Looking for love in a foreign land, many single Canadians, including three subjects of this documentary, put it all on the line to find a partner for life. The stakes are high, because what seems like love could actually be marriage fraud. From Lainie’s day in court to Stephanie’s struggle with converting to Islam to Roxanne’s joyful welcoming of her new husband home, each woman has to struggle with the question of her spouse’s honesty — is he coming to Canada for love, or for residency status? Marriage fraud is a more common occurrence in Canada than we might think, due to our immigration laws and the Canadian government’s failure to enforce them. Canadians who shockingly discover they are being maliciously used by the individuals who claimed to love them can attest to the difficulty of forcing the government to investigate their cases. The final humiliation is the perpetrators are allowed to remain in Canada while the victims suffer through financial and emotional hardship. In the end the question remains, will the Canadian government do something to ease the victims’ pain? What is the right thing to do?
British Columbia + Yukon + Northwest Territories Chapter of the Documentary Organization of Canada