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With Haiti's historic connections to Canada, and large Haitian population in Montreal, Quebec's immigration ministry is expanding it's definition of family following the Haitian earthquake.
The new, temporary humanitarian clause will allow Canadian citizen's and permanent residents to sponsor a wider range of Haitian relatives to Canada. “We're pretty sure brothers and sisters will be added to the definition of family,” said ministry spokesperson Marie-Eve Lebranche. To date, the ministry has not yet determined if other relations, such as aunts, uncles and cousins, will be a part of this special allowance. “We're still studying and analyzing all the possibilities,” Lebranche said. Following the levelling of Port au Prince, and ongoing suffering in Haiti, Lebranche said that Quebec's immigration minister, Yolande James, thought something had to be done.
The position of Quebec is different from that of the federal immigration ministry. “We have a limit to our capacity,” said Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of immigration. “It is fundamentally unfair,” Kenney said, to have a different definition of family for Haitians, when people from China and Pakistan – who also have strong historical links to Canada - have faced humanitarian disasters and have not been given special exceptions on who can be sponsored.
Quebec's status to control its own immigration has allowed it to implement this special, temporary measure that deviates from the federal position. Normally, in both Quebec and Canada, citizens and permanent residents can sponsor spouses, dependent children, parents, grandparents, and orphaned relations under 18 years old.
While Quebec will allow for greater range of Haitian relatives to be sponsored, the target number for immigration is not expected to change. “We'll respect the capacity of immigration that we have for 2010, which is between 52,000 and 55,000,” Lebranche said.
Haitian-born Park Extension resident Cataline Vancol, 53, said that she agrees with the Quebec governement's decision to open the definition of family, but recognizes there has to be limitations.
Her sentiments were echoed by 27 year-old Nivea Joseph, who moved to Quebec from Port au Prince in 1996 and lives in Park Extension. “Some Haitians are living here in Canada and they don't even have family.” Joseph said. Those people especially, she said, should be able to sponsor a cousin or aunt for example, especially if they don't have a mother or brother to sponsor. The support of having at least one family member with them in Canada helps give them a chance, she said.
“I know a there's a lot of Haitian people people trying to get their family here,” Joseph added. She has put in a request to sponsor both her mother and brother, whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake and who went to the countryside to find food. Joseph said she finally talked to her mother a week after the quake, after trying to get through day and night.
Franz Kebreau, 53, manages a pharmacy in Park Extension and moved here from Port au Prince in 1974. “I believe it's good to get relief to the people who have been hurt by the earthquake.” Kebreau said giving temporary visas, as the federal government has done in some cases, is a good measure.
Leila August, 25, a relation of Kebreau, was actually in Port au Prince during the quake. She was part of a group of Canadians evacuated five days later. She was with her aunt and trapped amongst broken ceramic pots following the quake. Once out, she and her aunt went to her aunt's home to find it destroyed. August said since returning, she is trying to debrief. She has called the immigration office to see if she could sponsor her cousin to Canada. August said she is hopeful this may happen. “When she sees how safe it is here, she may want to stay.”