Suaad Hagi Mohamud

[capricorn]

The more I think about this case, the more I think it was all arranged for Mohamud's sister to be smuggled into Canada. I have two theories. One is that while Mohamud was visiting her ailing mother, it was decided that Mohamud had a family responsibility to care for her. But, someone needed to return to Canada to care for the son and the sister was seen to be the perfect fit to be passed off as Mohamud. The other theory is that this was a plan to get the sister into Canada who would then claim refugee status. It is not unusual for transnational Somali families to go to great lengths to assist family members in need, including the care of ailing elders. Indeed, it appears to be a cultural requirement. In addition, helping family members enter the west illegally is not unheard of.

Transnational Families: Family Support and Tensions

Almost all Somalis in Cairo are part of families whose members live in different nation-states, but who are interdependent for their livelihood and well-being. In addition to sending and receiving remittance money to and from one another, family members are involved in each other's lives in significant ways. For example, the living arrangements of most refugee and emigre families demonstrate a mechanism through which family members in Cairo and elsewhere are interconnected through ties of obligations and expectations. By making collective decisions about who lives with whom and where, relatives across nation-states share the burdens of securing livelihood, the rearing of children and younger siblings, and providing care for the elderly and the invalid in the family. Yet these transnational practices of maintaining families create tensions between different family members who have to negotiate their individual needs and aspirations as well as what they deem to be in the best interest of the family. In what follows, I will present ethnographic examples of practices of maintaining transnational families and their inherent tensions.

----

While Laila has strong ties with her family and maintains regular communications with them, she feels that she is unable to pursue her individual plans and future because of her limited resources. This has created tensions between her and other family members. Like many young Somalis in Cairo, Laila feels that there is no future for her in Cairo. She wants to resettle in the West where she believes she can build a future for herself with the benefits of citizenship, education, and employment opportunities. For the first two years after her arrival in Cairo, she relentlessly tried to persuade her aunt and her brother who live in the West to finance smuggling her into Denmark where her brother lives. Laila's family, however, feels that Laila should focus on pursuing resettlement through the UNHCR office in Cairo despite the high rejection rate among Somali applicants at the time (in 2001 and 2002). The family's decision not to support Laila's individual efforts to resettle in the West is influenced by other family obligations, concerns, and desires.

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-66...s-in-Cairo.html

Smuggling a relative into a western country is contained in two of the examples the author gives about the hoops Somali families go through to meet their familial responsibilities.

This may seem far fetched to some but I think there is more to this case than meets the eye.

[jdobbin]

I don't think that they necessarily want it to go away. We already know there is much more to this story than meets the eye....and she didn't just go to visit her ailing mother. I'm sure there are other things that may come out. The point that Canadians will appreciate is that the Canadian government will not simply pay a huge sum to everyone who gets in some sort of trouble.

If the government wants to go the impostor route, they might find the judge wants a lot more evidence than they have shown already.

[wyly]

The more I think about this case, the more I think it was all arranged for Mohamud's sister to be smuggled into Canada. I have two theories. One is that while Mohamud was visiting her ailing mother, it was decided that Mohamud had a family responsibility to care for her. But, someone needed to return to Canada to care for the son and the sister was seen to be the perfect fit to be passed off as Mohamud. The other theory is that this was a plan to get the sister into Canada who would then claim refugee status. It is not unusual for transnational Somali families to go to great lengths to assist family members in need, including the care of ailing elders. Indeed, it appears to be a cultural requirement. In addition, helping family members enter the west illegally is not unheard of.

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-66...s-in-Cairo.html

Smuggling a relative into a western country is contained in two of the examples the author gives about the hoops Somali families go through to meet their familial responsibilities.

This may seem far fetched to some but I think there is more to this case than meets the eye.

how bizarre, you come up with theories with absolutely no evidence and concoct a completely lame fraud scheme...if her sister came to Canada on her passport how does she explain how she got in the country when she applies for refugee status? using her sisters passport? that's a serious offense for her and her sister if she gave it to her...how does her sister get back into the country without a passport??? you can't get on an international flight without a passport...

[kimmy]

Based on the information we have so far, it sounds like there is a strong case to be made that the officials who denied her passport were simply doing their job properly. In which case I don't think a settlement or compensation for this person would be appropriate.

-k

Edited October 7, 2009 by kimmy

[wyly]

change her into a Caucasian Christian with an Anglo Saxon name and the situation never would likely never have occurred...

[Visionseeker]

I don't think that they necessarily want it to go away. We already know there is much more to this story than meets the eye....and she didn't just go to visit her ailing mother. I'm sure there are other things that may come out. The point that Canadians will appreciate is that the Canadian government will not simply pay a huge sum to everyone who gets in some sort of trouble. It's an unfortunate situation but as posters have said, it seems reasonable that the consular found grounds to think she was an imposter. There does not appear to be any malice and certainly no racism as Editorials in The Star claimed. If the court describes the facts, determines that the government acted with reasonable cause, awards a minor settlement of say $10,000 (if anything), then Canadians will be comforted that the consular system worked - and that Canada was acting on principle not to be held hostage by a gullible woman and her greedy lawyer.

What is the price of your detainment for three months? In another country?

[Visionseeker]

The more I think about this case, the more I think it was all arranged for Mohamud's sister to be smuggled into Canada. I have two theories. One is that while Mohamud was visiting her ailing mother, it was decided that Mohamud had a family responsibility to care for her. But, someone needed to return to Canada to care for the son and the sister was seen to be the perfect fit to be passed off as Mohamud.

That might be plausible, but it lacks any proof.

The other theory is that this was a plan to get the sister into Canada who would then claim refugee status. It is not unusual for transnational Somali families to go to great lengths to assist family members in need, including the care of ailing elders. Indeed, it appears to be a cultural requirement. In addition, helping family members enter the west illegally is not unheard of.

That too might be plausible, but it lacks any proof.

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-66...s-in-Cairo.html

Smuggling a relative into a western country is contained in two of the examples the author gives about the hoops Somali families go through to meet their familial responsibilities.

This may seem far fetched to some but I think there is more to this case than meets the eye.

If the Crown's position was that she was party to a fraud, the appropriate move was to bring her back to Canada to be charged and given a date in court - not some presumption of guilt detention period in a foreign jail.

Edited October 7, 2009 by Visionseeker

[Visionseeker]

Based on the information we have so far, it sounds like there is a strong case to be made that the officials who denied her passport were simply doing their job properly. In which case I don't think a settlement or compensation for this person would be appropriate.

-k

OK Kimmy, I will exercise my office and deny you your licence because of my suspicions. It will take you 3 months to get it back even though you have neither been charged, nor convicted.

If she was committing fraud, then charge her. Otherwise, this sounds like frontier justice to me at best.

[Visionseeker]

The Liberals are really milking this for all it's worth. Before even knowing all the evidence, they conclude the Conservatives and the bureaucracy bungled this case.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/06/...#socialcomments

Judging by the comments section at the above linked article, there is not too much appreciation or support for the Liberal party's position. This comes across as grandstanding and an attempt to uncover a gotcha moment in the wake of their declining popularity with the electorate. Coupled with Harper's successful musical interlude on Saturday, this should serve to shave a couple of more points to their dwindling poll numbers.

I don't look at this as a partisan issue, but one of law. If the liberals choose to profit politically from it, well, that's their perogative. But the fact remains that ALL Canadians should expect their government to respect constitutionally guaranteed rights. No matter how this plays out, our government - no - our country, failed.

[kimmy]

OK Kimmy, I will exercise my office and deny you your licence because of my suspicions. It will take you 3 months to get it back even though you have neither been charged, nor convicted.

You might well be justified in doing that. Am I 7cm shorter than my license says I am? Am I incapable of answering basic questions, like how long I've been married or where my kids were born? If I sign my name, does it look like the signature on my license? You might be completely justified in not believing the license really belongs to me.

If she was committing fraud, then charge her. Otherwise, this sounds like frontier justice to me at best.

They caught someone using what appeared to be a passport that didn't belong to them; they took it away.

I don't believe they had any power to charge her. I don't think Canadian consular officials have any legal authority to lay charges in Kenya; it would be quite odd if they did. According to this article, they did indeed ask Kenyan officials to charge her.

-k

[ba1614]

There's certainly more to this than the average citizen knows about. Me thinks the Liberals might have been smarter to wait for all the information to be out there before running to DEMAND the Canadian taxpayer fork over 2million to someone for being detained for a couple months, which looks more and more to have been justified.

[Guest American Woman]

This may seem far fetched to some but I think there is more to this case than meets the eye.

It does appear to be a possibility, yet one has to wonder why she was not simply fingerprinted. Immediately. Seems to me, that would have made the most sense.

[Keepitsimple]

It does appear to be a possibility, yet one has to wonder why she was not simply fingerprinted. Immediately. Seems to me, that would have made the most sense.

Probably because of the missing element that has only be touched upon - that there are literally hundreds of cases of fraudulant representation in this part of the world - people trying every trick in the book to come to Canada. They can't fingerprint and DNA test everyone who tries to slip through the cracks.....unless there are compelling reasons to do so. It appears that consular officials did quite a bit of due diligence and we only know what has been reported at this point in time.

[Keepitsimple]

If she was committing fraud, then charge her. Otherwise, this sounds like frontier justice to me at best.

Canada wouldn't have been able to charge her because they belived she was NOT a Canadian citizen. So they did their due diligence and gave permission to the Kenyans to charge her. She was in jail for 8 days and then she was out on bail until things were resolved.

[Riverwind]

It does appear to be a possibility, yet one has to wonder why she was not simply fingerprinted. Immediately. Seems to me, that would have made the most sense.

Finger printing requires that the police have a previous record of your fingerprints. If she has never been charged with a crime then there would be no record to compare her fingerprints with.

That said, she apparently did provide fingerprints for a criminal record check when she applied to immigrate and consular officials did take her fingerprints and try to compare them to that record, however, it turns out the fingerprint records used for immigration purposes are destroyed after a person is granted permission to immigrate. Unfortunately, it took time to take her fingerprints and then discover that her previously provided fingerprints had been destroyed. This go around was one of the reasons for the delay.

[August1991]

DNA says she is who she says she is, but what was the DNA compared to? Her son? Maybe she was the boy's birth mother, but I don't think she's the person who has been living in Toronto for the last 10 years.

That possibility passed through my mind too, Argus. I haven't seen the details of teh DNA test but it seems to me that the test merely showed that the woman in Kenya was in all likelihood the mother of the boy in Toronto.

It's possible that the woman who emigrated to Canada before was in fact an aunt travelling with her nephew.

[ToadBrother]

That possibility passed through my mind too, Argus. I haven't seen the details of teh DNA test but it seems to me that the test merely showed that the woman in Kenya was in all likelihood the mother of the boy in Toronto.

It's possible that the woman who emigrated to Canada before was in fact an aunt travelling with her nephew.

You haven't seen the details of the test, but the answer must still be she's a fraudster. Strikes me that some folks really want this woman to be guilty of something, so they'll invent, with little justification, a whole story for which they have no evidence.

[capricorn]

how bizarre, you come up with theories with absolutely no evidence and concoct a completely lame fraud scheme...

The Liberals are just as speculative by making a judgment before all the facts are layed out. I approached it from a cultural perspective of what might push someone into such actions.

you can't get on an international flight without a passport...

True. Yet, passports may be bogus and/or flushed down the aircraft toilet.

[Moonbox]

She didn't get one or two questions wrong. She didn't know the answer to ANY of the above questions. Either she's a fraudster or she's the dumbest woman in the world.

[kimmy]

In a story I heard on CBC radio awhile back a suggestion was made that perhaps it was attempted to smuggle in a relative under Ms A's guise. It would certainly explain many of otherwise mysterious events attributed to this story. A possible scenario:

- somebody shows up in the embassy and claims to be Ms A who lost her passport; she's seeking to obtain a new one (but with a slightly different spelling of her name). She gets her passport and enters Canada;

- awhile later, (real) Ms A finds her original passport, buys ticket and flies to Canada;

- result: there are now two instances of Ms A in Canada now, each with her own passport, and no costly time consuming and most importantly, restrictive immigration procedures involved.

I'm also very curious about the circumstances of what occurred. That somebody could be unable to answer some of these questions is entirely reasonable. That somebody could fail to answer all of them is just hard to credit.

I am wondering about who the DNA was taken from and what it was compared to. Do we actually know that the person who provided the DNA sample was the same person who attempted to issue the passport? Hypothetically, a person tries to use her sister's passport, nobody buys it, she goes home and says "holy crap, that didn't work", and later when the authorities arrive the sister is there to say "I am who I said I am, and here is my DNA and fingerprints" etc.

I read that when she was pressed for additional proof of her identity, she provided a bank card, a credit card, a Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum card, a Humber River Regional Health Card, a note from her employer, and a Toronto dry-cleaning receipt.

Why carry a dry-cleaning receipt to Kenya? And, if she was a Humber College Student, why didn't she have her student ID? Ok, she probably wasn't planning on attending school in Kenya, but I bet she wasn't planning on visiting a Shopper's Drug Mart either.

She had a note from her employer... perhaps indicating she anticipated trouble and brought extra proof of her identity? Ok, if that were the case, why not carry more photo ID? It sounds as if the only photo ID she had were her passport and her driver's license which both apparently just weren't believable.

I don't think we should write off those 2.5 millions just yet. And, I'm all for this actually going to the court, so that at least not every legitimate attempt to prevent illegal entry to Canada is instantly interpreted as an abuse of power of state.

This is an excellent comment and I agree completely. Would love to know more about this, and we should find out more about it when it goes to court. I'll be a worthwhile exercise whichever the outcome.

-k

[August1991]

This is an excellent comment and I agree completely. Would love to know more about this, and we should find out more about it when it goes to court. I'll be a worthwhile exercise whichever the outcome.

I'm not sure that a court case would discover anything more.

As it stands now, when someone immigrates to Canada, we rely on documentary evidence (eg. birth certificates) to determine any family members. Needless to say, Somali documentary evidence while it exists is hardly proof of anything.

It is quite simple (and reasonably common) for an aunt or uncle to include a niece or nephew on an immigration file. The only way to avoid this would be to ask for DNA testing of all immigrant gfamily members:

France's immigration minister Eric Besson has said he will scrap a scheme which would have allowed DNA testing of all new arrivals because it was "damaging" his country's image.

Telegraph

-----

There is a broader question here. Who should pay for the errors of bureaucrats? If your house burns down because the firemen didn't arrive fast enough, should you be able to sue the fire department?

How do we determine what "fast enough" means? In a part of the world where official documents are highly suspect, is a bureaucrat wrong to verify carefully a claim for citizenship?

[wyly]

Because of privacy issues, the Federal government was unable to disclose the information gathered that led to the Mohamud ordeal. Her $2.5 million dollar lawsuit opened the door for the government to introduce sworn testimony of the three interviews that were conducted that led authorities to believe she was an imposter. Keep in mind that Mohamud is a Canadian citizen who has lived in Toronto for 10 years. Aside from the fact that she looked different than in previous pictures, key points include:

1) She didn't know the name of the lake (Lake Ontario)

2) She didn't know who the current or former Prime Minister was

3) She didn't know the name of the mayor of Toronto

4) She didn't know what TTC stood for, although she took it every day

5) She didn't know where her son was born

6) She got his birth date wrong

7) She got the month AND the year of her marriage wrong

8) She was 6 or 7 cm shorter than her driver's license indicated

9) She could not describe any of the process for how she obtained a driver's license

10) Her signature on the driver's licence and immigration forms differed significantly from what she provided

11) She could not name any of her son's school teachers

12) She said she was attending Humber college but could not correctly name any professors.

Is this woman just incredibly stupid or is there even MORE to this story......and what do you think of the consulate/government's actions now?

Link to CBC story: http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=49780

Link to The Star story: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/703085

answering the same questions, or ones similar and relevant to my area, I can answer only two correctly...am I stupid, hardly... I could reverse your assesment and say people who memorize unimportant details like that are shallow and stupid...my memory is excellent for things that I deem important; mundane and trival stuff like in those questions don't concern me, why would anyone waste the time memorizing something so unimportant...I could come up with a list of questions that would stump this forum, things that I think are important but aren't relevant to anyone else...

people operate in different spheres of life, what you consider relevant is not even on other peoples radar...we have sub-cultures within our greater society that you are completey unaware of with a knowledge base that is completely different than yours...

[wyly]

You haven't seen the details of the test, but the answer must still be she's a fraudster. Strikes me that some folks really want this woman to be guilty of something, so they'll invent, with little justification, a whole story for which they have no evidence.

it's racial and religiously motivated...remember Brenda Martin who the Mexican police say is a criminal and all the fuss created by this poor "white" woman falsely accused in a mexican prison? how do canadians know she was falsely accused? but we get the conservative government stepping up to help this "white" victim of supposed injustice with no thought to she may be guilty of a crime as charged...then we have a coloured muslim woman with an official Canadian passport accused of nothing thrown in prison on Canadian government request because her passport photo is poor...as is my passport photo and I can't answer most of those questions either? can I be expected to be thrown into prison too next time I leave the country? unlikely as I'm white and not a muslim...

[noahbody]

answering the same questions, or ones similar and relevant to my area, I can answer only two correctly...am I stupid,

Without question.

[wyly]

Without question.

That means you can and by my standards that makes you shallow and stupid