QUESTIONS FOR KENNEY
How did accused get into Canada?
United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate and former federal immigration minister Jason Kenney is facing questions over how the man accused of attacking a police officer and slamming into pedestrians in Edmonton was admitted to Canada.
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said a man named Abdullahi Hassan Sharif was ordered deported from the United States in 2011. Sources said they believe that man and the suspect arrested after the Sept. 30 attack in Edmonton — Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30 — are the same person.
Canadian officials said Sharif, who is from Somalia, made an asylum claim at a Canada-U.S. border crossing in 2012, and it was granted later that year.
Kenney served as immigration minister from 2008 to 2013. While he did not know the specifics of the case, he said he “significantly” strengthened immigration security screening, but was stymied by the courts, opposition parties and the Obama administration.
“We did more than any government in history, and I was attacked by the Liberals and the NDP for the changes that we made,” Kenney said after a UCP leadership debate Tuesday in Red Deer.
Kenney said he pushed the Obama administration to change the Safe Third Country Agreement — which requires refugee claimants to request refugee protection in the first “safe” country they arrive in — “so we could stop people like this from making asylum claims.”
“I think there is no legitimate reason for anybody coming from the United States to make a refugee claim in Canada,” he said. “That’s the basis of the Safe Third Country agreement. Unfortunately, it only applies to people who come in through ports of entry. I think it needs to be changed, but the U.S. government has refused to do so.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday the government is reviewing its handling of refugee claims following revelations that Sharif had been ordered deported from the United States.
“It’s certain that we have asylum processes that need to be followed rule by rule when someone presents themselves at our border. We have rules to follow and we make sure those rules are followed,” he said in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“The priority is always making sure we’re defending the values and rights of Canadians while keeping our communities safe.”
In a Wednesday statement, UCP leadership candidate Brian Jean said Kenney “needs to explain how a man who was ordered deported by the Obama administration was then admitted into Canada as a government sponsored refugee while he was minister.”
RCMP K-Division Assistant Commissioner Marlin Degrand said Sharif had been investigated for “espousing extremist ideologies” in 2015, but he did not go into detail about the allegations. Law enforcement did not have sufficient evidence to warrant continued investigation, he said.
Sharif was arrested after a city police officer was rammed by a car, then stabbed, outside Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday, and a U-Haul truck led police on a chase in downtown Edmonton early Sunday. The truck deliberately swerved to strike four pedestrians, police said.