A few weeks ago, I wrote about Ms. Suaad Hagi Mohamud, a Canadian citizen being held in a Kenyan jail after being detained trying to leave the country, when a customs official in Nairobi said she didn't look enough like her four-year-old passport photo. Her Canadian passport.
After weeks of arguments, and a certain amount (not enough, IMNSVHO, and I'm disappointed in my fellow Canadians for the sheer xenophobia of some of the comments made about the situation) of public pressure, Canada Customs & Immigration has finally agreed to conduct a DNA test, to prove that she really is the mother of the son she left behind when she went to visit family in Somalia.
Because apparently her OHIP (government health insurance) card, Ontario driver's licence, Canadian passport, and citizenship certificate aren't proof enough.
Once again, I'm left wondering whether I, as a white, UK-born Canadian, would have any of these kinds of challenges to my identity, were I to have been stopped in Nairobi. I wish I could say I thought it likely, but it seems much more probable that she isn't as credible because she's dark-complected, and thus easily suspected.
Once again, I find myself in the position of being ashamed of my government. This kind of petty harassment of the "wrong kind" of immigrants is shameful, not to mention illegal under our very own Charter of Rights.
Mr. Harper, pull your thumb out and get our fellow Canadian home.
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