Trapped in Nairobi, woman’s life crumbles
Her rent has not been paid in three months, her credit card bills are accumulating interest, her phone, Internet and cable connections have been cut off. She hasn’t earned a penny in three months and she is worried she may not have a job when she returns. …
ATS courier company is holding Mohamud’s job as an overnight mid-level supervisor at its Toronto sorting plant. “She is welcome back at work; we’re looking forward to having her back,” vice-president Bob Brogan said last week.
‘Canadian refugee’ a Nairobi celebrity
He said incidents of Somali expats being arrested, detained and thrown into jail by Kenyan officials have escalated in the past few years.
Their stories have been discussed threadbare by people, but what has sustained interest in Mohamud’s case is the absurdity of it all, said Mohamed Busuri, editor of the Somali Canadian Times. “It’s unbelievable (they) stopped her because her lips didn’t match (those in her photo),” he said.
“People are talking about her and her son everywhere.”
According to our Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s interpretation of the law, your passport picture must be “identical” to what you “claim to be”.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/671732
Otherwise, Canadian consular officials may declare you to be an impostor, and you could be stuck abroad or maybe even jailed there.
There is of course a chance our government will let you take a DNA test, but be prepared to hire lawyers before you leave Canada.
What is this, people?
Nairobi court grants woman time for DNA test
Woman’s lips trapped her in Kenya
Canada ‘indifferent’ to Sudan’s threat to kill Abdelrazik, files show
Woman hopes DNA unlocks Kenya trap
Ottawa urged to rescue Kenya detainee
Ottawa’s rabbit hole
Toronto woman marooned in Kenya seeks court injunction to restore passport
Nairobi mystery deepens
Canadian citizen? Be afraid.
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)
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:
canada,
canadian citizenship,
canadian passport,
citizenship,
consular assistance,
foreign affairs,
Kenya,
nairobi,
passport,
Suaad Hagi Mohamud,
toronto
On Mar. 18, 2009, Hon. Jason Kenney, Min. of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, spoke at Huron College at UWO.
He spoke on a variety of subjects, but largely focused on what he perceived to be the role of his Ministry.
It was his opinion that immigrants to Canada are pretty well off – they have their own institutions and organizations, and don’t really need much governmental support. Never mind that he talked at great length to dismiss the legitimacy of organizations that have criticized his policies, and failed to identify which organizations spoke for the most discriminated elements in society.
What immigrants do need is language skills. Min. Kenney rebuffed studies that have shown that recent immigrants to Canada are faring far worse than previous generations by saying it’s because they don’t have proficiency in English or French.
The fact that Canada’s immigration patterns in recent decades have shifted to substantially more racial minorities obviously does not play into the equation. Somehow the immigrants from eastern Europe and the Ukraine, which populated significant parts of central Canada where Kenney was raised, did not have the same problems, even though they did not learn English in their first generation either.
But to make it worse, these immigrants don’t even do what they need to be doing. Only 20% of them take language classes offered by the government.
So you see, if you’re an immigrant to Canada and you’re having a tough time, it’s really your fault, not the government’s. Min. Kenney seemed oblivious to the acute xenophobia towards these immigrants, and denied that there have been calls to bar certain groups from entry to Canada. He thought the British and Australian immigration models (and responses) was something we should emulate.
Min. Kenney, are you not monitoring levels of intolerance in Canada? Or are you only concerned about helping your political constituency alone?
Kenney was unable to explain how he learned so much about immigrants and visible minorities who face discrimination while growing up in Saskatchewan. He conceded his social group consisted of all white-males as a youth, but attributed that to his involvement with the Liberal Party at the time. All of the minorities were obviously hiding out in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Updates
Min. Kenney repeated the call for immigrants to speak English or French before immigrating to Canada at a conference in Calgary, clearing up any ambiguity that may have previously existed.
These policies are nothing more than a covert for of racism, seeking to perpetuate historic racist legislation in Canada that sought to bar ethnic minorities from entering Canada, and overturn progress made in recent years to remedy these policies.
More recent statements seem to indicate he is backpedalling in face of sharp criticism by the public. Despite blaming the media, Min. Kenney’s statements are recorded by the media and attendees at his talks this week.
Post tags:
Canadian Arab Federation,
Canadian Islamic Congress,
citizenship,
Huron College,
immigrants,
Immigration,
integration,
Jason Kenney,
language skills,
Liberal Party,
Multiculturalism,
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada,
Saskatchewan,
University of Western Ontario,
visible minorities « Previous Page — Next Page »
RSS Feed
