Firas Bouzgarrou is a French-speaking Tunisian, well integrated in Quebec, who works 80 hours a week in three different jobs. Despite everything, the soon-to-be-40-year-old man has just learned that he will be expelled from the country on October 30. His “crime”? Having spent too many days outside of Canada to be with his family in Tunisia, which was going through tough trials.
“I see all this immigration project that we had been preparing for so long, being destroyed. The future that I had planned for my family is all disappearing. It’s like a leap into the void, ”he says, devastated.
This project to immigrate, this finance graduate from the Tunisian Business School began to have it in 2009 with his lover, with whom he now has a 6-year-old daughter. While he had never set foot in Quebec, the Tunisian was nevertheless selected on file by the province in 2013, which allowed him to file an application for permanent residence with the federal government.
However, to be eligible for permanent residence, the law required him to stay in Canada for a minimum of 730 non-consecutive days over a period of five years following the issuance of the status – i.e. two years out of five – which was impossible. for Firas Bouzgarrou.
Because a few days after his arrival in Quebec, he returned to his country of origin when he learned that his wife would have a risky pregnancy. He extended his stay with her when she gave birth to their daughter, who had deformed legs, days when he increased his meetings with specialists to obtain a diagnosis and good treatment. When things finally seem to be going better, another tile falls: his wife sinks into a deep depression following the death of her father, struck down by a dazzling cancer.
“I couldn’t leave my wife alone with all this: my role was to be with her. And what father wouldn’t have been near his family at a time like this? If it had to be done again, I would do it ”, he confided to the To have to, who met him in a Montreal park.
It was on his return, in August 2018, that the authorities noted the lack of the number of days – at the end of five years, only 271 days remained (out of the 730 required). Despite a special procedure before the appeal division, he lost his status a year later, in November 2019.
With the help of his lawyer, he multiplies the remedies, but the only viable option seems to be the application for permanent residence on humanitarian grounds, which can be granted to someone who demonstrates good integration.
At the beginning of October 2021, after three years of working in various companies in the Montreal region, Mr. Bouzgarrou learned that his application had been rejected by an immigration officer. A decision that has the effect of a cold shower to the Tunisian and his lawyer, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard: “My client has an exemplary record. We are not talking about someone who drove impaired or who would have served in jail! His only “crime” was to put his Canadian dream on hold a little too long to be able to stay with his wife and daughter who needed him! “
For this former president of the Quebec Immigration Lawyers Association, this decision is unreasonable and sorely lacking in compassion. “In a request for humanitarian reasons, we are appealing to humanism. When we know that there was the illness of his daughter, the death of his stepfather and the depression of his wife … “
His only “crime” was to put his Canadian dream on hold a little too long to be able to stay with his wife and daughter who needed him!
But above all, the agent did not understand the quality of his integration, believes Mr.eCliche-Rivard, who claims to have presented a file of 850 pages to prove the successful integration of his client. “What is shocking is the double message. We reject him, but he ticks all the boxes [de l’immigrant] that we need in our society today, when we are talking about a labor shortage and the decline of the French language. Can we understand that it does not make sense to expel him in a context where, every day, in the newspapers, we read that we need people like him? And in addition, he earns more than $ 56,000, ”he added, referring to the comments of Prime Minister François Legault, who claimed last May that immigrants earning less than this threshold impoverished Quebecers. “If that is not a perfect integration, there is nothing that is going to be enough. “
Called on to explain the reasons for the removal, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Minister Marco Mendicino’s office both told the To have to that they did not comment on specific cases. As for the number of cases that are rejected due to non-compliance with the 730-day rule, IRCC has not been able to provide an adequate response within the allotted timeframe.
Support from friends
Stéphane Tremblay is a friend and colleague of Firas Bouzgarrou at CAD Railway Industries, the manufacturer of wagons where the two men work full time. “Firas, he’s a very good person. He’s a calm guy, always smart, ”notes Mr. Tremblay of the man he often invites to his home. “I don’t know the details of his situation, but I find it boring that he is going away quickly as well.” “
According to him, the rail industry is always on the lookout for skilled workers who are “hardworking” and quickly “up and running”. “We don’t have a lot of immigrant workers in our company, but Firas is one of the good ones. Of course, if you lose it, it’s a big chunk to replace. “
Karim Sayedi, owner of two service stations in Terrebonne and Mascouche where Firas Bouzgarrou works part-time several evenings and weekends, has only good words for his employee. “He’s a very reliable person. When he told me he was going to leave it was like getting a bucket of cold water [en pleine figure]. I couldn’t believe it. In the midst of a pandemic, when there is a lack of employees… Yet it is someone who has already been established here for three years, who speaks French, ”he said. ” [Le gouvernement] is accepting people from the outside, so why not accepting someone who is already integrated? Retail stores and convenience stores, it’s hard to have a stable world. “
Firas Bouzgarrou admits that he made a mistake on the course. But this blunder is not worth an expulsion, according to him, especially in view of what he has accomplished in Quebec since. “I stayed three years away from my family to work here, I think I have served my sentence,” said the man, his eyes clouded with tears. “I hope this is all a nightmare and that I will wake up eventually.” “