By Kurtis Doering

Saskatoon cook suddenly jailed without apparent cause

Sep 15, 2014 | 12:08 PM

A small rally was held at Saskatoon city hall Sunday in support of 65-year-old Jamila Bibi, who now sits in a cell at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert awaiting deportation.

Bibi is set to be escorted back to Pakistan by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) Tuesday morning and lawyer Bashir Khan is forgoing sleep to try to prevent it from happening.

“The minister of public safety and emergency preparedness in Ottawa issued instructions last week to the CBSA to deport her and we can't figure out why,” Khan said Sunday night. “There's no reason. This is just pure, sheer, arbitrariness.”

Bibi has been in Saskatoon since 2007. She speaks no English, but has worked as a cook at Meg's Restaurant on 3rd Avenue under a valid work permit for the last six months.

Meg's owner Sahana Yeasmin met her about a year prior to giving her the job.

National

Ottawa to remove 30% investment cap for Canadian pension funds

30m ago

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

3h ago

Raiders AGM

Raiders impact on Prince Albert local economy continues to go up: AGM report

22h ago

“She was in a very bad condition… at that time she couldn't find any job. Nobody would hire her,” Yeasmin said. “So when she came to me, she was crying like crazy, like a baby. She said, 'Can you help me because I don't have any food or anything.'”

Yeasmin gave Bibi food and support until she got back on her feet. Now, Yeasmin is helping to pay Bibi's legal fees as she fights her sudden deportation.

“As a human being, one old lady, we can not throw her back home to be killed by some people,” she said, speaking at the rally Sunday.

As explained by Bashir Khan, Bibi fled to Canada after being accused of “zina” (adultery) in Pakistan's Sharia-based legal system, for which there is still a warrant out for her arrest.

The charge followed a lengthy legal dispute with her brother-in-law over land, which she won. The accusation of adultery, Khan said, was made by the same brother-in-law as a convenient way to get rid of an opponent.

“On top of that,” he added, “the same family members from her husband's side want to kill her because of honour killing, which is very, very important to their culture over there. So this lady has received threats, and she is a very certain, definite target.”

Despite this, Bibi's refugee claim was denied after she fled to Canada in 2007. An earlier attempt to deport her was blocked when Khan appealed to United Nations high commissioner for human rights in Geneva five years later.

He said the government agreed not to act until a decision from the UN was reached.

But on Sept. 10, as Bibi was doing her weekly check-in at Saskatoon's CBSA office, she was arrested, and a deportation date was set for the following week.

According to documents from Citizenship and Immigration Canada obtained by Mr. Khan, Bibi was jailed for being a danger to the public, and for being unlikely to appear for her deportation.

“First of all, she is not a danger to the public. She is as harmless as you can get. That is just — I just can't fathom what they're thinking,” he said, adding that his client has reported to Saskatoon immigration every week for the past 22 months, and given no indication that she would not report again.

“She has been a very good member of the community, no violation of any laws, she has been working legally, paying her taxes, hasn't worked cash-in-hand, or done anything to harm our economy or labour force or job market,” Khan said.

His only recourse now is to request a motion hearing from a federal court judge, who could then decide to stop Bibi's deportation temporarily until her case could be heard before the federal court.

In the meantime, Bibi's supporters can only wait, and attempt to ratchet up public pressure through a small rally, held Sunday.

– With files from News Talk Radio's Lasia Kretzel

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow