‘My daughter in every way,’ except in eyes of immigration

Canada denies refugee’s attempt to reunite with child left on his doorstep as an infant in China

In the early morning of March 28, 1997, Zuan Zhong and his wife heard crying at their doorway and found a baby girl in a basket.

A red note tucked under the newborn stated the baby’s birth date, and begged the family to look after the child as their own because her biological parents could not afford to have another child in the household under China’s then one-child policy.

The couple took the girl in, named her Shanrong and raised her without ever telling her she had been abandoned.

“I picked up the baby and she immediately stopped crying. It’s a new life in my hand and I couldn’t abandon her again,” said Zhong, 45, now a Toronto resident. “Although we are not related by blood, she is my daughter in every way, in my flesh. She is an inseparable part of the family.”

However, Shanrong, now 20, is not part of the family according to Canadian immigration officials at the Hong Kong visa post, who refused to let her join Zhong in Canada because a DNA test showed they’re not biologically related.

Despite stacks of family photos since Shanrong was a baby, her school records and personal ID listing the couple as her parents, the Immigration Department refused to reconsider the decision.

“Zhong and his wife are the girl’s de facto parents, no doubt about it. A family cannot be just defined by your DNA,” said lawyer Avvy Go of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, who successfully appealed to the Federal Court against the visa officer’s decision.

“We don’t form relationships by blood only. There are reasons why the couple still did not adopt the girl and has not told her she was abandoned by her biological parents. There could be so much social and cultural stigma against the girl.”

Zhong, a Catholic, fled China to Canada seven years ago and was granted asylum in 2013 on the grounds of religious persecution. He applied for permanent resident status the same year and included his wife and Shanrong as family members in the application.

In March 2015, immigration officials requested the DNA test. When the result showed she wasn’t their biological child, Zhong told officials of Shanrong’s story.

Officials, however, insisted a child must either be the biological off- spring or be adopted, and they removed Shanrong from the family’s permanent residency application.

In December 2015, with the help of Go and MP Adam Vaughan’s office, the family asked the Canadian visa post in Hong Kong to reconsider the decision, this time on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

They argued that the girl was too old to be adopted by law and said officials could use their discretion in the department’s own “de facto family policy” to assess the case.

However, the visa officer would not budge, ruling that the merits of the application did not overcome the girl’s ineligibility as a member of the family class and that there was no evidence of “financial and emotional dependency” between her and the parents.

The officer went as far as saying it’s in Shanrong’s best interest to be living in the country where “she was born, raised and educated, and was familiar with the language and culture.”

In rejecting the visa post’s decision, Federal Court Justice Keith Boswell said the officer had overlooked a significant document: a Chinese government certificate about the couple’s relationship with the girl.

“It unequivocally states that: the applicant was abandoned; has been living with Mr. Zhong and (his wife) since she was found; is a registered member in the household; and is in a de facto adoptive family relationship,” wrote Boswell in his recent ruling that sent the case back to immigration officials for a fresh assessment.

“This certificate makes the officer’s reasons unintelligible and, therefore, unreasonable.”

Zhong, who hasn’t seen his wife and daughter since he fled China in 2010, was thrilled with the news but wonders how much longer it will take for his family to join him in Canada.

“The court has given us a new ray of hope, but there is still no guarantee the next visa officer will let Shanrong come,” Zhong said. “How can we abandon her? She is our baby, our only child. My wife and I can’t live without her or our family will be incomplete.” Both Zhong and Go hope the Immigration Department can fasttrack the case.

“The delay of the family’s reunification is so unnecessary,” Go said. “It’s wasting the family’s time, the court’s and immigration’s time, not to mention taxpayers’ money.”