Canada's New Exiles: IHRP Op-Ed on Deportation of Permanent Residents to Somalia

Monday, November 26, 2012

November 26, 2012 - The Ottawa Citizen today published an op-ed by the Chair of the IHRP Advisory Committee, Professor Audrey Macklin, and the IHRP Director, Renu Mandhane.  The op-ed considers Canada's decision to deport another permanent resident to Somalia, despite the fact that the man has never stepped foot in that country.  In Canada's New Exiles, Professor Macklin and Director Mandhane call attention to a little-known 2011 decision from the United Nations Human Rights Committee that found that such deportations violated the right to life, the right to freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, the right to family life, and the right to remain in one's "own country."  Two IHRP clinic students, Ryan Liss (JD 2010) and Adrian Johnston (JD 2011) assisted Carole Dahan, a lawyer with the  Refugee Law Office of Legal Aid Ontario, in her represtation of Jama Warsame before the UN Human Rights Committee during the 2010-2011 academic year.