How long will Suaad Hagi Mohamud have to wait for answers?

August 19th, 2009

And moreover, how long will Canadians as a whole have to wait for “our” government to explain how it decides who is and is not deserving of its assistance? I think this is a vital question.

Mohamud is thankfully back in Toronto, and the diplomat who labeled her an “impostor” is, apparently, back in Ottawa, but Lawrence Cannon (who has finally emerged from hiding) says that it could take a month for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Travel to determine what happened. Even if they do, he will not guarantee that the results will be made public (via Dr. Dawg’s Blawg).

Bull.

What conceivable reason could there be, Mr. Cannon, to keep those results secret? Do the people of this country not have a right to know what our officials consider to be a “conclusive investigation”, or to know how often “conclusive investigations” are skipped in favour of summarily rendering our citizens stateless?

Somehow, I suspect that the goal right now is to avoid a costly lawsuit that draws negative attention to the Conservative government, and to Harper, Van Loan, and Cannon in particular. I think that the best way to avoid such a lawsuit is to be upfront and open about the results of the investigation, and to offer and immediate apology and compensation. The investigation is needed, both to give Mohamud some peace and to reassure all Canadians that such a situation will not occur again. But it is very clear now that something went gravely wrong at the Canadian High Commission in Kenya, and there is no need for the government to wait for the results of the investigation to acknowledge that.