She lost her mom in South Africa. Legal issues are keeping her from family in B.C.

A B.C. woman says she's spent the past two years fighting to bring her great-niece to Canada, ever since the girl was discovered struggling to survive near her mother's body on their remote South African farm property. 

Lisa Pyne-Mercier, 52, who has been named the legal guardian of nine-year-old Ryleigh Ridland, describes the international child custody case as a tangled mess that's left the girl living with a foster family in South Africa while she battles for custody from thousands of kilometres away in Shawnigan Lake, B.C.

According to Pyne-Mercier, a teacher made the grisly discovery when she went to check on the girl on Jan. 9, 2021. Ryleigh was taken to hospital where she was treated for malaria, dehydration and malnutrition, then placed in foster care. 

Ryleigh's 31-year-old mother, Jackie Ridland, had died at least eight days earlier, according to authorities, leaving the traumatized girl, then seven, struggling to survive alone in 40 C heat on a rural property near the South African town of Tzaneen, about 360 kilometres northeast of the administrative capital of Pretoria.

"She's a survivor," said Pyne-Mercier of her great-niece. "She had to survive. There was no one around when her mother passed."

Pyne-Mercier, originally from South Africa herself, was confirmed as the child's legal guardian by a South African High Court on June 28, 2022.

But almost two years since Ryleigh's mother died, Pyne-Mercier says she's faced many administrative hurdles trying to bring the girl to Canada. The main sticking points include the fact that the girl's father still lives in South Africa, and that Jackie Ridland named her aunt, Pyne-Mercier, as Ryleigh's guardian in her will, making the case unusual, as most involve a more direct family member being named guardian.

On Jan. 4, the High Commission of Canada in South Africa, which provides visa and immigration services, wrote a letter to deny Ryleigh's latest application for permanent residence, saying that she does not meet the requirements to immigrate to this country, even after considering all compassionate grounds. 

"Though you meet the definition of an orphan under South African law due to abandonment by your biological father, you are not an orphan under Canadian law, the jurisdiction of this present application, because your biological father remains living. In addition, your sponsor does not meet one of the prescribed relationships as she is neither your sibling, your direct aunt as defined, nor your grandparent."

Now, both applications for Ryleigh's permanent residence and a study permit have been denied, according to letter sent the great-aunt and shared with CBC. 

Pyne-Mercier says the "cruel" decision is "separating a family because a box has not been ticked." She now plans to try to formally adopt her great-niece, but worries it may be another long, expensive process, that may end in a denial. She says she's already spent close to $20,000 trying to help Ryleigh and bring her to Canada.

"It definitely has surprised me as to how long it's taken and all the red tape and all the bureaucratic nonsense," said Pyne-Mercier. "We are talking about a vulnerable little girl … the system has let this child down."

Long before her niece's death, Pyne-Mercier says she tried to keep in touch with Ryleigh via instant messenger. She said she knew that Ryleigh's mother, a survivor of abuse, had struggled with her mental health.

Documents CBC obtained from the coroner who examined the body say Jackie Ridland's death was natural, but the exact cause of death remains a mystery, given that her body had decomposed in the stifling heat.