HALIFAX — A seriously ill woman will have a hearing in her hospital room Friday over her proposed deportation to England, despite the advice of her doctor who says she still needs months to recover from emergency surgery.
Fliss Cramman was brought to Canada decades ago as a child and only recently became aware she was not a Canadian citizen.
Darlene MacEachern, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, says the Canada Border Services Agency plans to deport Cramman by Nov. 4, about three months after she suffered a perforated colon and was rushed to hospital from a Dartmouth jail where she was being held on drug offences.
MacEachern said the group will be at Cramman's bedside in the Dartmouth General Hospital for a hearing by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
She said the society is calling on the federal government to show some compassion for a woman who MacEachern says has struggled with abuse, anxiety and chronic pain after being removed from her family at age 11.
"She has children in this country, she pays taxes in this country — for all intents and purposes she's a Canadian who made one mistake... and will suffer for that and will have to leave everything she knows behind," she said before the hearing.
She also says sending Cramman back to England runs counter to advice from her doctor, who has recommended that she remain in Canada for about a year and a half to recover from a colostomy reversal.
Cramman has been in hospital since undergoing emergency surgery for the perforated colon, MacEachern said.
Emma Halpern, with the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, said Cramman was in significant pain and her wound and colostomy leave her at risk of infection.
"It is unconscionable that correctional or immigration authorities might try to interfere with her well-being," Halpern said in a statement.
The Canada Border Services Agency was not immediately available for comment.
The society says Cramman was born in England, but was brought to Canada when she was eight years old and was unaware of her citizenship issues until she was jailed for the drug offences two years ago.
It wants the agency to take Cramman off the detention list and allow her to stay and recover at its halfway house in Sydney, N.S. Several groups have appealed to federal Immigration Minister John McCallum to intervene.
