Here we go. It’s “let’s not make sense” time.
Anyone who’s been following the Suaad Hagi Mohamud story over the summer has probably heard some pretty out there claims from both sides as to just how much wrong doing was involved in her problem. The national post points out, though, a few things that go a little bit beyond whatever it was she did or didn’t answer. Most noteably, she was 7 CM–roughly 3 inches–shorter in person than was listed on her passport information. On top of that, according to both Canadian and Kenyan authorities, the Suaad that showed up at the airport to leave Kenya on return to Canada did not, in fact, look like the Suaad that was shown in her passport photo. Which, naturally, raised a few eyebrows. So out come the questions that any resident of Toronto would be expected to know–hell, I don’t live in Toronto and I could have answered in her place. Nevermind the personal information that anyone with nothing to hide would have had absolutely no problem answering, and answering correctly–where she worked, when she got married, when her son was born. Add to that the height difference, and Houston, we have a problem.
Now, the real Suaad is back in Canada after DNA testing confirmed she was who she said she was, and she’s promptly suing the government of Canada. For what? There were concerns that she wasn’t who she said she was. Concerns that, on the face of what they were looking at at the time, were justified. Suaad, or whoever was saying she was Suaad, spent 8 days in a Kenyan jail while they tried to figure it out. She, who is believed to actually be Suaad’s younger sister, was then released from jail. About 3 months later, the real Suaad consented to have her DNA tested. She was then issued emergency travel documentation and allowed to return to Canada.
Unsurprisingly, 3 liberal MP’s, including foreign afairs critic Bob Rae, are demanding the government simply roll over and pay out the 2 million dollars she’s saying they owe her. There reasoning? it’s common sense, and Stephen Harper should have stepped in.
So, what Bob Ray and company are saying, is if someone appears to have shrunk by 3 inches and if, in the opinion of Canadian customs authorities the person holding the passport is not, in fact, the person who owns the passport, they should just wave them on through? Or does this just get thrown in with the liberal law that by default, the conservatives are just wrong? Since officials aphiliated with both countries were more than a little suspicious of her, and since even before the questions there was enough doubt as to who exactly she was–otherwise the Kenyan authorities would have never bothered alerting Canadian customs, I have a hard time seeing how any one particular government or government employee can catch hell for this. It’s not like there was a government conspiracy to keep ms. Mohamud in Kenya indefinitely. But then, what would her magesty’s loyal opposition have to oppose?
