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‘Don’t let this happen to anyone else’: families seek change to border rules

Aug 15, 2020 | 4:01 AM

OTTAWA — A decision to keep the Canada-U.S. border closed for another month has families begging for more leniency from Canadian officials on who is allowed into the country.

John McCall has been trying for months to get his adult children up from the U.S. and to the Peterborough, Ont., area to care for their ailing mother.

While immigration officials did eventually put a rush on Canadian citizenship papers for the two kids, the documents didn’t make it time: their mother Donna died earlier this week.

John says he knows his isn’t the only case where border restrictions are keeping families apart in life-or-death situations.

He says his only goal now is to try to make sure what happened to his family doesn’t happen to others.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino says the federal government continues to review the rules at the border but did not commit to any specific changes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2020.

The Canadian Press