Ghanaian musician Francis Kofi Akotuah was recently denied a Canadian visa, delaying his cultural workshop tour with drummer Larry Graves for at least a week. Akotuah, a professor at the University of Ghana, was planning to stay in Canada for about a month. During that time he would have taught at several workshops, including one at McGill, and would have performed in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. Larry Graves, drummer for the band Mr. Something Something, had received $3,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts to finance the project with Akotuah. Although Graves remained confident that the trip would not be cancelled altogether, the program will be delayed at least a week. In order to expedite the process, Graves has been working around the clock with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to sort everything out. "We've lost three weeks of time to get the paperwork. He's flying in on Tuesday, we're dealing with the holiday Monday, and I've got basically 48 hours to put these papers together which usually take a week or more to put through," Graves said. According to him, the CIC is not convinced Akotuah will leave voluntarily at the end of his stay. When asked to comment on Akotuah's case, Madona Mokbel, a CIC Media Relations representative, refused. "Due to privacy legislation, it would be inappropriate to comment on any individual or specific case without the authorization of the individual," Mokbel said, adding that "Canada's immigration legislation serves to protect the health, safety, and security of Canadians." "Francis knows that down the road there will be more opportunities for him in Canada if his trip goes well," Graves said. "If he botches the program and doesn't return to Ghana then he'll reduce his opportunities in the future … There's no valid reason to think that he wouldn't go back." Should the program fall through, Graves will be held personally responsible for covering the cost of Akotuah's visa application. "I'm not saying that had I not spent the money I wouldn't have been putting up a fight, because I really believe in this program and I think that a lot of Canadians are going to miss out if Francis is not able to come." CCA Media and Public Relations representative Grace Thrasher said that Graves has several options for continuing his project. "If the project isn't going to go forward at all, then yes, [Graves] is going to have to return the money," Thrasher said. "However, if, for example, they have other options that are possible, like perhaps reorganizing the event for different dates or finding somebody else, then that's also a possibility." Thrasher noted that the CCA operates independently from the CIC. "In essence, we fund the event and we fund the travel costs, but we have no control over these [immigration] issues," she said. Graves stated that perhaps the CCA and CIC should consider coordinating their activities to avoid complications such as these. "You see why it doesn't make any sense? It seems to me that there should really be some connection between the two," Graves said. "If you know that you're going to be bringing someone in from another country and you're going to agree to fund the program, then at least go through the process of granting their visa at the same time, or before you incur a bunch of expenses. The system doesn't have a logical order to it." Source: canadaimmigration