By: Ajay Parasram
The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) has significantly reduced the conditions of release for Ottawa-born Deepan Budlakoti following a rally and court appearance on Nov. 1.
“We are very glad to celebrate this small victory with Deepan,” said Lena McFarlane of the Justice for Deepan Support Committee. “However, more than just removing his conditions of release, we are renewing our call for an end to his deportation order.”
Ottawa is seeking to deport Budlakoti to India, a country he has never lived in, based on misinformation about his parents’ employment status in the 1980s that are well documented in the Leveller and elsewhere.
While the government insists that Budlakoti was born to parents employed at the Indian High Commission, Budlakoti’s legal team has introduced evidence, including a letter from the then-High Commissioner, confirming that the parents of Budlakoti were not employed at the High Commission at the time of his birth.
For Budlakoti, even getting to the IRB hearing was an ordeal.
“Building security wouldn’t even let me into my own hearing!” Budlakoti told the Leveller.
“The media was outside, and a demonstration chanting ‘Deport Harper, keep Deepan.’ It wasn’t until one of my lawyers intervened that security eventually gave me a pass to get to my own hearing,” he said.
At the hearing, Budlakoti’s legal team presented evidence obtained through Access to Information requests that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) deliberately withheld important information from the IRB and Budlakoti. Specifically, the CBSA concealed statements made by the government of India that informed Canada Budlakoti was not an Indian citizen and thus New Delhi would not accept Ottawa’s deportation request.
According to a Justice For Deepan press release, “while the Board recognized that the CBSA had wrongly withheld information from Mr. Budlakoti and his legal team, it refused to consider the implications of that information, deciding that it did not have jurisdiction.”
The relaxed conditions and removal of curfew gives Budlakoti the flexibility to seek work in his field as a heavy equipment operator. Various arms of the Canadian government have made finding employment difficult since stripping him of his Canadian citizenship, however.
With that loss in status came the loss of his social insurance number (SIN) card and an additional requirement to seek a work permit in order to work legally. Gaining the necessary documentation for Budlakoti to regain the right to work in his country of birth took a concerted effort by his legal team, the Immigrant Workers’ Centre, and the office of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
“Thomas Mulcair’s office helped me get answers about why there were so many hold-ups with my work permit,” Budlakoti said. “Mulcair put pressure on the government to stop delaying. When I was trying to get my SIN card, they told me [to wait] eight to nine weeks. After Mulcair got involved, I got my SIN card in the mail in two weeks,” he told the Leveller.
Other organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Unifor, CUPE 4600, and many other community organizations and labour unions have joined the increasing chorus of people and organizations supporting Budlakoti’s full reinstatement of citizenship rights, according to Justice For Deepan’s official website.
Two of Budlakoti’s lawyers, Yavar Hameed and Ahmad Ramadan, have filed an application before the Federal Court “seeking a declaration that Deepan is indeed a Canadian citizen,” according to a Nov. 4 press release. The press release notes that this application can be heard as early as January 2014.
If it is established legally that Budlakoti is a citizen, then the IRB would no longer have any jurisdiction over him at all, a point that the IRB refused to consider at the Nov. 1 hearing.
The CCLA and Amnesty International have written to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander requesting the speedy restoration of Budlakoti’s citizenship.
Peter Stieda, another member of Budlakoti’s legal team said, “Mr. Budlakoti has been rendered stateless by the actions of the Canadian government. [The situation] is a complete abomination and a violation of the Charter and international law.”
With his new and hard-won rights of mobility, Budlakoti plans on raising awareness of his case across the country, seeking alliances and building solidarity from coast to coast. He told the Leveller he plans on visiting Guelph, Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria, and Kingston in January 2014.
This issue first appeared in The Leveller Vol. 6, No. 3 (Nov/Dec 2013).
