Tamas and Betty's Story: Tamas and Betty Bacsi, two of our students at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School arrived in Canada three years ago from their native country, Hungary. They, along with their parents, came to Toronto with one sole purpose: so that Tamas could study music at the Royal Conservatory. From a very early age, Tamas was showing great talent as a pianist in Hungary, performing in numerous festivals and concerts to great acclaim. In October of 2007, Tamas and his father came to Toronto for a visit, and Tamas was asked to play in a concert here, sponsored by the Hungarian community. Marina Geringas, a piano professor from University of Toronto's Glenn Gould School was in the audience, and encouraged Tamas to come to Canada to study with her. After researching schools in Hungary, the family decided their best option was indeed for Tamas and the family to make the move to Toronto. In November of 2008, the family arrived in Toronto. At this time, the promises made to Tamas's father about a working visa with a construction company suddenly fell through. The family, feeling panicked, received advice from a paralegal, who told them to apply as "refugees". With this particular paralegal, they received terrible advice. In fact, they were misinformed and missed out on opportunities to apply for humanitarian and compassionate claims with immigration. Since Novermber of 2008, this family has been living in Toronto under the status of a refugee claim. The parents have found jobs (they ran a Hungarian restaurant for awhile, the father continues to work in construction). Tamas has been studying piano at The Royal Conservatory, and has been achieving great success. Both Tamas and Betty are enrolled at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School. In 3 short years, they have learned English, and are excellent students, involved in numerous extra-curricular activities. At the moment, the parents still do not speak English. Just recently, this family has received notifcation that our Canadian government has rejected their refugee claim. They have been asked to leave Canada. They could be leaving as early as December of this year. The family does not have much money. The parents do not speak English. They received absolutely the wrong advice from their first "lawyer" (who they found out later was a paralegal). If the family goes back to Hungary, the hopes and dreams of the children, Tamas and Betty, will be lost. Tamas is in Grade 12. His auditions for the Glenn Gould School of Music, Banff, and University of Toronto will be forfeited. Both students will lose their academic year, and will be put back a couple of years in the school system in Hungary. The family will not be able to afford for Tamas to come back to Canada next year. Is this fair? These are current and future positive contributors to our Canadian society. Tamas, in particular, will have a performance career here in Canada. What can we do about this? Perhaps students need to get involved and show our government that these two students need and deserve to stay!