Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Deferral of removals for regions of Somalia

Canada Border Services Agency has imposed an Administrative Deferral of Removals (ADR) on the regions of Somalia where famine has been officially declared by United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. These regions are: Middle Shabelle, Afgoye and Mogadishu. Removals to these regions are temporarily deferred, with the exception of individuals who are inadmissible for criminality. This Administrative Deferral of Removals was imposed on December 9, 2011. This Administrative Deferral of Removals is less than a moratorium, but at least it is something. CBSA is not publicizing this information, so it is important to circulate the news to any Somalis affected, so that they can be reassured that they do not face imminent removal. Read more →

Honour Killings and the Muslim Diaspora

I have previously written on the tendency of immigrants to bring with them hatreds, prejudices and conflicts prejudicing their country of origin. An op-ed on this issue was published in the Calgary Herald and can be found here. In that article, I talked about about religious fundamentalists and the doomed Air India flight. Unfortunately, the reality is that cultural belief systems are contributing to "honour killings" whereby women and girls are being killed in Canada for contravening out-dated norms of behaviour. Andy Hayher and I chose to speak on this topic last Tuesday, and found that the majority of callers were in agreement that these out-moded belief systems had to be changed. A link to the audio (mostly in Punjabi) can be found Download 20120103honourkilling. I was asked to speak on this matter on Alberta Primetime and discussed this matter with Ms. Karamali (a social worker from Edmonton) and Imam Syed Soharwardy, a controversial individual and (likely) self-appointed President of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada. In my view, religious and cultural views that contribute to women being viewed as property are foundational to the occurrence of honour killings. Regrettably, honour killings occur throughout South Asia (India, Pakistan) and the... Read more →