that her father asked her to tell in 1996 comes back to haunt them both. 

Laeticia would now have to conspire with her father to keep that lie concealed. She is now a willing participant, she can no longer hide behind her age when it comes to knowingly telling a lie.
 
Both Laeticia and her father would be required to fill out the necessary paperwork in order for Mr. Angba to sponsor his daughter and they would have been able to do it together in the comfort of their own home. In that paperwork there would have been questions regarding Laeticia’s mother and other family members living in Ivory Coast and Canada. It is one of those questions that would have asked the status of her mother, and it is that question she would have had to have answered with the lie that her father told her to tell a few years earlier if the application is to be approved.

I’m not saying that she didn’t tell the truth when she filled out  her immigration paperwork (and considering she is now facing deportation because her father has been caught out in the lie he told in 1996, it’s quite possible she unwittingly told the truth) but somehow I doubt it, after all both her and her father were able to fill the paperwork out in the comfort of the own home and they would have done it together and I’m sure her father would have wanted to make sure their stories matched so to speak. It is at this point where Laeticia, now a teenager, can take responsibility for her actions.

I’m convinced that the now teenage Laeticia conspired with her father to perpetuate the lie that was told to immigration authorities in 1996, and now that she is facing deportation she is likely telling other lies to save her ass, which I think most of us would do if we were in her shoes. While I feel bad that she might have to leave Canada, she was old enough to know better when her father started sponsorship proceedings, and as far as I’m concerned it is at that time she became a willing participant in her father’s scam. That doesn’t make her bad person, it just makes her look like she deliberately went out of her way to scam immigration and it is for that reason I think she is facing deportation.

For her to say that immigration isn’t being fair is unjust, after all Laeticia could have come clean and told the truth a long time ago, but she didn’t for whatever reason. Had she had told the truth when she had the chance to she might have prevented this difficult time in her teenage life.
 
Personally speaking, I don’t think the Immigration and Refugee Board should issue a deportation order against Laeticia, but if that is what they decide to do I can’t fault them for just doing their job. I don’t think it would be unjust.

Perhaps (and I’m not saying it will work) she should look for another sponsor, a legitimate one. It might prevent her from being deported, but if she is deported it might help her to get back into Canada sooner.

An aside: in case anybody is wondering, I have gone through the immigration process here in Australia (in fact I still am) and my wife is sponsoring me. I know how it works and the hoops both my wife and I have had to jump through. Like I said earlier, Laeticia and her father would have to conspire to ensure that his lie wasn’t uncovered and by the sounds of it, she was a willing participant, if only to get a visa that allowed her to stay in Canada.