The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has announced that new regulations will come into place which will change the definition of what the government defines as a “bad faith” marriage or adoption. Currently the law states:
“… A foreign national shall not be considered a spouse, a common-law partner, conjugal partner or an adopted child of a person if the marriage, common-law partnership, conjugal partnership or adoption is not genuine and was entered into primarily for the purpose of acquiring any status or privilege under the Act.” (s.4 of Immigration Refugee Protection Regulations).
The Minister wants to change the “and” where bolded above to “or”. This will mean that even if the relationship between a couple or between a parent and an adopted child is genuine, the officer could refuse a sponsorship application if he/she feels that the sponsor married or adopted the child in order to obtain immigration status.
Take for example Jack and Jill Nimble. Jack and Jill are in love with each other and have a genuine relationship with each other. Jill does not have status in Canada so they decide to get married this year instead of a couple of years down the road so that Jack can sponsor her and they can be together sooner. According to the new law, their sponsorship could be refused because they got married to obtain immigration status even though the couple have a genuine marriage and relationship.
Take for example Mrs. Hubbard and her nephew Peter. Peter’s parents have died in an earthquake and Mrs. Hubbard adopted her nephew so that he can live together with her in Canada and be in her family. The adoption can now be refused because it was entered to obtain immigration status even though Mrs. Hubbard loves Peter and has a genuine parent-child relationship with him.
These new changes create disturbing restrictions on family reunification. People get married for all sorts of reasons – pregnancy, family pressure, to start a family. Why shouldn’t we allow people who get married so that they can stay together a chance to be together?
In addition, the officers who already have tremendous power to refuse applications, now will have even more power to refuse applications due to what they think was the purpose of your marriage or adoption. It’s hard enough to show that you have a genuine relationship. It would be almost impossible in many cases to obtain proof of one’s motivations.
One of our greatest Prime Ministers, Pierre Trudeau, once said “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”. This new legislation attempts to do just that – regulate why people choose to get married or adopt. No state should be allowed to do this to its citizens.
