Smith facing criticism from First Nations and provincial leaders over separatism
Danielle Smith defended her promise of a potential referendum on any issue, including Alberta separation. The move has been criticized by First Nations leaders. CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski reports.
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Northern Ont. man denied Canadian residency because he worked for Ukrainian secret police
While denying him permanent residency, immigration officials said there 'is no evidence that Oleksandr Zahrebelnyi personally engaged in acts of subversion.' (File) A man who came from Ukraine to North Bay, Ont., in 2017 has been denied permanent residency in Canada because he was a former member of the Ukrainian Secret Service, known as the SBU. Oleksandr Zahrebelnyi was open about his role with the SBU when he applied for permanent residency, the Federal Court said in a decision dated July 29. Zahrebelnyi left the SBU and opened a meat processing plant in Ukraine in 2016. 'As conditions in Ukraine deteriorated, he opened a meat processing plant in North Bay … with two business partners and obtained a Canadian work permit in the entrepreneur/self-employed category,' said the court's decision. 'His spouse and three children eventually joined him in Canada.' 'The officer who refused his application acknowledged at several points in the decision that there is no evidence that (Zahrebelnyi) personally engaged in acts of subversion or had any knowledge of such acts perpetrated by the SBU.' — Federal Court decision The Federal Court ruling made it clear that Zahrebelnyi 'is not alleged to carry personal responsibility for committing acts of subversion or any other bases for inadmissibility to Canada.' 'His inadmissibility results from his admitted service and employment with the … SBU between 1998 and 2011,' the decision said. 'The officer who refused his application acknowledged at several points in the decision that there is no evidence that (Zahrebelnyi) personally engaged in acts of subversion or had any knowledge of such acts perpetrated by the SBU.' In a statement to CTV News, Zahrebelnyi said the decision to reject his application was 'unfair and unjustified.' 'It is very difficult to maintain and make any strategic decisions for the business, when the life of my family is in 'limbo,'' he said in an email. His business was thriving Zahrebelnyi employed 20 people at Canada Meat Group in North Bay, and had plans to hire as many as 150 people in an expanded operation, as reported by CTV News in 2022. But those plans were shelved in 2024. The decision to deny him permanent residency in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was made on April 10, 2024. The immigration official denied his application on the basis that Zahrebelnyi had been a member of the SBU, which had been 'engaging in an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada.' He appealed that decision and said that the denial had a major negative impact on his family and his business. The appeal said the official misinterpreted the meaning of 'subversion' and the more than four years it took to make a decision was an abuse of process. However, the immigration official handling the case ruled that membership in an organization 'that has engaged in subversion against a democratic government, institution or process' was sufficient grounds to deny the application. 'Subversive' actions 'After a detailed analysis, the officer concluded that the SBU was engaged in political repression, obstruction of the media, and election fraud throughout the period of (Zahrebelnyi's) involvement with the SBU,' the court decision said. A central issue of the appeal was the interpretation of the word 'subversive.' The immigration officer interpreted the word as including actions to maintain the status quo in Ukraine, as opposed to actions that accomplish change. The goal of the law is 'the protection of Canadian democracy through the denial of admission to those who have posed a threat anywhere to democratic governments, institutions or processes as they are understood in Canada,' the court said. 'This goal is served by including organizations which may not be internally democratic but are democratic in function, as understood in Canada.' Those organizations include the free media, the electoral process and opposition parties. The intent of the SBU was, in part, to actively repress these groups. The immigration officer provided internet links that showed the SBU 'illegally surveilled and interfered with Ukrainian parliamentarians in the early 2000s.' Other links showed that agents were hired to collect information on investigative journalists 'that threatened the interest of the political and economic elites.' The appeal also argued that the length it took to get a decision was unreasonable -- more than four years after Zahrebelnyi made the application in 2020 -- and amounted to an abuse of process. But the Federal Court ruled that there was 'insufficient evidence that it was characterized by the disruption to family life, loss of work, business opportunities or severe psychological harm that would amount to an abuse of process.' 'In the present case, while there is evidence of anxiety caused by the delay, the other consequences are the result of the unfavourable result of the investigation into the principal applicant's inadmissibility rather than the delay itself,' the decision said. Read the full decision here.
CTV News
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- CTV News
Former foreign affairs minister on why the ‘elbows up' tariff retaliation ‘backfired'
Watch Former foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay comments on Canadian officials participating in trade talks in Mexico and how Trump may react to the visit.
National Post
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- National Post
'They were shot in the head': Canadian Druze ask Ottawa to intervene
Members of the Druze diaspora in Canada are facing anguish and uncertainty as they await word from family and friends in Syria amid reports of massacres and kidnappings. The largely Druze town of Suwayda was shaken in mid-July by clashes between Druze and armed Bedouin. Reuters reports execution-style killings of unarmed Druze civilians and home-to-home massacres, with about a thousand believed killed in the bloodshed. A medical examiner said he had seen about 500 bodies, including a decapitation, close-range gunshots, and teenage girls with throats slit. The government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who overthrew the Assad regime last December, has denied any involvement in the civilian killings. Canadian Druze held a news conference on July 25 outside Toronto City Hall to call the public's attention to the atrocities and to call on the Canadian government to intervene. Among them: Rahaf Alakbani, 34, who arrived from Suwayda with her husband, Esmaeel Aboufakher, in February 2016, following the escalation of violence and persecution in Syria. Article content Article content Article content She still has family members in Suwayda, including her parents and siblings. Her two nephews – Salah, 13 and Yusuf, 15 – and brother-in-law Samir, were killed, and her friend's brother is still missing. With electricity and internet cut, she's unable to determine their safety or whereabouts. Alakbani has worked with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture, supporting refugees and survivors of trauma as they adapt to life in Canada. She spoke to Dave Gordon for National Post. What was it like for you when the Assad regime fell? We always dreamed the regime would be done, and it was so amazing, and we felt optimistic for a new future. We wanted to rebuild Syria. My husband and I work in the humanitarian field, and social work, and we had lots of ideas to build our countries. But the new regime ruined all these dreams. When you heard of the atrocities this month, what went through your mind? I still cannot believe it. I could barely sleep. I could barely talk. My parents are still there, my husband's family with eight sisters. We're worried about them. Article content Article content What kind of contact have you had with friends and family in Syria? Before the internet cut off, I was talking to them through WhatsApp. But they cut the internet and the landlines and electricity. I don't know whether they are still alive. How did you find out about what happened to your brother-in-law and his boys? When there was internet. My sister-in-law has three boys, one of them, he lives in Jordan. He's studying there. And so he sent us on the WhatsApp group that his brothers and his dad were killed. They were shot in the back and the head. My sister-in-law, my husband's sister Hanna, had a camera in the home, and had everything documented, but she doesn't know how to release this, so we're trying to help her to have this as evidence. Tell me about Salah and Yusuf, your nephews. I remember when we went to Syria (six years ago), they were both learning instruments. We sat together, we started singing, playing music. They're very talented. They were very beautiful spirits. They were full of life, and very funny. So they have nothing to do with any politics, any war. What do you remember about Samir? He used to have a detergent factory and always liked to help people. My mom-in-law always said when sometimes people came to buy some detergent, and he knew that they are poor, he didn't take money from them. He was very funny, wise. What are your connections in Syria hearing and seeing? My sister-in-law lives in the city centre; all of the militias were attacking the neighborhood, and was very horrible situation for them. It was tragedy. They heard gunfire, rockets and the fighters were shouting, 'Allahu Akbar,' and they were just running. And my sister-in-law saw all this from her door, and saw a civilian knifed in the head. I have a friend who told me her entire town was gone.
