She lost her mom in South Africa. Now she's safe in the embrace of a new Canadian family
For 10-year-old Ryleigh Rid‐ land it's been a long wait for a family hug - on Cana‐ dian soil.
She embraced her new family on Friday upon arriv‐ ing at Vancouver's airport, ending the protracted legal fight to get her to this coun‐ try after the tragic loss of her own mother in South Africa.
"I'm feeling very excited to be here in Canada with my family," she said, her voice wavering as she recounted the long wait to take both her first plane rides and steps in Canada.
"I've been waiting. It was kind of hard."
Ryleigh and her greataunt Lisa Pyne-Mercier, 53, left Johannesburg for Paris on Wednesday, then after a layover flew to Vancouver. They then headed home to Shawnigan Lake, B.C., about 30 kilometres north of Vic‐ toria.
The girl had been in foster care ever since her mother's sudden death in 2021.
WATCH | Victory after four-year legal battle:
Ryleigh, then seven years old, was found all alone in stifling heat on a remote rur‐ al property on Jan. 9, 2021, near the South African town of Tzaneen, about 360 kilo‐ metres northeast of Pretoria.
Her mother, 31-year-old Jackie Ridland, had died at least eight days earlier of nat‐ ural causes, according to au‐ thorities.
Somehow Ryleigh had survived alone in 40 C heat. She was taken to hospital and treated for malaria, de‐ hydration and malnutrition.
Pyne-Mercier, originally from South Africa herself, fought for four years to bring her to Canada.
She was confirmed as the child's legal guardian by a South African High Court on June 28, 2022. But Pyne-Mer‐ cier says she's faced many administrative hurdles trying to bring the girl to Canada.
The main sticking points include the fact that the girl's father still lives in South Africa, and that her mother had named Pyne-Mercier as Ryleigh's guardian in her will, making the case unusual, as most adoptions involve a more direct family member being named guardian.
Pyne-Mercier spent thou‐ sands of dollars on a legal push to win guardianship and full parental rights in South Africa so Ryleigh could join her in Canada, but the High Commission of Canada in South Africa turned down Ryleigh's applications for per‐ manent resident status in
Canada and a study permit in January 2023.
The High Commission ini‐ tially ruled that Ryleigh didn't meet the definition of an "or‐ phan" under Canadian law since her biological father is alive. Under South African law, however, she was con‐ sidered an orphan due to abandonment, as her father had waived all parental rights after divorcing Ridland in 2016.
Toronto immigration lawyer Michael Battista took over the case in 2023. He was preparing for a hearing in February when news came that Ryleigh could finally ap‐ ply for permanent residency.
"The needs of a child sometimes are very urgent, and the international adop‐ tion process is cumbersome and expensive and time con‐ suming," said Battista in an interview Friday.
He said this case illus‐ trates the complexity of inter‐ national adoptions, especially by non-direct relatives.
"The question for us here in Canada is how how much flexibility are we going to give to those relationships, partic‐ ularly when there's a situa‐ tion of urgency and peril that requires recognition of a family member that can, take care of another family mem‐ ber who's who's is in trou‐ ble," he said.
Battista used a section of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to try to get around the Hague Convention - which protects children adopted internation‐ ally - and bring Ryleigh to Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
But he credited Pyne-Mer‐ cier as "diligent, tenacious and fearless" for her fight to
bring her great-niece home.
"She's been a model and very inspirational to to me and I think to all parents," said Battista.
Today, an exhausted Ryleigh said she's eager to meet new friends and teachers and to play in the snow.
"This is a Canadian trea‐ sure right here. The things she's going to do in this country, for this country, it's just amazing and we want to say thank you," said PyneMercier.
She said after such a long journey, there was a moment that stood out.
"What really got me was when the [customs] officer said, 'Congratulations you are now a Canadian citizen.' That to me was like, wow, it's worth it. [Ryleigh] did a hap‐ py dance then."