Kaif Ali is only 23, but she’s spent the last five years putting her life back together — from escaping war in Somalia, to putting her faith in a smuggler to find safety, to landing in Canada and learning English, studying nursing and becoming a front-line health-care worker.
Now the life she’s built could soon fall apart — again.
That’s because the Canadian government now claims Ali is not, in fact, Somali. And she’s not alone.
Ali, a Toronto resident, told CBC News she escaped Somalia with her younger sister after her father and older sister were targeted and killed. The two paid a smuggler, who arranged for them to flee with fake Kenyan passports. It’s a choice she says she was forced to make in order to get to safety.
“Nobody just wakes up one day and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m running away from the country,'” Ali said. “We’re escaping in a short period of time. Something happens and, within a month or two months, you’re in hiding.”
“You don’t have that leisure time to be able to prepare for that identity document… I would have lost my life and my sister’s life if I had stayed there any longer,” she said. “We had to escape.”
Ali, right, pictured with her sister, Sagal, left. The pair now face the possibility of deportation. Their last hope is to appeal on compassionate and humanitarian grounds. (Submitted by Kaif Ali)
Now, Ali is one of a growing number of Somalis who, advocates say, have had their refugee claimsinvalidated by the federal government because of those fraudulent documents.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says 157 people have been served with “vacate hearings” since 2019 — a move to void their protections as a refugee claimants from Somalia. Ali and others believe the actual number is in the hundreds.
From 2015-19, the number of vacate notices against those claiming asylum from Somalia averaged 19 each year. In 2020, there were 61. A year later, there were 77.
Canada says Ali is Kenyan, that her refugee claim is therefore false and that she could be deported unless she successfully appeals. Ali says she and many others over the years openly told immigration officials when they arrived that their documents were false.
Her last hope to stay here rests on an appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
“If I go back to Somalia, I will die.”
Spike in cases
In 1991, Somalia’s government collapsed with the outbreak of civil war and it has been widely considered a failed state since. Canada is one of a number of countries that does not consider Somali passports valid for the “purpose of traveling to Canada.” The same is true of the U.K. and Germany, meaning those who try to find safety are often forced to falsify their documents. Many who have escaped the war over the past three decades haven’t had so much as a birth certificate, Ali says.
How is a person to travel when their government has completely collapsed?— Paul Dineen, immigration lawyer
For many that means, as difficult as it’s been to survive the war, escaping it can be even harder.
Toronto immigration lawyer Paul Dineen has taken on dozens of cases similar to Ali’s. During the three decades in which he’s been practising refugee law, he’d only ever seen two or three “vacate” cases.
Suddenly in late 2019, he says, there was a “rash” of them.
Until then, Dineen says there seemed to be a recognition that refugees from Somalia had to rely on fraudulent documents.
“One could point and say, ‘Well, they’ve used a false document. That is wrong,'” Dineen said. “But how is a person to travel when their government has completely collapsed and they’re trying to find refuge somewhere?”
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada acknowledges in its refugee application that some will come with false documents. Its application form asks claimants to include “documents that you got in an irregular or illegal way or by giving information that is not true, and documents you used that do not really belong to you.”
CBSA won’t disclose investigative techniques
Dineen suspects the apparent spike in cases is the result of the CBSA using artificial intelligence tools to match photos of those arriving at Canadian airports to the photos in a given refugee claim. When the photos of claimants are deemed to match those of actual Kenyans, their claims appear to be invalidated.
Previous reporting by CBC News has found primary inspection kiosks that read passports at some Canadian airports may have higher error rates when processing people with certain ethnic backgrounds.
Dineen worries photo matching is a faulty process, pointing out numerous studies have noted facial recognition algorithms can be less accurate when dealing with dark-skinned people than with light-skinned.
Asked about the apparent spike in vacate cases, the CBSA said in a statement to CBC News it “cannot speculate or speak to trends.”
The agency did say it uses facial recognition technology to help identify travellers coming through its kiosks at certain airports and is “committed to ensuring that individuals’ privacy is protected and that technology is free from bias.”
It also said it takes “many steps” to intercept those who use fraudulent documentation, but “does not disclose details of its intelligence and investigative techniques.”
Marian Mohamud is a Somali mother with the community organization Mending a Crack in the Sky, supporting families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. She says she considers young Somalis like Ali her ‘children’ and is calling on the federal government to grant them protection. (James Spalding/CBC)
‘They went through the unthinkable’
Marian Mohamud fled Somalia in late ’80s and says she was welcomed in Canada with open arms.
It’s that type of welcome — and the response that Canada has afforded to thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion — that the Somali mother she wants for those now facing possible deportation.
Many have built lives here, are working in essential sectors, have even started families. Others, fearing the danger of returning home, she says, have attempted suicide.
“You need these people. They’re already here, they went through the unthinkable to come here. How can you send them back?” Mohamud said. “Treat our kids the same way you treat the Ukrainians.”
Qalid Ali knows that feeling all too well.
Ali arrived in Canada six years ago — attended high school and college here. Now, he too faces the possibility of deportation.
With the prospect of being forced to return to danger, he says, many young Somalis in his position feel defeated.
“They don’t know when they are going to be deported… And because of that mindset, a lot of them have dropped out of school,” he said. “When you cannot envision a future, then it is very hard to work for one.”
“We want to be Canadian… we want to be able to enjoy the same peace and security that all Canadians enjoy in this country,” Qalid said.
“All we want is to be enough.”
Qalid Ali had his refugee claim vacated in 2019. He arrived in Canada six years ago, and attended high school and college here. ‘Canada is my home,’ he says. ‘And all of a sudden we’re being told that Canada doesn’t want us anymore.’ (James Spalding/CBC)
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
