Hi, my name is Theo (I went by Ted but now i prefer Theo). My wife and I have 5 children together (I do have 2 other children but I want to respect their right to privacy and they are not here in Canada with us). I adopted my wife’s 4 children in 2024. We have one child together. Gwen was born on September 19, 2023. Our oldest is Milo (previously Grayson but he prefers Milo now). The next oldest is Wren (previously Averyanna) and she is 13 years old. Then you have Leo (previously Hunter) and he is 9 years old. After that we have Kenny who is 7 years old. And then we have our youngest Gwendelyn (she also goes by Gwen). My wife and I have come to Canada to seek asylum. We have been here since March 4th, 2025. We came here to Canada to seek asylum because our 14 year old is transgender. He came out when he was 12 years old. My 13 year old daughter Wren, she also came out when she was 11 years. She is gender fluid. And my wife who used to go by Katie now goes by River, she has recently discovered she is non binary. And she uses she/they/them pronouns. My wife has also suffered from health issues and this includes miscarriages. She has now had 8 overall, 6 since April 2024. Her most recent one actually just happened and while we are sad we don’t think it was the right time for another child. We will be going in front of the board within a year due to the changes in the IRCC.

Back when we first came to Canada my wife posted a TikTok and it went viral. She is a very private so when this took off she was overwhelmed and then the comments we got on her videos and private messages was horrible. And people also found us on Facebook and would send horrible messages there. There was also a lot of good messages to and we met a lot of new people who helped with a lot of information as coming to a new country is overwhelming. We packed up what we could into our 12 passenger van and drove to the border hoping we would be accepted but also we knew we could be denied. Luckily we weren’t and we were approved and sent on our way free to enter Canada. As refugee claimants we were told at the time of our approval we would be receiving health care through the Interim Federal Health Program (or IFHP for short) and it started the day of our arrival. We were caught off guard as we were told we wouldn’t be receiving health care and honestly we didn’t care we just wanted our kids to be safe. We have been called scammers, etc. We don’t relieve any sort of money from the Canadian government and when my wife was on the TikTok creator fund she barely made a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately we had people report us to CAS (CPS here in Canada) and also reported us to Ontario works (welfare in Ontario). We were cleared all the times. But due to that happening multiple times it would put us behind in rent and bills because they would pause payments until we they cleared it.

We do have work permits and we can work. I have been a paramedic for 19 years and working on getting licensed here. But with my wife’s medical problems and then waiting for my transcripts it’s taken some time. My wife can’t work due to 5 kids always needing an appointment or something, plus your youngest is 2. She also has health issues that we have been trying to find out why, it’s been on going since our youngest was born in 2023. I did work briefly for FedEx during the seasonal season and then was offered a parttime job (barely paid enough just for food and a phone bill) but due to my wife’s health declining in December (it got worse than normal and her mental health) I missed so many days. My work was very nice but I had to quit my job to take care of my wife and kids. We had issues getting back on Ontario Works and we finally got approved. But we are behind in bills and rent. We are being taken to the board next month and face possible eviction. If we can get it to under 3 months then the Housing Stability Bank said they can help us. We are also needing a vehicle. We had a van when we came over but due to not having the funds to keep up with the registration and insurance it got towed last year. And it was on its last leg anyways we are surprised it survived. If we can even just get a vehicle off of facebook marketplace to get us to and from shopping etc that would help. The bus system is good but its a lot of walking and my wife has a hard time with walking.

My wife made a go fund me last year and even an Amazon wish list, she was called horrible names and such so she took it down. I am putting one back up because our family does need help and I am doing this for my kids. Any help is appreciated.