A Somali asylum seeker has launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Canadian government for his “humiliating” detention.”
Why not? Former Gitmo detainee Omar Khadr got away with murder, maiming and 10.5 million dollars of taxpayer money.
In a 2015 report, the National Post pointed out that “if Abdirahmaan Warssama signs a piece of paper, he can get out of the high-security prison where he has spent the last five years. But he won’t sign it….as a non-citizen convicted of crimes, he was found inadmissible to Canada and ordered deported in 2009.”
His refusal to sign and subsequent incarceration left him in a kind of limbo with the Canadian Border Service Agency, which faced a dilemma on what to do with him. Now Warssama is suing the government for millions, on top the hundreds of thousands already spent in keeping him incarcerated.
The message has been sent that it is a lucrative business to hold Canada hostage under accusations of difficult and “humiliating” detentions. There will always be those who will fight and support such cases, disregarding the fact that Canada has a history of accommodating hard-working, peaceful immigrants who have long integrated without a problem, without entitlements and without presenting any danger to the public.
Abdirahmaan Warsamma’s lawyer argues that “in his homeland, Warssama faced a nightmare of violence and torture.” That’s sad, but does this mean that every Western country must fling open its borders to every every single Muslim refugee from every war-torn foreign land, regardless of each individual’s values?
“Asylum-seeker sues federal government over ‘humiliating’ 5-year imprisonment”, by Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star, October 1, 2017:
A Toronto man, who was held in immigration detention for five-and-a-half years, has launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Ottawa.
Abdirahmaan Warssama, 54, was detained at two maximum security detention facilities, first in Toronto and later in Lindsay, Ont., from May 2010 to December 2015 while waiting for his deportation to Somalia.
Over 2,042 days behind bars, he underwent more than 70 detention reviews but each time an independent panel sent him back to jail, convinced he was likely to flee and fail to appear for his removal — until a Federal Court judge overturned his continued detention and ordered Ottawa to explore the possibility of returning Warssama to Somalia and consider alternatives to detention.
“The sole purpose of his detention was to facilitate his removal from Canada to Somalia. Yet for the totality of his detention, removal to Somalia was never attempted,” said Warssama’s statement of claim against the federal government filed with the court Thursday. He is seeking $55 million in damages.
“Despite the fact (that) he suffered from mental health issues, his detention was solely administrative not punitive, and he was not considered a danger to the public, yet at all material times, Warssama was detained in a maximum-security prison.”
The claims have not been proven in court. The Attorney General of Canada, the defendant, has declined to comment because of the ongoing court process. No statement of defence has yet been filed.
While incarcerated, Warssama alleged in the lawsuit, he was subjected to “humiliating and degrading experiences,” including being strip-searched, physically assaulted, robbed, denied warm clothing and health care, forced to endure freezing temperatures, unsanitary living conditions and lengthy and numerous lockdowns.
Warssama came to Canada for asylum in 1989 but the claim was denied in the same year. He was allowed to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds — partially due to his diagnosis with post-traumatic stress disorder. However, he kept moving around and never obtained his permanent residence status.
In 2005 and 2006, he was arrested and charged with assault, failing to appear and uttering threats, for which he received a suspended sentence and 18 months’ probation, as well as a day in jail and 87 days pre-sentence custody. Since he’s neither a permanent resident nor citizen, his criminality made him inadmissible to Canada.
Warssama’s lawyer, Subodh Bharati, said the Canada Border Services Agency had a policy of not forcibly removing people to Somalia and would only deport someone to African country if the person was willing to sign a “voluntary statutory declaration” indicating one’s genuine desire to return….