Officials: It shouldn’t have happened
MICHAEL THOMPSON, a deputy mayor of Toronto, initiated a meeting of stakeholders from different levels of government, to put in place a mechanism that allowed them to know that children are coming into Canada and to ensure that they are aware of their whereabouts.
“There is a wider lens now that is basically looking at young people coming in through the border services, coming to be with their, whether or not it’s adopted or natural, family from places around the world,” he said.
Thompson welcomes the dismissal of the appeal, noting that, “It’s no comfort, in the sense of bringing Melonie or Dwayne back, but it is, in as much justice that we can administer, this is part of that.”
Audrey Campbell, a former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association, said the Court of Appeal did the right thing when it upheld the conviction.
“When I saw the article that the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, two things I thought: number one – the nerve, the inability of this man to accept responsibility for what he did to a helpless child is just to me egregious behaviour,” said Campbell. “And secondly, I thought, in terms of the system, is this still happening? Are kids still slipping below the radar?”
Thompson had asked Campbell to participate in the initiative to put systems and policies in place regarding kids entering Canada into blended families.
Campbell thinks it is incumbent on the government of the country that a child is leaving to arm minors with information about how to contact authorities in the event that something goes wrong.
“It could be just a little card that says, ‘Here’s your package. When you come up to Canada, if you have any concerns, this is the number you call’, and then when they land in this country, they should be noted in immigration, the school system should be alerted that this child should be registering this fall or whenever, so that it does not happen again. It doesn’t seem that difficult to me, and you can’t tell me that it’s an infringement on people’s rights; you’re talking about children’s lives,” Campbell said.