Pakistani man denied Canadian status over two wives gets another chance

A Pakistani man denied permanent resident status in Canada after an immigration officer discovered he had two wives has won another kick at the can, courtesy of the Federal Court.
It’s not that the court condoned polygamy, but it found that the man’s case was complicated and an immigration officer was being “unreasonable” when they failed to try and understand the circumstances that lead to the man being married to two women at once, for a time.
Qadeer Ahmed’s wife, Jameela Qadeer, who is also from Pakistan, was found to be a refugee in Canada. She included him in her application for permanent residence.
“However, a visa officer found that Mr. Ahmed did not meet the requirements for immigration to Canada, as the officer was not satisfied that his marriage to Ms. Qadeer was valid,” Justice Angus Grant said in a recent decision.
“This was primarily because Mr. Ahmed was also legally married to another woman in South Africa, where he has resided for many years.”
The same officer “also found that the couple were not in a common-law or conjugal relationship, and as such, (Ahmed) could not be considered a family member of his spouse in Canada,” Grant wrote in a decision dated Oct. 30.
“In rejecting the application, the officer also considered humanitarian and compassionate factors, but concluded that (Ahmed’s) situation did not warrant an exemption from the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.”
The facts of Ahmed’s case are “somewhat unusual,” Grant said in his judicial review of that decision.
“The applicant — Qadeer Ahmed — is a citizen of Pakistan and a resident of South Africa. He is an Ahmadi Muslim, and fled Pakistan for South Africa in 2003 due to the well-documented persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan,” said the judge.
          <CONTINUE READING>
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/pakistani-man-denied-canadian-status-over-two-wives-gets-another-chance
Regardless of the circumstances, the guy is married to two women simultaneously and therefore deserves compassion. Let him in.
--
Dr. Auric D. Hellman
adhellman1@gmail.com
Join me on FaceBook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084994637953