Sunday, August 16, 2009

If you get in trouble abroad, don't expect this Canadian government to help you. You may be prosecuted instead.

Bravo Mr. Harper. You have yet another investigation about how you run one of your cabinet departments. In this case, Foreign Affairs. This time around it is a case of a woman by the name of Suaad Hagi Mohamud who was finally allowed to leave Kenya and return to Canada but only after fingerprint verification, document verification and genetic verification of her identity. It has also emerged in the last little while that a Canadian Press outlet, I am still trying to find out which one, obtained an email, apparently through Access To Information, that indicated that after the Canadian government declared her an imposter, Foreign Affairs offered their assistance in the prosecution of Suaad Hagi Mohamud by the Kenyans. Because her identity was eventually verified, such an email is going to make civil litigation much easier for the victim and a whole lot more difficult for the government to defend itself against. In the last 24 hours, Suaad Hagi Mohamud has declared her intent to sue the Canadian government due to her treatment. That email will probably be exhibit A.

This kind of treatment of Canadians by this Canadian government is starting to become a pattern. Another recent case comes to mind, that of Abdul Razik arrested in the Sudan and eventually returned home to Canada only after two court rulings which forced Foreign Affairs to shut up and get out of the way. And then there is the most famouse case of all, Omar Khadr (sp?), who just this past week won part of his case against the government of Canada. It will be interesting to see how the ministers involved in these cases can defend themselves. Jason Kenney may be a little uncomfortable as well as Lawrence Cannon and Peter Van Loan. It will be interesting to see how the litigation in all these cases turns out. On a strictly personal level, I hope the government gets sued into the ground. Maybe they won't screw up again if this ever happens to another Canadian citizen in a foreign country.