In an unprecedented violation of the centuries-old tradition of church sanctuary, Mohamed Cherfi, an Algerian refugee, was yanked out of Saint-Pierre United Church and arrested by the Québec City Police. Hours later, he was in US custody to await deportation to Algeria.

Mohamed had taken sanctuary inside Saint-Pierre since February 18, 2004 at the invitation of Reverend Gerald Dore. But at 12:45 pm on Friday, March 5, a group of approximately fifteen municipal police officers barged into the church to arrest Mohamed. The police claimed that the arrest was based on a warrant from a Montreal criminal court for failing to give notice of a change of address as required by a bail condition. The condition was imposed after Mohamed’s arrest at a demonstration in support of non-status Algerians. However, the criminal charges were dropped after his arrival at the police station and Mohamed was immediately delivered into the hands of the new Canadian Border Services Agency. Less than six hours after his arrest, he was taken to the Canada-US border for deportation.

Mohamed has since been incarcerated at a detention centre outside of Buffalo, New York while US authorities decide whether to deport him to Algeria to face imprisonment and certain persecution.

Mohamed Cherfi is an outspoken member of the Montreal-based Action Committee of Non-Status Algerians (Comité d’Action des Sans-Statuts – CASS), which came together in April 2002 to fight against the lifting of Immigration Canada’s moratorium on deportations to Algeria. As a result of the lifting of the moratorium, over 1000 Algerians who had been rejected as refugee claimants faced deportations back to Algeria, a country still torn apart by civil war. Montreal’s non-status Algerian community, one of the largest in Canada, came together to form CASS and raise three main demands: • Stop deportations to Algeria; • Reinstate the moratorium on removals to Algeria; • Regularize all non-status people.

Through their vigilant campaign CASS was able to win concessions, including an additional 90-day stay for every non-status Algerian slated for deportation. They also successfully negotiated a special “joint procedure” implemented by Immigration Canada and Immigration Québec for non-status Algerians to file claims seeking residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Although this signaled the Canadian government’s failure to acknowledge that non-status Algerians were refugees in need of asylum due to the unsafe nature of their country of origin, it was nevertheless a tremendous success and an inspiration to all other non-status communities and activists throughout the country.

SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Through CASS, Mohamed has worked tirelessly to gain status for hundreds of non-status Algerians in Canada. Despite the ongoing and daily campaign of fear and intimidation directed at CASS members by police and Canadian and Quebecois immigration officials, Mohamed did not give up his activism. He continued to speak out against Canada’s racist immigration policies and the struggle of his community for status. Mohamed’s activism was not limited to public speaking; he also took part in numerous demonstrations, rallies, pickets and sit-ins. But wherever CASS went, they were hounded by police and as a result, Mohamed was arrested three times for his involvement in sit-ins and pickets.

Although Mohamed has been living in Canada for close to seven years and speaks fluent French, his request to remain in Canada was refused in January of 2003 and he was targeted for removal. It is clear that Mohamed’s arrest and deportation are politically motivated and that he is being singled out because of his role as an advocate and activist for refugee rights.

Within a matter of hours after Mohamed’s arrest callouts for solidarity in defence of Mohamed were circulating across e-mail lists. Supporters across the country began organizing emergency solidarity committees and only a couple of days later, callouts for a national day of action and potential immigration sponsors were being widely distributed in Canada and the US. By Tuesday, March 9, the first national day of action in support of Mohamed, activists in seven cities had joined the call for action. Each city organized a different action, ranging from large public rallies to a vigil at Immigration Minister Judy Sgro’s Toronto residence.

The campaign to bring Mohamed home has continued to organize by holding press conferences, sending delegations to immigration offices, pickets, leafleting, public education and direct confrontations of Judy Sgro. Organizers have also compiled a list of high profile sponsors, including Naomi Klein and David McNally, who have come forward to assist as sponsors of Mohamed’s application for landing.

FAHIM KAYANI

Unfortunately, Mohamed’s case is not isolated. Fahim Kayani, one of the Pakistani men wrongly arrested in association with Project Thread was deported to Pakistan on March 23. A week earlier, supporters had gathered outside of the Federal Court in Toronto to demand that Fahim be landed as a permanent resident. Inside, a judge refused to stay his deportation – the last step in an ongoing legal campaign to keep Fahim from being deported.

On the day before his scheduled deportation, a group of supporters, composed entirely of young people of colour, stepped up the fight and occupied Judy Sgro’s Toronto constituency office in hopes of winning a last-minute stay of deportation. Not only were these supporters not granted a meeting with Sgro’s office staff, police moved in quickly and brutally assaulted and pepper sprayed them, arresting eleven people and detaining most overnight. In a further show of sickening cynicism, Immigration Canada officials called Fahim in to their office twelve hours before his scheduled 9:00 pm flight, not to postpone or cancel his removal, but to secretly force him onto an earlier flight to Montreal before deporting him from the country. As a result, he was denied the opportunity to contact his lawyer, say his goodbyes or even finish packing.

Project Thread, a joint RCMP/CIC investigation initiated in late summer of 2003, resulted in the arrest of 24 Pakistani men and one South Asian man. Although there is no evidence whatsoever connecting these men to terrorism – a fact that even RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli admits – thirteen of these men have already been denied due process and deported to Pakistan where they have faced ongoing persecution from state security agencies and vigilantes. In addition, the deportees live in constant fear of being scapegoated for the next incident of organized violence that transpires in their area, an occurrence that is not uncommon in the violent political terrain in Pakistan.

As these men have never been charged as terrorists, they have never had the opportunity to defend themselves in court in order to clear their names. Nevertheless, their names and faces have been smeared with allegations of terrorism and repeatedly flashed across international media outlets. Through Project Thread, the RCMP and Citizenship and Immigration Canada have made these men unwilling refugees – and now they are jeopardizing their safety and security by deporting them to Pakistan to face persecution.

Much like Mohamed, Fahim has been an active participant in a campaign to win justice for himself and the other Project Thread victims. As an active member of the Project Threadbare coalition, formed in support of the Project Thread victims in the fall of 2003, Fahim has worked hard to unite the detainees and educate the public about Project Thread, racial profiling and the risks associated with deportation to Pakistan.

Neither man has given up the fight – even in the face of extreme pressure. Fahim and Mohamed refused to be silenced by the threat of detention and deportation. Their individual battles represent the courageous struggle of all non-status peoples in Canada against an unjust and racist immigration system.

For More Information & To Get Involved In Refugee Defence Campaigns

No One Is Illegal (Toronto): nooneisillegal@riseup.net • http://www.nooneisillegal-toronto.org

Action Committee for non-status Algerians (Montréal) 514-885-9510 or cassdz@yahoo.fr

Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada Toronto: 416-651-5800 or tasc@web.ca Ottawa: 613-722-1983 or daco@ziplip.com

Project Threadbare (Toronto): http://threadbare.tyo.ca or project_threadbare@yahoo.ca

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (Toronto): 416-925-6939 or ocap@tao.ca or http://www.ocap.ca