e-1076 (Immigration)

Petition to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

• Ronel Alberts and Elsje van der Westhuizen, a married lesbian couple from South Africa, have been refused admission on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds. A removal order has been issued.
• Ms. Alberts has already been the victim of a brutal and near-fatal attack by three armed men in South Africa, and this lesbian couple faces danger and violence from the racially incited killings of white people (especially women) living on isolated rural properties.
• Since their arrival in Canada in 2014, violence in South Africa has escalated dramatically with regard to rural murders, which led them to apply for admission on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds, without returning to South Africa, where they face near-certain extreme violence.
• Ms. Alberts studied for a semester at University Fraser Valley in 2015 allowable by her visitor visa, but her application for an extension of the visa, to pursue an international student visa, was denied.
• Denied employment for lack of work permits, these intelligent, competent, loving and caring individuals have integrated the community in Abbotsford and surrounding areas through extensive volunteerism, and have formed a vast network of close friends from all sectors of Canadian society.