Liberals call for settlement with Mohamud
Woman seeks legal costs for 3 months spent stranded in Kenya
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | 4:31 PM ET
CBC News
Suaad Hagi Mohamud, seen in an August 2009 CBC interview, was stranded in Kenya for three months, unable to return to Canada. (CBC)Suaad Hagi Mohamud's fight to have the federal government pay the costs of her legal battle to get back into Canada went to court Tuesday, and three Liberal MPs have demanded government apologize and "settle the case."
At a late-morning news conference in Ottawa, MPs Dan McTeague, Joe Volpe and Bob Rae, who all represent Toronto ridings, produced new documents they say prove the government knew for months about the plight of the woman trapped in Africa, unable to get home to her family in Toronto.
Mohamud, 31, was stranded in Nairobi for almost three months after authorities said she was an imposter because her lips did not match the photo on her four-year-old passport.
Canadian consular officials voided her passport and turned the case over to Kenyan authorities for prosecution.
Officials maintained Mohamud was not who she claimed to be, even after she handed over numerous pieces of identification, offered fingerprints and finally demanded her DNA be tested.
When the DNA tests proved her claim, she was allowed to return to Canada.
The issue came up in question period in the Commons on Tuesday, when Liberal MPs pressed Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reveal the exact date he knew about Mohamud's case.
Volpe said documents obtained under access to information, show Harper got involved in the case July 1, not Aug. 18 as the prime minister has stated.
But Harper stood by an August date.
"There are thousands of consular cases and [it's] extremely rare for the prime minister to become personally involved in a consular case," Harper said. "I did in early August and I asked that Miss Mohamud be brought back to Canada."
Parliamentary Secretary Deepak Obhrai suggested politicians are rarely brought in on a consular case.
"For every one minute, there's three requests for assistance and most of these cases do not, I repeat, do not, reach the political level," he said.
Mohamud has filed a lawsuit against the government.
Bob Rae said Canadians with grievances against the Harper government have only one redress — take the government to court.
"It's an absolute absurdity," he said. "It's costing enormous — both financial and personal — resources to the people involved. Huge personal anguish. And frankly, it's simply disgraceful."
Volpe, who is Mohamud's MP, said in a statement that the documents reveal "a shocking indifference" to the case by Harper.
"They show government officials scrambling to keep media and elected officials at bay — while doing nothing to help Ms. Mohamud — with Prime Minister Harper in the loop for a full six weeks of inaction."
Rae said that instead of fighting Mohamud in court, the government would be better off saying it is sorry and making sure something like this never happens again.
"The government of Canada should recognize it has made a mistake. Make an apology to Mme. Mohamud. Take measures to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen again — and the rights of Canadian citizens are protected when they're travelling abroad — and make a fulsome apology to Mme. Mohamud, and settle with her. Settle the case."
Rae said "to continue to drag this through the courts when the information is so clear is nothing short of disgraceful."
Lawyers for Mohamud are in federal court in Toronto attempting to get Ottawa to pay the legal fees Mohamud incurred in Kenya trying to prove her identity.
