'This case is exceptional': Ontario track star battles to stay in Canada amid threat of deportation
With the World Athletic Championships happening in Tokyo this week, and Canadian athletes picking up three gold medals so far, athletics is one of the hottest sports right now.
But while Canadians are celebrating their athletes's achievements, in the background there is a story of unrequited success.
Twenty-one-year-old hurdler Tamarri Lindo is a health studies student at York University and a member of its successful athletics team. Lindo is a star on the rise who recently won a gold medal in the 4x100-metre relay and a silver medal in 110m hurdles at the Canada Games in August.
He's a pivotal part of youth athletics in this country. The place he considers home. But he and his family are in a desperate fight to stay here.
The Lindo family is originally from Jamaica, but fled to Canada seeking asylum when Tamarri was 15 after his father, George, was the target of three assassination attempts because of his political activity, according to a 2024 news release from Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Lindo's grandmother was a member of parliament for the official opposition in the Caribbean country. George Lindo also volunteered and helped campaign with the People's National Party, which is why the family says it's at-risk.
Lindo told the CBC that his father's connections to politics affects the children's safety, and their mental health.
WATCH | Toronto hurdler Lindo and father face deportation to Jamaica:
Last year, the family was granted a one-year stay but that one year is almost up and they face deportation. Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said they could not comment on a specific and ongoing case due to "privacy legislation."
Aidan Simardone, the family's lawyer, told me that their appeal, based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, is also in process but that doesn't prevent the family from being deported. The family can return to Canada if the appeal is approved, but Simardone said while they are there they are at risk.
I thought about the stress of competition of an elite-athlete at that age. Two of my university-age children are U Sport athletes, and beyond schoolwork, training and being focused, they have little time for much else.
I cannot fathom having to stress about a deportation hearing, personal safety and whether they would even be able to participate again. That level of anxiety would be unreal. Yet Lindo remains committed to school and his athletic community.
York University, Athletics Canada, Athletics Ontario and the Canadian Olympic Committee all wrote letters in support of Lindo last year.
In a statement, York University spokesperson Yanni Dagonas said: "York University is committed to supporting all our students, including those facing complex circumstances. In Tamarri's case, the university has taken several steps to advocate on his behalf.
The athletics community is not a large one and if those around him vouch for his abilities, potential and this predicament, I don't understand why a family's safety should be toyed with.
When the family's refugee claim was initially denied in 2019, Lindo was only 16. At the time the IRCC stated there was insufficient proof that George Lindo's life was in danger. I'm not quite sure how three botched assassination attempts are not proof, but I'm no minister of immigration.
I reached out to a colleague in Kingston, Jamaica to offer some context on the political violence of that country.
Wanting to stay confidential for their own safety, they explained that while Jamaica is not rife with political violence, no country is free of it. And they could not deny that the Lindo family faces danger.
"The most recent general elections were, for the most part, free of violence as far as I'm aware and this is me speaking as someone working in media," they said. "As it relates to specifics of any politically motivated attacks, it would obviously be difficult to say. Generally, violent crimes have been on the decline but there are specific communities which tend to be more volatile especially in urban inner cities."
The IRCC previously said that "the decision to remove someone from Canada is not taken lightly".
Simardone told the CBC that refugee claimants from the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East are subject to more scrutiny and he refuses to believe that it's impossible for Canada's Minister of Immigration, Lena Metlege Diab, to step in and extend another one-year reprieve or use her discretion for this urgent matter.
"The minister absolutely has the discretion to exercise their authority, to help people like the Lindos who are one, facing deportation and two, have made significant contributions to Canada without any controversies: no criminality, no violations of the law etc. etc.," he said.
"What the Minister has the power to do is to push for permanent residency, especially since we have applications that are outgoing and at the very, very minimum, to issue a temporary residence permit. Any claim they can't is untrue. They have the power to do it in exceptional cases, and this case is exceptional."
As a matter of urgency, the Migrant Workers Alliance started a petition for the family that has mroe than 800 signatures.
I was born in Canada and raised here proudly and with a sense of responsibility. Our duty as Canadians should be to ensure the well-being and safety of all those who not only have strong ties to Canada — not just those with a passport. In Lindo's case, the communities of sport that engulf him and that he has represented with pride and honour have come forward. But is it enough?
Lindo's performance on the track is stellar, but the race to escape deportation is one I don't think he and his family should be subject to at all.
cbc.ca
