‘You can’t do this to a man’: Gander resident battling several major health issues devastated after wife ordered to leave country

In just a little over two weeks, Lisa Southern is scheduled to depart her husband of twenty-two years, get on a airplane and fly again to her homeland of Australia.

It’s not a pleasure journey, or for enterprise. The truth is, she didn’t even guide the flight.

Southern has been issued a removing order by the Canadian Border Companies Company. It’s primarily punishment for being delinquent in renewing her residency visa on multiple event. She will return in a 12 months.

“In line with them, I’ve had too many possibilities, in order that they’re eliminating me, mainly,” she mentioned in cellphone interview this week from Gander.

Southern acknowledges she did miss deadlines in renewing her visa up to now, however invariably had an excuse every time.

In 2002, her husband, Dennis Wicks, suffered a pair of coronary heart assaults that left him unable to work.

“We have been fully broke. We had a new child daughter. So it was chaos,” mentioned Southern, who says the household at occasions needed to survive on $1,100 a month as a result of she wasn’t in a position to work.

“I used to be a lifeless man strolling. The physician advised me that.”
— Dennis Wicks

Some years later, Wicks fell sick and Southern introduced him to the hospital. After three totally different glucometers gave inaccurate readings, a fourth lastly registered a blood sugar stage of 44.

Many individuals move out with a studying of 12. If it goes over 24, an individual can go right into a coma.

“I used to be a lifeless man strolling,” Wicks mentioned. “The physician advised me that.”

It was one in all no less than two events when Southern saved his life, he says.

“In any other case, I’d have gone on to mattress.”

Wicks takes insulin daily, however nonetheless has blockages from his coronary heart assaults which can be inoperable. And as if that weren’t sufficient, he’s now battling Stage 4 prostate most cancers and desires surgical procedure for a significant hernia.

‘I don’t know if Dennis can survive’

Wicks has lived in Gander all his life.

He labored at numerous jobs earlier than his coronary heart woes grounded him, and likewise did volunteer work.

He and Southern met on-line, and Southern admits that when she first determined to return to Newfoundland and Labrador she was underneath the impression that marriage would robotically put her on a path to citizenship.

That coverage resulted in 1997.

Southern will be capable of reapply for a visa in a 12 months, however says that may very well be too late.

“Between now and a 12 months’s time, I don’t know if Dennis can survive,” she mentioned.

Each Wicks and their 20-year-old daughter, Erica, who lives with them, endure from nervousness.

“I need my mother there to assist me transfer into my first place by myself.”
— Erica Wicks

Chatting with The Telegram, Erica mentioned she has needed to work since she was 13 to be able to have any pocket cash. She needed to maneuver to St. John’s two years in the past, however the pandemic put her plans on maintain.

Now she received’t have her mom round to assist her do it in September.

“I need my mother there to assist me transfer into my first place by myself,” she mentioned.

“And he or she desires to be right here to assist me make these grownup selections that you just do while you exit by yourself for the primary time.”

Dennis has beforehand been hospitalized for nervousness.

“My nervousness, even with out this s—, is thru the roof at occasions,” Wicks mentioned. “I get overloaded. I’ve had two nervous breakdowns and ended up in Grand Falls hospital within the psychiatric ward. I’ve been admitted twice.

“It’s crippling,” he mentioned. “It might take you unexpectedly.”

Wicks says he doesn’t perceive why the federal government can be so callous about their state of affairs and ship his spouse again to Australia.

“Somebody has to cease it or delay it. My God, you possibly can’t do that to a person. I’m going to be left with completely no care.”

“I get overloaded. I’ve had two nervous breakdowns and ended up in Grand Falls hospital within the psychiatric ward. I’ve been admitted twice.”
— Dennis Wicks

No compassion

The couple mentioned their daughter’s nervousness largely stems from a lifetime of struggling to make ends meet.

“We have been poor, and she or he was bullied at school as a result of we have been poor,” Wicks mentioned.

Southern mentioned she realizes folks will say she’s the creator of her personal misfortune, however her household comes first. And so they’ve been by means of very troublesome occasions.

“Sure, it’s of my very own making,” she mentioned. “I take full accountability for that. However no person is aware of how we lived for the previous 20 years. … It’s been homicide.”

The couple briefly separated about 5 years in the past due to the pressure, however Southern moved again in to maintain Wicks and her daughter.

Southern says coping with the Canadian Border Companies Company has at all times been an disagreeable expertise. Even when she was going through the removing order, she may hear employees laughing within the again room whereas she was of their workplace in tears.

“(L)aughing when somebody’s within the midst of despair shouldn’t be cool,” she mentioned.

One official even prompt she may signal a kind stating she can be in peril if she returned to Australia. That might no less than delay the removing.

“And I mentioned, ‘Nicely, I’m sorry however I can’t do this. I can’t lie and say I’m in peril after I’m not.’”

The pair says nobody has advocated on their behalf, together with MPs.

The Canadian Border Companies Company was unable to supply remark earlier than deadline.

Peter Jackson is a Native Journalism Initiative reporter overlaying Indigenous affairs for The Telegram.