Canada's Deportation of Mexican Mother Would be a Clear Case of Gender Injustice Patricia Martin - The Gazette
go to original February 5, 2014

 
Ivonne Hernandez Segura fled domestic violence in Mexico but was refused refugee status in Canada. Women’s groups are concerned other refugee women will be afraid to go a shelter to report conjugal violence for fear of angering husbands, being denounced to immigration officials and losing their children. (Marie-France Coallier/The Gazette)

The proposed deportation of Ivonne Hernandez Segura to Mexico, her country of birth, represents a clear case of gender injustice that is transnational in scope. Actions taken in Canada against her are simply reinforcing rather than disrupting the gender violence that she was attempting to escape in her home country.

Hernandez was ordered to show up for deportation on Friday, but a Federal Court judge Tuesday ordered proceedings to be postponed so that she could attend a custody hearing March 6 in Montreal in connection with her toddler son.

Hernandez fled Mexico to escape an abusive relationship at the hands of a Mexican federal police officer. As is well known, women in Mexico are vulnerable to multiple forms of direct, social and symbolic violence. This circumstance is perhaps best reflected in the phenomenon of “femicide,” for which Mexico as a whole has gained notoriety.

It is important to highlight, nonetheless, that the issue of gendered violence in Mexico concerns not only a moment (or repeated moments) of direct violence against a woman, but also the institutional impunity within which such violence is encased. The contemporary system of law and justice in Mexico is incapable of offering women — and other vulnerable groups in society — protection or justice.

See the original at The Gazette

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