OTTAWA - The lawyer for a woman who was stripped of her Canadian passport and is marooned in Kenya will be in Federal Court on Monday morning seeking immediate government help.
Suaad Mohamud Haji has been unable to return to her Toronto home since mid-May after Kenyan airport officials said she didn't look like her four-year-old passport picture.
Despite having other pieces of Canadian photo ID and offering up her fingerprints, the 31-year-old mother was stripped of her passport by Canadian officials and charged with identity fraud by Kenyan police.
"Just like in Canada, if you misrepresent your identity, that's a criminal charge," her lawyer Raoul Boulakia told The Canadian Press on Sunday.
"So what the Canadian government told the Kenyan government is, 'This lady is not the lady in the passport. She is lying. This isn't her."'
Boulakia will file notice with Federal Court in Toronto on Monday morning seeking an emergency conference call with an Ottawa-based judge.
He wants Mohamud to be issued an emergency passport and flown home at government expense.
The situation is urgent because the Somali-born Mohamud has a court date this Friday in Kenya and could face deportation to her lawless native land.
The Federal Court application also seeks a declaration that the government "acted in bad faith by arbitrarily denying the applicant's citizenship, and by delaying resolution of confirming her citizenship."
Boulakia said the woman has a 12-year-old son, a job, and dozens of friends in Toronto who can vouch for her identity. He said he's seen many photos of Mohamud and her appearance has indeed been altered by a dramatic change in weight.
He wants to know why the federal government has not provided an answer on whether Mohamud's fingerprints match those she provided when she first arrived in Canada in 1999.
She offered to provide the prints to consular officials weeks ago, but they only agreed to take them on July 9. She's heard nothing since then.
"I would assume if the fingerprints came back negative, they would have been crowing about this in the press by now and saying (the passport) was bogus all along," said Boulakia.
"I think they're in damage-control mode."
Inquiries to the Canadian Border Services Agency were not immediately returned Sunday.
