Synopsis:
This news article by Brian Platt, posted in the National Post on June 18th, 2018, talks about the devastating story of Kashif Ali, a man who spent 7 years in a maximum security prison. Ali, who has no recognized citizenship, was detained by Canada Border Services Agency in February of 2010. He would then remain for the next 7 years in 4 different maximum-security prisons in Ontario, while his case was reviewed every 30 days by the Immigration and Refugee Board. This case, which is the longest in Canada’s history, is a shameful part of history for the government of Canada. Canada is one of few countries which has an indefinite amount of time that an immigrant can be detained. Because of this extremely harmful policy, people like Ali are subject to horrendous mistreatment. Media coverage of stories like that of Ali’s must be shared and documented in order for policy reform and awareness to come about.
Rationale:
I chose this article because of the gravity of the information. Ali has “spent almost twice as much time in detention, pending his removal, than he served as punishment for all of his criminal convictions added together”. He was not fighting his deportation, and in fact wanted to be deported. News coverage of cases such as Ali’s are extremely important for the public to be aware of. Especially with the widespread belief of Canada as an immigrant and refugee “haven”. The danger of the belief of Canada being a “haven” for immigrants is that those who don’t have necessary documentation or resources fall between the cracks, and are subject to devastating situations which strip them of their basic human rights.
Keywords: immigrant detention, policy reform, border imperialism
Author: Ralph Brown
This entry is quite interesting and caught my attention, it is a critique of the Canadian indefinite detention practice of migrants. The writer’s rationale was to share such stories to spread to raise awareness. I absolutely agree, and the case study given in interesting, but as a reader and for me to understand better, I would have appreciated a more in-depth analysis of this practice. It’s totally the right of any country to hold in detention suspicious people but it has to be more regulated and under international laws. I believe the entry should have included more details on this Law in Canada and why is the Canadian government doing that among few other countries when it is being considered…