By Michael Mandarano
For more than two months, Moti Nano has called the basement of the All Saints Lutheran Church his home.
The 33-year-old Ethiopian man was ordered deported from Canada after he was denied refugee status by a lone adjudicator in February 2004. Two years later, when the deportation order was served, he took refuge in the west end church, fearing torture if he were returned to Ethiopia. He’s been living there ever since.
The government has said it will respect Nano’s claim of sanctuary.
Nano, a human rights worker, fled his homeland after criticising the repressive Ethiopian regime, arriving in Canada in June 2001.
“I grew up in a country where a security person can come and shoot anybody they like,” Nano told Centretown News in an exclusive interview.
“You live a kind of false life. The only thing you know is that you’re walking on the street, and you really can’t know if you’ll be alive in a few minutes. That’s not a way to live.”
Nano, who has a degree in political science and international relations from Addis Ababa University, says he had been repeatedly arrested, beaten and tortured by Ethiopian security forces for being a member of the Oromo ethnic group, and for speaking out about Ethiopian human rights violations.
He says his brother was killed in 1992 by soldiers from the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front, the ruling party of Ethiopia. Nano was also arrested, tortured and threatened with death if he did not admit involvement with the Oromo Liberation Front. Nano claims to have no political affiliation.
“I suffered there, and I said ‘this is the end of me.’ I didn’t imagine I would be alive after that,” Nano says of his imprisonment. “They torture you, they punish and beat you, and then if they don’t find anything, what do they do with you? So they released me after three days. But those three days were like three years for me.”
However, Azhar Ali Khan, the adjudicator for the Immigration and Refugee Board, ruled that Nano’s treatment was not severe enough to be considered as persecution and denied his application for protection.
“(I think about) the adjudicator who says that I didn’t suffer much in the prison,” Nano says. “That’s what he said, but all the stories were documented.”
Citizenship and Immigration Canada defines a person in need of protection as someone “whose removal to their country of nationality or former residence would subject them to the possibility of torture, risk to life, or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”
Currently, there is no appeal process for those denied refugee status. But Nano has applied for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment because of the worsening political situation in Ethiopia. He has also applied for protection on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Nano came to Canada on a work visa to attend a human rights training program in Montreal in 2001. He refused to leave on the advice of his family in Ethiopia.
During his time here, he has been a security guard at Nortel, worked with the elderly and people with physical disabilities.
All Saints Lutheran has appealed to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay for a stay of deportation. It has not received a response. It is also preparing a letter to be sent to Immigration Minister Monte Solberg.
All Saints Lutheran sanctuary committee member Paul Merkley says he also wants the new government to examine its deportation policy.
“We’re very disappointed that with the change of government there hasn’t been a change of attitudes towards these kinds
of humanitarian concerns,” Merkley says. “The opposition party found many opportunities to beat the government about these matters. Now they’re the government, so we’re entitled to say ‘live up to your promises.’”
While he was a member of the opposition, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day requested the deportation order be overturned.
“It occurs to me that in light of the pending chaos in Ethiopia . . . that it would be a dereliction of our responsibilities as a democracy and a champion of other democracies to compel Ethiopian citizens here — unless they have clearly proved themselves to be criminals — to return to that hopeless setting,” Day wrote in December 2005.
The church says they will keep him in sanctuary for as long as it takes.
“This is an open-ended thing. As long as it takes. Staying here endlessly is better than the prospect that he faces going elsewhere. It’s an awful thing to have to say, but it’s true. So we can be patient because Moti can be patient,” says Merkley.
Nano says despite the setbacks, he’s confident in his case.