For three years, New Yorkers Ricardo Companioni and Andrew Grover have been eyeing Toronto as their new home.

Of the many things about Canada that appeal to the American couple, who are both HIV positive, the freedom to wed and access to universal health care are paramount.

But the pair has not yet been able to call Canada home.

Generally healthy and never hospitalized, the couple are nonetheless expected to have combined prescription drug costs of about $33,500 per year for the next 10 years.

It’s an expense they have promised to pay themselves if they can’t secure employer-based or private drug coverage when in Canada.

However, because there is nothing to stop the couple from enrolling in an Ontario drug program meant to help residents offset particularly high prescription costs, Citizenship and Immigration Canada rejected the couple’s application for permanent residence status.

Companioni and Grover were told they would place an “excessive demand” on the health-care system.

“It wasn’t denied right away. They kept asking us for more and more documents,” said Companioni, a music programmer who applied in the skilled-worker category for immigration.

“Tax returns. All of our assets. They even went so far as to make us sign a letter promising not to use their social services. And we had to get this letter notarized. Even after all that, they said no.”

But at the urging of their lawyer, the couple — who have amassed a half-million dollars in assets — appealed the decision in federal court and won the right to have a new immigration officer examine their case.

The appeal’s argument borrowed from a 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada on an immigration case, which set a precedent for ensuring immigration officers take into account plans made by applicants on how they will contribute to their, or their dependent’s, social services costs.

The couple’s lawyer, Michael Battista, argued this consideration should also be extended to something such as prescription drug costs.

The HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic in Ontario also formally intervened in the case on behalf of the couple.

Although Citizenship and Immigration then proceeded to file their own appeal, Battista said he’s confident Companioni and Grover will eventually become permanent residents.

“I am very optimistic about it,” he said. “This decision is really part of an evolution of the law with respect to immigration and health costs. It used to be, in my experience, that people with HIV were automatically refused, and, thankfully, we now have a more nuanced approach that actually looks at their capacity to contribute to their health costs.”

Citizenship and Immigration will not discuss specific immigration cases because of privacy concerns.

Canadian legislation doesn’t explicitly deny entry to people with HIV or AIDS, but it does deny applicants who will place “an excessive demand” on health services.

As HIV/AIDS is a costly, long-term illness, it often falls into this category.

Until its ban was lifted in January, the United States considered HIV/AIDS a communicable disease, and denied entrance to immigrants and travellers who tested positive for the virus.

All potential immigrants to Canada must undergo a medical examination, which includes an HIV test — which happens to be when many people discover they have the disease, said John Norquay, a lawyer for the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic in Ontario.

Exceptions are made for some immigrants, however, often family members sponsored by relatives already residing in Canada.

Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer, said accepting immigration applications on the basis of their ability to pay for any aspect of their health care or social services is problematic, particularly because it can’t be policed.

There is always a chance applicants will renege on their promise to pay for health care, Karas said, and once they’re on Canadian soil, there’s nothing the government can do to stop it.

“The basic problem is that unless there are mechanisms in place that can monitor this, whatever promises they make, can turn out to be meaningless,” he said. “And unfortunately, there are no mechanisms to monitor them. Once you receive residency, it becomes unconditional.”

Despite the hurdles and legal bills, Companioni said he hasn’t been discouraged from becoming a Canadian.

“I’d still like it to work out,” he said. “We want to move to Canada.”

I went to China and Hong Kong to film a documentary. I finished a master's thesis and graduated from journalism school. I spent five months in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

I got a job in Ottawa, and drove across 75% of Canada in five days. My grandmother died from pancreatic cancer. In between these big events, there was time with family and friends.

I've started to notice, with great alarm, how fast time seems to go now that I'm an adult. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I love taking photos, so this is just a small sampling of what I took over the year, and some photos by friends and family.

Musical credit is Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap.

Happy New Year, everyone! Best wishes for 2010.

A Year in Review from Allison Cross on Vimeo.

I arrived back in Canada and was very much soothed by the predictability of my surroundings. Food was fresh and plentiful. Clean water came from the tap. My bed wasn't full of bugs. Cheap, new clothes were available everywhere and cars had seat belts. I relished the decadence of hot showers and mild weather. I poured over the thousands of photos I took, trying hard to remember the feeling of lying on a deserted beach. I was happy to see friends and family, and grateful they'd put up with my frantic emails and phone calls while I was away.

I relaxed after being on edge for months. Life at home was very peaceful. In Freetown, hailing a taxi and getting to work in torrential rains was a major accomplishment. Grocery shopping and trips to the bank were time consuming and frustrating, but always exciting. The constant attention from men was annoying and sometimes frightening. 

Life at home is peaceful — but also predictable. As time has gone on, I've missed that excitement more and more, particularly when there are few people who can relate to my experience.

I often tell people about what it was like in Sierra Leone: devastating poverty, petty crime, unemployment, malaria, no indoor plumbing, insects, corrupt police and government, and rain — so much rain. But I didn't expect to feel insulted when people asked, with genuine concern, why I would ever want to go to a place like that. I had to force myself to remember what I'd thought of Africa before I went there, and remind myself how foreign and foreboding it seemed at the time.

But I still come up with the same answer to that question: I go to new places to see what the world is like beyond what I see every day. It's uncomfortable and sometimes scary, but I think that's the point.

The farther I go out into the world, the smaller I feel. My personal problems and annoyances feel insignificant. My understanding of religion, society and culture seems insufficient. My capacity to affect change feels inadequate. But anyone who ventures to new places can at least begin to acknowledge how different we all are — something I am still trying to wrap my head around.

I'm working in journalism now and given the state of the economy, and the journalism industry, I'm grateful. But I get antsy for that kind of excitement from time to time. I'm hoping I can eventually combine my love of travel and journalism into a (financially-viable) career.

By Allison Cross
Canwest News Service

Full story, go here.

A security crackdown on airline travel to the United States is a superficial fix to grave problems with Canada's airport-safety system, says an expert who contends this country remains vulnerable to aviation terrorism.

"It's cosmetic," Peter St. John told Canwest News Service on Saturday.

"'Reaction security' is not good security. 'Pre-emptive security' is what you need. You need to be anticipating who's going to be doing what. That's what good intelligence is about."

Transport Canada, along with governments around the world, on Saturday implemented temporary security measures for flights to the U.S., including bag and body searches at gates, after a Nigerian man tried unsuccessfully to detonate an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"It should be a wake-up call," St. John said of what officials in the U.S. are calling a botched Christmas Day terror attack.

St. John, a retired university professor who has written extensively on airport security, aviation hijacking and international terrorism, said Canada's airport-security system is porous and vulnerable to terrorism.

Transport Canada should focus on hiring highly trained security professionals in airports instead of more expensive technology, St. John said.

"We've flirted with the idea of machines that can spot everything ... but we've never developed proper human security," he said. "In all intelligence matters ... and counter-security ... it's always the personnel that find the problems -- good, well-trained personnel who know what they're doing and know what they're looking for. If you're not prepared to pay for these people and not prepared to put proper security in place, bombs are going to be let off."

St. John has also long advocated for stricter security measures such as an outright ban on carry-on baggage, as well as a policy that prohibits passengers' luggage from being on a flight if the owner isn't -- for any reason.

"I don't understand why a country like Canada that's so good militarily and has got so many techniques it has developed in war and conflict, cannot develop a proper security system," he said. "It's just simply a question of (terrorists) trying, before one of these things really works because of the poor defences. It was poor defences and bad airport security that led to 9/11."

Canada's aviation security system lags far behind many other developed nations, St. John said.

St. John said the Air India tragedy in 1985, when a flight en route to Bombay from Montreal blew up mid-air and killed 329 people, also should have served as a wake-up call to Canadians. He said it didn't.

The Roadtrip: From Penticton to Ottawa from Allison Cross on Vimeo.

1. Taxi from house to water taxi terminal: 5 minutes
2. Wait at water taxi terminal because the boat is late: 1 hour, 15 minutes
3. Water taxi ride across Sierra Leone river to Lungi, where the airport is located: 20 minutes
4. Van ride to airport: 5 minutes
5. Wait in line to check in, have bags (barely) searched: 2 hours
6. Snack at airport: 30 minutes
7. BMI flight from Freetown to London: 7.5 hours
8. Layover in London-Heathrow airport, where I revel in high-speed internet and fresh bagels: 5 hours
9. British Airways flight from London to Toronto: 6 hours
10. Wait at customs in Toronto: 20 minutes
11. Airport shuttle to downtown Toronto: 30 minutes
12. Subway ride to friend's house: 10 minutes

It's a good thing I didn't fly all the way to Vancouver, my final destination. It may have killed me.