Rob Shakespeare, born in England, has been helping his mother, a naturalized Canadian, to run Hire-a-Hen, a small-scale business that allows you to rent backyard chickens for the summer, coop and food included. His father is deceased, his 70-year-old mother Denise has suffered a stroke. Rob is a hard worker who is the mainstay of his mother: without him, she would no longer be able to keep up the business. Now he has been told by Immigration Canada that he will be deported at the end of August. This is the culmination of a long series of frustrating negotiations, in which Immigration kept changing their requirements. Denise and Rob have now hired an immigration lawyer whom they can ill afford (a few months ago their entire stock of chickens, except for a few incubating in the house, was stolen from the barn overnight). The lawyer will argue for a residency permit on humanitarian grounds, which certainly is applicable here, though there are no guarantees. They are hoping to pay off the $6000 fee in installments; I am hoping we can pay it for them.

Rob is a single parent to Lawrence, his ten-year-old son. If the humanitarian appeal fails, Lawrence will have to leave with his father, and the two will face an uncertain future in England. They will arrive there with no home and no immediate means of income.

Please give whatever you can in order to keep this little family together in Canada.