By the No One is Illegal Collective, with files from No-One is Illegal-Montreal and the Action Committee of Non-status Algerians

Mohamed Cherfi, an Algerian asylum seeker, had been in sanctuary at Saint-Pierre United Church in Quebec City since February 10, 2004 in order to avoid deportation to Algeria where he fears for his life. Mohamed sought political refuge in Canada as a conscientious objector, having refused to do compulsory military service that would have forced him into the civil conflict in Algeria.

On Friday February 5, dozens of police officers forcibly entered the church. They stormed in and immediately descended on Cherfi, and within hours, Mohamed was deported to the United States and is now in a prison cell in upstate New York. His arrest breaks a longstanding secular tradition of right to sanctuary, the first time such an outrage has occurred in Canada.

Mohamed Cherfi was nabbed from the church based on a warrant from the Montreal Municipal Court for failing to give notice of his change of address. This condition was imposed during his release after an arrest during a peaceful demonstration during which several non-status were targeted for defending their rights. However, although Mohamed was staying in the church, his mailing address remained the same as before. Upon arrest and arrival at the Quebec Police Station, the charges against him were dropped and he was set free. And then picked up by the Canadian Border Services Agency who were waiting for him in the police station.

Mohamed Cherfi is a long-time activist and was arrested three times fighting for the rights of his community to stay in Canada. Mohamed was an outspoken member of the Action Committee of Non-Status Algerians. He and others were chained up, beaten and brutally arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Minister Coderre’s offices last May 29th. Prior to this struggle, Mohamed did not have a criminal record and had never had any contact with police.

A very violent civil conflict has torn Algeria apart for about ten years. The toll the war has taken is disastrous: 150, 000 dead, 12, 000 disappeared, a million displaced and a disturbing situation with regard to the respect of human rights. A moratorium instated on March 3rd, 1997 by the Canadian government prohibited deporting people to Algeria. However on April 4th, 2002, the Prime Minister of Canada left on an official trip to Algeria and on the same day, the Minister of Immigration, Denis Coderre, announced the lifting of the moratorium on removals to Algeria. The Minister argued that the situation in Algeria no longer constituted a danger to the safety of people being deported. The Canadian branch of Amnesty International called the lifting of the moratorium “premature” and “political”. The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs recommended that Canadian citizens put off all travel to Algeria because of the violence raging there.

So why did Canada decide to lift the moratorium on deportations to Algeria? To answer that, it is necessary to know that Algeria is Canada’s primary economic partner in Africa and the Middle East, with an annual commercial trade value of 2 billion dollars. The President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika repeated this frequently when he visited Canada in 2000 to promote the liberalization of the Algerian economy and the privatization of public services.

Following the lifting of the moratorium, The Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians asked that the government of Canada satisfy three demands: an end to deportations, a reinstatement of the moratorium and the general regularization of non-status people. To concretize these objectives, the CASS undertook many actions: organizing marches, information sessions, distribution of leaflets, and pickets and delegations at Immigration offices. The Women’s March brought out at least 1000 people into the streets of Montreal. At the end of September 2002, the Bourouisa family sought sanctuary in the Union United Church and the public, community groups and the media covered them favourably, and through them, all non-status Algerians. Under so much pressure, the Canadian government finally backed down by proposing a joint solution with the Quebec government.

Due in large parts to the tireless work of Mohamed, hundreds of non-status Algerians were regularized in Quebec as immigrants. The Special Agreement has allowed 499 of 513 Algerian claimants to stay since 2002. However, Mohamed was himself refused as an immigrant to Quebec on the pretext that he was not adequately “integrated”. There is no doubt that the exclusion of Mohamed is clearly linked to his role as a brave human rights activist fighting for himself, his community and paving the struggle for other communities to self-organize against Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Since 9/11 a variety of extensive legislation has been passed: the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Statutes of Canada 2001, Chapter 27 (formerly Bill C11); the Anti-Terrorism Act, Statutes of Canada 2001, Chapter 41 (formerly Bill C36); Bill C35, and Bill C42 to become the Public Safety Act that have done more to extend power to detain, sentence and monitor communities of colour than to apprehend terrorists. Such measures have strengthened the association between terrorism and immigration.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada records of 2002, of the 440 people being held in Canadian detentions at any given point in time, only 5 people had actual allegations of ‘being a threat to national security’ laid on them. Simultaneously, such communities are forced to silence their dissent. Proposed Bill C-18 would grant the cabinet government the “power to refuse citizenship if the person has demonstrated a flagrant and serious disregard for the principles and values underlying a free and democratic society”. Security certificates have been used to arbitrarily detain Muslim men on so-called secret evidence in complete defiance of their basic civil rights. When detained under such an Orwellian-measure, there is no chance of bail for refugees, detention can be indefinite, and neither the person detained nor a defence lawyer is allowed access to the heart of the evidence on grounds of “national security”.

The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act promised a Refugee Appeal division within one year, i.e. by June 2003, which is yet to be implemented. Furthermore the IRB has been “streamlined” such that the life and fate of people is completely in the hands of one judge; judges who do not necessarily have any background in the law, rather who are appointees enforcing the political agenda of the government. Judy Sgro, current Immigration Minister, herself has questioned the system upon which IRB judges are selected.

Increasing detention and deportation statistics and decreasing acceptance rates continue to criminalize refugees who fight for basic survival. Calls for ‘border control” create more vulnerability, abuse and terror in the lives of those who are the world’s most vulnerable, most abused and most terrorized people.  The refugee system imposes years of anxiety and uncertainty on thousands of lives, while families wait for a decision in the hopes of beginning a new life. They are obliged to work dangerous and low-wage jobs that deny them them basic rights, while facing the ever-present threat of deportation back to wars, persecution and extreme poverty from which they courageously escaped. The survival and dignity for people must be first and foremost. Refugees have asserted their own will and have determined for themselves that they need to come here in search of relative safety.

March 9 was declared a national day of action to bring Mohamed home and demonstrations were organized in six major cities. There is increasing support by unions, community groups, political parties, church groups and prominent individuals to demand the return of Mohamed Cherfi. To date, organizations such as CSN (Quebec City), the Quebec League for Rights and Freedoms, Amnesty International (Canadian francophone section), the Centre for Justice and Faith, and the Diocese of Quebec have endorsed, as well as dozens of other groups. Individuals such as Francoise David (former head of the Quebec Women’s Federation), writers Neil Bisoondath and Maka Kotto, activists Lorraine Guay and Amir Khadir and  the NDP have also endorsed.

In Vancouver, on March 9, 60 people gathered in front of CIC offices to denounce the sanctuary violation that led to Mohamed Cherfi’s arrest and deportation, and to demand that Mohamed Cherfi be brought back home.  The message was clear: Mohamed Cherfi is not the criminal, the refugee system and the government is. Zool Suleman, a refugee lawyer, spoke about the repressive new immigration legislation, which does not yet have the Appeal division as it promised, and reinforced that the public should be outraged at the violation of sanctuary to deport a brave human rights defender. Nandita Sharma was impassioned about the need to put people’s survival and dignity before the Canadian state’s racist agenda against the communities of the global South.  One Algerian man exited the CIC offices with a deportation date within two days and joined the demonstration for refugee rights and justice for Mohamed Cherfi. In his words “I have fled from a horrible civil war in Algeria. But still it does not compare to here. Here it is not a civil war, but it is a war of a different kind that I have been facing for four years. Here they pretend there is no war so it makes it harder to face the reality.”
 
The public must stand in solidarity with Mohamed Cherfi and the Action Committee of Non Status Algerians at the frontlines of struggle against CIC’s consistent and systematic repression and policies of increasing detentions and deportations. Mohamed Cherfi is a defender of human rights and social justice and we cannot stand in silence as the government sends a message to all those fighting for their rights that they too will be targeted and deported. Such political retribution against non-status people will not be tolerated. We will continue to demand the return of Mohamed Cherfi and encourage the public to pressure their MP’s as well as the Minister of Immigration and Minister of the Border Services Agency to do the same. We are clear about one thing: Mohamed will come home.

Previous interview with Mohammad Cherfi and the Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians (2002)

 Michelle Courchesne
Cabinet de la ministre
Ministere des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration
Edifice Gerald-Godin, 360 rue McGill, 4e Žtage, Montreal (Quebec)  H2Y 2E9
Fax: (514) 864-2899, Tel: (514) 873-9940
E-mail: [email protected]

Judy Sgro, P.C., M.P.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
Fax: 613-947-8319, Tel: 613-992-7774
E-mail: [email protected]

Anne McLellan, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
c/o Solicitor General of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Fax: 613-990-9077, Tel: 613-991-2924
E-mail: [email protected]

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