Airport death prompts calls for more oversight of border agency
The death of a man at the Calgary airport following an altercation with border agents has prompted calls for an independent investigation into the incident and renewed calls for more oversight of the federal agency responsible for border and immigration enforcement.
The 49-year-old man, who was being deported from Canada, was escorted by two Canada Border Services Agency officers on a KLM flight about to take off for Amsterdam on Tuesday when there was an incident that forced the plane back to the gate.
Calgary police officers who boarded the plane afterward found the man in medical distress.
The man, who has not been identified, was rushed to the Peter Lougheed Centre, where he was pronounced dead approximately 90 minutes later.
An autopsy has been completed, but the cause of death is still to be determined, police said Thursday.
Civil liberties advocates and refugee lawyers are calling for an independent investigation into the incident and asking the province’s chief medical examiner to investigate the death to the “fullest extent” of their authority under Alberta law.
“It’s tragic that this individual died. We don’t know what the circumstances were, other than there was some kind of altercation with CBSA agents,” said Josh Patterson with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
“The fact that there’s so many questions just underlines the need for independent investigation of these kinds of incidents with CBSA.”
Unlike every other major law enforcement agency in Canada, Patterson said, CBSA has no external accountability body to provide oversight.
Municipal police and RCMP in Alberta are overseen by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team — a civilian oversight agency responsible for investigating incidents involving police.
Patterson said it’s not enough that Calgary police have been tasked with looking into whether criminal charges are warranted in the incident.
“A CBSA officer could have violated 10 different CBSA rules and regulations, but committed no crime,” Patterson said.
“We’re still not going to have an independent agency that looks at CBSA’s conduct as a whole in this incident, well beyond whether there was any criminal issue.”
According to a CBC report, the man who died was a refugee claimant from Nigeria who told officials that returning home would put his life in danger.
Police confirmed that the man had been living in Calgary for a number of years.
Calgary Catholic Immigration Society chair Fariborz Birjandian said his organization is one of the few in the city that offers assistance to refugee claimants.
Birjandian said he wasn’t familiar with the specifics of the man’s case, but said Calgary has seen a growing number of refugee applicants from Nigeria — nearly a third of the adult refugee clients helped by his society in the past 12 months came from Nigeria, he said.
Birjandian said it’s particularly hard for refugees who are required to return home after being in Canada for some time.
“If they’re not accepted, and they’re being asked to leave,
The fact that there’s so many questions just underlines the need for independent investigation of these kinds of incidents with CBSA.
they’re faced with a very, very difficult situation and some of them become so stressed,” Birjandian said.
But Birjandian said he also sympathizes with CBSA agents who have a tough job to do, as asylum claims continue to rise across the country.
“They are all hardworking and very dedicated people. We work with them on a daily basis and we know that they really mean good,” hesaid.
Patterson said the work of CBSA officers must be scrutinized the same way other law enforcement agencies are across Canada.
He pointed out that the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers have identified more than a dozen cases of people dying in CBSA custody since 2000.
Patterson said the federal government has promised repeatedly since 2016 to introduce civilian oversight for border agents.
“When are they going to come through with CBSA oversight?” Patterson asked, adding he’s concerned that time is running out to create the necessary legislation before the next federal election in 2019.
“I’m really concerned about whether they’ll be able to follow through on their promise.”