Originally from France, Maïlys Imbault and Guillaume Saint-Agne have been living in Portneuf with their two children since 2018. They are now at risk of being deported from the country due to what they say was a mistake by an employee of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Received by Radio-Canada at Dépanneur grande ligne, the business he has been running in Saint-Raymond for the past year and a half, the couple is not currently legal in Canadian territory in the eyes of the federal government.
It is an asylum application that was filed in January 2022 on the advice of a federal employee.
We have to leave before August 15th. It’s 5 years of our lives that we have to erase in less than a month.
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Ms. Imbault and Mr. Saint-Agne arrived in Quebec in July 2018 on an open work permit and a study permit, respectively – both for a one-year period – and began the renewal process the following year.
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Maïlys Imbault and Guillaume Saint-Agne have been running the main convenience store in Saint-Raymond in Portneuf for a year and a half.
Photo: Radio Canada
In late 2019, the couple received acceptance from the Quebec Department of Immigration. Unable to submit his file online, he mailed the required documents to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
We sent this to the federal government… and we got caught in COVID, breathes Ms. Imbault.
With no response, the couple contacted IRCC a few months later. He was then told, although delays were to be expected due to the pandemic, not to worry that her status was implied.
Time passed. In January 2022, a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) agent called the couple to his office and told them their papers were never processed because they were never received, Ms Imbeault says.
The federal official would then have offered them two options: leave the country or apply for asylum.
If the first option was not an option, and the second raised doubts, the couple trusted the realtor and chose the latter.
In his office that day he asked us for asylum, says Ms. Imbault. That’s it, otherwise he would have told them.
A little over a year later, after a court hearing in April, the decision was made in June 2023: rejection.
Officially, the family’s current status is “Asylum Rejected”.
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Maïlys Imbault and Guillaume Saint-Agne
Photo: Radio Canada
“We kind of suspected it,” says Ms. Imbault. For us, this is not a request that was accessible to the French.
While she agrees that there are terrorist attacks in France and that the couple does not wish to return there to protect our children, she is aware that she and her family do not meet the criteria to apply for asylum in Canada.
All the lawyers told us, “You should never have done that.”
On July 13, the IRCC informed them that deportation proceedings were pending against them. They were told that there was no longer an option, the decision was final. It is also not possible for them to return as economic refugees.
Today, July 20th, we have to [fournir] “Our flight path,” said Ms. Imbault. Tickets to leave Canada must be purchased on July 26 before August 15, she adds.
A misidentified status
What we are asking for today is the status procedure they put in place for us […] “We want it canceled to go back to an economic status,” Ms. Imbault emotionally drops.
In particular with the supermarket we prove that we are economically able to meet our needs, we have never asked for anything, we have never asked for help since we have been there for 5 years, she adds.
Only Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, can help them, she believes.
In the meantime, she asks to give them a reprieve as they can give certain ones […] because the deportation order is there.
When he advised us to do so [une demande d’asile] A year and a half ago, he completely deprived us of the opportunity to express other wishes.
He already knew it at the base, says Ms. Imbault.
According to Joël Godin, Conservative MP for Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier, little can be done on the matter because nobody should ignore the law, he says.
They must comply as their status was unfortunately misrepresented to begin with, supports the elected official of the federal district where the couple is located. You should have applied for a permanent residence permit.
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MP for Portneuf – Jacques-Cartier, Joël Godin (file photo)
Photo: Radio Canada
Nonetheless, Mr Godin is committed to contacting Minister Fraser so that he can intervene, although he has very, very little hope of doing so given the legal nature of the case.
If you consider that an administrative court has made a decision, the probability that the minister will appeal against this decision is practically nil.
“It’s sad because there are very active people in the district,” he says. But it is the word of the one against the word of the other, adds the deputy.
The federal authorities do not comment
When asked by Radio-Canada, Secretary Sean Fraser’s office said it could not comment on the specific case.
Similar story from the Canada Border Services Agency.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also declined to comment.
“We understand that such situations are incredibly difficult and we sympathize with the families,” a spokesman for the organization said via email.
The decision to deport someone from Canada was not taken lightly, she said.
It states that anyone facing deportation has the right to due process, but once all remedies have been exhausted, they will be expelled from Canada under Canadian law.
With information from Colin Côté-Paulette