Alberta Health revoked coverage for 8-year-old after mother's immigration status becomes unclear

An eight-year-old Calgary girl who was born in Canada and holds an Alberta birth certificate will no longer have access to health care as of Nov. 1, 2015.

Alberta Health is revoking Divya Boparai's coverage because her mother's status in Canada is unclear.

"This is Canada, we don't visit the sins of the parents on the child," said immigration lawyer RajSharma.

Divya's mother, Amarjeet Boparai, came to Canada as a refugee from India in 2001 after being sexually abused by security forces, says Sharma.

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After that claim was rejected, she was sponsored to become a permanent resident by her husband, who she met here, but the abusive marriage dissolved.

He left the country and Amarjeet's application was closed.

'Legal limbo'

The single mother has applied to stay on humanitarian grounds but the status of that application is unclear at this point.

Amarjeetdoes not qualify for provincial health care but her daughter does, says Sharma.

The family was informed by a letter from Alberta Healththat Divyawould be without coverage next montha situation Sharma calls "illegal."

The department has not responded to Sharma's attempts to resolve the matter leaving the family in what hecalls"legal limbo" because of the "incompetence" of bureaucratic wrangling.

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Sharmasays he's prepared to take the matter to court if he doesn't hear back from Alberta Health by the end of the week.

Alberta's Health Minister Sarah Hoffmanissued a statement about the case on Friday evening.

"In a situation like this, where the daughter is a Canadian citizen living in Alberta, she is entitled to health coverage, so it appears that there has been a misunderstanding," it read.

"I asked my staff to contact the mother today to clear up the confusion. That has happened through her legal representative, who was walked through the steps this family can take to make sure this child receives coverage under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan."