HELP KEEP TERRY & PIXIE IN CAPE BREON !

Just read this Chronicle Herald article, and you'll understand why I, as well as many local CB residents think it is a very important and upsetting subject:

Immigration officials order U.S. busker out of Canada
Popular musician thinks complaint made after he was featured in paper.

SYDNEY — The familiar twang of the Charlotte Street banjo has gone silent today.

Immigration officials have asked American busker Terry Lavelle to leave the country. Mr. Lavelle started playing his music here about three years ago, accompanied by his best friend Pixie. The tiny chihuahua and her owner have been embraced by this community since he moved here from California.

"What’s happening (to me) has made me love this place even more," he said in an interview outside the Tim Hortons where he plays each day. "It’s amazing to me — all the people here have been so concerned, and it really makes me want to stay here. I just appreciate things even more."

Since he was questioned by immigration officials, the community has rallied around him. His friend Glenn MacDonald has set up a petition asking that Mr. Lavelle be allowed to stay. So far he’s collected more than 50 signatures.

The Chronicle Herald published a profile about Mr. Lavelle last month. At the time, the busker said he was living here legally. Mr. Lavelle believes that someone who read the article may have complained to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Two police officers picked up Mr. Lavelle for questioning on Tuesday. He was put in the back of a cruiser and taken to police lockup for several hours. Once there, someone from Citizenship and Immigration questioned him over the phone.

Mr. Lavelle says he’s made at least five or six bus trips back to California. He believes the last time he went home was in May, but no one at the border gave him any documentation to prove that.

Each time he returned, he believed he could visit for six months.

"I just wanted to get out of police custody so I just said, ‘If you let me go, no matter what the date (I entered) was, I’ll leave on my own’," he told The Chronicle Herald. "I don’t think I was breaking any law, but I was really worried about Pixie, so I just wanted to be released from police custody."

Mr. Lavelle is a peaceful, spiritual man. He’s an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. Some days, he sings gospel tunes to pass on some love to those who walk by him or drop coins in his case.

He makes his living through his music, saving up the money to pay for the $45 hotel room he rents every night. He had finally found a new apartment, a pet-friendly, one-bedroom that would cost $350 each month. He knows that sort of thing does not come up too often. He’s been looking for a place for more than six months.

So he’s been praying for a sign from God since being arrested.

Nine people called or stopped to talk with Mr. Lavelle during his hour-long interview with the Chronicle Herald on Thursday.

One of those people was Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking.

Mr. Lavelle’s eyes lit up when he got the call from the Liberal MP.

"Thank you, thanks very much," he said, after Mr. Eyking told he would try to help. "Oh my God, I was praying for a miracle."

Those who know him have been doing the same thing.

Clare Matheson first met Mr. Lavelle a few years ago. She buys food for him and Pixie and always stops to talk to him at the farmer’s market where he plays each Saturday.

"I’m just worried about the expense (of crossing the border)," she said. "I mean he lives day-to-day. It’s a hardship."

Forcing him to leave is outrageous, she said, because this is a man who brings nothing but beauty to Cape Breton. She said she’s hoping Mr. Eyking can intervene.

"He’s just a simple fellow who gives pleasure to the community through his music," she said. "I felt sick when I heard he would have to leave. Absolutely sick.

"If I win the lottery, we’ll set him up."

Mr. MacDonald hopes that his petition will work in his friend’s favour. He plans to post copies on bulletin boards around Charlotte Street this week.

"He isn’t doing anything wrong," Mr. MacDonald said. "I just want him to be able to stay here and keep doing what he loves to do."

Mr. Lavelle is hoping to hear from Lee Cohen, a Halifax-based immigration lawyer. Until then, he’s going to fully co-operate with Citizenship and Immigration, he said. He promised to leave today and that’s what he plans to do.

His biggest concern is that he’ll have trouble when he tries to come back.

"If I have to leave here, I’ll just feel like somebody lost in the world," he said. "I’d just be out there, wandering around the planet . . . waiting to come back."