Family Told to Leave Canada Because Daughter has Cerebral Palsy

A family that immigrated to Montreal, Canada from France is now being told that they need to leave Canada because their daughter has cerebral palsy. Montreal officials state that she “places an excessive burden on social services.”

The Barlagne family came to Montreal in 2005 for Mr. Barlagne’s new job, and had told the government ahead of time that their daughter had cerebral palsy. The immigration officials assured Mr. Barlagne that it was not an issue, and even told him that when the business was more concrete he could apply for residency for his daughter. Now that his business is doing very well, he applied for residency for his family. However, Canadian Immigration denied his request because in their words, his daughter is “medically inadmissible.”

Rachel does attend a special school but has not required any medical attention, let alone special medical services. To stay in Montreal, Mr. Barlagne has told Immigration that he would even pay out of pocket for his daughter’s rehab services (because she can not walk or talk very well and will need rehabilitation therapy). The Barlagne family is upset because representatives told them everything would be fine, and then once they arrived and contributed years to Quebec, they are not allowed to stay.

They have a review in court next month, but they are still on pins and needles because their lives are so unstable at the moment. If the court decides that the government is correct in their decision, the family must leave Quebec immediately and go back to France. If they win, another immigration official will look at their case and everything starts over again. There is no assurance that this exact situation will not happen again after the court case.

The government has said that they expect Rachel could cost $5,000 more in medical services than a “normal” kid.

Even though the family was told that Rachel’s disability was fine when they were immigrating from Paris, and they contributed a lot to Quebec, the Citizenship and Immigration officials said that it is their goal “to maintain an appropriate balance between welcoming new members into Canadian society while protecting our publicly funded health and social services, including the potential impact on waiting lists.”

What do you think about Canada’s position on this? What do you think the United States would do if faced with this type of decision? Do you agree or disagree with Canada’s policies?