Suaad Mohamud

By: Law is Cool · August 17, 2009 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Constitutional Law · Add Comment 

She is back in Canada now. Here are all our posts and essays on her trials and tribulations.

Post tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Ottawa denies woman in Kenya is Canadian citizen

By: Law is Cool · July 8, 2009 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Constitutional Law · 2 Comments 

We wrote about Ms. Haji stuck in Kenya since May 17. Kenyan authorities alleged she wasn’t Ms. Haji at all. Saying she was someone else using Ms. Haji’s Canadian passport, they put her in jail.

Released on bail, she called her family in Toronto. She also produced “all her other photo ID, plus credit and bank cards as well as a Humber River Regional Hospital user card.”

Her MP Joe Volpe vouched for her. Her ex-husband, her son, her neighbours vouched for her too.

But last week, the Canadian government said she was not Ms. Haji. According to the Toronto Star, the woman’s demand to have her fingerprints verified has so far been ignored.

Despite media attention, growing discontent in the Toronto’s Somali community, and at least an appearance that the woman has a strong case, the government has not explained its decision.

If the government were to reject plausible claims of Canadian citizenship made abroad without giving reasons, what would be the value of s. 6(1) of the Charter for all of us?




(post sponsored by advicescene.com)

Post tags: , , , , , , , ,

Another Black Canadian stuck abroad

By: Law is Cool · July 1, 2009 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Constitutional Law · Add Comment 

The Toronto Star reports Suaad Mohamud Haji, a woman from Toronto, cannot leave Kenya where she was visiting her sick mother. Kenyan officials allege she does not look like her Canadian passport photo. The photo is more than four years old. Her son, ex-husband, and a neighbour, all in Toronto, spoke with her on the phone and recognized her voice.

Ms. Haji was detained on May 17 when she tried to board her flight back home. She is out on bail now with the next court hearing due on July 21. According to Ms. Haji, she tried to get Canadian consular officials’ help: ”I phone them three times again today and nobody calls me back.” Foreign Affairs in Ottawa said that they are “working with Kenyan authorities to verify the identity of the individual.”

What exactly they are doing and why it has taken almost six weeks, the Foreign Affairs spokesman did not say, according to the Star.

I don’t know what to say to Ms. Haji, stuck in Kenya.

Happy Canada Day?

(post sponsored by advicescene.com)

Post tags: , , , , , , , , , ,