The alleged reasons...

The CEO and director of the Latidos (Heartbeats) magazine (latidos.ca), the first bilingual English-Spanish cultural magazine in Toronto, dreamed that my sister was going to inaugurate a cultural bridge between Cuba and Canada; he invited my sister to come over so that she got acquainted with the rich Toronto Latin cultural life; he wanted to publish a feature article on a Cuban musician visiting Toronto for the first time. Little did he know…

It was today that I found out what arguments the visa officer used to deny my sister a visitor’s visa; read on:

Her travel history: Ridiculous, according to this, few Cubans would qualify as Cubans are not free to leave their country when they want, both my parents visited me here and no one said that their ‘travel history’ was a hindrance to visit Canada. They had never been outside of Cuba until then and both returned before their visas expired.

Her family ties in Canada: So, according to this one, the fact that I live here counts against my own sister visiting? I am a Canadian citizen and came to Canada legally; to this day, I am VERY proud to be a Canadian citizen, I have never been on welfare, have paid my taxes like everybody else but…my sister cannot visit this country because I live here? This visa officer has achieved what I would have thought unthinkable: I am starting to be ashamed…of what? Not sure yet…I am thinking long and hard. I don’t want to be ashamed of living here. I have made all my dreams a reality in this land and love too many people here…they would be offended if I were to say that I am ashamed to live in this country, I can’t do that to them…

Limited employment prospects in your country of residence: My sister has a full time position as a music teacher in a conservatory. Not enough? For many years she was a pianist for the Cuban National Opera (Limited?) until SHE decided to move on.  She has never been unemployed.  She loves what she does. What kind of limited employment prospects are these? The visa officer seemed to be thinking was that ‘Should she decided to stay in Canada she would have limit employment prospects’ (Freudian slip?) Why do they consider any prospective Cuban visitor a likely immigrant? My sister has a very rewarding career and a happy life in Cuba, has never expressed the desire to leave her country and seeing the land where her sister lives is one of her most cherished dreams. Most Cubans come here looking for way more than ‘employment prospects’. I know a brilliant cardiologist who works in a second hand store in Toronto, an anesthesiologist who cleans homes and engineers who work in temp. agencies. Wouldn’t you call those ‘Limited employment prospects?’

Her personal assets and financial status: This tops every other off by far. Personal assets? A Cuban living in Cuba? When I lived in Cuba my ‘personal assets’ were a bicycle I brought back with me after visiting Canada in the summer of ’93 (See? I didn’t stay then…my mistake?)and a tape recorder I bought with money a friend living in Spain gave me…. My sister is better off than that.

As for my sister’s financial status; she has, by Cuban standards, a salary way above the average. One of the questions in the visa application forms is how much money the applicant has (?) Well, the visa application processing fee just went up; it is now 75.00 CDN; the equivalent to several month’s pay of a Cuban with a salary above average, I’ll leave to your imagination the amount of ‘assets’ you can buy with that kind of money.

I was more worried about my sister getting permission from the Cuban government to come; she got it right away, I was relieved, then she went to the Canadian Embassy in Havana...

It is sad to realize that Canadian visa officers do not understand Cuba and Cubans. It is even more sad to see  how some of these arguments are used because it wouldn’t be politically correct to use the fact that my sister is not married and has no children.

According to the arguments used to deny my sister’s entry to Canada, she needs to travel the world as a tourist before she can come here, I’ll have to move to another country; she needs to win a Nobel Prize to make sure her employment prospects are safe and needs to amass a fortune and enough (Hoy much is enough?)material assets before she can even dream of watching the majesty of The Falls or admire Toronto from CN Tower.

The government of Canada has banged the doors on my sister's face.  I feel it is my duty, out of principle, to make sure this is reversed and I will do all it takes to make it happen.