Shoe salesclerk seeks sanctuary in Kingston church
KINGSTON, ON - Shalimar Shoes without Lucy Lu is just not the same. The salesclerk, who has worked there for eight years, is so popular customers ask for her by name. She's so loved, says storeowner Bob Hawkins, that "people give her tips!
"I've never heard of it, and I've been in business for 39 years on this street!" In the busy days before Christmas, the downtown Kingston store was short-staffed and missing Lucy.
But Lucy Lu is spending her days and nights at Calvary Bible Church, where she has taken sanctuary from Immigration officials who want to send her back to China. There, she feels, she could be retried and sent to a labour camp for a crime she says she didn't commit.
Everyone—from Lucy's new husband Daryl Gellner and her employer to the congregation at the small, independent Calvary church, the local media, police and justice officials—is on Lucy's side. Everyone, it seems, except Immigration minister Elinor Caplan and her department. Caplan has virtually ignored pleas from all sources to keep Lucy Lu in Canada.
Lucy, whose former name was Kuei Kuan Zhao, came to Canada in 1984 as a landed immigrant. Less than a year later her husband was killed and she was charged with first-degree murder. She was passed from one legal aid lawyer to another (10 or 11 in all), tried twice and after five years of legal wrangling she was convinced in a third trial to enter a plea bargain on the lesser charge of manslaughter. She now says she signed under duress, out of frustration and a lack of understanding of English.
She spent two and a half years at Kingston's Prison for Women, where her record was without blemish. While at a halfway house she began working for Hawkins, whom she had come to know when he and his wife Kathy conducted church services at the prison. She had also become a Christian and began attending the Hawkins' church.
Hawkins, who chairs the board of Prison Fellowship of Canada, describes Lucy as a "phenomenal person." She goes the extra mile for customers, babysits for single mothers, helps out with Pioneer Girls and in her quiet way endears herself to all who meet her. "She is one of the most loved persons in the church," he says.
Three years ago Gellner, who runs a construction business and is also a member at Calvary, began to take an interest in Lucy and asked her out. She reciprocated by inviting him to her staff Christmas party, and soon they were spending a lot of time together. From the start, says Gellner, "we were very comfortable with each other."
Lucy and Daryl were married on October 7, 2000. Lucy's deportation problems weren't solved, but neither was she being pressured to leave Canada. "My understanding of the situation was that she had been assured [by someone in the legal field] that she would never be sent back to China," says Gellner. "I just thought if it ever did come up it would be a long time after the wedding."
A month later, however, the newlyweds were just setting up house together when Lucy, who was busy serving a customer at Shalimar Shoes, received a registered letter from Immigration telling her she was to report on November 22 to fly back to China. "I was shocked," she says. "Devastated."
Sought sanctuary
When her supporters exhausted all legal avenues to have the decision reversed, Hawkins approached the leaders of Calvary Bible Church to ask if they would give Lucy sanctuary. They voted unanimously in favour.
Lucy and Daryl moved into the church on the evening of November 21. The next day Immigration officials, realizing Lucy wasn't turning up at the airport, went to Shalimar Shoes looking for her.
Canadian Immigration has long respected sanctuary, a practice that dates back to the Old Testament and was common during the Middle Ages. Canadian churches have taken advantage of the concept—as a last resort—in a number of cases over the last couple of decades.
So Lucy is back in a prison of sorts. As long as she stays in the church, she's safe. The moment she leaves the church she's in danger of being apprehended. Compounding the problems her criminal record would give her in China is the fact that she is now a Christian. Before she came to Canada, she says, "I had no idea" who Jesus is. Now she fears her faith will give Chinese authorities all the more reason to treat her harshly. But that's just another argument that has fallen on Immigration's deaf ears.
She's trusting God to take care of her, but "it's very hard," she admits. Church friends who come to visit and stay with her make her exile easier. "The people in the church are so nice," she says. "They come and keep me company. Some bring crafts and show me how to do it." The community has also shown support; restaurants deliver meals, police officers bring in groceries, the Kingston Whig-Standard editorializes in her favour.
Bob and Kathy Hawkins still rely on her at the store too. Whenever they can't find something, they just phone up Lucy. She knows where everything is. The relationship is far from being merely a business one. "They're just like parents to me," says Lucy, who has spent the past nine Christmases in the Hawkins home.
This Christmas, the tradition continued, with one exception. Christmas dinner was held at Calvary Bible Church. And that's where Daryl and Lucy Lu Gellner plan to stay until Canada lets Lucy call this country home.
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