A Hamilton woman fighting to get her child back from Romania says her quest has been held up by international red tape, and she's hoping the Canadian government will help bring the boy home.
Mirela Sima, 33, has not seen her boy Mihai since November 2008. That's when authorities allege that the boy was taken to Romania by his father.
"It's hell, and I wake up with him in my mind, and I go to sleep hoping," Mirela told CTV Toronto's Michelle Dube.
The boy is now six years old, and his mother wonders how he has grown and changed over the years.
Mirela and her ex-husband Liviu came to Canada to escape poverty in Romania and to make a new life for themselves.
But their marriage didn't last, and the two split up. Not long after the split, Liviu went back to Romania to be with his parents, and investigators say he took the boy with him.
Mirela, who is now a Canadian citizen, says she knows where the boy is and the address of where he is staying in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.
Interpol has issued a yellow alert for the boy, and last spring, a panel of three Romanian judges ordered that Mihai should be returned to his mother in Canada.
But despite all of this, Romanian authorities have not enforced the ruling and the child remains with his father.
Ontario's Central Authority, which is a special government office that deals with child abduction abroad, is on the case, but things are progressing too slowly, says Mirela.
"I'm a fighter and I've always been a fighter. I don't care who is going to help me or not, or what I have to do. I never give up," says Mirela.
The Missing Children Society of Canada is now helping in the case, too. Now, the mother is hoping that the Canadian government will be able to speed the boy's return.
"It's absolutely shocking to me that Mirela was within feet of where her son was in Romania, and nobody within the Canadian government (or) embassy … was there to help her open the door," said spokesperson Amanda Pick.
