A U.S.-born man who was removed from the farm on Penelakut Island where he has lived for 37 years under the threat of deportation will receive permanent residency.
Richard Jerman, 60, who has four children and 14 grandchildren, was removed from the First Nations reserve on Penelakut Island, about five kilometres from Chemainus, by border officials on Dec. 11. Two days later, he was released on a $500 bond and issued an exclusion order — the lowest level removal order.
The office of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander notified Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May on Friday that Jermans’ permanent residency application was approved in principle on Feb. 25. Barring any major health concerns or criminal conduct, “the application will be approved in due course,” says the email.
May said she was relieved to get the news from Alexander. “I am very grateful for his understanding and decision that Richard Jerman remain permanently in Canada.”
Jerman was born to a Miwok Indian father from California. The background of his mother, who died when he was young, is not confirmed but she was likely part First Nations, he said.
He was raised by white foster parents, and didn’t know he was native until he was a teenager.
In school, he said, he was bullied by kids who thought he was Japanese.
At 23, Jerman met his wife, Maria George, in Seattle. The couple returned to her home on the Penelakut First Nation reserve, formerly called Kuper Island.
Jerman does not have official Indian status and did not apply for Canadian citizenship. He has a social insurance number, a driver’s licence, a health card and has travelled across the United States-Canada border without issue.
He said he assumed that under the Constitution Act and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, aboriginal people had the rights to travel and trade freely across the Canada-U.S. border.
His wife was traumatized when her husband was swept up and taken away without notice. George said she was reminded of the day she was torn from her grandmother’s arms and taken to the island’s residential school.
