Molly MacTaggart
Black Lives Matter Toronto will take part in tri-city action with the group’s chapters in Ottawa and Halifax to stop the deportation proceedings of Abdoul Abdi, whose citizenship status remains unresolved.
Organizers are planning multiple protests inside federal government offices to argue that Abdi should be allowed to stay.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the Immigration Division Agency will ultimately determine Abdi’s eligibility to remain in Canada. He is set to appear in court for a hearing on tomorrow in Toronto.
Activists and supporters will meet at the constituency office of the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, in York South Weston.
Another group in Ottawa is planning a similar protest at Ralph Goodale’s office, the minister of Public Safety.
Recently, former Toronto Star columnist and 680 Radio Host Desmond Cole raised conflict of interest concerns and lack of action on behalf of the Federation of Black Canadians whom Hussen’s wife Ebyan Farah has recently left after a previous post by Cole.
In Ontario, Black children are 13 percent more likely to be taken into foster care according to a Children’s Aid Services report.
Abdi moved homes through as a ward of the state a reported 31 times. At no point did anyone ensure he obtained Canadian citizenship.
The Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia reported that Abdi suffered abuse during his childhood and adolescence. An interview with the CBC revealed that both he and his sister, Fatouma Abdi, faced bullying, emotional and physical abuse both at school and in their foster and group homes. The two were apprehended by the state back in 2000 because their aunts did not know it was illegal to take children out of school even though they were bullied. Fatouma and Abdoul arrived with their aunts after fleeing Somalia’s civil war. Their mother died in Saudi Arabia before being accepted as reported in the Globe and Mail.
Abdi’s appeal to delay deportation was rejected by federal court on Feb 23
Benjamin Perryman, his Halifax lawyer is pursuing a constitutional challenge.
Perryman says Immigration Department would inevitably seek deportation.
The division can only look into citizenship status and criminal records, no other factors.
He has lived in Canada for 18 years and is now 24.
Abdi was charged with 23 counts including aggravated assault, theft of a motor vehicle, assaulting an officer with a vehicle and dangerous driving and plead guilty to all charges. Because of these charges he is considered by Border Canada services to be inadmissable.
He served 4 and a half years in jail.