Pleading Compassion

"After a 26-year stay in Canada, we are pleased to have successfully deported this convicted terrorist killer who made a mockery of our legal system. Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad represents just how broken Canada's immigration and refugee systems had become under previous governments."
Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, Spokesman, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney

Perhaps the issue is one that the system itself is canted too far in favour of the would-be immigrant. To enable those who have been formally denied entry to Canada as prospective residents, to appeal those decisions, to the detriment of the country. It's all very well to have laws in protection of peoples' rights, but another thing altogether when those laws are enabling mechanisms to allow those who are clearly not wanted within Canada to remain and to make costly use of the country's social benefits.

Evading the universality of due justice in the process.

The fact that in many such instances these are people who have unsavoury backgrounds, people whose criminal past has defied the inspection given by Canada's security agents in processing such applications, makes it all the more acute that measures be taken to alter laws that are so amenable to abuse. In the case of Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, who entered Canada in 1987 as a skilled worker, a killer was allowed entry into the country.

Previously a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization which chose a more violent trajectory than the PLO under its leader George Habash, the PFLP was well known for its murderous atrocities. Despite that it became known that Mr. Mohammad took part in a deadly 1968 attack on an Israeli passenger jet, and had been convicted for that crime, he has lived in Ontario since 1987.

When his past record became known to Canadian authorities, that he had lied about his name, his criminal history and his involvement with the PFLP, which was listed as a terrorist organization in 2003, attempts by the federal government to remove him to Tunis failed. He and his lawyers managed to keep delaying his immigration-and-removal case since his claim was rejected in 1995 when he applied for refugee status.

That kind of delaying tactic through a variety of legal mechanisms is a common enough ploy. Ending up with the situation that is reflected in this man's case, and in too many others as well. It was revealed that the cost to the federal government to charter a jet and accompanying medical team ridding Canada of the man came to $117,000. His health was in poor condition and for humanitarian considerations this convicted killer was given the gift of care with his deportation.

The cost was high, but not nearly as high as the millions it was estimated to have cost the government and the taxpayer throughout the 26 years of attempting to remove the man from Canada. Amazingly, Barbara Jackman, Mr. Mohammad's Toronto lawyer, described her client as an older man, deported with serious health problems, no support system in Lebanon to welcome him, and limited medical care access on his arrival in the country.

"I think that the government, that Jason Kenney in particular, has been the person spearheading the drive behind getting rid of some people at all costs, regardless of the cost and without regard to the personal circumstances of the individual", she said, disparagingly dismissive of the fact that the man concerned might not have been entitled to compassion since he offered none to those he was involved in depriving of life.