Shree Kumar Rai
Rod MacIvor, The Ottawa Citizen - 2007-03-22
Shree Kumar Rai has been accepted into sanctuary by Ottawa's First Unitarian Congregation. Mr. Rai, a human rights activist, fled his Nepal to avoid torture and oppression and has exhausted his options within Canada's refugee appeal process.
His friend and his father died as a result of torture, and the Committee against Torture of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees has agreed to review his case. The First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa is providing Mr. Rai with Sanctuary during this process.
The First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa hopes that Mr. Rai will be accepted as a refugee and allowed to remain in safety in Canada.
Sanctuary Past and Present
1. History
The practice of giving sanctuary goes back to biblical times and was codified in the fifth century AD, when Roman law guaranteed that churches could provide refuge, even for criminals. Canadians sheltered thousands of American draft dodgers and deserters during the Viet Nam war in the 1960s. Author Randy Lippert dates today’s sanctuary movement in Canada back to 1983, when a Guatemalan was given safe haven in a Montreal church and eventually granted a stay of deportation.
In the mid-nineties, The Council of Churches in Canada approved a United Church edict that "sanctuary is a place recognized as holy, a place of refuge. It is a sacred place where fugitives from the law have traditionally been secured by the church against arrest or violence."
There are no laws in Canada protecting church sanctuary, but Canadian governments and police have been reluctant to breach it, unlike the practice in Britain and the United States. In February this year Amir Kazemian, an Iranian refugee in sanctuary at St Michael’s Anglican church in Vancouver, was inadvertently arrested by police whom he had called in to the church on an unrelated matter of Internet fraud. Shortly afterwards he was granted permission to remain permanently in Canada. In another incident, police in Quebec City arrested a refugee at Saint-Pierre United Church who was then deported to the United States. However senior CIC officials have told our UU church representatives that they will respect sanctuary and will not seek to arrest a refugee who has been granted sanctuary, even though there is no law in Canada to protect sanctuary.
The call for sanctuary in Canada has increased since 2002, when the federal government introduced a new Refugee Protection and Immigration Act. Refugee cases are now heard by one adjudicator, instead of two. The provision in the Act to create a Refugee Appeal division within the Immigration and Refugee Board has never been enacted, so the system has no mechanism for correcting errors or inconsistent or erroneous decisions or for revisiting cases where strong new evidence has been obtained. While claims can be appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, it will only examine whether the adjudicator followed proper procedures. And judges are reluctant to overturn IRB decisions where cases have been rejected on grounds of credibility, often a key element in adjudicators’ decisions.
The number of refugee claims to the IRB has dropped substantially from a record 44,795 claims in 2001 to under 32,000 in 2003 and less than 21,000 in 2005, mainly because of new rules that restrict the right to make claims.
Churches have had a success rate of over 50% with sanctuary refugees, according to one survey of sanctuary cases since the 1980s. Sanctuary periods have typically been from one to two years. In the 20 years to 2003 some 36 separate cases of sanctuary were recorded in Canada involving more than 250 individual refugees.
2. Experience at First Unitarian
First Unitarian Congregation gave sanctuary for 18 months to Mr. Samsu Mia before Immigration Minister Judy Sgro granted him a ministerial permit to remain in Canada, in December 2004, and allowed his family to join him from Bangladesh. Mr. Mia was a servant in the Bangladeshi High Commission in Ottawa who was being mistreated by the senior official in whose home he worked. The official was of a high caste, Mr. Mia and his family had a smallholding. He and his family were threatened back in Bangladesh because he had spoken publicly in Canada about his treatment.
We housed Samsu in a small apartment within our church, formerly used by a resident caretaker, and installed a shower for his use. We raised funds for his needs, for remittances to his family, and for legal expenses through pot lucks, donations, and mostly through the sale of samosas and other Bangladeshi foods which Samsu prepared – his work in the high commission was mainly as a chef. David Morris, an Ottawa lawyer, worked on Mr. Mia’s case for a modest fee while congregation members lobbied the Immigration department, members of Parliament and Parliamentary committees, and raised his case in the media. Our sanctuary committee also worked with the United Church of Canada and other church groups concerned with refugee and sanctuary issues.
Through Samsu’s stay a ‘witness’ stayed at the church to provide help if an attempt was made to arrest him and church staff is not available to assist him. Witnesses stayed overnight at the church and often spent time with Samsu chatting, helping him improve his English, or watching videos of his wife and family in Bangladesh. Rev. Fred Cappucino, a retired Unitarian minister, became a full-time witness for the last six months of Samsu’s stay in sanctuary – he moved into the church and put himself in sanctuary for that period.
Samsu Mia took his first legal stroll in the church garden in December 2004 when he was granted a ministerial permit to stay in Canada. His family joined him in the spring. After living a year in a rented town house, the Mias were able to purchase a five-bedroom home in West Ottawa big enough for their needs. They are currently all working or studying. The eldest son is returning to Bangladesh this summer to be married, two sons will be at university in the fall, the Mias continue to sell samosas and other foods at our church on Sundays, and they are working hard to pay down their mortgage. Overall, it is a real success story.
First Unitarian was asked to accept Maoua Diamonde, a refugee from west Africa, into sanctuary after Mr. Mia was accepted into Canada and she was threatened with deportation. We could not help but were able to help Maoua find sanctuary at St. Joseph’s Catholic church near the University of Ottawa in collaboration with the nearby Sacre Coeur parish. Joan Auden of our church has helped Maoua launch a successful career as a painter, and volunteers were found to maintain a small jewelry and accessories business that she had successfully established at an Ottawa mall. She has now been allowed to remain in Canada.
3. Shree Kumar Rai . . . a 10 year struggle
In February 2007 we again offered sanctuary – this time to Shree Kumar Rai, a Nepali who had been active politically in his home district of Nepal. Shree had had to leave his village after disagreeing with the decision of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in 1996 to turn to violence and to launch the revolt known as the People’s War. Shree was a teacher, a leader in his rural community, then ran a small business. He became a target from both sides – by the Maoists, for refusing to support their turn to violence, and by Nepali police and army on suspicion that that he was supporting the Maoists. He left his home and went into hiding in Kathmandu, but eventually found there was no place left to hide and was able to come to Canada. After 10 years trying to secure permanent status in Canada, Shree had exhausted all his options and was due to be deported on Feb. 27 of this year when we took him in.
Shree is living in an office that formerly housed an intern minister. He cooks for himself and has launched a sushi business selling (very fine) sushi to congregants and friends. Rev. Brian Kopke encouraged Shree to paint, and his first paintings have been very well received - three have now sold for a total of over $600 to help a sanctuary fund to assist his family and help with legal costs.
Shree has a wife and son who are living in seclusion in Kathmandu. He is able to keep in touch with them each week by phone. As with Samsu, we are assisting Shree’s family with periodic transfers of funds. As Shree is a sushi chef, he has been making sushi for sale to church members at Sunday services, with the proceeds going to the sanctuary fund..
We have recruited ‘watchers’ living near the church to be available from their home to help Shree in case of emergency, together with the occasional ‘witness’ who stays overnight with Shree when the church staff are not present. Shree also has a list of key congregation personnel to call if there is any effort by police to arrest or remove him..
Shree can now go outside onto the church grounds – but not beyond - and still be considered to be in sanctuary, thanks to an understanding with immigration officials.. For security, we try to ensure that a church member or staff person keeps within sight of Shree if he is outside the building.
Our Sanctuary Committee has a dozen volunteers who meet regularly to monitor recent developments in support of Shree, to arrange future events and to organize witnesses and watchers, media, fund-raising, and other work. At present its work is focused on the Rally for Refugee Rights taking place at the church on Oct. 24. A small strategy sub-committee also meets regularly to focus on strategy, lobbying, and working with Shree’s lawyer.
The church has helped organize the Inter-Church Refugee Network of Ottawa, a multi-faith organization that now has about 10 different faith communities involved. The main aim of this group is to work toward achieving fair treatment for refugees in a system that now fails to provide any appeal based on merit.. This group meets monthly.
We have taken on a second refugee case in addition to advocating for Shree. Although we were unable to find him a sanctuary place, in another church, we are supporting this refugee’s effort to stay his deportation order and advocating for him to CIC.
4. Sanctuary Questions
How does the government view sanctuary? Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has assured us that they will not interfere with a church that has granted sanctuary to a refugee but will allow the process to play itself out. The department even held back when another refugee in sanctuary was taken to an Ottawa hospital for a period because of illness. There are in fact thousands of refugees in Canada who have overstayed their permission to stay but have gone underground or found ways to live below the radar of the government. CIC has been criticized for not being diligent in ensuring removal of those who no longer have a right to stay in Canada. It is short on resources or perhaps lacks the will to remove these refugees,
Do other churches offer sanctuary to refugees? Yes, but only as a last resort. Currently there are about 10 refugees in sanctuary in churches across Canada. Over the past 20 years the success rate of refugees given sanctuary has been relatively high (somewhere over 50%) but the stay in sanctuary has tended to be long (Mr. Mia’s 18 months was typical). Early in October the government lifted the deportation order and allowed another sanctuary refugee in Ottawa to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Mr. Moti Nano, from the the Oromia region of Ethiopia, had been imprisoned, tortured and threatened with death by his own government. He had been in sanctuary at All Saints Lutheran Church for 20 months.
Is it illegal for a church to give sanctuary to a refugee? In practice, no. The law is silent on the granting of sanctuary. Offences under the Immigration and Refugee Determination Act focus on misrepresentation, use of false documents, and withholding of information during the process of immigration or refugee determination. Officials of Citizenship and Immigration have assured First Congregation that CIC policy is not to seek to remove or arrest refugees who are in sanctuary.
Does a church have to go public if it offers sanctuary? Churches normally try to the case of a refugee in sanctuary public rather than secret, as these cases are generally resolved by advocacy to the government or through meetings, demonstrations and in the media.
Costs of sanctuary: Taking a refugee into sanctuary can be a substantial commitment for a church, but not an impossible one. Many church buildings are large enough to be able to make room for a refugee. First Unitarian in Ottawa had to install a shower for Mr. Mia, but provided modest accommodation with help from congregants who donated a bed, bedding and towels, and other furniture. Shree Kumar Rai has a computer and internet connection to allow him to communicate to Nepal. First Unitarian has raised funds for Shree’s support through special events and donations, sales of sushi and sales of Shree’s paintings. When Samsu Mia was in sanctuary, First Unitarian raised funds through the sale of Bangladeshi samosas and other foods prepared by Mr. Mia and sold at the church after service on Sundays. Our congregation has continued to help the Mia family while they settled in Ottawa. The Mias are now living in their own home and working or studying in Ottawa.
Statement by Shree Kumar Rai
Press conference at First Unitarian Congregation, March 22, 2007
I am a citizen of Nepal and belong to the village of Annapurna, district Bhyojpur.
While I was going to college in 1982, I became a member of the All Nepal National Free Student Union and participated in rallies and demonstrations against the non-party Panchayat system then in government. I was arrested in 1985 and detained for three months.
I was a teacher in Dharan from 1987 to 1990, then I ran a small business. The Panchayat system was dissolved in 1990. I joined the United People’s Front which participated in the election and won nine seats. Nepal Congress Party was elected to form the government.
In 1993 I was arrested along with many other members of my party for demonstrating against the killing of Madan Kumar Bhandari, then the leader of another party (the UML). I was jailed for ten days and beaten by police. They used batons and pins upon my body to give me pain. No proper food or medication was provided. One of my friends, Sherbahadur Subba, died inside the jail after the police torture.
I was released after my family paid a bribe of 2700 Nepali rupees and was medically treated at home. I continued to work for my party, to educate people of their basic rights and to work for justice.
In September 1995 the police arrested me from my house and accused me of smuggling arms and ammunition into Nepal with the help of Sikh and Kashmiri Militants. I was shocked to hear this and was again tortured by the police. My family paid another bribe to release me, but the police threatened that I would be eliminated if I took part in politics like my friend who was killed by police in 1993.
In October 1995 tensions mounted between two parties in Rolpa district. During a local party meeting in Dharan I was informed that our party, the UPF, was going to help the Maoists form an army group for fighting with the government. I spoke out against the party’s violent orientation. UPF threatened me and ordered me to continue to participate in party activities. After I participated in a demonstration against their excess use of force, the police arrested a number of our members. I was able to escape, but the police raided my house and I left to live with a friend in Kathmandu.
Police again raided ,my house in Dharan in February 1996 and in my absence arrested my father. He was kept in detention for three days, and later died at home due to the police injuries. In March, the police raided where I was living at Kathmandu and arrested my friend. The police kept looking for me accusing me of being anti-national and anti-subversive.
I had no place left in Nepal to live or to hide. That is why I came to Canada. The police still come to my old house looking for me.
Many other people in Nepal still suffer from torture and oppression. My people are denied their rights and the rule of the Nepal Parliament has not been restored. I hope for better times in Nepal, but I fear for my life if I am deported and forced to return to my country. That is why I still hope to be accepted as a refugee and allowed to remain in Canada.
Infosheet prepared by Michael Cassidy, Sanctuary Committee, First Unitarian Congregation, Ottawa. For further information please contact or: 613 829 4231 or Mary Duncan, 613-789-0267.