"All my dreams and prayers have come true." Those are the words of Hong Zhang who was ordered to be deported with her Canadian daughter Sherry. Wednesday the deportation order was stayed until her humanitarian and compassionate case is heard.
That could take up to three years.
If the small family then deported to China young Sherry, a Canadian citizen will be facing a harsh life. In a country that bans out of wedlock children she would become a second class person. She wouldn't get health coverage, be allowed to attend school or obtain Chinese citizenship. Her mother would face a fine of $140,000 fine for bringing her into the country.
Hong's plight came into focus last April when Peel Children's Aid refused to take Sherry in. Had they taken her the department would have given her the label of an abandoned child . That was too much to ask of the young single mother. She only wanted to put her daughter up for adoption to insure that she would have a better life.
"I am very pleased they can stay"' Chief Zane Bell said yesterday. "The girl is Canadian and they should never attempt to deport this family."
Bell, a member of the Algonquin Woodland Metis Aboriginal Tribe has traveled several times to Toronto in a bid to sponsor or adopt the family into his tribe.
Hong will be returning to her job as a chicken deboner.
Although the news sounds wonderful, there is still the chance when her case is heard she and Sherry will still be deported.
But for now the family is safe and sound here in Toronto.
"Even Sherry seems to be happier now that we are not going back to China," she said.
