Mother’s Charter rights breached, says lawyer
A Lethbridge woman’s Charter rights were breached when she was forced from Central America last year, says a Calgary lawyer, and he hopes a judge agrees when he presents his arguments in court next month.
Bill Wister, who filed a Charter notice Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court, alleges federal government officials had no right to have his client arrested and extradited from Belize in 2017, even though she was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for child abduction.
Wister says Canadian officials denied the woman fundamental justice under Article 9 of the Declaration of Human Rights, which states “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”
On Jan. 6, 2014 the woman’s exhusband told police the accused, who can’t be identified under a courtordered publication ban, had taken their son and left the country. The following month she was charged with child abduction and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Police tracked the woman and child to Mexico, Guatemala and various parts of Belize, and the mother was the subject of various Interpol alerts.
Last July, Lethbridge police learned Belize authorities found the pair in the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District and took them into custody. The mother was jailed and fined for failing to produce valid immigration documents, and the four-year-old boy was placed in the care of Belize Human Services.
In August the mother was deported to the U.S., where she was arrested after landing in Houston, Tex., then returned to Canada later that night. She was taken into custody by Lethbridge police officers at the Calgary International Airport and charged with child abduction, then released from custody Aug. 23 following a bail hearing in Lethbridge.
Until recently, Wister had been struggling to obtain certain disclosure from Global Affairs Canada to determine whether he could prove a Charter breach. Global Affairs finally released the information, even though the Crown had earlier insisted the Charter doesn’t apply to the actions of Canadian officials abroad, and the government does not have to provide the information.
After reviewing some 500 pages of disclosure, Wister believes his client’s rights were breached during her forced repatriation. If the court finds the woman’s rights were violated, Wister has said he will seek a stay of proceedings, which would conclude the case without a conviction.
The matter returns to court May 29 when Wister is set to present his Charter arguments during a day-long hearing.
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