Algerian removed from Quebec church faces deportation
Last Updated: Monday, September 27, 2004 | 6:31 PM ET
CBC News
Mohamed Cherfi, who is in detention in New York State, is seeking political asylum, saying his life will be in danger if he's sent back to Algeria because he has publicly denounced his country's regime and refused to join its military.
- FROM MARCH 9, 2004: Protesters angry refugee arrested in a church
He had sought refuge in the Quebec City church last February when police tried to arrest him for allegedly violating bail conditions. He had been arrested earlier for taking part in a demonstration in Montreal.
The first person in Canada in recent history to be pulled out of sanctuary by police, Cherfi was then turned over to immigration officials and sent to the U.S.
Cherfi and approximately 1,000 other Algerians fled to the U.S. and then to Quebec in the 1990s to escape violence in their own land.
He had spent six years in Montreal without legal status.
His supporters accused Immigration Canada of using local police to arrest Cherfi on minor court violations, alleging it was a ploy to make it easier to deport him.
Police officers said they arrested Cherfi because he didn't notify the court of a change of address, which is one of the bail conditions.
On Friday, supporters of Cherfi said they would be willing to sponsor him and try to bring him back to Canada.
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