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Abdelkader Belaouni (“Kader”) St. Gabriel’s Church, Point St. Charles, Quebec. In 1996, Kader fled the Algerian civil war for the USA. In 2003, he left New York City for Canada in the midst of a wave of post-9/11 anti-Muslim intimidation. In 2004, he was stricken with diabetes. His Canadian refugee claim and subsequent appeals were rejected in 2005. On January 1st, 2006, he took sanctuary in St. Gabriel’s Church in Point St. Charles, Montreal, in defiance of a deportation order from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In August, after eight months in the confines of the church, Kader’s request for permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was rejected. He remains in sanctuary, facing deportation. Farah Kulmiyeh Abdill Montreal Farah has been living in Canada since 1990, after fleeing civil war in Somalia. In 1991, Farah was granted permanent resident status. In 1992, his status was revoked due to a criminal record for which he had already served jail time. Farah’s deportation was subsequently postponed by a moratorium on deportations to Somalia. His situation has remained unchanged for 14 years, during which he cannot pursue post-secondary education or find stable work. HIV positive since 1992, Farah’s fragile health depends on life-saving treatments unavailable in Somalia. Amparo Torres Toronto Amparo was a union organizer and founding member of Colombia’s Union Patriotica, an umbrella organization for left political parties. In the 1990’s, Amparo continued her political work despite the assassination of 4,000 of her colleagues. After being tortured for five months, she fled Colombia. She was granted permanent resident status in Canada. In 2003, Canada added the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to its list of terrorist organizations, an organization whose legitimacy it previously acknowledged. Amparo’s brother and ex-husband were members of the FARC. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service blocked her application for citizenship, saying she was linked to a terrorist organization. Evidence is kept secret, so Amparo cannot defend herself. She denies all allegations, but still faces deportation. Suleyman Goven Toronto Suleyman is an Alevi Kurd and was an engineer and union organizer in Turkey. He was imprisoned and tortured in 1980. In 1991, he arrived in Canada as a refugee. In 1994, he was interrogated by CSIS agents, who accused him of being associated with a terrorist organization. They threatened to block his application for resident status if he refused to spy on Toronto’s Kurdish community. They tapped his phone, followed him, photographed him, and forged documents to undermine his application. In 2000, Suleyman was named “Refugee of the Year.” Nonetheless, in 2001, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) found Suleyman inadmissible to Canada. The Federal Court quashed the decision. In 2005, Suleyman sued the Federal Government for damages done by CIC and CSIS. In 2006, fifteen years after arriving in Canada, he became a resident. He has post-traumatic stress disorder after years of intimidation by CSIS. Mohamed Harkat Ottawa Mohamed was a member of the Front for Islamic Salvation in Algeria. When the dictatorship crushed the democratic movement, Mohamed fled to Saudi Arabia, then to Pakistan where he worked for the Muslim World League in refugee camps. He was granted refugee status in Canada in 1997, married and found work. In 2002, Mohamed was arrested in Ottawa without charge or access to evidence on alleged links to al-Qaeda. In 2006, after 11 months in solitary confinement and 32 months in regular prison, he was released under strict conditions: he must wear a GPS bracelet and be accompanied by his wife or mother-in-law 24 hours a day; Canadian Border Services Agency agents can search the house anytime, read mail and intercept phone calls; he cannot speak Arabic, use a computer, cell phone or BlackBerry. He challenged the constitutionality of Security Certificates at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2006 and awaits a decision. He denies all links to terrorism. If deported, he would face torture and death in Algeria. Mahmoud Jaballah Metro West Detention Centre, Toronto Mahmoud was arrested, tortured and released without charge seven times in Egypt’s repression of devout Muslims. His wife’s torture led to a miscarriage. They claimed refugee status in Canada in 1996. A father of six, Mahmoud became the principal of an Islamic school in Scarborough. Relying on information from the Egyptian authorities, Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS) arrested him on a security certificate in 1999 for alleged involvement in a terrorist organization. The case was quashed, the secret evidence deemed not credible. Mahmoud was re-arrested in August 2001. No new evidence was cited. Mahmoud denied all allegations but has been held without charge or access to evidence since. He has developed chronic back pain, respiratory problems, chest pains, fainting spells and diminished concentration while in detention. The Government of Canada admits that he would face torture or death if deported. In December 2006, he went on a hunger strike to protest his conditions. Hassan Almrei Metro West Detention Centre, Toronto Hassan was born in Syria in 1974. His family fled to Saudi Arabia to escape government persecution. At age 17, he joined the Muslim youth recruited by the US and Saudi Arabia to form a proxy army against the Russians. Al-Qaeda scarcely existed at that point, and Hassan denies having had contact with it. Since non-Saudis are not allowed to stay in the country without a permit, Hassan came to Toronto. In 2000, he acquired Convention refugee status. In 2001, he was arrested on a security certificate and has been imprisoned without charge since. CSIS alleges that Hassan is linked to al-Qaeda. All evidence is secret. In 2003, Hassan went on a hunger strike to get shoes and to have the heat turned on in the solitary confinement cell where he spent the first 49 months of his incarceration. He challenged the constitutionality of security certificates at the Supreme Court in 2006 and awaits the decision. If deported to Syria, he will face torture and death. In December 2006, he went on a hunger strike to protest his conditions. Alvaro, Marcela, and Mireya Vega St. Andrew’s Norwood United Church, St. Laurent, Quebec Alvaro Vega was a professor in Colombia. He lectured, helped peasants set up co-ops, and spoke publicly about human rights violations. In 2001, Alvaro was kidnapped and tortured. He escaped, but two further attempts on his life forced him to flee to Canada with his family. He hired an immigration consultant to translate his story from Spanish to French. Mistakes were made, the discrepancies leading to a refusal of the family’s refugee claim. In June 2003, the Vega family was given one month to leave the country. The congregation of St. Andrew’s Norwood United Church in St-Laurent decided to grant them sanctuary. After 567 days during which their access to the outside world was limited to a small rooftop aside the church, their appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was granted. Marina Troshina with her children German, Sonia Montreal Marina is from Russia and sought refugee status in Canada in 1999 with her husband, a Russian of Jewish descent. They came to Canada from Israel where her husband had moved the family in 1996. Being non-Jewish, Marina and her eldest son, German, experienced rejection and discrimination in Israeli society. Once in Canada, the couple had two more children, Sonia and Adam. In 2005, the couple separated, and in October 2005, Citizenship and Immigration Canada informed Marina they were seeking to deport her and German to Israel. Marina is still awaiting this decision. Without status for seven years, Marina has had no access to subsidized daycare or post-secondary education. Since non-residents can only be employed on work permits, she cannot find steady employment. She fears separation from her children by deportation. Osama Saleh Omar Montreal Osama is a Palestinian refugee from the West Bank village of Beit Lid. In 2001, he fled the Israeli occupation where he witnessed his father’s arrest, and was himself harassed, beaten and jailed four times for a total of 18 months. Osama’s refugee claim was rejected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in 2002, a time of severe repression in Palestine. In 2004, the Federal Court ordered CIC to reconsider his application given the risk he would face if deported. CIC rejected his application again. Later, the Department of Justice accepted his case and ordered it back to CIC, who refused it again in March 2006. Osama returned to Federal Court, and in September 2006 his case was accepted yet again by the Federal Court and ordered back to CIC. He awaits their review of his case. Youssef El-Loubani Montreal Youssef grew up as a stateless Palestinian in the Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon. He lived through civil war, camp sieges, massacres and hunger. He underwent surgery for shrapnel wounds as a boy when his home was bombed. His sister was abducted at the age of 11 by a Syrian military officer, repeatedly raped, confined and returned to the family four years later, pregnant. Since Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from over 75 professions, Youssef sought and obtained a student visa in Canada in 2000, and later claimed refugee status. In 2003, his refugee claim was rejected. He then applied for status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, the sole recourse for persons living without status in Canada, and was accepted in 2006. Hassan Almrei Metro West Detention Centre, Toronto Hassan was born in Syria in 1974. His family fled to Saudi Arabia to escape government persecution. At age 17, he joined the Muslim youth recruited by the US and Saudi Arabia to form a proxy army against the Russians. Al-Qaeda scarcely existed at that point, and Hassan denies having had contact with it. Since non-Saudis are not allowed to stay in the country without a permit, Hassan came to Toronto. In 2000, he acquired Convention refugee status. In 2001, he was arrested on a security certificate and has been imprisoned without charge since. CSIS alleges that Hassan is linked to al-Qaeda. All evidence is secret. In 2003, Hassan went on a hunger strike to get shoes and to have the heat turned on in the solitary confinement cell where he spent the first 49 months of his incarceration. He challenged the constitutionality of security certificates at the Supreme Court in 2006 and awaits the decision. If deported to Syria, he will face torture and death. In December 2006, he went on a hunger strike to protest his conditions.
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| photos © darren ell | email: elldarren@gmail.com |