City of Cold Lake council approves immigration support letter

COLD LAKE - The City of Cold Lake approved a letter of support to help a family immigrate to Canada from Pakistan, following a plea that sparked debate at a special council meeting on June 4. 

Community member Alexia Shore reached out to the Mayor’s office seeking the City’s backing in helping Arifa Hussaini and her family immigrate from Pakistan to Canada under the federal Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) program.  

The family’s situation is dire as their current visa is set to expire in two months, and if their application fails, they risk being deported to Afghanistan. 

“We have been approached from somebody in our community to work on having the mayor sign off on a letter of support for this family to come to Canada,” said Mayor Craig Copeland during the meeting. “And from what we understand, the timeline on the federal application is narrowing. So, speed is of the essence here.” 

While there was a general willingness to support the Hussaini family’s application, concerns quickly emerged over the draft wording of the support letter, particularly allegations about border violence and corruption in Pakistan. 

“This is a huge geopolitical thing and the letter for me is the tough part,” said Coun. Ryan Bailey. “There’s a lot of things in there that make a lot of accusations, whether true or not I don’t know. I’m more of the thing that immigration is a federal umbrella.” 

Bailey expressed discomfort with being named as a supporter of the letter, saying he didn’t feel comfortable including unverified claims about bribery and violence. 

Coun. Chris Vining echoed Bailey’s position.  

“I understand where it’s coming from. And I’m not saying it’s coming from a bad place or it’s coming from a good place, but I just think it’s . . . a little more than what I’d be comfortable jumping into.” 

Vining also stressed the importance of focusing on facts. “We stick to what we do know for sure about these folks within their application and go from there, as far as if we’re going to support a letter.” 

Coun. Bob Mattice agreed with reworking the letter, supporting his colleagues’ concerns about the strong wording that had been used in one of the paragraphs. 

Ultimately, council opted to pause the matter temporarily to allow administration time to revise the letter.  

Council then made a motion to approve the letter of support, as amended.