Bob Mackin
Jan. 26 is the day that a Pakistani citizen who violated the terms of his student visa faces deportation, according to a Federal Court judge’s decision.
On Jan. 23, Justice Catherine Kane rejected Muhammad Zain Ul Haq’s application to stay his removal from Canada for being criminally inadmissible. Haq had sought leave for a judicial review of a Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) Inland Enforcement Officer’s Jan. 6 decision against deferral.
Muhammad Zain Ul-Haq, a Pakistani national outside the North Fraser Pretrial Centre (Save Old Growth)
Kane heard Haq’s appeal in a Jan. 22 videoconference, but found that he reiterated many of the same arguments from his failed April 2024 application. Haq was spared deportation with a six-month temporary resident permit after intervention by Liberal MP Joyce Murray and immigration minister Marc Miller. That expired in October.
Haq came to Canada to study at Simon Fraser University in 2019, but became a paid organizer of illegal protests in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. He pleaded guilty in January 2023 to five charges of mischief for his role in Extinction Rebellion blockades in 2021 in Vancouver and Richmond. Haq also pleaded guilty in November 2022 for breaching a release order for the August 2022 Stop Fracking Around protest that blocked the Cambie Bridge.
Haq, Kane wrote, “has not provided any clear, convincing and non‑speculative evidence to establish any irreparable harm that amounts to exposing him ‘to the risk of death, extreme sanction or inhumane treatment’; but rather raises speculative risks and other harms that are related to the inherent consequences of removal, including the impact on his spouse, who relies on him for valid reasons and, although this impact may be difficult, it remains an unfortunate yet inherent consequence of removal.”
In April 2023, Haq married fellow protester Sophia Papp in a bid to gain spousal sponsorship status. Haq’s lawyer argued that the application is in the later stages of processing. But a lawyer for the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness argued that the decision is not certain nor necessarily imminent.
“The [Minister] is tasked with ensuring the integrity and confidence in Canada’s immigration system, which includes ensuring that the provisions of the Act are carried out including the statutory duty under section 48 of the Act is to enforce a removal order as soon as possible,” Kane wrote.
Kane’s decision noted that Haq’s offences were non-violent and that he has complied with conditions of his CBSA bail.
In July 2023, Provincial Court Judge Reginald Harris sentenced Haq to seven days in jail, 30 days house arrest, 31 days of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and 75 hours of community work service, plus a 12-month probation.
“His conduct speaks to an arrogance of his ideals at the expense of the democratic process and pro-social dialogue,” Harris said in his sentencing decision.
Harris mentioned that Haq twice organized protests that blocked emergency routes to St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver.
Haq was a director of the January 2022-founded Eco-Mobilization Canada, the federal not-for-profit company behind Extinction Rebellion splinter group Save Old Growth(SOG). Haq had boasted in August 2022 in a New York Times story that SOG received US$170,000 in grants from the California-based Climate Emergency Fund (CEF). Haq later appeared on the non-profit’s website as a member of the CEF advisory board.
