Our Story
"Eva" Sweet
One of the questions that we are frequently asked after starting our company is where the name "Eva Sweet" comes from. The name is a tribute to a person very dear to us that we lost two years ago this month. Etleva Lofca was Bamir's dearly loved sister who arrived in Canada in March of 2007. Etleva was a beautiful and educated young woman who came to Canada seeking a better life for her family - her husband Shkelqim and her three young sons. Five months after Etleva arrived in Canada she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. After a lengthy battle with cancer, Etleva passed away on August 29th, 2009.
During the time that she was with us, Etleva became very close to our young daughter who would call her "Auntie Eva". The name Eva Sweet is a tribute to her and the beautiful impact that she had on our lives.
Etleva's husband and youngest son were allowed to come over for a family event, but extended their stay as the extent of Etleva's illness became known. Etleva's oldest two sons were allowed to come over once it was determined that the cancer had spread extensively and that she had months to live. Etleva's sons arrived in Canada early in 2009 and despite their heartbreaking situation were able to settle successfully in their schools. The Lofca boys have all integrated well in their schools and have become diligent, model students. The oldest of the boys has achieved acceptance in university and the other two maintain an honors standing in the schools they are attending. Despite their loss, the boys have become very loved and integral members of our family.
During the time that she was with us, Etleva became very close to our young daughter who would call her "Auntie Eva". The name Eva Sweet is a tribute to her and the beautiful impact that she had on our lives.
Etleva's husband and youngest son were allowed to come over for a family event, but extended their stay as the extent of Etleva's illness became known. Etleva's oldest two sons were allowed to come over once it was determined that the cancer had spread extensively and that she had months to live. Etleva's sons arrived in Canada early in 2009 and despite their heartbreaking situation were able to settle successfully in their schools. The Lofca boys have all integrated well in their schools and have become diligent, model students. The oldest of the boys has achieved acceptance in university and the other two maintain an honors standing in the schools they are attending. Despite their loss, the boys have become very loved and integral members of our family.
Immigration Canada - Not Sweet
Since Etleva's passing we have been faced with a very unfortunate situation where Immigration Canada has repeatedly shown inhumanity and outright cruelty to the Lofca family. After having their initial family application rejected due to medical inadmissibility relating to Etleva's illness, Immigration Canada failed to renew the temporary leave to stay in Canada for Shkelqim and the boys. Continuing their complete lack of concern for the emotional well being of the children, Immigration Canada issued a leave date mid school year. While we were issued a Parental and Guardianship order with conditions preventing the boys from being removed from Canada, Shkelqim was required to leave Canada and has not been allowed back since.
Despite complying with all Immigration Canada requests, Shkelqim has had two valid and complete work permit applications refused on bureaucratic red tape and faulty reasoning. The first application was rejected because Shkelqim did not qualify for a visa to the U.S. to attend an Immigration Canada interview in Buffalo, N.Y. (yeah, we don't get it either) and the second because there wasn't adequate proof that he would leave Canada if asked. (despite the fact that he had already left Canada on time when requested - there's the proof right there!) One of the work permits was for a profession that is currently one of the needed professions in Alberta (are there monkeys processing this?) I notice Immigration Canada had no problem accepting the exorbitant processing fees, though. Good for them!
Despite complying with all Immigration Canada requests, Shkelqim has had two valid and complete work permit applications refused on bureaucratic red tape and faulty reasoning. The first application was rejected because Shkelqim did not qualify for a visa to the U.S. to attend an Immigration Canada interview in Buffalo, N.Y. (yeah, we don't get it either) and the second because there wasn't adequate proof that he would leave Canada if asked. (despite the fact that he had already left Canada on time when requested - there's the proof right there!) One of the work permits was for a profession that is currently one of the needed professions in Alberta (are there monkeys processing this?) I notice Immigration Canada had no problem accepting the exorbitant processing fees, though. Good for them!
We are a Family
Through the stress and strain of setting up a business, dealing with family loss, and the legal woes of setting things right on an immigration level, we have become a family in the truest sense of the word. The youngest of the boys has been living with us since my daughter was 6 months old and she does not remember life without them. The boys are like siblings to my daughter, and are directly involved with her care. Removing 3 close family members from our daughter's home and life would be horrific for her and we refuse to let that happen. The boys have become fundamentally attached to our daughter and to us as well as needing their father here for their emotional well being. We have been a "de facto" family for nearly 4 years now and we are pretty sure we know what is best for the children. Apparently the Court of Queens Bench judge who issued the order not to remove the boys agrees with us.
A few days ago, we received word that the Lofca boys application to stay in Canada on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds was refused becuase their father's most recent attempt to be reunited with them was refused. Immigration Canada is trying to claim that despite never having met us or the boys or interviewed us in person they know what is best for them. They are also trying to claim that the order issued by Queens Bench in favor of the well being of the children is "non-binding". The word "contempt" comes to mind. Immigration Canada has completely ignored how traumatic the upheaval would be for all the children concerned and they have offered no remedy that will allow this family to come together and rebuild after our loss.
All this time we have kept quiet about the multitude of missteps taken by Immigration Canada in the applications submitted. We have waited patiently as our Members of Parliament promised to help and promised access to his "best friend" the the Immigration Minister (we're looking at you, Jaffer) and turned a blind eye when Immigration Canada delayed processing the extension of Etleva's Temporary Resident Permit until the day we put her in the ground and then called asking for her. We kept quiet all this time because we believed that someone in Immigration Canada would do the right thing. Apparently that was too much to ask.
We are calling upon all the wonderful and amazing people that we have met during the course of setting up our business to take a moment and write to the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney and the Prime Minister of Canada to intervene in this case and grant the Lofca family including Shkelqim permanent residence in Canada without delay.
Sample letter to MP
Please take the time to write to Minister Jason Kenney at the following email and mailing address:
The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1L1
Email: Minister@cic.gc.ca
Please also CC the message to the Prime Minister’s office at:
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
And the Opposition Leader
Nycole Turnel, M.P.
Interim Leader of the NDP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A6
Nycole.Turmel@parl.gc.ca
Bob Rae, M.P.
Interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A6
bob.rae@parl.gc.ca
A few days ago, we received word that the Lofca boys application to stay in Canada on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds was refused becuase their father's most recent attempt to be reunited with them was refused. Immigration Canada is trying to claim that despite never having met us or the boys or interviewed us in person they know what is best for them. They are also trying to claim that the order issued by Queens Bench in favor of the well being of the children is "non-binding". The word "contempt" comes to mind. Immigration Canada has completely ignored how traumatic the upheaval would be for all the children concerned and they have offered no remedy that will allow this family to come together and rebuild after our loss.
All this time we have kept quiet about the multitude of missteps taken by Immigration Canada in the applications submitted. We have waited patiently as our Members of Parliament promised to help and promised access to his "best friend" the the Immigration Minister (we're looking at you, Jaffer) and turned a blind eye when Immigration Canada delayed processing the extension of Etleva's Temporary Resident Permit until the day we put her in the ground and then called asking for her. We kept quiet all this time because we believed that someone in Immigration Canada would do the right thing. Apparently that was too much to ask.
We are calling upon all the wonderful and amazing people that we have met during the course of setting up our business to take a moment and write to the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney and the Prime Minister of Canada to intervene in this case and grant the Lofca family including Shkelqim permanent residence in Canada without delay.
Sample letter to MP
Please take the time to write to Minister Jason Kenney at the following email and mailing address:
The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1L1
Email: Minister@cic.gc.ca
Please also CC the message to the Prime Minister’s office at:
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
And the Opposition Leader
Nycole Turnel, M.P.
Interim Leader of the NDP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A6
Nycole.Turmel@parl.gc.ca
Bob Rae, M.P.
Interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A6
bob.rae@parl.gc.ca
Latest Update - November 10th, 2011
Urgent Update and Help Needed!
As many of you already know, the immigration situation of our nephews has reached a very difficult place and we have been asked to attend a meeting on November 22nd at 9am at the Immigration Canada office where a deportation order will likely be issued. This deportation order will be issued despite the fact that we have an active and valid guardianship and parental order that clearly states that the boys not be removed from Alberta, Canada. Immigration Canada’s strategy is to simply pretend that the order does not exist rather than
risk having to challenge the order in a court of law.
We have lost respect for a system that seems intent on spending a great deal of taxpayer dollars to deport 3 great boys who lost their mother and who all maintain honors averages. The Canadian government has employed unfair tactics to keep out their father who is a great fit to fill a number of our labour shortages (long haul trucking, heavy duty mechanic, construction worker). In the past, their father’s applications have been rejected because he was asking to come on a temporary basis and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they decided that he could not prove that he would be temporary because his boys were here.
We are urgently looking for a contract of work for the boys’father, Shkelqim Lofca in long haul trucking in Alberta or BC. So that we may begin the provincial nominee process to bring their father back to Canada so that this family might be re-united and so that the four
children (the three boys and our daughter) will not have to go through a painful and unjust separation. If you have any leads or contacts that can connect us with an offer of work to help this family stay together, we would be eager to hear from you and get the provincial nominee process started.
A little about Shkelqim Lofca
Shkelqim Lofca has a diploma in Heavy Duty Mechanics and has experience working in a number of different construction related jobs. Shkelqim has a clean driving record and is motivated and dependable. Shkelqim’s resume with the details of his work history and education is here and his cover letter is found here.
I can send copies of his certificates and documents to prospective employers.
Please email us or call (780) 710 – 1887 if you have any leads or can help in any way.
We have a couple more things that we are asking you to do:
Write to the Prime Minister, Immigration Minister and Opposition with another round of letters (information is on this page) and tweet it out to the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney and your MP that you think the Lofca family should be allowed to stay in Canada.
@kenneyjason is the twitter name to mention.
We are so thankful for all the help that we have had so far from so many different people writing and supporting our struggle to stay together.
As many of you already know, the immigration situation of our nephews has reached a very difficult place and we have been asked to attend a meeting on November 22nd at 9am at the Immigration Canada office where a deportation order will likely be issued. This deportation order will be issued despite the fact that we have an active and valid guardianship and parental order that clearly states that the boys not be removed from Alberta, Canada. Immigration Canada’s strategy is to simply pretend that the order does not exist rather than
risk having to challenge the order in a court of law.
We have lost respect for a system that seems intent on spending a great deal of taxpayer dollars to deport 3 great boys who lost their mother and who all maintain honors averages. The Canadian government has employed unfair tactics to keep out their father who is a great fit to fill a number of our labour shortages (long haul trucking, heavy duty mechanic, construction worker). In the past, their father’s applications have been rejected because he was asking to come on a temporary basis and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they decided that he could not prove that he would be temporary because his boys were here.
We are urgently looking for a contract of work for the boys’father, Shkelqim Lofca in long haul trucking in Alberta or BC. So that we may begin the provincial nominee process to bring their father back to Canada so that this family might be re-united and so that the four
children (the three boys and our daughter) will not have to go through a painful and unjust separation. If you have any leads or contacts that can connect us with an offer of work to help this family stay together, we would be eager to hear from you and get the provincial nominee process started.
A little about Shkelqim Lofca
Shkelqim Lofca has a diploma in Heavy Duty Mechanics and has experience working in a number of different construction related jobs. Shkelqim has a clean driving record and is motivated and dependable. Shkelqim’s resume with the details of his work history and education is here and his cover letter is found here.
I can send copies of his certificates and documents to prospective employers.
Please email us or call (780) 710 – 1887 if you have any leads or can help in any way.
We have a couple more things that we are asking you to do:
Write to the Prime Minister, Immigration Minister and Opposition with another round of letters (information is on this page) and tweet it out to the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney and your MP that you think the Lofca family should be allowed to stay in Canada.
@kenneyjason is the twitter name to mention.
We are so thankful for all the help that we have had so far from so many different people writing and supporting our struggle to stay together.
Update on the Immigration Situation - October 11th, 2011
We are writing this to update you on our immigration situation that has recently taken a troubling turn. We attended a meeting with Immigration to determine the admissibility of our nephews whom we are legal guardians of. The meeting was scheduled to take place on Monday October 3rd and we attended as requested. At the first meeting, the representative from Immigration Canada was unable to declare the boys inadmissible due to the court order that we had secured from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta. They rescheduled the meeting and subsequently decided that despite the evidence that I had presented to the contrary, they were able to disregard the court order entirely and declare that the boys had contravened the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Our contention is that has not been proven that the boys have fallen out of status because Immigration Canada has not bothered to overturn the court order. Their strategy is to pretend that it simply does not exist. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult these communications would be if the person meeting with Immigration Canada had a language barrier of any measure.
There are a few very illuminating reasons that Immigration Canada feels that they can disregard a court order from the Court of Queen’s Bench. Firstly, they feel that a “lower” court judge cannot make decisions that are binding and have implications for Immigration Canada and they are seeking to make an example of us and the Lofca family for the existence of the court order. More importantly, however, is that a person under suspicion of being in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is guilty until proven innocent (yep, really!) Never mind that Canada is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that clearly states that children must be given a fair trial and be considered innocent until proven guilty, Canada believes that since it has not replicated this in Immigration law, that it can disregard the responsibilities that it has signed on to. In addition to this, Immigration Canada is disregarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly where it states that matters relating to children in a migration situation must be resolved positively without any adverse effects for the children involved.
Troubling as well from our meeting with Immigration Canada was the fact that they completely misrepresented (ie. Lied about) the law on two occasions. The representative from Immigration Canada was attempting to assert that the boys had fallen out of status on December 8th 2009, ignoring the fact that an extension had been requested and issued until the end of January 2010 after which time, the court order took effect. The representative from Immigration Canada asserted that status is not extended when a new leave date is given. I pointed out to the representative that in fact, when an extension is granted, status is also extended until the time that the person is required to leave Canada. I guess they were hoping that I had not read the law thoroughly. In addition, higher decision makers within Immigration Canada informed representatives from the CBC that the meeting was not public and that they were not welcome despite the fact that it clearly states that meetings are “public and media are welcome to attend and report on the proceedings.” When I showed them the place on their website that proves this, representatives from Immigration Canada became hostile and demanded that the reporter from the CBC leave immediately. I guess they didn’t really want a public record of what they were about to do. If I was in the position of doing what they were about to, I probably wouldn’t want witnesses either.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this whole situation is the conflict of interest position that Immigration Canada has placed itself in with its decision. By supplanting a previous decision made by a competent judicial body responsible for deciding the well-being of the children and supplanting it with the decision of a petty bureaucrat who is clearly mandated by an institutional bias, Immigration Canada’s decision on the well-being of the children has been corrupted by its own institutional interest. This is particularly so where it is become obvious that Immigration Canada is eager to overturn a ruling that curtails its own authority and establishes a precedent. Rather than deal with the gap in the law that exists, Immigration Canada was content to push through the allegation of the boys have contravened the Immigration and Refugee protection act so that they may push through to the deportation step where previous judicial rulings are much less of a problem. The fact that Immigration Canada feels comfortable in this conflict of interest is shameful and the correct course of action should be to let matters of the well-being of the children be decided by the competent judicial authority.
We are asking, once again, for people to help us out by approaching their Members of Parliament and voicing their disapproval of the recent decision. We are asking people to request through their federal representatives that they Lofca boys be allowed to stay in Canada and be settled immediately.
There are a few very illuminating reasons that Immigration Canada feels that they can disregard a court order from the Court of Queen’s Bench. Firstly, they feel that a “lower” court judge cannot make decisions that are binding and have implications for Immigration Canada and they are seeking to make an example of us and the Lofca family for the existence of the court order. More importantly, however, is that a person under suspicion of being in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is guilty until proven innocent (yep, really!) Never mind that Canada is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that clearly states that children must be given a fair trial and be considered innocent until proven guilty, Canada believes that since it has not replicated this in Immigration law, that it can disregard the responsibilities that it has signed on to. In addition to this, Immigration Canada is disregarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly where it states that matters relating to children in a migration situation must be resolved positively without any adverse effects for the children involved.
Troubling as well from our meeting with Immigration Canada was the fact that they completely misrepresented (ie. Lied about) the law on two occasions. The representative from Immigration Canada was attempting to assert that the boys had fallen out of status on December 8th 2009, ignoring the fact that an extension had been requested and issued until the end of January 2010 after which time, the court order took effect. The representative from Immigration Canada asserted that status is not extended when a new leave date is given. I pointed out to the representative that in fact, when an extension is granted, status is also extended until the time that the person is required to leave Canada. I guess they were hoping that I had not read the law thoroughly. In addition, higher decision makers within Immigration Canada informed representatives from the CBC that the meeting was not public and that they were not welcome despite the fact that it clearly states that meetings are “public and media are welcome to attend and report on the proceedings.” When I showed them the place on their website that proves this, representatives from Immigration Canada became hostile and demanded that the reporter from the CBC leave immediately. I guess they didn’t really want a public record of what they were about to do. If I was in the position of doing what they were about to, I probably wouldn’t want witnesses either.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this whole situation is the conflict of interest position that Immigration Canada has placed itself in with its decision. By supplanting a previous decision made by a competent judicial body responsible for deciding the well-being of the children and supplanting it with the decision of a petty bureaucrat who is clearly mandated by an institutional bias, Immigration Canada’s decision on the well-being of the children has been corrupted by its own institutional interest. This is particularly so where it is become obvious that Immigration Canada is eager to overturn a ruling that curtails its own authority and establishes a precedent. Rather than deal with the gap in the law that exists, Immigration Canada was content to push through the allegation of the boys have contravened the Immigration and Refugee protection act so that they may push through to the deportation step where previous judicial rulings are much less of a problem. The fact that Immigration Canada feels comfortable in this conflict of interest is shameful and the correct course of action should be to let matters of the well-being of the children be decided by the competent judicial authority.
We are asking, once again, for people to help us out by approaching their Members of Parliament and voicing their disapproval of the recent decision. We are asking people to request through their federal representatives that they Lofca boys be allowed to stay in Canada and be settled immediately.
