A laboratory at CHU Sainte-Justine mobilizes against a decision by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Opposing the immigration services “wall,” support and solidarity. Colleagues of a lab technician at CHU Sainte-Justine raised funds to help her survive Ottawa’s refusal to renew her work permit. A disconcerting and inconceivable decision for this specialized lab, which is already running at a slow pace due to a lack of staff.

After losing all status in April, the woman in question urgently reapplied for a work permit. This new application was accepted within hours of the questions from the Duty to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Still, Sadyo Darame has been through a roller coaster in recent months. Her work permit renewal application was supposed to be a formality. However, IRCC denied it last April, on the grounds that she lacked proof of equivalence of her French diploma, a document without which the young woman would not have been able to obtain her position. For the past four months, she has been unable to work.

It’s like that, overnight, without a single day to prepare, you fall without income.

She had also already presented what is called in the jargon “the comparative evaluation of studies carried out outside Quebec” for two other preliminary stages, both before a federal and provincial authority. “They simply forgot to ask me for this document, which I am now being blamed for not having provided,” says the woman who first arrived from France in 2022.

“It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide all required documents,” IRCC defends itself in an email to Duty.

She lost her status immediately, the same day as the refusal, without further notice. “That’s how it is, from one day to the next, without a single day to prepare, you fall without income,” complains her colleague Arnaud Bonnefoy, one of the managers of the laboratory in question.

Finding himself with a missing player put “a lot of pressure on the other employees,” he emphasizes, in addition to the catastrophe that this refusal represented for him and his colleague. However, it is “all the patients in Quebec who benefit from his expertise,” he maintains.

Serious shortage

The specialized hemostasis laboratory is in fact one of the only places in Canada to perform certain analyses. It is notably responsible for monitoring all hemophiliac patients in the province and specializes in rare hemostasis diseases. The lack of staff is such that the place “runs at 50%,” estimates Mr. Bonnefoy.

In his eyes, it is “incomprehensible” and “unacceptable” that a person like his colleague has to face such difficulties and rely on solidarity to continue his life in Quebec.

“In my misfortune, the laboratory and colleagues have been very generous,” Mr.me Darame, of a discreet nature. A kitty collected in solidarity allowed him to pay his rent during his more than four months without income. “Otherwise, I would have already left.”

You deserve better than the treatment you are receiving. The children of Quebec need your unique expertise in Quebec and Canada.

She took this refusal as a blow and was almost ready to throw in the towel: “I told myself that there was work elsewhere and that in France, I would not be in this situation.” Her feelings were “mixed,” she says, precisely because of the team’s encouragement, but also because the job here really interested her: “All the manipulations we do in the lab are quite rare.”

Few recourses

The laboratory team — “very close-knit,” says Mr. Bonnefoy — has written letters of support and sent them to MPs and ministers. “Everyone is there and would like to do well, but we don’t even know what the grain of sand in the gears is. We are facing a wall with no answers,” notes this specialist.

“You deserve better than the treatment you are receiving. The children of Quebec need your expertise, which is unique in Quebec and Canada,” wrote Georges-Étienne Rivard, also responsible for the laboratory and a doctor with extensive experience.

In “desperation”, Audrey Charland, a colleague, turned to The Duty, “since all our efforts to help our situation have led to nothing,” she wrote. The second work permit application, filed in an emergency after Mme Darame lost all status last April, but regained it shortly after we asked IRCC about it. The federal department could not say what had suddenly moved her processing forward.

The processing time of approximately 110 days displayed on its website had already been exceeded for several days. Mme Darame said he had already “tried everything” in recent weeks to speak to an agent who could better inform him about the progress of his file.

As for the first refusal with disastrous consequences, it is also difficult to explain why IRCC did not simply make a supplementary request.

“Why not put the case on hold? Give 30 days to provide an additional document,” recommends immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe, without being able to comment directly on this specific case.

Given the “irreparable harm” caused by suddenly losing someone’s right to work, their status and, often, their health insurance coverage, the government should allow the applicant to provide clarification before denying the application, he says. Such remedies exist in several other areas of administrative law, “even when you’re applying for a fishing license,” the lawyer says.

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