Woman facing removal from Canada over fake letter loses judicial review
CBC
An Edmonton woman facing removal from Canada has lost a judicial review of the federal government's decision, leaving her with one final legal option to pursue.
Karamjeet Kaur, 25, has been fighting an Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada decision to have her removed from Canada over a fake letter of admission to an Ontario college supplied as part of her 2018 student visa application.
Canadian officials accept that Kaur didn't know the letter – which was filed by an immigration agent who now faces criminal charges in India – was fake.
But the immigration board insists it was Kaur's responsibility to have checked with the school to ensure her admission was real.
Kaur sought a judicial review of that decision, but that was dismissed in January by Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald, who found that the immigration board's decision was reasonable.
"The applicant placed her trust in an immigration consultant and was deceived. However, these circumstances do not absolve the applicant from the consequences of her misrepresentation," McDonald said in a written decision.
McDonald's finding has left Kaur filled with anxiety about her future.
"Everybody from the government, like they are seeing me as a criminal, but I'm not because I think I'm the victim of this case," Kaur said in an interview this month.
As a last ditch effort, Kaur has filed an application for humanitarian and compassionate consideration, which is available in exceptional cases to people who do not qualify under other grounds.
"I think this is the only hope that I have now," she said.
Part of the reason Kaur's family sent her to Canada for school is because of a physical disability that limits her movement and made her the target of discrimination and harassment in her home community in Punjab in northern India.
Kaur's family are low income and do not have access to computers or any familiarity with the immigration system, and so hired an immigration consultant to help with Kaur's visa application.
The agent created an application – that included the fake college admission letter – that was signed by Kaur's male cousin. She never signed it herself.
Canadian officials originally accepted the admission letter and issued the student visa. After Kaur arrived in Ontario in April 2018, the agent told her the spot in the Ontario college had fallen through.
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