Deborah Adegboye (left to right), Quebec Soldaire MNA Guillaume Cliche-Rivard and NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice attend an event as community groups gather outside federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller's Montreal office on Friday, March 29, 2024 to demand a stop to the deportation of Adegboye's family next month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Thomas MacDonald
MONTREAL – Community groups gathered outside the federal immigration minister’s office in Montreal this morning to demand a stop to next month’s planned deportation of a local family originally from Nigeria.
Deborah Adegboye says she, her husband and first child were fleeing religious persecution in their home country when they entered Canada as asylum-seekers via the now-shuttered Roxham Road crossing in 2017.
Adegboye now works as an orderly, travelling between the homes of patients with disabilities offering assistance with basic tasks.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, a member of Quebec’s national assembly who was present at the demonstration outside Marc Miller’s office, said it is unconscionable that Canada would expel an essential worker during a labour shortage in the health care sector.
Adegboye said she sees the deportation order from federal immigration officials as a death sentence for her family, which now includes two more children who were born in Canada.
She issued a plea for Canada to reverse the deportation so she can continue to build a life for her children and care for her patients.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2024.
