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 A Polish couple from Kamloops is fuming after they say their nephew was not allowed to contact them after being detained at Vancouver International Airport on Sunday. Wes Abramovicz's 28-year-old nephew, Pavel Marach was scheduled to arrive from England, but after waiting for hours, Abramovicz says he and his wife were told that Marach never boarded the plane.
A Polish visitor bound for Kamloops was not legally admissible to Canada, Canada Border Services Agency said in a statement issued Friday.
Media reports on the case of Pawel Marach have been incorrect, said Yvette Monique Gray, the agency’s district director at Vancouver International Airport.
Citing the Privacy Act, however, the agency did not explain why Marach was inadmissible on his second attempt in as many months to visit his aunt and uncle in Kamloops.
“Mr. Marach was kept fully apprised of his situation and legal rights at all times,” Gray stated.
That contradicts Marach’s own version of events. Marach said he was accused of lying, locked up for 24 hours and grilled with questions. He was never told why border services officer felt he was lying.
Wes Abramowicz, Marach’s uncle, said he wasn’t expecting an apology from the agency.
“This is just an excuse,” he said. “I didn’t expect anything more than deny, deny, deny.”
Marach was careful on the second go-round to ensure his travel documentation exceeded requirements set down on his first attempt, Abramowicz explained. He brought with him not only confirmation of his employment in England but a letter from his landlord confirming his rent was paid six months in advance.
“That’s why we were so surprised why this whole thing happened.”
The confusion and indifference at VIA were eerily similar to circumstances surrounding the 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski, who was another Polish visitor en route to Kamloops. The similarity was not lost on Marach or his relatives.
“How many people coming to Canada are in a situation like that?” Abramowicz said. “They’ve never been honest to me in the first place … but they don’t have enough kahunas to say, ‘We’re sorry for the misunderstanding.’ ”
Staff at YVR did their best to help, he noted. Marach has not ruled out making a third attempt but he’s not coming back any time soon. His mother is in poor health and international coverage of his story has added to the family’s stress, Abramowicz said.
“Maybe after this, somebody upstairs might say, ‘How about we try do do things differently?’ ”
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