Probe of Canadian's Kenyan ordeal to take weeks
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 | 6:46 PM ET
CBC News
It could take a month to investigate why a Toronto woman was stranded in Kenya over false claims she was an impostor, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told CBC News on Wednesday.
Suaad Hagi Mohamud was reunited with her son, Mohamed Hussein, 12, at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Saturday. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)But Cannon wouldn't commit to making public the findings of his department's probe into the case of Suaad Hagi Mohamud.
"I've asked the officials in my department, DFAIT, to look into this whole issue surrounding, of course, the Kenyan incident, and I've asked them to give me this analysis rather sooner than later," Cannon told the CBC's Julie Van Dusen in Bryson, Que.
He said he expected his deputy minister to report his findings within three weeks to a month.
Mohamud, 31, who was visiting her mother in Kenya, had been unable to leave the country since May, when local authorities said her lips did not look the way they did in her four-year-old passport photo.
Canadian consular officials called her an impostor, voided her passport and urged Kenyan officials to prosecute her, even after Mohamud handed over numerous pieces of identification, offered fingerprints and finally demanded that her DNA be tested. She was charged on May 28 with identity fraud.
After a DNA test had proved Mohamud was who she said she was, a Kenyan judge agreed to drop the charges, which included using another person's passport and being in Kenya illegally. Mohamud returned to Toronto and was reunited with her son, Mohamed Hussein, 12, on Saturday.
The Canada Border Services Agency has also launched an internal investigation handled into how the case was handled.
Canadian diplomat leaves Kenya
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon speaks to CBC News on Wednesday in Bryson, Que. (CBC) A report in Wednesday's Toronto Star quoted a consular official in Nairobi as saying diplomat Liliane Khadour had "concluded" her tour of duty at the Canadian High Commission after two years. She initially wrote Kenyan authorities in late May informing them consular officials had carried out "conclusive investigations" and determined she was an imposter.
However, her departure is not linked to the Canadian passport incident, Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Emma Welford told CBC News. "Ms. Khadour has returned to Canada on a normal rotation and has not been 'recalled.' Ms. Khadour finished her posting in Kenya and has returned to Ottawa for her next assignment."
Passport demand may be headed to court
Cannon insisted he wants to get to the bottom of what happened with Mohamud's case, but said it is premature to make any determinations ahead of the investigation.
"We will wait for the report," Cannon said. "Once the report has been tabled, we will look at it and if there are recommendations — which I suspect there will be — we'll see how we put those recommendations in place."
The minister indicated a request Wednesday by Mohamud's lawyer for the government to hand over his client's original passport and case file may be the subject of a court battle. He said he was not aware his department had received such a request yet.
"The folks in my department who take care of the legal aspects will certainly respond to that," Cannon said. "If there are documents requested through the court, we will respond to that."
Raoul Boulakia said he is taking his demands for the documents to Federal Court to determine whether consular officials were justified in calling Mohamud an impostor.
Passport Canada spokesman Sebastien Bois said any passport that has been the subject of a prosecution will not be returned and remains the property of the Canadian government.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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