The Last Exile

Well, thank the heavens for small mercies for some politicians have manage to find their conscience and their voice. Who would ever have thought I would write a word praising Dalton McGuinty of all people. Okay, I do it with a certain amount of grudge, but now that he has, I suppose I shall have to stop referring him to Premier McGirlieman.

Premier Dalton McGuinty issued a stern rebuke of the Harper government, saying there was “no excuse” for its inaction. “Something is fundamentally wrong when we can’t count on the Canadian government to stand up for Canadians. I’m not sure I can put it any more directly than that,” said McGuinty. “It doesn’t matter where we find ourselves, we are citizens of this wonderful country and we have responsibilities and we have certain legitimate expectations. “One of those (expectations) is when we find ourselves in distress that our government will stand up for us. That didn’t happen in this particular circumstance and there’s no excuse for that.”

And Kudos to Liberal MP Dan McTeague but whither is MP Bob Rae, Liberal Foreign Affairs critic?

On the surface it appeals the government bureaucrats failed in their duties to a Canadian citizen whether by general incompetence or deliberate malfeasance I cannot say. Only a public investigation of the High Commission’s handling of this case will tell us. Although, from where I sit, I still think a rebate of all ‘consular fees’ collected in our passport applications is not entirely out of order either.

There is no question that Mohamud has grounds for a legal redress for the callous disregard for which government officials have handled her plight, and if she decides to pursue this course and wins, any financial penalties will ultimately be paid from the public purse. As much as I cry about wasteful spending I am a big believer in financial penalties if only to ensure it does not happen again – to anyone – anywhere – any time.

Make no mistake, a singular directive issued from either the Prime Minister’s office or the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mohamed would have her travel documents in hand in less than 24 hours but what galls me about the government’s continued foot dragging in this case; is the cavalier attitude to righting an obvious legal wrongdoing and the utter indifference to the potential financial penalties each day of delay incurs. Why is it the Conservative government gives all appearance of being entirely heedless to this fiscal side of law? Since ultimately I and every other taxpayer in this country will have to foot the bill I do not think it entirely out of order that the Conservative government give a full public accounting of their conduct.

Okay, so this blog is in danger of becoming Suaad-Hagi-Mohamud all the time but I really like this op-ed piece by Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star because it articulates a great deal of my own concerns -

Had Mohamud been a white mother from Leaside, you can rest assured that Harper himself would have led the charge to have her repatriated.

And we’re not talking about the Omar Khadrs, or the Maher Arars, men suspected of real or imaginary ties to terrorist organizations. We’re dealing with a single mom who produced her Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card and even receipts from a local dry cleaners.

But Canadian High Commission first secretary Liliane Khadour wrote to Kenyan immigration authorities, saying: “We have carried out conclusive investigations including an interview and have confirmed that the person brought to (us) on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned Canadian passport.”

Well – guess what? – Khadour couldn’t have been more wrong if she tried.

Even yesterday, after the results of Mohamud’s DNA tests were made public, not a syllable on the subject was uttered by anyone in government. Their silence speaks volumes. And what it says isn’t pretty: Canada, that bastion of tolerance, that refuge of civility, that exemplar of multiculturalism, no longer belongs to its citizens. It is not ours, it’s theirs. We just live here.

What I need to know is why, as a mother, I shouldn’t be afraid that Canada will refuse to recognize my children’s citizenship if they venture for a trip outside the country. Go ahead and call me a hysterical mother, but understand this – I am not alone in my fears. I work with archly-conservative-financial-industry types and every single naturalized citizen among them is now deathly afraid of travelling outside the country. If it could happen to Suaad Hagi Mohamud -it could happen to us all.

Alright Michael Ignatieff its your time to step up and prove you are competent to lead this country. You can start by demanding the government of the day return this Canadian citizen to Canada immediately because the current Conservative government is most definitely dragging their feet rather than choosing to do the right thing. The only thing. The Toronto Star:

Ottawa is sending mixed messages about how soon it might help Suaad Hagi Mohamud return home from Africa.On one hand, the Canada Border Services Agency said this morning it is working to issue the Toronto woman travel documents, tacitly admitting that Canadian authorities made a mistake in voiding her passport in Nairobi, Kenya, nearly three months ago.

On the other hand, no government politician has acted to get the woman home, instead leaving the federal court to sort out details. “In terms of the federal position, I was told nothing,” Mohamud’s Toronto lawyer Raoul Boulakia said on emerging from a conference call with a federal lawyer and federal court judge just before noon today.The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants every Canadian citizen the right to leave the country and return, he said.

“The Canadian government obstructed (Mohamud) from doing that by telling the Kenyan government to charge and prosecute her,” Boulakia said.What Ottawa must do now, he said, is issue her new travel papers, ask the Kenyan government to drop false charges against her of not being the rightful owner of a Canadian passport, and repatriate her — meaning put her on a flight to Toronto at government expense. Boulakia is asking Ottawa in federal court to do just that. Two more lawyers-and-judge meetings are scheduled before a scheduled formal court hearing on the matter Thursday, Boulakia said.

I am no fan of Jack Layton but at this point I do wish he’d use his voice to demand the Harper Conservatives return Mohamud immediately to Canada rather than musing on whether to re-brand the New Democratic Party with a new party name.

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.

Who knew I would one day be blogging on how to change your lip-line in a political context but that is exactly what this post amounts to. Lips change with expression, lighting, and a little liner, add lipstick or change to a gloss and presto – a new lip look. A long illness and the mouth line can easily change. Age works to changes the line of the lip as well as weight loss or gain. But really now people, who knew the Kenya Border Security agents are now the world’s foremost authority on Lips? But more incredulously; why would a Canadian Consulate accept the Kenyan authorities alleged ‘lip’ discrepancies as compelling proof of much of anything? Do the words ’shakedown’ in a third world country not have any meaning or context outside of the borders of Canada? Now read. The Toronto Star.

Suaad Hagi Mohamud was done in by her lips.

A Kenyan official detained the Toronto woman in Nairobi because her lips didn’t match the ones in her passport photograph, according to documents released by her lawyer yesterday. “I find it really troubling that was the basis of stopping her,” said Raoul Boulakia, Mohamud’s Toronto lawyer.

Documents submitted in a Nairobi court curtly explain why she was detained: “After a comparison was done, it emerged that although the passenger and the passport holder had the same facial features, that passenger’s lips were different from that of the passport holder.”

Mohamud has been marooned in Nairobi since May 17. The 31-year-old mother was on her way back to Toronto when she says a Kenyan officer stopped her at the Nairobi airport for not looking like her four-year-old passport photo. She spent eight days in jail and was released on bail with no travel papers. Kenyan officials sent her passport to Canadian consular officials, who said she was an “imposter,” voided the passport and sent it back to the Kenyans for prosecution. She asked to be fingerprinted but the Canada Border Services Agency later admitted it didn’t have earlier prints to make a match. But the Somali-born woman scored a small victory yesterday when the Canadian government agreed to DNA testing.

At the very least, I would expect any agent of a Canadian Consulate to establish beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt that an alleged Canadian citizen is in fact not a Canadian citizen. The very fact Mohamud’s lawyer had to make any application in a Canadian court to force the government to conduct a DNA test to determine if Mohamud is directly related to her Canadian son is beyond shameful and borders on downright despicable.

I can think of a million and one little questions any agent of the Canadian Consulate in Kenya should have asked to determine whether Mohamud actually ever resided in Toronto/GTA area. For example, what is her employer’s name and address or how does she get to work and what route does she take. What is the name of her son’s school? Where does she shop for groceries and the location of said stores? These are easily verifiable things that any Canadian consulate agent in Kenya with the help of a computer and internet access can easily check which should have reasonably established that the ‘alleged’ imposter and fraud might actually reside in Canada.

These are just simple questions off the top of my head, and if, there is a reasonable chance of residency; it follows logically there is a reasonable chance Mohamud is telling the truth. If nothing less, the Canadian Consulate, as representative of the Canadian government has legal duty of care to prove beyond any reasonable doubt ’said individual’ is ’said individual’ and not accept the ‘lip’ expertise of foreign government agent.

If Mohamud’s identity as a Canadian citizen is proved beyond doubt via the DNA evidence than nothing less than a through house cleaning of the Canadian Consulate in Kenya must occur. 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.

As well as an election called for the near future, but until then, I will continue to have to be satisfied by expressing my loathing of people who cannot comment on small-sized newspaper article and retain or grasp the most rudimentary of basic facts. Take this relatively straightforward piece in the ongoing saga of Suaad Hagi Mohamud from the Toronto Star.

The 31-year-old mother went to Nairobi on April 29 to visit her mother. But when she tried to return May 17, she says a Kenyan officer stopped her at the Nairobi airport for not looking like her four-year-old passport photo. She spent eight days in jail and was released on bail without any travel papers. Kenyan officials sent her passport to Canadian officials, who said she was an “imposter,” then voided the passport and sent it back to Kenya for prosecution. The Somali-born Mohamud will be in a Nairobi court on Friday.

Contrast this with this commenter ‘One Bank’

i feel bad for the family, she came to Canada from Somali as a refugee under the refugee/asylum system. she has no problem going back their go figure. Canada when are we going to stop letting these asylum seekers stop taking advantage of are out dated system.

Forget the horrendous spelling and grammar for a minute and just deal with this crime against basic geography, citizenship and sentiment. Mohamud was not arrested in Somali but Nairobi, Kenya. The fact she applied to stay in Canada under the refugee system, got a job, obeyed the laws of our land, and then, actively chose to throw in her lot with us and take on the responsibilities of Canadian citizenship is now indictment of a failed refugee/asylum process in Canada. I suppose in One Bank’s world – any Canadian who travels outside of Canada to visit their mother deserves every misery and injustice the world can dish out. Well, frack me, and how long have we had free public education in this country? I want a rebate on my educational tax dollars.

Let’s just strike Kenya off the list of places to visit before one dies. Kenya was actually never on my list of ‘must see’ places to visit before I die but I have now one less reason to put it on the list. You see, I cannot remember the last time I actually resembled any picture on any government issued identification.

I am not sure why that is but for some reason the picture taken always looks like someone else. When I am forced to present any government issued ID I always get the strange faces and the double and triple checks from the clerks looking a my picture and then scrutinizing my face in order to see some (or any) resemblance to the picture in their hand. I don’t seem to have this problem with other kinds of pictures taken by anyone other than a government clerk. I once had a clerk laugh outrageously at my picture and ask if being me was a burden.

Unfortunately, for my daughter, the Last Amazon, she inherited this same rather dubious trait. On her passport, it looks more like a mug shot taken in some eastern European police station after a particularly brutal raid, while in her driver’s license she looks like some kind of West African refugee. Let us not even bring up the picture on her health card. She always despairs after these pictures, and I try to comfort her by saying; its a blessing of our Gypsy genes but she is neither amused or comforted by this rationalization.

So why would this be a particular problem for visiting Kenya? Toronto Star:

If a passport, driver’s licence, OHIP card and citizenship certificate are not enough, Suaad Hagi Mohamud is ready to give fingerprints to prove who she is. The Toronto woman jailed in Kenya after being told she no longer looks like her four-year-old passport photo says proving her identity is easy.”When I applied for Canadian citizenship, they took my fingerprints,” the Somali-born woman said yesterday by phone from Nairobi, where she is out on bail pending trial. “They can match them.”

She has already tried to prove her identity using all her other photo ID, plus credit and bank cards as well as a Humber River Regional Hospital user card. Her ex-husband, 12-year-old son, dozens of neighbours and her local MP – former immigration minister Joe Volpe – have all vouched for her in Toronto. But the Canadian government does not believe her.

Last week, Ottawa issued a single terse sentence: “Following an extensive investigation, officials at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi have determined that the individual arrested by Kenyan authorities is not Ms. Suaad Mohamud Hagi.” For reasons stubbornly not explained, a doubt raised by a Kenyan airport official as the woman prepared to fly home after a visit has somehow escalated into Canada’s rejection of her identity.

Canadian officials have refused to answer questions central to the mystery: Is the real Suaad Mohamud missing? Who is the arrested woman? Why does Canada disbelieve her story? Why can’t fingerprints be taken? In the sole departure from the official line, Canadian High Commission first secretary Liliane Khadour last night requested a meeting tomorrow, Mohamud phoned yesterday to report, though the purpose of the meeting was not explained. The stranded woman was preparing to leave Kenya on May 17 after a two-week visit with her mother. Airport officials stopped her, jailed her and after eight days released her when a friend posted $2,500 (U.S.) bail.

This seems like a simple enough problem to resolve easily by having an embassy worker take her fingerprints and then submit them to Canada to match those on file for Suaad Mohamud. I have no idea why it cannot be done – probably because its far too easy a solution, but more importantly, its time for a complete overhaul of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the bottom to the top. There is simple no point of having a Canadian embassy anywhere – if it cannot serve the interest of all Canadians.

Maybe it’s because I live in a very secular community. Or maybe it’s because I am a Canadian, and therefore, being or making nice means coupling it with accommodation for anyone’s values or feelings. This is probably the closest we come to a defining national characteristic. Or maybe it’s because I am so use to reform rabbis leading the interfaith dialogue but I find myself standing in awe of Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi who is currently in charge of the Kotel. Jerusalem Post:

Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross. The pope wears a cross in all public appearances and is slated to visit the Western Wall on May 12 after a meeting with Muslim religious leaders at the Dome of the Rock. After the visit, which will include a meeting with Rabinovitch, the pope is slated to meet with Israel’s two chief rabbis, Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar.

“My position is that it is not fitting to enter the Western Wall area with religious symbols, including a cross,” said Rabinovitch in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post Monday. “I feel the same way about a Jew putting on a tallit and phylacteries and going into a church.”

I realize when Ann Coulter suggested that Christians were ‘perfected Jews’ most Christians objected to her choice of language and the chutzpah with which she was put forth the idea. But really people – Coulter had a point and she was standing on much firmer Christian theological ground than many of her Christian critics lead on. There was a lot of fuzzy theological wishy-washy mumbo-jumbo criticizing Ann Coulter’s position and thrown into the mix was a great lot of fast talkin’ from Christians who were trying to assure Jews it was okay for them to be Jews – in-the-Jesus-loves-you-anyway-kind-of-vein-even-if-you-are-wrong-about-the-whole-covenant-deal. Just forget about the nearly 2,000 years of forced conversions and prosecutions – m’okay?

I found it embarrassing to watch and read. My position is simply this; if you are a Christian and you follow the tenets of your beliefs – so be it. Skip with the apologies. One only need apologize if one is wrong and not for what believes is right. It goes without saying I believe you are wrong, but again, I won’t apologize for believing I am right. Although, I admit I find it embarrassing and enormously frustrating watching rabbis trying to reconcile and accommodate Christianity with Judaism in the public domain. To date, I have not read, met or heard one rabbi who can do it with any degree of intellectual honesty.

What I don’t fully comprehend is the rationale or purpose of the leader of a Christian church to come to one of the holiest sites in Judaism to pray. I can understand why a Jew does it, and I can understand why a Noahide would do it, and I can even understand why a Christian would be curious to visit and see the Kotel – if only for its historical significance. I readily admit the thought of a Christian praying at the Kotel brings out the same reaction in me that running into the Jews for Jesus crowd does – it sets my teeth to grate. You have to understand that bringing a set of beliefs which are in direct contradiction to the Torah and the Talmud and praying with those beliefs in your heart while literally standing at the bastion of Zion isn’t just insulting but offensive. It does no honour to either of us. So as to the cross – keep it for the Vatican and the throne of St. Peter’s. And to Rabbi Rabinovitch – Kol hakavod!

I realize this won’t make me any friends among Catholics and according to their belief, the heaven’s gate is shut to me anyway. Oh well. In their own words – The Catholic Register.

TORONTO – Chants of “Palestine is ours/The Jews are dogs” and “Burn, burn Israel” had nothing to do with the vast majority of protesters at an event organized by the archdiocese of Montreal ’s social action committee, said the director of the archdiocese of Montreal’s social action office.

“To claim that this peaceful demonstration was pro-Hamas is to grossly misrepresent the views of the overwhelming majority of persons who marched on a cold Saturday afternoon,” Brian McDonough told The Catholic Register.

McDonough did not publicly distance his office from slogans such as “There is no God but Allah and the jihadist is the beloved of Allah” and “O Nasrallah, o beloved, strike, strike Tel Aviv” before media reports and video of the demonstration went across Canada. He said he and the demonstration’s other organizers didn’t want to bring undue attention to “an extremely marginal, fringe group.”
(…)
Organizers of the Jan. 10 event specifically condemned both the Israeli blockade of Gaza and Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in their appeal for people to support the protest, McDonough said. The organizers did not ask the pro-Hamas demonstrators to leave or to stop their violent chants because they regarded these protesters as irrelevant and did not want a confrontation.

“You don’t chant or you don’t accept statements that in any way are incompatible with your values or your vision,” said McDonough. “But you’re not in a position to go in there with force and tear down slogans or kind of push people away from the demonstration.” The Catholic peace movement is , said Fr. Richard Renshaw of the Montreal Pax Christi International affiliate Antennes de Paix.

“not interested in naming villains or taking sides in the conflict between Hamas and the government of Israel”, Oh gee, what a relief. I swear I have heard this slimey bit of moral bankruptcy somewhere before….of course, G-d forbid, a Catholic priest would object or confront anyone inciting against the Jews or saying anything derogatory about a Jew….

h/t BCF

When the prosecuting Crown Attorney turns on its star witness/paid informer and accuses him of lying in Canada’s top terrorism trial – the smell of acquittal becomes overwhelming in the air. The Toronto Star:

In a stunning turn of events, a Crown prosecutor yesterday accused his star witness in the Toronto 18 terror case of fabricating some of the evidence about a so-called terrorist training camp. Police mole Mubin Shaikh was caught off guard by prosecutor John Neander’s suggestion that he had lied when he said the youth on trial did not know the true purpose of the camp. Neander called some of Shaikh’s testimony “an invention” designed to protect the defendant. Although Shaikh agreed that he considered himself “a protector of the vulnerable” – a reference to the youths who attended the December 2005 camp – he rejected any notion that he had been untruthful on the witness stand.
(…)
One of the crucial discrepancies involved why the teens were told they had to clean up the campsite when leaving. During a preliminary hearing, Shaikh testified “we did a sweep to conceal” and cover up “anything that would give away the nature of our activities.”

But during this trial, he testified the youths were given a cover story and told to clean up the camp to protect the “chipmunks and squirrels” from choking on what they’d left behind. Neander reminded Shaikh that he had described the nature of the camp as “nefarious” and questioned why they would’ve needed a cover story when its true purpose was evident since they had participated in firearms training and listened to terrorist rhetoric.

“Every fibre of your being as a loyal Canadian and a devout Muslim recoiled at what (the alleged ringleader) was doing to corrupt them, isn’t that correct?” Neander charged. “Yes,” Shaikh replied. “That’s why now you maintain this incorrect pretext that there was some effort … to mislead the youths as to the purpose of the cleaning up the camp,” shouted Neander. But Shaikh remained steadfast yesterday that alleged ringleaders had concocted an innocent explanation for the camp and that the teens had no idea its intended purpose was to prepare jihadi warriors. Defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky pointed out to Shaikh that the Crown had suggested he lied under oath. “I seek refuge with Allah for such an implication,” said Shaikh, denying the charge.

Another area of dispute revolved around who was present during a speech by the alleged ringleader in which he said “we’re not officially part of Al Qaeda but we share their principles and methods.”

Initially, Shaikh testified that everyone at the camp was present during the Al Qaeda comment, yet later said he wasn’t sure who was listening. Yesterday he changed his tune again, saying the Al Qaeda comment may not even have been part of the inflammatory speech and said he didn’t know who heard it.

I am going to say this once more for the willfully obtuse. The entire case against the Toronto 18 has stunk since the first SWAT sniper was positioned on the roof of the courthouse at the defendants’ first court appearance. If you have not been able to smell it – it could be because you were either too busy reading fear-mongers or you have been too busy slinging the fear yourself. Christie Blatchford called the defendants the Clown Princes of Canadian Terrorism. She had it wrong – it’s the RCMP who are the real Clown Princes of Canadian Terrorism.