A Guyanese deportee has been refused a visa to attend his wife’s funeral in Canada.
According to the Toronto Sun, Michael Lowes said that he was “crushed” at the refusal.
He was in Trinidad trying to obtain a visa at the Canadian High Commission and indicated that he was so mad and disappointed that he did not know what to do. “My world has crashed around me,” he was quoted as saying in the Sun report. “I am so mad and disappointed that I don’t know what to do.”
His wife Chandra, 30, died after a massive heart attack on April 3 in North Bay.
The couple have a one year-old daughter whom Lowes has seen only once and he is afraid that he will lose his child.
Lowes said that he had travelled from Guyana to Trinidad, where the commission is located, in order to acquire a visa or emergency travel document. He lined up for three days only to be given his refusal letter on Monday amid fears by immigration officials that he would not return to Guyana after the funeral.”She is my wife and I can’t even say goodbye to her,” he said, adding, “I am so crushed and devastated by the way I have been treated.”
Meanwhile, Chandra’s mother, Wendy MacKenzie, indicated that they could not wait any longer on Lowes and had to go ahead with the service. She said that Lowes has a car, property and family ties in Canada and should have been granted a temporary visa to attend the service.
Lowes was deported from Canada in March 2009 after overstaying his visa. He arrived in the country in 2005 and filed a failed refugee claim.
Funeral services for Chandra will be held today at 1:30pm at Martyn Funeral Home, North Bay.
