Canada's Careful Selection of 'Refugees'

"I know for sure once they are in Moscow I won't see them again. I am sure they will be handed over to the Russian security when they land."
"I don't know why the government doesn't understand it."
"It was a miracle that they were able to escape [Russia]. The bureaucracy did not have time to realize they were leaving."
"We knew what we were doing when we decided to go public. Now it's even more dangerous [for them to return to Russia]."
Olesia Sunatori, Russian emigre, Gatineau, Quebec

"The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act states that removal orders must be enforced as soon as possible. The CBSA is firmly committed to doing so."
"Everyone ordered removed from Canada is entitled to due process before the law and all removal orders are subject to various levels of appeal. However, once all legal avenues of appeal/due process are exhausted, they are expected to leave Canada or be removed."
Immigration and Refugee Board statement

"The key point is that the couple is caught in a sometimes flawed system."
"We are doing the government a favour by seeking to prevent a potentially disastrous result [that would surely eventuate with the Russian couple seeking asylum being returned to the place they fled from in fear of their lives]."
David Kilgour, former MP, human rights activist

"There is no question that she's [Elena Musikhina] at risk of harm if she returns."
"When someone with a refugee case this strong comes to this point, it shows that something has gone seriously wrong."
"Rarely do you see a stronger refugee claim than this."
Immigration lawyer Joshua Blum

Green Party Elizabeth May, left, at a press conference on Oct. 30, calling on the government to intervene in the case of Elena Musikhina, with granddaughter Iaroslava Sunatori, 8, and daughter Olesia Sunatori. Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Elena Musikhina is a Russian scientist in environmental studies who was employed at the Irkutsk State Technical University as a professor. Irkutsk is a city of 600,000 people, located in Siberia. Industrial and military activity around Russia's Lake Baikal -- which has world heritage status as the oldest and largest lake in the world -- has taken a profound environmental toll on the ecosystem health of the world famous lake. As a result of the industrial activity and military presence it is becoming seriously impacted and degraded.

She was informed by the vice-rector of the university in September of 2015 that Russian state authorities were on the verge of accusing her of 'political activism' for pointing out the conclusions of her studies on the environmental degradation being caused to the lake, under the Russian criminal code. Forewarned, she and her husband Mikhail left Siberia for St.Petersburg then left Russia in October 2015 to seek haven in Canada, where their daughter Olesia Sunatori lives.

They formally declared themselves Russians fleeing state persecution, requesting asylum in Canada. And they settled themselves in Gatineau, Quebec, to live with their daughter. Established in Canada, awaiting results of their application for refugee status, Elena Musikhina took part in protests in Ottawa taking place before the Embassy of Russia. But the Immigration and Refugee Board was skeptical of her claims of persecution and turned down their application for refugee protection in June of 2016.

Claiming that the couple had failed to prove they were in serious danger of prosecution under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Board felt justified in turning them down, citing the fact that they had left Russia without hindrance "diminishing their credibility on regards to whether the authorities were seeking them", wrote the tribunal. It was pure good fortune, responded Ms. Musikhina that she and her husband had retained their external passports once their internal documentation had been seized, enabling their departure.

They appealed the board's decision and failed when in July the Federal Court of Appeal declined their request for a leave for judicial review of the rejected clam and were informed last month to be prepared for deportation. Plane tickets to Moscow were issued this week.

Their immigration lawyer plans asking the government to defer removal to enable a "pre-removal risk assessment". Should deferral be granted it would allow government to consider supporting evidence never before reviewed identifying Dr.. Musikhina as an opponent of the Russian government and a critic in particular of President Vladimir Putin.

Even the dimmest mind unacquainted with international affairs must have an inkling of how President Putin views his critics as disposable irritants. For a government willing to admit those falsely claiming themselves to be genuine refugees and placing Canada under a burden of great expense to accommodate the economic migrants claiming that status as undocumented and illegal entrants, this type of neglect when a true appeal for deserving status reflecting real and verifiable need is beyond puzzling.

Elena Musikhina has been summoned by the CBSA for issuance of a deportation order, which she says will deliver her into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin's secret police. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)