A dual citizen of Italy and Ethiopia who brought her two Italian children to Canada more than a decade back, using aliases and falsely claiming they were Eritrean citizens subject to religious persecution, has won another chance for her family to stay here.

The Refugee Protection Division, which weighs refugee claims in Canada, initially accepted the 2014 claims of Tsegereda Tsegaye Wigebral and her two kids, Nobel and Melody Esayas Fisihatsion, now 19 and 17 respectively. But it nullified their refugee status and rejected their claim in December 2022 after learning their story was fake.

That same month, the family was declared inadmissible to Canada. They were ordered deported in August 2023, but applied for a pre-removal risk assessment, their last-ditch bid to stay here.

Last April, a senior immigration officer “reviewed the applicants’ file and held that they were not at risk of persecution, or subject to a danger of torture, and nor did they face a risk to their lives or a cruel or unusual punishment if they were removed to Italy,” according to a recent Federal Court decision out of Ottawa.

“While the applicants had alleged that they faced serious discrimination, social exclusion and abuse there, due to their race, and had alleged that they could not rely on the police or authorities for protection, the officer determined that there was not sufficient evidence before them to substantiate those claims,” wrote Justice Darren Thorne.

The officer “accepted that the applicants may have been subjected to ‘less favourable treatment’ due to their race, but found they had failed to establish that this rose to the level of persecution,” said Thorne’s decision, dated June 25. “In one of the central findings, the officer noted, in relation to mistreatment in Italy, that the principal applicant had provided ‘little to no further elaboration or evidence as to how she came to the conclusion that the Italian authorities would not help her.’”

The trouble is, immigration officials had asked the older child, who had turned 18, to file his own application, but the immigration officer handling their case didn’t look at what Nobel submitted before making a decision. Thorne said the immigration officer’s decision was “clearly” made without viewing the totality of the family’s applications.

“The right to be heard is among the most basic aspects of procedural fairness. When a decision has clearly been made without considering all of the materials submitted by an applicant, this right has been compromised,” said Thorne, who sent the family’s case back to a different immigration officer to re-evaluate.

A lawyer representing Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, who was fighting for the family’s removal, couldn’t explain why that happened, although they noted the officer may not have seen Nobel’s application.

The same lawyer argued Nobel’s submissions “were immaterial, as they contained broadly the same information as had been provided by the principal applicant,” and that the information he provided “also did not establish that the treatment suffered by the applicants rose to the level of persecution, so it would not have changed the officer’s decision, even if it had been considered.”

The judge did not find that argument persuasive.

“This supposition is pure speculation, and no evidence was put forth in support of it,” Thorne said. “It makes little difference whether the officer had missed, disregarded or somehow failed to have personally received the second (pre-removal risk assessment) application. The point is that the decision clearly did not involve consideration of this information from the applicants.”

Thorne concluded that the officer either didn’t know that there was a second application or “completely ignored” it. Either way, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had specifically requested the information, so the officer should have addressed why Nobel’s application had been disregarded, if indeed it was dismissed purposefully.

The judge noted that Nobel’s application contained more details about what his family would face in Italy that were relevant, including the racism and discrimination “that is allowed or encouraged by political leaders in Italy.”

“Such evidence would seem directly pertinent to findings in the decision that the applicants had not provided elaboration or evidence in support of their beliefs that state authorities could not be relied upon for protection,” Thorne wrote.

The judge didn’t buy the argument that, even if the officer had looked at Nobel’s submissions, it “would not have led to the conclusion that the malign treatment allegedly suffered by the applicants rose to the level of persecution.”

“It is certainly possible that this belief is correct, and that this might well have been the determination of the officer, but it is not the role of this court to speculate on what the findings of the officer would have been, had they considered the information in the second (pre-removal risk assessment) application. It is unknowable what impact this would have had on the decision,” Thorne said.

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There is a growing backlash after the RCMP announced this month it is investigating whether Canadian citizens involved with clashes in or around Israel were in contravention of this country’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Amid outcry from Jewish groups, the force said it wasn’t a criminal probe, but to “collect, preserve and assess information” for potential future prosecutions.

Foreign governments, such as Belgium and Brazil, have also opened investigations into their own citizens who served with the Israel Defense Forces.

Lt.-Col. (ret.) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform, at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, suggests these are politically motivated probes.

He has been retained by IDF soldiers who have been questioned by foreign government representatives. Hirsch has previously served as senior legal analyst for Human Rights Voices in New York, lawyer for the Israel Defense Forces, director of the legal department for Palestinian Media Watch, senior military consultant for NGO Monitor, and adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Dave Gordon interviewed Hirsch for the National Post.

What do you think motivates foreign governments who seek these investigations?

I can’t tell you exactly as to what their motivation is, but I believe that it’s somewhere in the realms of political expediency, and internal demographic politics. It requires these governments to almost change what they’ve been doing traditionally, even to the point of potentially abandoning allies.

Their voter base has changed. And so now you have a situation where you need to almost pander, to cater, to a more fringe population.

In May, U.K. government lawyers told the High Court that there was no evidence Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza, and that evidence exists of Israel making efforts to limit harm to civilians. If the government doesn’t believe that war crimes are being committed, then obviously they won’t then take that forward, and actively engage in an investigation of something that they don’t believe is happening.

But if the government is so prejudiced, and predisposed, that war crimes are being committed, then obviously you launch an investigation.

What evidence would a foreign investigation need, to theoretically try a soldier in court?

Video footage, forensic analysis, operational logs — all impartially examined. What they have is so weak and poor, it’s impossible to say it’s “evidence.” I think it’s just so circumstantial and flimsy, even imagined.

Organizations are gathering information from social media, when IDF soldiers put up videos of their activities in the Gaza Strip, and those videos are predominantly taken out of context and given a criminal shade.

They’ll destroy a civilian building, which is a war crime, but clearly not if it’s a military target. For example, a place where weapons were stored, where terrorists were encamped, that had tunnels going underneath it. All of these possible scenarios.

And so the video itself shows absolutely nothing.

Governments are looking at reports and statements from people who have left Gaza, and can say anything they want. This whole effort, really, is a huge waste of time, resources and energy. It’s entirely impotent, because without knowing exactly what the military goal was in any given circumstance, there’s no way you can actually assess the actions of the soldier.

There’s a legal mechanism that already exists in Israel, to prosecute soldiers who have broken laws?

Without question. There is an entire investigative process. Everyone knows they exist. And yet this almost sanctimonious drive, seems to be to ignore that reality, and pushes for these

 
ad hoc

 courts to somehow take charge.

In media interviews, you contend that there is no formal support from the Israeli government for IDF (soldiers), to defend them against foreign investigations. Is that still the case?

That still appears to be the case. There are certain ministries that are involved in a risk assessment, and are there to help, I think, the higher ranking officers. But my experience till now has been that the lower ranking soldiers find it very, very difficult to get any support whatsoever from these ministries, and that I fear is very dangerous.

Of these Israeli departments which you criticize, are they aware of the shortcomings you speak of?

So the difficulty is, that they don’t know even the extent of the exposure that the soldiers are facing, and wouldn’t know necessarily to be able to provide assistance to everyone in need. You’re talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of people.

This is just a question of personnel and manpower. It’s overwhelming right now, especially where we’re busy fighting a war.

On a government-to-government level, how is this issue being dealt with?

There are discussions on all different types of levels, and without again getting into too much detail, I think in many cases, a lot of the work is being done diplomatically.

The opening of an investigation is dependent on a government decision, rather than anyone presenting to a court with alleged evidence. That’s already a very big step forward than what used to be the case in England, where any organization could claim that X had committed war crimes, submit any type of evidence they had to a local magistrate, and that magistrate could then issue an arrest warrant.

With predominantly friendly governments, the hope is that they can be diplomatically persuaded, or dissuaded, from going down a certain path.

Which steps should the Israeli government take to address these investigations?

I think it needs to be a conglomerate of different actors, because the problem requires different solutions and different involvement.

I would suggest a joint task force of the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, each one contributing in their own unique way to providing the best support possible.

And sometimes the support needed is relatively simple, just to say that that X person was not in active duty in any type of a position, that could be considered relevant, when the alleged war crimes happen.

This interview has been edited for brevity.

(National Post contacted the IDF spokesperson’s unit and the spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and received no response.)

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A B.C. firefighter says he was denied entry into the United States, where he was going to take part in a competition for First Responders from different countries around the world.

Jamie Flynn posted on social media on Thursday to detail what happened to him when he was en route to Birmingham, Alabama. He said he was supposed to represent Vancouver firefighters in the Jiu Jitsu category at the

World Police & Fire Games

. He described the games as an “international event uniting frontline responders through sport,” in a post on Instagram.

“Being denied entry to the United States is deeply upsetting,” he told National Post in an emailed statement on Friday.

“I lost my flights, my time away, and my opportunity to compete at the World Police & Fire Games in Alabama — an event I had trained extensively for.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jamie Flynn (@jamieflynnbase)

Flynn said he is a British citizen living in Canada as a permanent resident.

He is a firefighter in Vancouver and volunteers with Squamish Search and Rescue. He has served in the British Parachute Regiment (SFSG) and has also served alongside U.S. forces under Joint Special Operations Command.

“I operated under U.S. command, wore the American uniform, and fought under the American flag. I’ve always felt a strong bond with the United States,” he told National Post. “I have no criminal record and no known issues that would justify this denial.”

In his post on Instagram, he said he trained for the competition in the U.S. for months. “And still, I’m grounded — sidelined not by injury or lack of effort, but by bureaucracy and silence,” he wrote.

Flynn intended to fly to Alabama from Vancouver International Airport on Wednesday. He never made his flight because his Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) had expired and would not be renewed,

Global News reported

. He said he received an update on the ESTA app that said, “Travel not authorized.”

ESTA is an automated system used to determine the eligibility of visitors to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is valid for two years, or until a passport expires, and allows for multiple entries.

If a traveller receives a “travel not authorized” response to their application, CBP says online that they can look into applying for a visa if they still wish to enter the country. The denial only prohibits travel under the Visa Waiver Program and does not determine eligibility for a visa, per the agency.

Canadian citizens travelling with a Canadian passport

do not need to apply for an ESTA

.

Flynn said that he did not receive an explanation from anyone at the U.S. border, the U.S. consulate or the ESTA program.

“This feels like a clerical error,” he said, and, he added, it’s cost him thousands of dollars. “I’m gutted. I’m angry. And I want answers.”

He ended the post with the line: “We were good enough to fight their wars — but not good enough to cross their borders.”

Flynn told National Post that he is looking forward to being able to visit the U.S. again in the near future. He has since submitted a visa application.

Unfortunately, he said, the earliest available appointment is Feb. 11, 2027.

University of Toronto law professor and Rebecca Cook Chair in Human Rights Law Audrey Macklin

said her advice for travellers going to the U.S. is to avoid it altogether “unless absolutely necessary.”

“Even at the best of times, states often treat non-citizens arbitrarily, and do not feel obliged to explain their actions,” she told National Post over email.

“This is sometimes justified on the ground that non-citizens do not have a right to enter, and therefore have no standing to complain about how a decision to admit or exclude is made. Since the rule of law is in free fall in the United States at the moment, the arbitrariness is more extreme, more coercive, and more frequent. That is why travellers should avoid the United States if they can.”

National Post has reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.

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OTTAWA — Canada’s cyberintelligence agency doesn’t just go after violent extremist group leaders’ computers and networks, it also attacks their reputation, credibility and trustworthiness to undermine them, according to a new report.
 

In its latest annual report published Friday, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) offered new detail about what it does during an “active cyber operation”.
 

In other words, how CSE leads its minister of defence-approved campaigns meant to disrupt, influence or interfere with online threats posed by hostile actors like foreign states, organized crime or extremist groups.
 

The activities go well beyond the clichéd image of tech wizards in hoodies hacking into foreign threat actors’ computers and wreaking havoc on their IT systems (though that also happens).
 

In cases last year where CSE ran operations against violent extremist organizations, for example, the cyber-spy agency targeted the adversaries’ online presence and reputation on top of their IT infrastructure.
 

“Using a multi-faceted approach that targeted VEOs’ technical infrastructure and online presence, CSE conducted active cyber operations to damage the credibility and influence of key group leaders, reducing their ability to inspire and lead,” reads the report.
 

The operations also aimed to “weaken trust and reduce cohesion between leaders and followers, undermining the unity and strength of these organizations,” the report continues.
 

Asked in an interview if CSE leads online disparagement campaigns against leaders of violent extremist organizations, Cyber Centre deputy head Bridget Walshe declined to go into detail.
 

“It’s difficult for me to get into details about the actual techniques that are being used, because if we share those techniques, then that impacts them and the effectiveness decreases,” Walshe said.
 

“Violent extremism is a big one, because there is an immediate threat to Canada. So, what we’ve tried to do is highlight what the impact is” of CSE’s cyber operations, she said of the latest report.
 

In total, CSE says it was authorized to run four active or defensive cyber operations last fiscal year, including another that targeted the 10 biggest ransomware groups impacting Canada.
 

In one case late last year, the agency detected a ransomware group targeting Canadians working in a critical infrastructure sector. Within 48 hours, the report reads, CSE’s teams identified and notified victims and ran a cyber operation to disrupt the criminal group’s activity.
 

The spy agency also said that it helped identify legitimate businesses that were covertly supporting foreign governments’ military, political and commercial activities meant to undermine the Canadian Armed Forces.
 

Walshe declined to say if the businesses were Canadian or had a connection to Canada but noted that CSE’s mandate does not allow it to act against Canadians.
 

“Our mandate in this sphere is foreign,” she said.
 

Over the last fiscal year, CSE says it responded to 2,561 cyber security incidents affecting either the government of Canada or critical infrastructure providers.
 

That’s a 16 per cent increase compared to the previous year as hostile actors increasingly target Canada’s critical infrastructure sectors such as energy, finance, food, water and manufacturing.
 

CSE also says in the report that between 2020 and 2023, it improperly shared information about Canadians with international partners that had been acquired “incidentally” while targeting foreigners.
 

“Corrective actions included placing strict limits on information sharing and seeking assurances from CSE’s trusted partners that the shared information was deleted,” the agency said, adding that it also notified the minister of defence.
 

The report does not detail how many Canadians were impacted or what information was improperly disclosed.

Once again, CSE says the People’s Republic of China is by far the most prominent threat to Canada’s national security, engaging in activities ranging from espionage to intellectual property theft and transnational repression.
 

China’s targets are also vast and include government, civil society, media, the defence industry and the R&D sector.
 

“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) operates, and continues to expand, one of the world’s most extensive and dynamic security and intelligence systems,” reads the report.
 

“The PRC cyber program’s scale, tradecraft and ambitions in cyberspace are second to none.”
 

Russia is also a key threat actor and continues to conduct espionage, spread disinformation and run influence operations against Canadians.
 

Unlike previous years, the 2024-2025 annual report does not mention North Korea and barely notes the cyber threat posed by Iran, though Walshe said both regimes remain problematic for Canada.
 

“They are both capable threat actors,” she said. “We absolutely do see that those two states posing a continued threat to Canada, just not highlighted in this report.”
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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A 70-year-old man has been deported from the United States after kicking a U.S. Customs and Border Protection dog at an airport in the Washington, D.C. area on Tuesday.

CBP agriculture detector dog Freddie, a five-year-old beagle, and his handler were inspecting bags during a routine screening after a flight landed at the Dulles International Airport from Cairo, Egypt.

Freddie alerted his handler to a suitcase belonging to the 70-year-old, when the man “violently” kicked the animal “with sufficient force to lift the 25-pound beagle off the ground,”

authorities said

 Thursday. Officers handcuffed him and turned him over to Homeland Security Investigations agents.

The veterinarian who examined Freddie determined the beagle had contusions to his right forward rib area. CBP Public Affairs Officer Steve Sapp told National Post in an emailed statement that Freddie is still recovering.

The vet said he needed rest and prescribed low dose pain medication, said Sapp, adding that the beagle should be back to work in a week.

Authorities searched the man’s baggage and said they found more than 100 pounds of food products, including 55 pounds of beef, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of eggplant, cucumbers and bell peppers, two pounds of corn seeds and one pound of herbs. The items, which are on the

prohibited list

, were seized, per the agency.

The man appeared before the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia and pled guilty to harming animals used in law enforcement. He was

credited with time served

, ordered to pay the veterinarian bill and to report to CBP to be deported.

According to

court documents obtained by CBS News

, the veterinarian fee amounted to US$840.

He left the U.S. on a flight to Egypt at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.

“Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared and prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle,” said CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C. Christine Waugh.

She added that Freddie was “just doing his job.”

A video of Freddie working with his handler was posted on the CBP’s Facebook page in March.

Freddie, who is part of CBP’s Beagles Brigade, helps screen passengers and cargo “to prevent the introduction of harmful plant pests and foreign animal disease from entering the U.S.,” the CBP said.

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A family from Afghanistan that fled Russia after their eldest son got a draft notice in 2023 has won another chance at staying in Canada in part because some of their five sons could get pulled into the war on Ukraine or one of the belligerent bear’s future fights.

Canada’s Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) found that if Alireza and Shafiq Saberi and four of their children were sent back to Russia, two of their sons, ages 17 and 13, would likely be conscripted during the conflict and suffer discrimination in the military.

The division determined that the two teenagers were refugees, but rejected appeals for refugee protection for the parents and their two youngest children, finding it “difficult to imagine” the two boys, now 10 and three, would suffer the same fate.

It determined the father was too old for conscription and Russia isn’t drafting women.

However, a Federal Court judge has overturned that conclusion. Justice Angus Grant, in a recent decision out of Toronto, noted that the RAD should have considered the possible future treatment of Ali Yaser, the couple’s 10-year-old son, if he were drafted. Grant noted concerns both that the boy could be treated poorly in the Russian military on account of being a minority and that he risks conscription in the future.

“It was important to assess Ali Yaser’s future conscription into the military, not only in the context of the current war, but also in the context of a regime that has almost perpetually been engaged in conflicts around the world and that, by its own admission, has imperial and territorial ambitions beyond those it is currently pursuing in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” wrote Grant.

With his ruling, the judge granted the two youngest members of the Saberi family and their parents an application for judicial review of the refugee decision. But fears of future conscription wasn’t the pivotal reason for his decision — ethnicity was.

“The RAD unreasonably failed to assess the applicants’ forward-facing risk of persecution in Russia on account of their ethnicity as non-Slavs and their immigration status,” Grant said.

The RAD will now reconsider the family’s case.

The family members are Shia Muslims of Hazara ethnicity, an Afghan ethnic group. They fled the Taliban in 2018 and 2019, moving to Russia, where the father, Alireza, had a work permit, and ran a business importing and reselling goods from China. The family later obtained Russian citizenship.

“While in Russia, Alireza was extorted by the police as a result of his non-Slavic ethnicity and immigration status, being required to pay bribes to the Russian authorities in order to be allowed to work. He was additionally called a ‘blackhead,’ a racial slur for non-Slavic individuals,” Grant noted.

The children, save Yousef, a boy now three, who was too young to attend school, “were similarly discriminated against and bullied at school for being non-Slavic and were treated as ‘second class citizens,’” Grant wrote.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its troubles with manpower for the ongoing war have captured attention around the world. The judge noted that men between the ages of 18 and 30 are subject to one year of forced conscription.

“Although President (Vladimir) Putin initially promised that no conscripts would be used in the conflict, this has proven untrue,” Grant wrote.

The Saberi family’s eldest son Mohammad Komail, who is now 22, “received a military summons in 2023, which prompted the Saberi family to flee Russia,” Grant said. As they fled through other countries, including the United States, Mohammad Komail was detained. He remains in immigration detention in the U.S. Upon arriving in Canada, the family claimed they were refugees.

Canada’s Refugee Protection Division (RPD) rejected them, finding they could safely return to Russia.

“The RPD accepted that the applicants had experienced discriminatory treatment in Russia, but concluded that this did not amount to persecution,” Grant said.

It also found “that the prospect of compulsory military service in Russia did not amount to persecution. It found the applicants’ claim that Alireza and his sons are at risk of being conscripted and sent to fight in Ukraine speculative.”

The family appealed to the RAD, which found their sons Mohammad, 18, and Nasir, 14, qualified for refugee status as they were currently — or soon to be — eligible for conscription and risked being sent to fight in Ukraine.

The appeals of Alireza, Shafiqa, Ali, and Yousef were rejected.

According to Grant, the “central issue” to be determined in this matter is whether the decision to refuse the parents and their two youngest boys was reasonable.

“The RAD accepted that the applicants experienced extortion demands from Russian police, which they had to pay in order to work. The RAD accepted that the applicants were singled out for these extortion payments because of their ethnic and national background,” said the judge. “In those circumstances, it was incumbent on the RAD to explain why this mistreatment at the hands of Russian state agents did not constitute persecution. The only explanation that the RAD provided was that the applicants’ physical or moral integrity were not threatened, but it is unclear to me how this conclusion is compatible with the acknowledgment that the harm feared by the applicants is extortion by state officials. Extortion and bribery are crimes that, by definition, involve some combination of threats, force, and coercion.”

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