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Flight of deportees grounded; Judge halts removal of four Nigerians Final ruling on their challenge still pending;
Tonda MacCharles. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Mar 1, 2004. pg. A.15
A federal court judge has temporarily grounded plans by Canadian immigration officials to deport four failed refugee applicants on a special Canada-US. charter flight for "high risk" immigration offenders.
Justice James O'Reilly halted the removal of the four Nigerians, now detained in the Toronto area, until the court could hear and rule on their constitutional challenge. Senior immigration security officials told a Senate committee in Ottawa last week that the joint flights were mainly for the worst immigration offenders - people deemed high-risk due to concerns about security, organized crime and human rights violations.
O'Reilly said the four were "part of a group of persons from the United States and Canada, assembled on short notice, who are being returned to Nigeria by way of chartered aircraft."
The four, Francis Asuekomhe Mark, Kayode Aremu Shonubi, Ann Kentoa, and Charles Imafidon, are all failed refugee applicants in various stages of appealing their status, said one of their lawyers.
None are deemed a security risk, or have criminal convictions for violent offences here or in Nigeria. Two are married with children, and only one of them, Imafidon, a father of two, has been convicted of fraud in Canada, said lawyer Munyonzwe Hamalengwa.
But all have launched a constitutional challenge of the way Canada acted in trying to whisk them out of the country while their final reviews are still pending, said Hamalengwa.
Just days before a Jan. 28 joint Canada-U.S. charter was set to leave Buffalo, the individuals, who had prior deportation orders, were asked to come in to get the results of a "pre-removal risk assessment" each had requested, as is their right under the law, he said.
They were detained immediately and told they'd be shipped out promptly, in violation of their Charter guarantees of procedural fairness and due process, said Hamalengwa. They also argue they should not be lumped in with hard-core criminals, and that the flights themselves target Nigerian removals and are a violation of their equality rights.
"Other than their nationality and destination, the applicants have nothing in common," O'Reilly said in his Jan. 27 statement, adding the deportees got little notice of their scheduled Jan. 28 removal. They cobbled together a hasty application for delay, and a "constitutional argument the travel arrangements themselves offend principles of fairness and equality, all at once."
Federal immigration enforcement authorities have asked the federal court to allow the removal to go ahead, and another judge who heard the case is now considering arguments from both sides.
Credit: Toronto Star
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