She just wants her baby back
Published:Monday | November 1, 2010 | 12:00 AM
A Jamaican woman will face an immigration hearing today which will ultimately decide whether she will get back her six-month-old baby.
The motion filed with the Federal Court of Canada, on behalf of Lakia Spacey, 30, to stay her deportation, which is set for Tuesday, is intended to keep the mother of two in Canada until her baby is returned to her.
"I just can't understand what the big problem is," said Kellogg, Spacey's immigration consultant, who is also a former immigration officer.
"If this person was a criminal, then fine, get rid of her. But she's not. The Canadian government is being too severe and not sensitive to this situation," Kellogg, a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, told The Gleaner yesterday.
According to Sun Media reports, Halton Children's Aid Society took the baby into custody last March. At the time, the baby was in Burlington, just west of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), at the James Brant Memorial Hospital.
Child welfare workers claimed the baby was in danger because Spacey, who was in Canada illegally, did not have a regular home.
"If she does leave," Kellogg said, "she loses any chance of getting custody of her child."
Kellogg's confidence was on edge as he estimated that Spacey had a 15 per cent chance of being allowed to stay past her deportation date.
"It depends on the judge," he said. "The dads and mums will stand up for her."
The mother, who arrived in Toronto in 2001 and overstayed her visa, is being held at the Rexdale Boulevard Immigration Detention Center located in the north-western region of the GTA, a short distance away from the Pearson International Airport.
Hopeful
"There is not much anybody can do but hope and pray for her," Kellogg said.
According to the immigration consultant, Spacey said the biological father of her six-month-old baby was threatening her and, because she had no legal status, she was unable to file a police report.
A family court will decide on the fate of the baby on December 9.