i ~ YOUR COMMUNITY
(NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 |

August 5, 19X87) News 985-2131

Mom

A POLISH couple living in

Classified 986-6222

fears fa )

Lan

North Vancouver with their

22-year-old Canadian son is facing break-up after being
caught in the turmoil of Canada’s immigration rules.

Immigration officials have twice
denied a refugee status bid for
Alicja Dudzik and have suggested
she reapply from either Europe or
Poland, which will either mean
leaving her young son and com-
mon-law husband or taking her
son with her.

“If I'm forced to leave, the life
Ive built here will go down the
drain,’’ Dudzik, 33, said Tuesday
though common-law husband
Christopher Gacki, 39.

In Canada since Noveinber
1984, DGudzik fears that if she

“Because of our child we
want to stay here. We don’t
want him to be one of
those pupils who are forced
to learn about the Russian
Revolution, Lenin and all
that rubbish,’’
-—Christopher Gacki

returns to Poland she will never be
permitted to leave that country and
tejoin her family here.

“P ocan’t understand anybody
would come to the conclusion this
wousd be the best solution,”’ said
Gacki. ‘‘It's outrageous. What's
she supposed to do?"*

Dudzik's case is presently before
the Federal Court of Canada in a
final attempt to get status, but the
couple is not optimistic about her
staying here.

Instead, the two are pinning
their hopes on the inimigration
provision that will permit her to
stay in Canada on compassionate
and humanitarian grounds.

“All our struggle to date has
been to be together and now she’s
to be sent back,’’ said Gacki, a

vaste i,

BARR
Reporter

former factory worker. *‘Because
of our child we want to stay here.
We don’t want him to be one of
those pupils who are forced to
learn about the Russian Revolu-
tion, wevolutionary) Lenin and all
that rubbish.”

Whiie she was here on a visitor's
visa in late 1984, Dudzik’s son wus
born at Lions Gate Hospital.
When her visa expired in carly
1985, she applied for refugee
status, citing her new child and
possible punitive action in Poland.

Acting immigration manager for
Vancouver Al Thiessen confirmed
that Dudzik did not qualify as a
refugee under the United Nations
convention — a person fearing
persecution — adding that she did
not warrant consideration on any
humanitarian grounds.

Thiessen said that while it is pol-
icy not to deport anyone to eastern
bloc countries, the move is not
unheard of with a special review of
circumstances,

Having been briefly married to a
West German, Dudzik is permitted
to live in that country and could be
deported there, said Thiessen. “If
a removal order were issued it
would be up to us to determine
where she would be removed to."

No matter where Dudzik is
deported to, Gacki said the pro-
blem is the same. ‘What's she go-
ing to do in Germany or wherever
she's sent to?" he asked.

But Thiessen said Dudzik could
apply for an immigrant visa at any
Canadian mission outside Canada,
although this process could take
several months.

No date has yet been set for
Dudzik’s action in the Federal
Court of Canada.

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Summertime fun

COOLING OFF is a breeze for windsurfer Michelle Brown. Michelle is one of hundreds who have flock-
ed to Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver recently to enjoy the sun and the glorious summer weather.