Simply Irremovable

If he had been a 90-year old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the government would have moved heaven and earth to strip him of citizenship and send him back to Europe, even if he were deaf, blind, demented and bedridden.

But since he is simply a convicted Palestinian hijacker, he will be able to keep gaming the system until he dies here:

A convicted terrorist fighting deportation says his failing health should entitle him to remain in Canada.

Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad turns 64 in two weeks and says he's too sick to be deported to Lebanon.

His diabetes, heart failure and hepatitis would be exacerbated if he were to be sent back, Mr. Mohammad's lawyer Barbara Jackman has argued.

Mr. Mohammad is a former member of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was part of the terrorist team that hijacked an Israeli airliner in Athens on Dec. 26, 1968, killing an Israeli citizen.

In March, 1970, a Greek court convicted Mr. Mohammad of manslaughter and other offences and sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

Four months later, six Palestinian commandos hijacked an Olympic Airways airliner and threatened to blow up the plane if the Greek government did not release Mr. Mohammad. He was granted a pardon and left, only to turn up in Brantford, Ont., in 1987.

Canada began deportation proceedings against him in 1988 after learning he lied about his criminal past to get into Canada.

In this case we have a preview of what will happen with any of the Toronto 17 who are convicted and are not Canadian citizens by birth. We will never be rid of them so long as they can keep the appeals process going, no matter how frivolous or vexatious their grounds.

There will be plenty of lawyers willing to handle appeal after appeal, if not for the notoriety, then certainly for the government-guaranteed fees.

The administration of justice will fall into disrepute as a result, but what is that compared to the moral superiority of elevating process over justice?

Source: Globe and Mail