Dear Readers,
I woke this morning to a story about a Russian woman, who opposes Putin’s war against Ukraine. Good on her. Maria Kartasheva left Russia and has been living in Ottawa since 2019. Her Canadian citizenship ceremony (online) was abruptly cancelled because she had been convicted in absentia by a Russian court for the “crime” of “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.” Ms. Kartasheva’s crime involved blog posts she wrote from Ottawa concerning Russian war crimes in the then-occupied Ukrainian town of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, war crimes that have been well documented.
The story was first reported by the CBC’s Matthew Kupfer.
You can read his account here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/maria-kartasheva-russia-citizenship-conviction-1.7074233
There is an online petition supporting Ms. Kartasheva:
https://www.change.org/p/protect-activist-s-path-to-canadian-citizenship-a-case-of-maria-kartasheva?original_footer_petition_id=15559933&algorithm=promoted&source_location=petition_footer&grid_position=3&pt=AVBldGl0aW9uACHRQAIAAAAAZZNr7zreUbQ2MDIzMzVjMw%3D%3D
IRCC is taking its sweet time (since, apparently, December 2022) to determine if the Russian information law, designed to stamp out any anti-war dissent, has an equivalency in the Canadian criminal code. In a letter sent to the CBC, IRCC states that:
“foreign convictions are carefully examined to see whether the act committed would have been an offence under Canadian laws if it had occurred in Canada.”
Yes, you read that right.
The case involves such clear moral turpitude, lack of understanding of Charter rights, and bureaucractic paper shuffling at IRCC that it deserves the widest possible attention and swift action to pull back from the Kafka-esque shadows.
IRCC faces a tough job in making determinations on refugees, immigration status and citizenship—granted. To do this job it needs public legitimacy, sometimes referred to as “social” or “democratic” license.
It is precisely dumfounding actions such as in the Kartasheva case, that undermines the very foundations of the IRCC’s standing before the Canadian public, and more broadly, helps push the image of the federal public service even further into the depths.
Fix this, for everyone’s sake. Do it now.
Thanks for this. Unbelievable behaviour by IRCC
Let me think about that. Probably a good idea. Thanks.