Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Bureaucratic nightmare stalls immigration for newlyweds

Aaron Amorim’s midwinter wedding to his fiancée, Sarah, appeared to go off without a hitch.

The day, Feb. 4, dawned springlike and beautiful. The bride wore a classic white dress with a long train. Guests at their Scarborough reception ate steak and chicken before the newlyweds caught an early-morning flight to Mexico.

But a seemingly insignificant clerical error on their marriage certificate has become a bureaucratic blockade that threatens to separate the newlyweds indefinitely.

“I have no problem jumping through hoops,” says Amorim. “But no one would clearly specify what those hoops were.”

Amorim’s wife is American and lives in Michigan. The couple, who met online, planned for Sarah Amorim to move to Ontario once they were married: Aaron, a software developer, has the better-paying job.

Soon after the wedding, Amorim began assembling the documentation for his wife to immigrate. When he sent her a copy of their marriage certificate, she noticed an error — it recorded their wedding date as Feb. 5 instead of the 4th.

The priest had made a mistake, and the couple didn’t catch it.

When Amorim sent Service Ontario a fat envelope of forms necessary to change the date, he received a written response: he needed a copy of the blue register book issued to the church by the province.

“I called the priest. She has never heard of this blue register book issued by the province,” says Amorim. “In none of the churches that she’s served in has she ever seen this book.”

A phone conversation with a Service Ontario staffer went like this:

“I kept saying, ‘Well we don’t have it. What do we do next?’ ”

“We need a copy of the blue register book.”

“It doesn’t exist. Is there another way to do this?”

“We need a copy of the blue register book.”

“That’s when I started to get frustrated. Even when I said, ‘Are you saying there’s no way to correct this?’ ‘We need a copy of the blue register book.’ ”

The Amorims’ lawyer said it was a bad idea to send in an immigration application with a faulty document. Last week, Amorim wrote to his MPP, the premier, Ontario’s ombudsman, and the minister of Government Services, which oversees Service Ontario.

On Monday, he heard back from the Ombudsman: get the priest to sign an affidavit saying there is no blue book but that the marriage did happen.

A spokesman for Service Ontario said he cannot comment on specific cases for privacy reasons.

“The Ontario Registrar General tries its utmost to assist someone should they have any difficulties with this process,” he said.

The spokesman noted that anyone who solemnizes marriages in Ontario must keep a written record. “Our office supplies marriage register books to religious officials for this purpose if they wish, but they are not obligated to use the one we supply.

“These marriage registry books are blue in colour.”

Amorim is nervous the priest’s affidavit may not be enough for Service Ontario. Meanwhile, the immigration application that will bring his new bride to Canada is 99 per cent complete. “Everything is just waiting for that marriage certificate.”

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Kate Allen

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