Sucaad Xaaji Max'uud

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Geelle, you are right. If it wasn't really Toronto Star, she might still be languished in Nayroobi, if not in jail in that city.

 

Toronto Star broke the story July first and consistently kept it in the limelight by writing about it almost daily, sometimes on the front page of their paper. They also wrote consistent editorials supporting our sister Sucaad. That is my kinda of newspaper. Now the Canadian media have woken up, this sad saga is national since even the prime minister ka hadlaayo and the premier of this province.

 

Here is today's editorial of that paper:

 

A country that abandons its own

 

If Canadian citizen Suaad Hagi Mohamud were wealthy or politically connected or media savvy, she would never have been stripped of her passport and her rights while travelling through Kenya.

 

She might have been stopped at the airport in Nairobi. Initially, a Canadian consular official might even have supported her detention. When she presented her identification, the Canadian system would have rallied to her side.

 

Suaad Hagi Mohamud, however, is not rich. She's not a political insider. She's not a media darling.

 

She is a black Somali immigrant who had to live on charity once Canadian authorities sent her passport to Kenyan police and suggested they prosecute her for not really being one of us. She had produced a half-dozen forms of valid identification, but our bureaucrats closed their ears to her desperate pleas for help.

 

By cancelling her passport, they rendered her stateless. And rendered her to the Kenyans – the same Kenyans who had rendered another Canadian citizen, Bashir Makhtal, to an Ethiopian prison.

 

The default position of a powerful bureaucracy is control. But when its political protectors are unresponsive to principles or the people, bureaucratic control unconsciously, and without any obvious will, can become sadism.

 

Remarkably, the Canadian politician elected by the people to oversee the bureaucracy – and to help fellow Canadians in distress – failed in his highest obligation. Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon crushed her hope for quick justice with mistruths and irrelevancies. In demeaning and damaging language, he said she hadn't tried hard enough to prove she was a citizen.

 

What chance does a poor immigrant woman living on handouts away from her family have against that kind of power?

 

Back channels out of Ottawa are now whispering that we don't have the whole story, that things aren't what they seem in this case. But they have yet to come clean. We heard the same thing from back channels in the cases of Donald Marshall and David Milgaard, terrible examples of abuses of citizens by their government.

 

But what crime strips a Canadian of all their civil rights and even their human right to their identity?

 

None. These are excuses for failures of justice and humanity in our bureaucracy and at the highest levels of our government.

 

And as yesterday's Toronto Star pointed out, this is not an isolated incident. What do we learn from an examination of other cases?

 

Overwhelmingly, the victims are people of colour, they are immigrants, they are out of the political mainstream. Our government treats them as less than real citizens.

 

This incident demonstrates this government's flawed understanding of the true nature of today's Canada, and how through ignorance or malice it is frustrating Canadians' hopes for real justice.

 

Editorial

______________

 

Raamsade, she is not in here yet, so hold that thought of yours.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Harper consistently embarrasses Canada abroad

 

Israel and the U.S. have well-deserved reputations for standing up for their citizens abroad. Canada, under Stephen Harper, is gaining a reputation for failing its own.

 

Omar Khadr rots in Guantanamo.

 

Abousfian Abdelrazik, tortured in his native Sudan, had to be holed up in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for a year before being allowed to return to Canada.

 

Bashir Makhtal – abducted from Kenya to his native Ethiopia and sentenced to life in prison for allegedly belonging to a separatist group – may or may not get Ottawa's help in fighting the verdict of a kangaroo court.

 

Huseyin Celil – a Uighur Canadian human-rights activist serving a life sentence in China after being convicted, in secret, on charges of terrorism – has been forgotten by Ottawa. Its waning interest has run in tandem with its increasing enthusiasm for business with China.

 

Perhaps the Harper Tories don't want anything to do with anyone tarred with the terrorism brush, rightly or wrongly.

 

But now comes the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud. The Toronto woman was left dangling in Nairobi after an airport official thought her lips did not match the picture on her passport. Rather than helping her, the Canadian embassy became a party to tormenting her. It has taken 11 weeks and a DNA test to prove her identity.

 

Her case wouldn't even have come to light had it not been for Star reporter John Goddard, who has kept at it, day after day.

 

Gar Pardy, former head of the consular services section of foreign affairs in Ottawa, and others see a pattern of discrimination.

 

They draw comparisons with Brenda Martin, jailed in Mexico but rescued by a minister's intervention and flown back on a government plane. She is white, others not. The others are also Muslim.

 

Star columnist Christopher Hume yesterday accused the Harperites of racism based on colour. "This smacks not just of prejudice but of apartheid."

 

Former MP Omar Alghabra, who was Liberal citizenship critic, says the "elephant in the room" may be the Tory belief that some Canadians are not "real" citizens and, thus, unworthy of consular help.

 

Dan McTeague, former Liberal minister responsible for Canadians abroad, says Harper shows no interest in Canadians in trouble overseas unless he is embarrassed into action by the media or the courts. Given that 9 per cent of Canadians are abroad at any given time, we need a parliamentary debate on the issue.

 

Xigasho

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Finally.

 

Stranded woman coming home

 

NAIROBI, Kenya — Sitting in a packed business class airport lounge with a Canadian official at her side, Suaad Hagi Mohamud says she is finally allowing herself to relax.

 

"I'm really happy I'm going back home," she told the Star as she waited to board her long flight back to Toronto.

 

After days of talking about her case, she said she was at a bit of a loss for words. "I just can't wait to get there," she said as she flipped through the local papers, not really reading the articles.

 

Once the flight takes off, she expects to recline in her second row seat and sleep.

 

With charges dropped by Kenya's High Court this morning, Mohamud was free to return home on an emergency Canadian passport tonight.

 

Earlier in the day, as she checked out of the guarded guesthouse where she has been holed up, she sang out, "Good bye room."

 

She said she didn't have time to pick up her dry cleaning or recover the luggage held at hotel where she had stayed earlier, but couldn't pay the bill.

 

"I just want to put my foot on plane. I don't care what I look like," she said before hugging her friends and getting into a silver Landcruiser with an official from Canada's High Commission.

 

Mohamud had been trapped here since May, when Canadian consular officials branded her an "impostor" and accused her of using a false passport. She spent eight days in prison, which she described as "horrible."

 

"There are no human rights respected in there," said Joyce Masgabo, a Kenyan woman who befriended Mohamud in custody. Masgabo also had her charges recently withdrawn for what she said stemmed from a vengeful business dispute, and came to Mohamud's hearing to show her support.

 

The chaotic court scene seemed the perfect ending for Mohamud's emotional legal and political odyssey, which began when immigration officials thought she was not the person in her passport photo because her lips were different.

 

Mohamud's case bounced between courtrooms today, and at one point it appeared her file had been lost. When Mohamud first arrived in the morning she said she was happier than she had been in weeks. But when it appeared her case could be postponed again, as she rushed to another courtroom she whispered, "Oh, my God. I'm not going home? I'm not going home."

 

Six hours after her scheduled appearance, prosecutor Paul Mwangangi said the government did not want to pursue charges. Justice Stella Muketi ordered the return of Mohamud's bail money and she was put in the custody of Canadian officials who attended the hearing.

 

"I'm so happy. I'm just so, so happy and can't wait to see my son," the 31-year-old single mother said outside of court.

 

The break in the case came Monday when DNA testing confirmed that Mohamud was indeed who she said she was.

 

The Canadian High Commission's second secretary here, Jonathan Boisseau, wrote a letter to Kenya's Director of Immigration Services Wednesday asking that charges be withdrawn.

 

"The investigation of this matter by the Canadian Border Services Agency concluded on August, 11, 2009. It is the decision of the Government of Canada to allow (Mohamud) entry to Canada," states the letter obtained by the Star and submitted in court.

 

Mohamud's lawyer, Lucas Naikuni, said he plans to sue the Canadian and Kenyan governments, along with KLM Airlines, whose officials stopped Mohamud from boarding a flight home May 21. He called it a "malicious prosecution."

 

"This is an embarrassment, that a developed country like Canada can do this to a citizen," he said in an interview with the Star.

 

"We had to go to DNA testing — we had to go that far?"

 

He said the trial is being ridiculed here and had come to be known as the "lips case."

 

Mohamud says she is dismayed at her adopted country's reaction to her plight and critics believe if points to a larger pattern of neglect of Canadians held abroad.

 

"I never thought it was going to happen right after I became a Canadian citizen and I found a new home. I thought I (could) be far away from all this trouble," the Somalia-born Canadian said. "I really don't know what to say."

 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke out on the case for the first time Thursday.

 

"Our first priority as a government is obviously to see her get on a flight back to Canada," he said, adding that the Canadian Border Service Agency have been asked to provide a full account of their actions.

 

Koronto Istaar

[N.O.R.F]

Finally. Don't leave it at that reer Koronto. An independent investigation should take place.

[Kool_Kat]

Canadian stranded in Kenya to arrive home today

 

 

A Toronto woman left stranded in Kenya for more than three months because local officials said she didn't look like her passport photo will arrive back in Canada this afternoon.

 

Suaad Hagi Mohamud boarded a flight in Nairobi on Friday afternoon after a judge in Kenya dropped false identity charges against her and the Canadian embassy issued her a new passport.

 

Mohamud was travelling home to Canada after visiting her mother when she was detained in Nairobi because officials said her lips didn't match the photo in her four-year-old passport.

 

The Canadian High Commission agreed and her passport was voided. Kenyan officials detained the Somalia-born Mohamud, forcing her to spend eight days in jail.

 

Mohamud produced several other forms of identification to prove her identity and offered to have her fingerprints taken.

 

Officials agreed to a DNA test, which confirmed her identity.

 

Critics have charged that the Conservative government did not do enough to help a Canadian stranded in a foreign country.

 

"Holding a Canadian passport must mean the Canadian government will protect you -- no matter where, no matter when," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Friday in a news release.

 

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said the government will review the actions of the Canada Border Services Agency and has asked for a "full accounting" of how it handled Mohamud's case.

 

While Mohamud's Kenyan lawyer said his client will sue Kenya, Canada and Dutch airline KLM for damages, her Canadian lawyer said it is too soon to tell if a lawsuit will be filed.

 

 

Link

 

 

Sucaad Cadeey is finaly coming home...Jeestadaaba idishay...

 

 

My boi Ignatieff wajiyuu sii diyaarsanooyaa!

[MZanzi]

Kool kat dhaaf yaaqe haxaragoote Momadan waa nuure noog sidi nalke camal

[Kool_Kat]

^Yaroow stop inaa baxar igalisid...

 

 

 

The 1st photo must be nalalkaa ka hadleysay oo Kenya dadka lagu shido yaah? See what I mean Fufu when I say baxar ha igalin, sawirka labaad is said to have been taken indoors...

 

 

EDIT:

 

On second thought, the 2nd photo must have been taken in a washroom...Waxa gadaal ka laalaado shower curtain aas u egyahay...Cadeey boolo ilaah nabad cideeda ha'ugu soo celiyo, insha'allah....

[Cabdow]

Good to hear our Sister was finally brought back home safely, great news indeed!

 

Is it me or is she looking better by the day, Masha'Allah

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

LoL at Canjeex. She soon will be a millionaire as well too. Yee kaa fakan waa singal.

 

Finally, yea, she is at home. I am very heartened to

how Soomaalida Reer Koronto usoo dhaweeyeen, walaahi. Our community united. They were singing Soomaaliyeey Toosoo with the Soomaali flag, too, at the airport, during the live broadcast. I too would have been there had it not been the soccer game that I would miss.

[Som@li]

My advice to her. Get a good lawyer!

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

 

 

 

 

Woman safe in Toronto after Kenya ordeal

 

Suaad Hagi Mohamud walked through customs into a crush of television cameras and cheering friends and neighbours today at Pearson International Airport, and wrapped her arms around her 12-year-old boy she expected to see three months ago.

 

Mohamud, who was visiting her mother in Kenya, was unable to leave the country after authorities said her lips did not match her four-year-old passport photo.

 

Canadian consular officials called the 31-year-old an impostor, voided her passport and turned her case over to Kenya for prosecution.

 

Other pieces of ID and fingerprints were handed over, but there was little movement until DNA tests – paid for by the Canadian government – validated her identity on Monday.

 

A judge in a Nairobi court dropped charges against Mohamud on Friday, and she boarded a plane later in the day bound for Toronto.

 

"I'm here for my own son," she said trying to be heard over the din.

 

"It's really something I missed. I'm glad my whole nightmare is over."

 

It was a sensational homecoming, with police trying to control the crowd and other arriving passengers confused by the spectacle.

 

"We are not second-class citizens," yelled one man waving Somali and Canadian flags.

 

"I'm glad I'm Canadian. I love this country," he said.

 

The Star

[N.O.R.F]

MMA, a soccer game???? After all tha you didn't even turn up at the airport? LoL

 

Good welcome back by reer T.Dot

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

This is a start. Heads already rolling. Her name, though, sounds like a Carabi one. Iyadoo Carab ah ayee saas u dhaqmeysaa. A minority mistreating another minority.

________________

 

Diplomat's tour of duty in Nairobi 'is over'

 

Liliane Khadour is back in Ottawa after passport bungle that stranded Toronto woman in Kenya

 

The Canadian diplomat who officially disowned Suaad Hagi Mohamud as an "imposter" has been recalled from Kenya.

 

Liliane Khadour has "concluded" her posting, a consular official at the Canadian High Commission said yesterday from the capital, Nairobi.

 

"Her tour of duty is over," he said, explaining that Foreign Affairs employees rotate posts every two or three years, and Khadour had been in Nairobi for two. "I am not very sure where she went."

 

Khadour is now in Ottawa.

 

Although she owns a condominium apartment there with her partner, Jason Joyce, the two are staying at a downtown hotel. Both had been working at the commission in Nairobi as first secretaries.

 

When reached by cellphone yesterday, Joyce hung up almost immediately. Neither answered the phone in their hotel room or returned messages.

 

The Canada Border Services Agency has opened an internal investigation into the handling of Mohamud's case.

 

The Somali-born Canadian citizen, an employee of an Etobicoke courier company, had been visiting her mother in Nairobi when she ran into trouble.

 

On May 21, a Kenyan employee of KLM airlines challenged Mohamud's passport photo at the Nairobi departure gate as she was trying to board a flight home to Toronto and her 12-year-old son, she has said.

 

Canadian consular officials interviewed her at the airport on May 22 and sided against her. On May 25, Mohamud appealed to the high commission to take her fingerprints.

 

And on May 28, Khadour sent a letter to Kenyan authorities that sealed Mohamud's fate.

 

"Please be advised that we have carried out conclusive investigations including an interview," Khadour wrote, signing herself vice-consul, first secretary (consular).

 

"And (we) have confirmed that the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned passport.

 

"The Canadian High Commission is releasing the passport to your office for the purposes of prosecution," Khadour wrote to Michael Ojwang, director of Kenyan immigration services.

 

The letter alleged Mohamud was carrying a passport not her own and was in Kenya illegally.

 

These are serious charges that could have led to a Kenyan prison sentence or deportation to her native Somalia.

 

Mohamud was arrested and held for eight days in a women's prison before friends were able to post her bail.

 

But, it turns out, there was no conclusive Canadian investigation. Mohamud was no imposter.

 

And although it took her three months and a DNA test to prove her identity to Canadian consular officials and two federal departments, Mohamud was in fact the rightful holder of the Canadian passport she was carrying.

 

Last Friday, after conclusive DNA results, the Kenyans dropped all charges against the 31-year-old single mother and the next day she returned to her son, Mohamed Hussein, and a hero's welcome at Pearson International Airport.

 

Since then, she has been undergoing tests for a persistent cough and weight loss, symptoms that have nagged her since her eight-day stay in Nairobi's Langata Women's Prison in June.

 

Chest x-rays have ruled out any serious lung illness such as tuberculosis or pneumonia, her lawyer Raoul Boulakia has said.

 

"She's extremely relieved to be in Canada and to be with her son," he said yesterday.

 

Legal proceedings have begun in federal court to obtain Mohamud's disputed passport and case file, Boulakia said, adding the case is expected to be heard next month.

 

Asked whether his client plans to sue, Boulakia said:

 

"I'd like to see her get compensation. She deserves it ... but I'd rather see her not go to court."

 

Toronto Star

______________

 

North, that soccer game was unmissable.

[Juxa]

sanka iyo indhaha are the same but the lips different. lama sheegi lips loose gareeya weight.

 

nonetheless i am glad she is back with her beloved son. get good lawyer sucaadeey and sue like mad.

 

i wish she was in the UK. gacantey dhunkan laheed

[Kool_Kat]

^Somali iney lacag jecel yihiin, we ran in to her ex-kasban the other day...O'lord, waxa nacnac afkiisa kabexeysay...Would you believe, after leaving her for god knows how long ago with a child to raise by herself, not to mention remarrying twice, he now wants to get back with her? AKHAS CALEEK!!! Walahi almost word for word wuxuu yiri 'Hadee ii gashay, gacmahaaba i cuncunaayo'...And when some asked ma'isagaa lacagta dhadhaminaayo? His response 'aniga hadaan nahay *mentioning qabiilkiisa* lacag aad baan u jecelnahay, naagta aan ku noqdo lee kufilan!!!' :eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Mansho ninka on TV is ooy ooysiiyay? Nacalaa sheydaan kutaal... :rolleyes:

 

 

Good to see the gov. is following through with their word to investigate this further...