Woman injured in 2011 accident asking to stay in Canada

Maria Victoria Venancio, 29, speaks to reporters in Edmonton on Monday, February 16.

A woman, who came to Canada as a temporary foreign worker, is asking to stay, years after an accident left her seriously injured.

Maria Victoria Venancio, 29, is facing deportation back to the Philippines – years after she was first brought to Canada to work at McDonald’s.

She has lived in Canada since 2011 – seven months after she arrived, she was seriously injured as she rode her bike to work.

“I got hit by the car crossing the road, so my injury is quadriplegic,” Venancio said Monday.

Since she’s been living in Canada illegally, she has no medical coverage – but she has been receiving free physiotherapy treatment through a research project at the U of A.

Venancio said she wants to stay in Edmonton, to see how her rehabilitation develops, she also hopes to work again.

She has applied for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

“Her family, which would be her only support in the Philippines, lives three hours from a major centre and the simple lack of infrastructure there would present incredible challenges to her,” Lawyer Chris Bataluk said.

Now, Venancio faces the challenge of convincing Canadian officials to not deport her before there’s a decision on her application.

“They have in somewhat similar circumstances allowed people to stay in Canada while their application is being processed,” Bataluk said. “I’m hopeful in these circumstances they will as well.”

MLA Thomas Lukaszuk said Venancio’s case highlights issues with the temporary foreign worker program.

“We need to take a look at how we deal with TFWs, there are some 70,000 of them in Alberta who injure themselves at work, or off work hours,” Lukaszuk said. “So do we simply discard them because they are no use to us or do we take care of them?”

With files from Nicole Weisberg