By Karin Yeske

Deported woman’s lawyer claims feds did not follow due process

Sep 17, 2014 | 1:35 PM

Jamila Bibi will land in Pakistan with little support or money after being deported from Canada on Tuesday.

The 65-year-old woman who worked as a cook at Meg’s Restaurant in Saskatoon was sent back home after her refugee claims were rejected.

“Canada is dumping her in Karachi. If you look at Karachi, it’s a hell hole basically and that’s it. What’s she going to do? Who is going to support her?” Bashir Kahn, her immigration lawyer, explained on John Gormley Live.

He hasn’t spoken to her since her deportation and doesn’t expect correspondence. Her bank account is thin and her literacy is low.

He is frustrated because he says his client’s case was still open before she was flown to Pakistan.

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“She made a refugee claim with a Saskatoon lawyer in 2007 which was rejected in 2009. She spent so much money that she did not have any money left to file an appeal against the refugee division,” Khan explained.

She submitted a pre-removal risk assessment in 2011 that was rejected by immigration officers. After saving enough money, Bibi hired a lawyer in Saskatoon to file an appeal, which was rejected.

Khan was contacted in 2012, just days before Bibi was slated for deportation. He took her case to the United Nations where they ordered Canada, under an international treaty called the Convention Against Torture, to refrain from expelling Bibi to Pakistan until the UN could render a decision.

That decision is still pending before a committee. Khan said after 22 months of complying, Canada has “arbitrarily” decided to deport Bibi.

“It does have the jurisdiction over Canada. It does have the competence and jurisdiction to listen to the matter over the state party and the state party is Canada,” Khan said.

On Tuesday in the House of Commons, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander said Canada has a “fair and generous asylum system where decisions are made by the independent Immigration and Refugee Board, not under political pressure but according to the facts.”

He said when appeals are exhausted failed claimants are expected to leave Canada.

Khan said he was shocked by the minister’s comments.

“What he basically said was because the federal court rejected her plea for reprieve, why should I? Though that is technically true, it is missing something else. Here is what it is missing. The federal court only looked at an emergency last-minute stay request. It did not look at the case on its merits. That case would take six, seven months to pursue in the ordinary affairs of the court,” Khan said.

In Pakistan, adultery is punishable by life in prison. However, Bibi fears death by sharia law supporters. Khan said Bibi’s persecutors asked her daughter to lure her back to Pakistan. After refusing, they beat her and shot her in the foot, Khan said, pointing to a police report.

As soon as she lands, she will come to the attention of the Pakistani government, he said.

“Now that she has been deported, the whole case has been rendered moot and I don’t have a case now to argue,” Khan said.

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