'Heartless' officials bar fiance of cancer sufferer from coming into Canada

By Jonathan Bradley

A Canadian woman is fighting to get her British fiance into the country as she undergoes cancer treatment.

Sarah Campbell, an art therapy graduate student from Stratford, Ont., was supposed to get married to Jacob Taylor on June 27, but he was prevented from entering the country when Canada closed its border because of COVID-19.

Campbell decided she would go to the United Kingdom to get married because she is a dual citizen and that country did not close its borders. But then she discovered a lump on her neck.

Doctors told her it was thyroid cancer.

In the House of Commons, her MP, John Nater, asked for an exemption for her fiance to come to Canada from Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair.

Blair responded to Nater with a rejection email a few hours after the request was made. Blair said Taylor could not come in because he did not qualify for one of the 23 exemptions outlined in government policy.

Fiances are not on the list of immediate family members who can be allowed in. The order in council about the border closures was extended until August 31.

“It’s so ridiculous that we can fill bars and restaurants, we can have gatherings of 100 people outside, but my one fiance is still being barred entry into Canada as I undergo cancer treatment,” she said.

Taylor said he feels helpless because he is unable to physically be with Campbell.

“It’s been such a tough and trying time emotionally and mentally,” he said. “I’m just trying to always be there for Sarah as much as I can while being thousands of kilometres away.”

Campbell has been writing letters every day for about two weeks to politicians asking them to grant her fiance an exemption on compassionate grounds. She has been averaging three letters per day. The letters are going to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Health Patty Hajdu, MInister Blair, Minister of Immigration Marco Mendicino, and Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne.

Taylor has also been tweeting at politicians, but he said he is unsure if they have seen his tweets. He has called and emailed the British High Commission in Canada, the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, the Canada Border Services Agency, his MPs in the United Kingdom, and the British Foreign Office.

Campbell said all she wants is to be with her fiance.

“No one wants to hear that they have cancer, but to have to go through this alone has been one of the most difficult times in my life,” she said.