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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
FREE BIG BIKE, BIG HEARTS The Silver Foxes kicked off the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Big Bike rides in downtown Merritt on Friday. Six local teams rode the bike and in total raised $8,824 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Michael Potestio/Herald
Dance teacher Lizette Nel allowed to return By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Merritt’s dance teacher will soon be allowed to return to Canada after a bureaucratic debacle that sent her packing for her native South Africa just over a month ago. The fate of the dance studio is now in the hands of the Canadian High Commission in South Africa, which can issue Lizette Nel’s work permit authorization. Once that’s done, Nel and her husband Herman will begin making arrangements to travel back to
Canada, the two stated in an email to the Herald. “We miss our friends in Merritt and especially our dance students,” the email states. “Judging from emails and other communications, they miss us too.” Nel was deported after the federal department called Service Canada investigated her application to renew her Canadian work permit when it found a discrepancy between the wage she was promised in a Labour Market Opinion when she was issued the permit in 2013 and the wage she
Lizette Nel will be able to return to work in Merritt after an investigation forced her to leave the country. Herald file photo
accepted. She worked for $15 per hour instead of
the recommended $25 per hour in order to get the dance studio up and running and improve the studio’s enrolment. When she went to renew her work permit, Nel was surprised to get back a rejection and find out her file was being investigated. Service Canada investigates to prevent exploitation of foreign workers. However, as her husband Herman told the Herald at that time, Nel offered to work for the lower wage and was not being exploited by the Merritt Dance Society.
The unusual situation garnered media attention from around B.C. and Canada, but even with attempts to expedite the investigation, it took too long and the Nels returned to South Africa. Because the Nels complied with the order to leave Canada, the application for a work permit submitted while they were still in Canada was no longer valid. Nel’s new Labour Market Opinion has been approved and the rest of the documents to obtain her work permit have been submitted.
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She learned that step had been completed about 10 hours after she landed in South Africa. Now it’s a waiting game — a familiar one for the Nels — only this time it has a much more promising outlook. The Nels are optimistic about their chances of returning to Merritt, and that optimism is shared by the Merritt Dance Society. Selena Voigt, the dance society’s president, said she and the other members of the executive are thrilled to welcome Nel back.
See ‘Dance society’ Page 3