Barring a last-minute reprieve, they will board a plane on Friday and return to Hungary, which they left in 2008.
“It will be a devastating blow for the entire family if we have to leave,” says Betty Bacsi, the prodigy’s 16-year old sister, who fills the role of manager and spokesperson for her talented but bashful older brother.
As they admit, the Bacsis made some poor decisions, based on bad advice they were given about how to gain legal status entitling them to remain in Canada permanently.
“We came here so that Thomas (a.k.a. Tamas) could pursue his dreams,” says Betty (a.k.a. Bernadett). “He would have a much better future here. There are so many more opportunities in Canada compared to Hungary.”
Ever since landing in Canada hoping to find a career playing in the world’s leading concert halls, Thomas, who recently turned 18, has been earning acclaim from teachers and others with educated ears, especially as a scholarship student in the prestigious Royal Conservatory of Music program.
Four years ago, Betty and her father, Istvan, came to Toronto as visitors. When her father was offered a construction job, his new boss said he could get the whole family legal status in Canada. By the time it became clear he could not deliver on that promise, Thomas and Andrea Bacsi (Istvan’s wife and the children’s mother) had also arrived in Toronto.
The bad advice they were given by a so-called expert was to apply for refugee status, claiming to be Romas (persecuted Hungarian wanderers). It took two years before it became clear that this was the wrong way to earn legit status in Canada.
But now their new lawyers and top people in the music world are arguing they should be allowed to stay for other reasons, because it would be in this country’s interests to have them here.
In a letter to the federal government’s border services agency, Peter Simon, CEO of the Royal Conservatory of Music, wrote: “Thomas Bacsi is currently enrolled as a student in the Young Artists’ Academy of the RCM. This is a highly selective program, and we accept only very gifted students.”
According to Simon, Bacsi is an exceptionally talented musician who has great potential, and he would likely receive scholarship support. (VIDEO: Watch Thomas perform.)
While attending RCM sessions two days a week, Thomas completed high school at Marshall McLuhan, a Catholic high school near the Bacsi family’s rented apartment near Bathurst and Eglinton. Betty, who wants to become a nurse, would be entering Grade 12 at the same school if the Bacsis could stay in Toronto.
According to Dianne Werner Simon, who has taught Thomas at the RCM for the past three years, he is one of Canada’s most gifted young musicians. In a recent letter to Canada’s ministry of citizenship and immigration, she wrote: “Canada has benefited immensely from gifted immigrants.” And Bacsi, she argues, is “exactly the kind of person we want” to represent Canada on the stages of the world.
So far, Thomas has had a great year. Four weeks ago, he was the star attraction at a piano recital attended by 200 people at the Conservatory’s Mazzoleni Concert Hall. The program included pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, Liszt and Alexander Scriabin (a late Romantic Russian composer), as well as two original pieces by Bacsi.
For a while Istvan and Andrea ran a family restaurant near Yonge and Eglinton, but it closed last year and Andrea returned to Hungary for personal reasons.
The family’s claim for refugee status was rejected two years ago. More recently they have applied for permanent residence status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, but a decision on that is still pending.
According to Clarisa Waldman, a lawyer with Waldman and Associates, the firm took over the case after other avenues had failed. She argues they should be allowed to stay because they have shown strong signs of talent, hard work and determination — all of which would make them valuable members of Canadian society.
Waldman says that pending the outcome of the humanitarian application, she has asked Ottawa’s border services agency to defer the removal order, which requires the Bacsis to leave the country this week.
But she is not expecting a miracle.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Martin Knelman
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