For more than half a century, Steven Dugalin believed he didn’t have legal status in Canada and could be deported at any moment.

Decade after decade, the now 77-year-old Mississauga man tried to stay under the radar, working in construction jobs, even living in a motel, fearing if he was picked up by immigration he’d get the boot.

At least that’s what he says immigration officials had told him.

Trouble is, it wasn’t true.

Now, Dugalin is fighting to get his life back and collect almost a decade’s worth of Old Age Security pension payments he missed out on during the years he was trying to lay low.

“If it wasn’t for the government’s mistake, saying I was here illegally, I wouldn’t have had to endure the hardship,” says Dugalin, who came to Canada as a government-sponsored refugee from Hungary in 1957. “This has ruined my life.”

Dugalin said he’d been told by immigration officials that he’d lost his permanent resident status after being convicted of breaking into houses in British Columbia in 1959. He says he was hungry and was only stealing food.

“There was a group of us. We didn’t speak English. Nobody had jobs. We were homeless, hungry and desperate,” said Dugalin, who was among 37,000 Hungarians admitted to Canada after the 1956 Soviet invasion.

The truth about Dugalin’s actual immigration status wasn’t uncovered until 2012, when Toronto lawyer Barbara Jackman picked up his case and found the government records that proved he had maintained his permanent resident status all along.

Dugalin subsequently applied for his permanent resident card and OHIP as well as the long-overdue Old Age Security benefits, which allowed him to retire from laborious work in construction and move out of a Kingston Rd. motel he’d called home for 17 years.

However, Dugalin is still fighting with Employment and Social Development Canada for back payments of the OAS benefits he’d missed out on over a nine-year period when he believed he wasn’t eligible for the government benefits.

“I had two bouts of pneumonia. I was injured after falling from a ladder at a job site. And I had no OHIP. I worked in construction until a year-and-a-half ago when no one would hire me anymore,” said Dugalin.

According to his immigration file obtained through an access to information request, Dugalin had permanent resident status upon arrival in Canada in 1957. Two years later, he was ordered deported in the wake of the B.C. break-ins.

But unbeknownst to Dugalin, the then-Conservative immigration minister Ellen Fairclough deferred Dugalin’s removal for a year and his “domicile and landing” were reinstated in 1969, said Jackman, who was contacted by Dugalin in 2012, initially to regularize his status on humanitarian grounds.

Dugalin had moved to Toronto in 1964 and worked in cleaning and painting before landing a job as a hospital handyman. He later ran a renovation business, started a family and, with his wife, owned a home in Alliston.

But after a messy divorce he became estranged from his family and moved into a rooming house in Toronto. One day in 1994, he was arrested by immigration officials and scheduled for a removal hearing. He didn’t show up; that’s where his immigration records had ended.

In 2003, as he was approaching 65 and struggling to find work, Dugalin said a friend accompanied him to a Service Canada office to apply for OAS — a request he said was rejected on the spot when he told the officer he had a deportation order against him and was without status.

“Somewhere along the way, immigration officials lost the historical thread of the case. No one, not even the immigration officials were aware that Mr. Dugalin was a permanent resident. Immigration officials consistently misled him, treating him as an illegal migrant under order of deportation and trying to deport him,” said Jackman.

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“He was growing older and not eligible for old age benefits, not even the right to work. He could not travel. He wanted a resolution of his case. He was depressed and I believe still struggles with this because of how many years he lived in Canada believing that he could be deported at any time.”

Immigration officials confirmed Dugalin’s status, including that he does not face removal from Canada.

“Given the length of time that has passed, we have limited information but it appears that by deferring each deportation order, they were both quashed by virtue of law,” immigration department spokesperson Nancy Caron told the Star.

“It appears the interview, removal order and arrest in 1994 were based on one of the earlier deportation orders. In July 2013, he was issued a permanent resident card.”

As soon as Jackman sorted out Dugalin’s status, he applied for Old Age Security, but Employment and Social Development Canada limited his retroactive pay-out to $7,000 (roughly 11 months’ worth) in a lump sum. Dugalin has since taken his case to the Social Security Tribunal of Canada. He believes he should be eligible for tens of thousands of dollars.

In a reply to the tribunal, lawyers representing Employment and Social Development Canada acknowledged the minister in charge of the department can take “remedial action” on retroactive benefits if erroneous advice had been given or an administrative error had been made.

“It is important to note that this provision is specifically aimed at advice given and errors made in the administration of the OAS Act,” the reply stated. “The error that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has allegedly made cannot be considered under this section.”

Josh Bueckert, an Employment and Social Development Canada spokesperson, said no documents have been provided to prove Dugalin applied for OAS earlier than September 2013.

“Mr. Dugalin’s OAS pension application was submitted in September 2013 and thus he was given the maximum retroactive payments permitted by legislation,” Bueckert said in an email response.

Although a decision on Dugalin’s appeal is still pending, the tribunal stated in a recent letter that it is considering dismissing his appeal because it is satisfied the maximum 11-month retroactive payment for the OAS benefit has been met in his case.

But Dugalin thinks that’s just not fair.

“If the Government of Canada didn’t get my status wrong, I would have got the OAS benefits like everyone else. No one really cared and looked into my immigration file until Barbara did,” said Dugalin, who is representing himself at the tribunal. “I’m just hoping to get back what I am owed, nothing more.”