A national group of child psychiatrists is calling on Ottawa to stop deporting the parents of Canadian children.
In their May issue, the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (CACAP) says the federal government’s approach to deportations is putting the mental health of Canadian children at risk.
“[CACAP] notes that the best interests of the child are almost always served by the parent NOT being removed,” says the article, signed by the editor in chief and the chair of the CACAP advocacy committee.
“The mental health needs and rights of the child should supersede other state obligations except in situations in which there are specific and significant risks to the child and/or society if a deportation did not occur.”
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it does not track how many Canadian children are separated from parents by deportation or the impact.
CBC Edmonton is following the stories of two such families who say their children are facing a range of mental health challenges.
In a response to CBC, the agency maintains it “always considers the best interest of the child before removing someone.”
A spokesperson said that could mean delaying a removal to finish the school year or attend a medical appointment. The CBSA will also facilitate travel “if the parents choose to take their children back to their country of nationality,” a spokesperson wrote.
Marco Mendicino, the federal public safety minister, declined CBC’s request for an interview.
Community advocates call on Ottawa to reconsider Halima Abdi’s deportation to avoid harming her Canadian-born children.
“What we can’t get our head around is how they’re deciding that separating children from their parents could possibly be in the best interest of the child,” said Dr. John McLennan, the editor in chief of the CACAP Journal and a physician at the University of Calgary, who researches children’s mental health.
In a recent interview, McLennan said it’s hard to imagine what type of scenario would justify separating mother and child apart from abuse or terrorism.
He said it’s incumbent on the CBSA to reveal its decision-making process to instill confidence or allow experts to advise on needed changes.
“Who’s making that decision? Is it somebody that has expertise in child mental health? It would seem unlikely because people that are aware of child health and child mental health could see how this would be damaging.”
Rationalizing that deportees can take their children allows the government to abdicate its responsibility to ensure citizenship rights are fully realized and children are safe, McLennan said.
A CBSA spokesperson told CBC the agency “engages mental health experts if medical concerns are brought forward when arranging a removal from Canada.”
Our government still fails to recognize what racism looks like– Dunia Nur
In Edmonton, Halima Abdi has been in hiding to evade a deporation order for nearly a year now. She faces the terrible choice of leaving her children with her husband in Edmonton or taking them to Kenya where she says her family is the target of extrajudicial killings.
According to Abdi’s advocate, her self-imposed exile is already taking a toll.
Dunia Nur said it has undermined the bond between Abdi and her children who are anxious and acting out.
“As the president of the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council and my background as a social worker, I will tell you that those children are being prepared for the prison industrial complex system,” Dunia Nur said.
“If you want to ruin a child’s life, take their primary caregiver away, remove and break that attachment and that bond between the child and their primary caregiver.”
Nur said Abdi’s children are facing discrimination by the Trudeau government despite its acknowledgement of anti-Black racism and the ongoing harms of slavery and colonialism, as a signatory to the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent.
“Their mother happens to be a Black woman of African descent who’s Muslim, so she will not get the same treatment and consequently the children will pay a great price because our government still fails to recognize what racism looks like,” Nur said.
Additional commentary in the CACAP Journal, written by two refugee lawyers with Legal Aid Ontario, says Canada’s current approach also undermines its legal obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Andrew Brouwer and Allison Rhoades say the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration that cannot easily be outweighed by other considerations.
“The status quo is causing serious harm and must come to an end,” they wrote. “We as advocates for children from all disciplines must work together to ensure that our government takes the rights of children seriously.”
The agency says Canada seeks to balance UN obligations while adhering to legislative requirements including the removal as soon as possible of people who are inadmissible to Canada.
“Having a Canadian-born child does not prevent the removal of a foreign national.”