Deportation Order of Nigerian Could Have Implications For Rebel Fighters In Syria, Libya and Those Opposed to Dictators
OTTAWA - Aug., 13, 2012
A deportation order against a Nigerian coup-plotter has exposed the danger facing people who take up arms against despotic governments, then come to Canada to find safe haven.
Shola Oremade, who has lived in Ottawa for about 10 years, lost a seven-year battle to stay in Canada after he was declared a national security risk for participating in a 1995 attempted coup against the late Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha. Even though the coup was foiled and not a shot was fired, an immigration appeal panel ordered Oremade deported because he had engaged or instigated “the subversion by force of the government in power.”
The sole panellist said it really didn’t matter that the government in question was despotic, or that no violence actually took place. The law, she said, makes no such exceptions. “I find that there are no provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act with respect to whether the government is despotic, and no provision with respect to ‘relative force’,” the adjudicator noted in a 2006 ruling.
Oremade, 63, who has been under a deportation order since 2009, doesn’t deny his involvement in the attempted coup. But he is baffled at how participating in a failed coup against a military dictator makes him a national security risk worthy of deportation to Nigeria.
The deportation order hasn’t been carried out for lack of travel documents for Oremade. The Canada Border Services Agency’s request for the travel documents from the Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa has not been met because the Nigerian authorities apparently want to see Oremade’s old passport, not a copy, which, is what the CBSA appears to have provided. Oremade says Canada’s immigration authorities have lost the original passport.
Some experts say the decision to deport Oremade could have serious implications for others. If no exceptions are made, and anyone involved in a failed coup against a brutal government is deemed a national security risk that could extend to the rebels who are fighting to overthrow the oppressive Assad regime in Syria, for example. Already, the number of Syrians seeking refuge in Canada has increased since protests against president Bashar Assad turned into bloody conflict. The number went from 70 in 2008, to 127 in 2010. But in the nine months between October 2011 and June 2012, 213 people applied, according to figures from the Immigration and Refugee Board. And with thousands now fleeing the country, the numbers could increase dramatically.
University of Ottawa refugee law professor Peter Showler says Oremade’s case should serve as a warning to asylum seekers who at one time or another have taken up arms against brutal regimes. Showler, a former chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, says Abacha was a brutal dictator whose human rights violations were well documented, and if someone involved in a failed coup against him could be declared a national security risk, so could those involved in the Syrian uprising.
The key provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act leave no doubt that people who engage in the violent overthrow of a government are not welcome in Canada.
According to Section 34 (1) of the Act, “a permanent resident or foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for:
(a) engaging in an act of espionage or an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada;
(b) engaging or instigating the subversion by force of any government;
(c) engaging in terrorism; and
(f) being a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c).”
“Some provisions of Section 34 have been a huge problem, and the unreasonability of it is really quite serious, ” says Showler, director of the Refugee Forum at the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre.
“You could have this ridiculous situation where, as Canada itself was dropping bombs on the Gadhafi government, a Libyan citizen who was a rebel could be arriving in Canada and be declared inadmissible and Syrians as well. It is ludicrous.”
Esmé Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, which administers the security provisions of the immigration law, says its primary aim is to protect Canadians from “high-risk” individuals. Between 2002 and May of this year, Bailey says the border agency prepared 499 “inadmissibility reports” under the security provisions contained in “sections 34 (1b) and 34 (1f),” and in that time, removed 26 people from Canada.
“A top priority of the CBSA is to ensure foreign nationals who commit acts of violence, and who pose a danger to the Canadian public, do not enter or remain in Canada,” Bailey said in an email.
Bailey said the law allows the minister of public safety to grant relief from removal, but this is done only in exceptional circumstances.
Showler says critics anticipated problems when the law was being considered a decade ago, and dubbed Section 34 (1) the “Mandela rule,” because they figured it would bar the former South African leader and Nobel laureate from Canada. It is the same law that was used to bar controversial British MP George Galloway from Canada in 2009, a decision that was later overturned by a federal judge who said the government had overreached in its application.
The immigration law as it stands appears to be at odds with government support for uprisings in places like Libya and Syria.
But Bailey says the government has good reasons for enacting that part of the law.
“Section 34 (1) (b) of the IRPA is intended to ensure that Canada does not become a haven for foreign nationals or permanent residents who have demonstrated their willingness to commit violent acts against any government,” she says.
Experts say no one questions the duty of the government to protect Canadians or promote democracy, and believe the government deserves plaudits for using Canada’s laws to protect democratically elected governments. But what some find problematic is the blanket protection extended to all governments no matter how reprehensible. That is what troubled a federal judge when he heard Oremade’s case seven years ago, and quashed an initial removal order against him.
“There is no doubt that paragraph 34 (1) (b), had it been in force at the relevant times, could have had the potentially startling impact on historical, and even contemporary figures. Arguably, such revered and diverse figures as George Washington, Eamon de Valera (the Irish nationalist and president), Menachem Begin and Nelson Mandela might be deemed inadmissible to Canada,” Justice Michael L. Phelan wrote.
And as others pointed out at the time, it is doubtful whether Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who tried to kill Adolf Hitler, would be admissible to Canada under the law because he was trying to overthrow by force, the government of the day — the Third Reich.
Despite its overly broad reach and the controversy surrounding it, Showler says the law has largely received the blessing of the courts, which since 9/11 seem to give the government more leeway in decisions over border security.
“The federal court has in general taken a very supportive approach to Section 34 and upheld the vague and general interpretation of the law,” Showler says.
“What it means is that it gives the government carte blanche to apply it when they want, no matter how unreasonable.”
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+deportation+order+could+have+implications+rebel+fighters+Syria+Libya/7083911/story.html#ixzz23oa79Tz4
http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/online-special/evening-express/57578-uproar-in-canada-over-deportation-order-on.html
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