Deepan Budalkoti is an unfortunate Canadian being hounded out of Canada by the minions of the Immigration department currently headed by Jason Kenny also known as the minister of 'Curry in a Hurry'.Deepan was born in Canada. His father was a gardener for the Indian High Commission. His job as described by the Globe and Mail was cleaning toilets and gardening.He was an Indian citizen working for the Indian Mission. That made him an Indian Diplomat. So Deepan was born to Diplomat parents in Canada. Technically he was not a Canadian Citizen. His father believed that Deepan was a Canadian citizen. Children born in Canada are Canadians unless their parents were in Canada as Diplomats.
Thus begins the saga of a child who has never known another country as his own. And he has never visited India. At some point the family applied for permanent resident status. Deepan was not included in the application as he was already a Canadian having been born in Canada. It was also clear to the officials that the parents were in Canada as Diplomats at the time of Deepan's birth. Usually all dependents such as children are to be included in applications for permanent residence. That is the rule. Any practitioner of immigration law will tell you that. Exceptions to the rule are rare and scrutinised by officials to the nth degree.
Ignorance of the law is quite common in matters immigration. One would certainly not expect most people to be aware of the intricacies and complexities of international law relating to diplomats or otherwise. I know most gardeners, plumbers,politicians or for that matter some lawyers will not be familiar with private or public international law and its impact on people's legal rights. That is the environment in which the facts of this case arose.
So Deepan's family became permanent residents. Deepan was not part of the application as both the family and the government of Canada believed he was already a Canadian citizen. So much so that he was issued a Canadian passport . The issuance of a Canadian passport is the ultimate in the bestowal of the Canadian citizenship upon someone . Deepan, his family and the Government of Canada all believed and acted upon the belief that Deepan was Canadian .
Deepan and his family have been absolutely honest with the officials. The officials accepted Deepan's father's mistaken but honest belief as fact and treated Deepan as Canadian. They granted him the ultimate right of a Canadian citizen: the Canadian passport.Deepan is now a Canadian. The father could be deemed to be ignorant of the law. The government can not ever be deemed to be ignorant of the law.
The Canadian government now takes the position the father's ignorance of the law is no defence. Granted. Technically that is true. But more importantly the government's own ignorance of the law is ,I argue, fatal to the government's position. The government by its own errors lulled Deepan and his father into false belief that Deepan was Canadian and that he did not need to apply for permanent residence in Canada. It misled Deepan and his father. Things were made worse when Deepan's Canadian citizenship was acknowledged by granting Deepan the Canadian passport. The government by its actions and omissions set Deepan upon a particular path. It can not use its own mistakes in now destroying what is entirely a Canadian life. The governments are not to be treated like ordinary Canadians. There is something called the "Honour of the Crown" in whose name the Government is now trying to deport Deepan. I guess that may be a concept foreign to this government. The Crown can not use its own mistakes to defend deporting some one who was treated by it for over twenty years,right from his birth, as nothing else but a Canadian. The ignorance of the law in this case offers no defence to the government. The government's callousness stands naked and exposed.
If the government really wants to strip Deepan of his rights as a Canadian ,they must denaturalise him first, since in full knowledge of the facts they treated him like a Canadian. The process for denaturalising is enshrined in the Canadian law. Naturalised Canadians can be denaturalised for several reasons such as treason and lying about a material fact to become a Canadian. Deepan can not be denaturalised. He or his father never lied to gain entry to Canada. If this government had the decency to not use its own mistakes as an excuse to Deport a Canadian kid , they will go to court to denaturalise him.
What this government is doing flies in the face of what was ,until recently, our well deserved reputation for being compassionate and humanitarian in matters of immigration.
Deepan is entirely a product of Canada. Good , Bad or Ugly he is ours and ours alone. We won't allow criminals from other countries to come to Canada and rightly so. Why should we send our own to other countries? Because we have just discovered our own mistakes have provided us with a technical loophole?
It is not fair. It is not right. It is not just. Let Canada remain a compassionate Country!!!!!!
