Filipina temp worker paralyzed in Canada won’t be deported

Maria Victoria Venancio, who lost her job and permit to stay after a traffic accident left her a quadriplegic, has been given a reprieve from deportation. CBC PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO – A Filipina former temporary foreign worker who became quadriplegic after a traffic accident in Edmonton, Alberta three years ago, has been granted a two-year work permit, enabling her to stay in Canada for that period without risk of deportation.

Maria Victoria “Vicky” Venancio was personally given the news by Edmonton MP and Minister of State for Multiculturalism Tim Uppal, who told her Immigration Minister Chris Alexander had granted the permit, effective immediately.

“I’m in heaven right now,” she told CBC News. “It’s not only my victory. It’s everyone who is supporting me and praying for me.”

Venancio wants to stay in Edmonton to continue her physiotherapy and, someday, begin working again.

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

Venancio in 2012 was struck by a vehicle while biking to her job at an Edmonton McDonald’s, seven months after arriving from the Philippines. The use of her hands is limited and she is diagnosed medically as a quadriplegic.

Unable any longer to perform her job, her work-based visa was not renewed, making her stay illegal and disqualifying her for health-care coverage.

She has been receiving free physiotherapy as part of a research project at the University of Alberta.

“Right now I’m having lots of remarkable improvement,” Venancio, 29, told reporters.

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