Hamilton mom says botched immigration process led to 'horrific' months-long separation from family

A week-long trip to help her mother in Ohio turned into a "horrific" ordeal for Sarah Arvanitis when she was denied entry back into Canada and separated from her young daughter.

Arvanitis, 35, has filed a complaint with the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) against her Hamilton immigration lawyer, funded through Legal Aid Ontario. She alleges the "devastating" three-month separation came after she was denied entry into Canada on the grounds she was missing a key document — a permanent residency application she says her lawyer assured her had been filed. 

Her complaint was filed in May and there hasn't yet been a decision by the LSO.

While she was stuck in the U.S. between March and June, Arvanitis said, her 10-year-old daughter in Ontario was distraught, calling her every day crying and struggling in school. 

Without Arvanitis's care, her husband Tom, who has diabetes and is on bed rest, saw his health deteriorate, leading to his leg being amputated below the knee in May, she said. 

"I can't even describe the feeling of absolute turmoil and helplessness," Sarah Arvanitis told CBC Hamilton. 

"I found myself sitting on the floor most of the time crying and crying. I thought I'm never going to see my husband again. And I just need my daughter."

She is one of two Hamilton families who have shared frustrations about their immigration process led by the same lawyer — a process many newcomers feel too vulnerable to raise concerns about, one expert told CBC Hamilton, even if they fear their application is in jeopardy. 

Missing application prevented re-entry to Canada

In Arvanitis's case, she was under the impression her lawyer, Victoria Bruyn, had filed her permanent resident application in 2021, as Bruyn had then told her in an email.

Bruyn also provided her with a shipment summary — a Fedex receipt — showing she paid to send a package from her Hamilton office to the Vancouver office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that summer. 

The application Bruyn claims to have submitted was provided to Arvanitis this June and seen by CBC Hamilton. 

However, there is "no record" of such an application ever being filed for Arvanitis — only visitor visas, according to IRCC. That's why Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers did not allow her to re-enter Canada, says a report they issued at the border on March 20.

Arvanitis also alleges in her complaint that Bruyn promised but didn't file other necessary documents for Arvanitis to get back into Canada, and by the end of April, the lawyer had stopped responding to her requests for help.

"Victoria, I feel abandoned by you," Arvanitis wrote in a text message while still in Ohio on April 27, something included in her complaint.

Contacted by CBC Hamilton, Bruyn said she isn't allowed to share anything about the case as Arvanitis's complaint is being reviewed by the LSO, the provincial regulatory body that oversees lawyers and paralegals.

"If I were to comment, the law society would undoubtedly take the position that I am compromising their process and that I am retaliating against the client, which would lead to further complaints made against me," Bruyn said in an email. 

"Please understand that I do want to respond to her allegations, and I have done so in detail with my communications with the law society, but to speak to you would compromise my career."

Bruyn has never been before the LSO's tribunal or been subjected to any regulatory restrictions, said spokesperson Ivy Johnson. If there is a current investigation underway, that information hasn't been made public. 

Arvanitis said that as she continued to wait in the U.S., her family pooled together thousands of dollars to hire a private immigration lawyer in May. That lawyer compiled supporting immigration documents, including Arvanitis's signed affidavit, letters of support, and emails between her and Bruyn, for a temporary resident permit that allowed her to re-enter Canada in June.

Application set back by 'years-long delay'

Arvanitis moved from Ohio to Hamilton in 2014 to live with her daughter's father, according to her affidavit included in her immigration documents. She said the relationship was abusive and, fearing for her life, she fled to the shelter run by Interval House of Hamilton a few years later. 

She slowly worked to rebuild her life, raising her daughter and remarrying. Through another lawyer, Arvanitis was referred to Bruyn, who took her on as a client and was paid by LAO. However, the process to apply for permanent residency was plagued by delays, Arvanitis said in her affidavit.

"While my own conduct may have been responsible for a delay of a few weeks here and there, Ms. Bruyn's was responsible for the years-long delay it took to submit my application," Arvanitis said in her affidavit.

In 2021, Bruyn told Arvanitis over email she had submitted her application for permanent residency and she'd update Arvanitis as the application was being processed.

The delays continued. Arvanitis said she didn't hear anything from Bruyn for over a year and didn't follow up often. Arvanitis was also distracted with a custody battle for her daughter and caring for Tom, whose health was rapidly declining. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a backlog at the IRCC, so she figured that might have been delaying the process. 

In December 2022, Arvanitis spoke to Bruyn on the phone to make sure she could return to the U.S. for short visits, which Bruyn advised would be fine with her permanent resident application pending, according to Arvanitis's affidavit. 

If she had known there was a risk, Arvanitis told CBC Hamilton, she never would have gone given the impact it would have on her family. 

On her first trip back, Arvanitis said, she had no issues at the border returning to Canada.

"All they asked is where I lived, and I said Hamilton, and I was sent on my way."

On March 20, after visiting her mom for a week in Ohio, Arvanitis approached the Canadian border a second time, with the same documents related to her U.S. citizenship and custody agreement. This time, however, she wasn't allowed through. 

"I was completely shocked, given that Ms. Bruyn had assured me that my application had been submitted back in July 2021," Arvanitis's affidavit says. 

The CBSA said it does not provide comments on specific cases, for privacy reasons.

Generally speaking, officers review each traveller's circumstances, the purpose of their trip and their documents before deciding if they're allowed into Canada, CBSA spokesperson Guillaume Bérubé said.

Colombian couple's experience resonated

Arvanitis hired a new lawyer in May and within weeks was granted a temporary resident permit, allowed back into Canada, and reunited with her husband and daughter. 

"I'm extremely thankful and grateful to be home in Hamilton now," Arvanitis said in an email to CBC Hamilton. "But the whole thing has absolutely devastated our family almost beyond repair and I feel like I came back to a completely different life." 

Her husband, who's still recovering from his leg amputation, may require further surgeries. They also had to find a new home that's wheelchair accessible in an unaffordable rental market. 

Arvanitis decided to reach out to CBC Hamilton when she came across coverage about Colombian couple Andrea Pardo Rodriguez and Nelson Martinez Mora, who were almost deported earlier this year. 

She said their immigration experience shared similarities with her own, and she came forward to help other people avoid what she went through. 

Bruyn was also the lawyer for the Colombian family and paid for by legal aid. 

Their refugee claim was denied last August, but Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora were under the impression the proper documents had been filed so they could stay in Canada for the time being, said their family friend, Cynthia Belaskie, who has been assisting them through the immigration process. 

In March, a permanent residency application for the couple was "cancelled" by the IRCC because of a "technical glitch," Bruyn said. While she was in the process of refiling, the two were detained. 

Bruyn then filed a request to defer their deportation back to Colombia, but it was rejected.

Running out of hope, Belaskie said, Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora retained a new lawyer through legal aid. 

He quickly got a stay order the day before their deportation date. They were released and are continuing to build a life in Canada.

When asked about this case, Bruyn said in an email that no complaints were ever made against her and she helped the new lawyer get the stay. 

However, for newcomers like Pardo Rodriguez and Martinez Mora, the complaint process is expensive and time consuming, said Belaskie.

"For people who just want to get started in a new life in Canada and want to focus on the issue at hand, it would be understandable that these kinds of cases fall through the cracks," she said. "And you're dealing with marginalized people." 

A fraught complaint process

In Ontario, there are numerous ways to formally complain about a lawyer, but all are complicated and mostly ineffective, said Craig Damian Smith, a research affiliate at York University's Centre for Refugee Studies. 

Clients can file complaints through the LSO, as Arvanitis has done, and refugee claimants have the option of going through the Immigration and Refugee Board. Clients who have hired a lawyer through legal aid can also complain directly to that provincial body.

However, Smith said, "it's 100 per cent up to clients who are in extremely vulnerable situations to bring evidence and a complaint," which discourages many from doing so, especially when trying to also navigate Canada's complicated immigration and refugee process. 

Relatively low compensation and a lack of oversight lead some legal aid lawyers to take on a high caseload, Smith said, which can result in poor legal representation for clients.

"Somebody needs to nail these people to the wall, but it's just not happening." 

Legal Aid Ontario spokesperson Feroneh Neil said lawyers are paid an average of about $2,200 per immigration and refugee case.

She said legal aid takes all complaints "very seriously" and encourages clients who have concerns about their legal representation to contact them immediately. She noted legal aid accepts complaints anonymously. 

If legal aid makes a "negative finding," it could impose a range of measures, up to removing the lawyer for its roster, Neil said. 

Meanwhile, the LSO can respond to a complaint by providing the lawyer with guidance or mentorship, for example, or have a hearing to determine if there should be a fine, or a licence suspension or removal. 

Arvanitis said her complaint is slowly making its way through the LSO process. 

"I don't want anyone else coming to harm," she said.