The Last Exile

Stephen Harper: Fire Them All. And Lawrence Cannon; there is mud in your eyes. The DNA results are in and Suaad Hagi Mohamud identity has now been established beyond doubt. The Toronto Star:

Nearly three months after Canadian officials in Africa dismissed her as an “imposter” and stopped her from returning to her 12-year-old son in Toronto, Suaad Hagi Mohamud has proved to be who she says she is: a Canadian. Results of a DNA test released last night show a 99.99 per cent match with her son, Mohamed Hussein, who has been waiting for his mother since an airport official in Nairobi, Kenya, stopped her for not looking like her Canadian passport picture. The absurdity of this case all rested on the suspicions of the alleged Kenyan authorities with the active participation of the Canadian High Commission in robbing Mohamud of her Canadian citizenship.

On May 21, after a Kenyan airport official suggested Mohamud’s lips and eyeglasses were different from her four-year-old passport photo, the hapless traveller laid out all her ID at the Canadian High Commission. She displayed her Ontario driver’s licence, OHIP card, social insurance card and Canadian citizenship certificate. She showed her credit card, two bank cards, Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card, Humber River Regional Hospital Card and a recent dry cleaning receipt from One Hour Brighten Cleaners on Lawrence Ave. W., near her Toronto address. She produced a letter from her Toronto employer, ATS courier service, about a recent promotion.The high commission rejected them all.

The truly astounding thing is how summarily the Canadian High Commission’s office rejected the full monty of Canadian identification documents attesting to Mohamud’s claims, and I quote.

Makes one wonder what absurd questions the High Commission actually asked Mohamud which she failed to answer adequately, and if denying Mohamud’s citizenship wasn’t absurd enough; the alleged conspiracy theories offered by Ministry officials were even worse. It is long past the time to bring her home and commence a through house cleaning of the Canadian High Commission in Kenya as well as at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An investigation must be immediately launched to determine whether Canadian consulate staff actively collaborated with the Kenyan authorities to shakedown and defraud a Canadian citizen of her citizenship.

Regardless of the outcome the investigation, the Canadian Kenyan ambassador should be immediately recalled and summarily fired for failing to adequately supervise the staff as well as carrying out what should be the first duty of any representative of the Canadian government – protecting the welfare of her citizens – all her citizens. Blame multiculturalism all you want, but from where I sit, the biggest devaluation of Canadian citizenship lies in the failure of the Canadian government to value and honour Canadian citizenship.