More than 10 years after arriving in Canada, a Guyanese family is still fighting to make that country its home and was recently given a glimmer of hope when a judge ruled that a decision to send it packing to Guyana should be reviewed.
Justice John A. O’Keefe made the ruling late last month, granting another reprieve to Mansur Mangru, his wife Carleen Hernandez and one of their three children. According to the judge, the couple and their eldest child arrived in Canada in 1999 and they claimed refugee status in 2001 but this was denied in 2003 and they later submitted an application for permanent residence on Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) grounds in March 2005.
In denying their application, the officer had noted that the family feared ethnic violence in Guyana and that the principal applicant had been threatened in Guyana by Afro-Guyanese men.
The officer also acknowledged the beating of the
