Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has gone on the offensive against Ottawa, saying the federal government has no excuse for failing to help a Toronto woman stuck in Kenya for nearly three months.
"Something is fundamentally wrong when we can't count on the Canadian government to stand up for Canadians -- I'm not sure I can put it any more directly than that," he said.
Canadians should expect their government to help them wherever they are, McGuinty added.
"That didn't happen in this particular circumstance, and there's no excuse for that."
Suaad Hagi Mohamud, 31, has been stranded in Kenya since May 21, when a Kenyan official claimed she was not the same person pictured on her passport.
Kenyan authorities have been asked to drop charges against a Canadian woman who has been stranded in the country for nearly three months, her Toronto lawyer said Wednesday.
After going to the Canadian High Commission in an effort to prove her identity with numerous pieces of identification, Canadian officials voided her passport and sent her to Kenyan authorities for prosecution. She ended up having to face court proceedings and pay a bond to stay out of jail. Her travel documents were also seized.
In the end, a DNA test proved Mohamud's identity and she has been waiting for the Canadian government to clear her path home ever since.
Early Wednesday morning, her Toronto lawyer said that several steps are still needed to bring his client home.
"The steps that need to be taken are that she needs to have the charges dropped by Kenyan authorities -- I have just found out a few minutes ago that the Kenyan authorities have been asked to drop the charges -- but on top of that the Kenyan court needs to release her from her bond condition so that she can leave the country," Raoul Boulakia told CTV's Canada AM.
The charges laid against Mohamud include using another person's passport and being in Kenya illegally.
Boulakia said Ottawa should be fast-tracking Mohamud's paperwork and pressing to get her home as soon as possible. The bond that was paid out on Mohamud also needs to be refunded, he said.
Under the best possible circumstances, he believes his client could potentially board a plane as soon as tomorrow.
"In terms of getting her on a flight, I believe they could do that within a day without much difficulty," Boulakia said.
Mohamud's lawyer is at a loss, however, to describe how his client ended up being stranded in Kenya in the first place.
"It started with what the Canadian High Commission called a conclusive investigation, which they did up until May 28, when they told the Kenyans to prosecute her," Boulakia said.
Boulakia said he still does not know exactly what that investigation was.
"It's clear that they got it wrong," he said. They are refusing to disclose to me what the investigation was, but, basically, it doesn't seem to have amounted to a lot more than her passport photo, looking at her, assuming that she looks different."
In a telephone interview with The Canadian Press, Mohamud said she wants to get home to be with her 12-year-old son in Toronto.
"The first thing I'm going to do (when I get back to Canada) is visit my boy," she said Tuesday, during a phone interview from her hotel room in Nairobi.
The Somalian-born Mohamud had travelled to Kenya to visit her mother, prior to her ordeal.
With files from The Canadian Press
