Table Mountains

Sad day for the Portnoy Family and a lot of us who supported them.

Portnoys Leaving Canada
April 25, 2008

The Portnoy Family who have been living in sanctuary at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Marystown for two and a half years…is planning to leave and return to Israel. Details are still sketchy but the wheels are in motion to assist the family to move back to their native Isreal….

VOCM News has learned that the Portnoy family’s lawyer, Lee Cohen in Halifax, has been in discussion with Canada Border Services Agency in an attempt to work out an orderly exit for Mrs. Portnoy and her five children. The family has been living in the RC Church basement since October 2005. Alexi Portnoy and his wife Angela, who then had four children, took sanctuary in the church basement to avoid deportation on humanitarian grounds.. During the past two and a half years the community of Marystown has supported the family’s efforts to stay in Canada with numerous campaigns, plus financial and moral support. The episode took a turn for the worse in January 2006 when Alexi Portnoy left the church and was arrested by the RCMP…He was later deported back to Israel, leaving his pregnant wife and their four children - two of whom are Canadian Citizens - behind.

It seems peaceful demonstrations to keep a family like the Portnoys who have lived and worked here was in vain. It seems families are not needed but on the other hand we have a shortage of strippers here. Our Immigration minister has just been threatened because the 700 foreign strippers are not enough according to the criminal gangs. So Portnoy children,remember,your mommy was in the wrong occupation.