Joe Fiorito, City columnist
National Post, Canada,
Friday, February 26, 1999
Jilly McCatty takes a day off work. Not because he wants to. He can't afford to lose the pay. And he isn't sick; well, that's not quite true; he's sick at heart.
Jilly's from Cuba. I wrote about him a while ago. He was hounded out of his job in Havana -- he's an electrical engineer -- because he was friendly with a dissident.
He was spied on, harassed, and told he wasn't a proper revolutionary. He bribed his way out of Cuba in 1995, and came to Canada in 1996.
He applied for refugee status and was turned down for no good reason. He appealed that ruling on compassionate grounds. The appeal was turned down a few weeks ago.
Which is why he's giving up a day's pay and taking public transit to the Citizenship and Immigration office in Scarborough to request a photocopy of the ruling. He can appeal one more time.
It's a disheartening day.
Immigration is staffed with men and women who turn others down for a living. Which naturally takes a toll; officers look at the floor, or at their desks; they do not look at Jilly.
He is directed to the third floor, to a door marked #308. The door is locked. He cannot gain entry until he presses a buzzer, speaks into an intercom, and satisfies a chilly receptionist that he has a legitimate appointment.
She buzzes him in.
The receptionist is tucked safely behind a glass wall; she looks at Jilly as if he were something nasty under her shoe.
She orders him to wait, and whispers into a phone. She looks at her nails. She fusses with a pencil. That's all she does.
Eventually, someone comes and leads him down a corridor of locked doors. He is shown into a tiny room furnished with two chairs and a desk.
He waits.
On the other side of the desk is another door. It opens after a few minutes; a brisk and brittle woman enters, and places his file on the desk. She distances herself from it, and from Jilly, as if she thought he might leap at her.
She says she will give him some time alone; if he needs copies of any documents, he should flag the appropriate pages.
Jilly flags the five cold pages of refusal. The brittle woman returns. Jilly asks for a photocopy; and please, could she copy the rest of the file and send it to him in the mail?
She snatches the file and says she will not do both; she will mail him a copy of the entire file; it will take some time.
But he needs the pages now; he's facing a deadline. He pleads. She says she doesn't have to do what he asks; she is tense, and ready to flee.
Jilly is helpless.
He begs once more; please, just these pages, never mind the rest of the file. She turns on her heel and exits wordlessly. He waits in silence.
Eventually, she returns and drops the copied pages on the desk with a smile that is not a smile.
Jilly makes his way back down the corridor of locked doors, and out into the cold air. His eyes are wet.
The refusal is flannel and bafflegab; the officer noted that Jilly is unlikely to face a "life threatening situation," or "undue hardship or severe sanctions" should he return to Cuba.
You want a laugh?
Canadian policy is not to deport Cuban refugees precisely because of the "undue hardship" and "severe sanctions" exiles and escapees face on their return.
Okay, let's review:
Jilly has been told to return to Cuba because he is not a refugee and will not face hardship if he goes back. But we will not deport him, because if he does go back, he'll face hardship.
Oh, I get it now.
He can't stay, but we won't make him go. Here's your passport, Jilly. Welcome to limbo.
A final irony:
Jilly McCatty is an electrical engineer; his English is good, he's a hard worker, and in his spare time he's taking courses in his field.
Under any other circumstances, he'd be granted landed immigrant status in an instant.
Joe Fiorito's e-mail address is jfiorito@nationalpost.com
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