One Tough Call

"For me, deportation is the equivalent of a death sentence. If I am not killed by the (Palestinian) government, I will be killed by Hamas because I shamed them publicly, and if not them, then I will be killed by my family."
"[At age 16, prepared to break with his family] but could not just come out and disavow what they stood for, because that would have been treason and I would have been shot immediately."
"I don’t think I should be held accountable for decisions I made or did not make when I was 14. The punishment … is pretty harsh. I am not my family and I have done everything in my power since I was 14 to distance myself from them."
John Calvin, 24, Palestinian refugee claimant

"In delivering these messages, I find the respondent made a significant, knowing and willing contribution to Hamas’s terrorist acts."
"I find that he possessed the requisite knowledge and mental capacity to make his own informed choices. He chose Hamas."
"He was not going to the corner store to buy bread; he was sneaking through what can best be considered 'enemy lines', Having been indoctrinated by family does not excuse membership in a terrorist organization."
George Pemberton, appeal division member, Immigration Appeal Division

John Calvin, 24, has been ordered deported to Palestinian territories because the government found he used to be a member of Hamas.  Photograph by: Donna Christensen, Edmonton Journal

The young man who arrived in Canada in 2010 after changing his name to John Calvin as a Christian convert, and who claimed refugee status has been living in Edmonton for the past several years. His problem is a huge one, with a refugee adjudicator judging him, because of his background unfit to remain in Canada. He was raised in a family in Gaza devoted to and active in Hamas taking part in the violence expressed by Hamas reflecting its charter value of destroying the State of Israel.

John Calvin, having been refused status as a refugee in Canada now says that the simple fact of the matter is that as soon as he is returned to the Palestinian territories he will be targeted for murder. His conversion to Christianity and his gay status, along with his rejection of Hamas' Islamist culture represent a certain death sentence.

Hamas has never been reluctant to destroy the lives of those who collaborate with Israel, and homosexuals are held in violent disdain in Islam. He has shamed his family on all counts, and honour killings do not necessarily always target women only.

Any refugee claimant or immigrant found to be a member of a terrorist group can have their claim denied under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. On December 19 a decision was brought down by the Immigration Appeal Division that sufficient evidence was found that the  young man was a willing and active participant in Hamas activities while a teen. Included were times when he delivered coded messages passing through Israeli checkpoints and other instances when he shot at Israeli jeeps.

He had himself testified in July of his family's 'resistance' to the Israeli 'occupation'. His maternal grandfather was a co-founder of Hamas, five uncles are senior Hamas members responsible for planning suicide bombings and producing explosives. Hamas' terrorist actions were taught to him from a young age. He was recruited at age 13 to be active in simple acts useful to Hamas. At age 14 he claimed to have had second thoughts; led by his exposure to Jews "who did not seem anything like what I had been taught".

Once, imprisoned in an Israeli jail for his Hamas activities, he was raped by a Palestinian. The compassionate medical and psychological care given him by Israelis, by guards and the warden, moved him to understanding that the hatred with which he had been indoctrinated did not represent reality. Finally, aged 18 he renounced Hamas publicly, then converted several years later to Christianity. His father attempted to stab him in retaliation for apostasy, leading him to escape to a local church.

Reaching Jordan, Christians there helped him obtain a bible college scholarship in Toronto. Moving to Edmonton in 2012 he made do with odd jobs and help from friends locally. The 'minor' transgressions of his youth, he insists, should not condemn him now. He hadn't fully comprehended as a teen that his activities were related to terrorism. 

 

He was complying with familial requests, not acting at the behest of Hamas. Which of course, seems a trifle ingenuous, given that his family was completely integrated within Hamas. The gun given him at age 14 for his birthday by his grandfather was never used to shoot at anyone, he insists. 

 

Mr. Pemberton, however, has assembled a different perspective in his research, ruling that details and dates in the young man's testimony are not consistent with earlier evidence in his 2011 written refugee claim and later interview with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In his initial refugee claim he wrote that he had been a Hamas member between ages 11 and 18, as "a fighter", given a gun he used to shoot at Israeli jeeps.

The earlier testimony was found by Mr. Pemberton to be more credible than later accounts. He held that the young man understood quite well what he was doing in delivering messages for Hamas until age 16. In his defence, John Calvin explains his 2011 statements suffered from  his inaccurate English language use, and the fact he had no interpreter and that he misunderstood what was being asked of him.

Explanations rejected by Mr. Pemberton who felt that the young man had edited his story to minimize his Hamas connections.


John Calvin, self-chosen namesake of a historical religious figure of great importance in Christian history, is not surrendering himself to complete despair; not quite yet. He plans to appeal the deportation order to the Federal Court of Canada, something that must be done no later than January 19.

His story is clearly believed by those who give him moral support, local friends who have initiated a crowdfunding campaign they call Save John's Life.

It would be heartless not to wish them good luck in that venture.