Deportation stalled, but criminal will remain in jail

Parliament cannot have intended that the freedom to roam the streets of Canada ... could be procured in this manner.

Since Jacob Lunyamila, a Vancouver resident originally from Africa, got refugee status in 1996, he has racked up 95 criminal charges and 54 convictions in more than 400 interactions with police.

He punched his ex-girlfriend in the face, and he has randomly attacked strangers.

He has also been convicted of sexual assault and carrying a concealed weapon — an axe.

As a result, Lunyamila has been deemed too dangerous to stay in Canada and ordered deported to his native country — believed to be Rwanda.

But he remains here after failing to sign the necessary documents that would allow him to be sent back to the African nation.

The Immigration and Refugee Board had ordered him released from jail, saying it was unfair to hold him indefinitely despite his criminal history.

But Federal Court of Canada Chief Justice Paul Crampton has now ruled Lunyamila must remain in custody pending his removal from Canada.

Crampton said Lunyamila is manipulating the situation by refusing to co-operate with efforts to deport him.

“To permit a detainee who is a danger to the public or who poses a flight risk to manipulate and frustrate the operation of the law, as Mr. Lunyamila is attempting to do, would be to allow the detainee to essentially take the law into his own hands,” Crampton said in his ruling. “This would undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and public confidence in the rule of law.”

Crampton added “parliament cannot have intended that the freedom to roam the streets of Canada, and to go into hiding to avoid removal to one’s country of origin, could be procured in this manner by persons who pose a danger to the Canadian public or others who do not wish to co-operate with a validly issued removal order.”

Crampton’s ruling was issued Oct. 27, 2016, but released only Tuesday. Lunyamila’s legal team has already filed an appeal.

The B.C. provincial court’s online database lists 73 entries for Lunyamila dating back to 1997.

Some of his crimes are petty — failing to appear in court, theft under $5,000, possession of stolen property, breaches of courtordered conditions.

But there are more serious convictions, as Crampton noted, including 10 for assault. Lunyamila’s problems with alcohol and drugs were often contributing factors.

He was first ordered deported in August 2012 after an immigration adjudicator ruled he was inadmissible because of his criminality.

Two years later, after he was convicted of sexual assault, the federal government decided “Lunyamila constitutes a danger to the public in Canada,” Crampton noted.

He was first placed in detention in June 2013, then released briefly in September 2013, “but was rearrested within a few days after he breached one of the conditions of his release. He has been in detention ever since,” Crampton said.

From the fall of 2013 until January 2016, monthly detention reviews were held.

“In each or most of those decisions, significant weight appears to have been given to the fact that he was not co-operating with the requirement of Rwandan authorities that he sign a declaration related to the acquisition of travel documents,” Crampton said.

In early 2016, another immigration board member released him, saying “the fact that there is no identity documentation at this point makes removal look very, very distant, if possible.”

But Crampton has now set aside all the immigration decisions ordering Lunyamila released.

“The decisions of the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board to release Mr. Lunyamila were all unreasonable. Moreover, the terms and conditions set forth in those conditions were unreasonable, as they would not have sufficiently addressed either the danger or the flight risk posed by Mr. Lunyamila.”

Parliament cannot have intended that the freedom to roam the streets of Canada ... could be procured in this manner.