“Black is not just the colour of our skins, it’s the colour of our politics… there’s no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal governments…” — Ambalavaner Sivanandan in Colour Line by Asian Dub Foundation

Fahim Kayani is paying the price for our Canadian “multicultural” delusions, our nationalist fantasies, our collective identity fraud. Fahim’s crime? Wrong passport, wrong religion, wrong skin colour. He’s been labelled a terrorist, a criminal, an illegal immigrant, he’s lost his career, he’s lost his fiancée and the Canadian government wants to deport him on minor visa violations because they want to cover up their own mistakes.

As I write this, Fahim awaits a federal court judge’s decision that will be made anytime between now and next Monday, March 22. The judge’s decision will determine whether Fahim will be deported to Pakistan, where he faces the cruel possibility of detention and torture at the hands of a government with a notorious record for human rights abuses and a welcome partner in the Bush Administrationâe(TM)s “war on terror.”

“Tolerant” liberal multiculturalists proclaim: “come to our country: we’ll eat your curry, your dim sum, celebrate your Caribana. Of course, we’ll tolerate you. But don’t forget this is our country — our white country.”

In the so-called “war on terror,” tolerance’s threshold has been shattered: “black, brown, yellow? You look suspicious. Arab? Get in the cell. Muslim? You too, buddy. Oh, but we’ll need some of you to be our doctors or taxi drivers — globalization, capitalism. You understand the needs of the market? Don’t you?”

Fahim was one of those deemed expendable by the “multiculturalist” Canadian government — liberal tolerance had been breached.

Beginnings and rude awakenings

After completing his Master’s degree in Pakistan, Fahim talked to a friend who was studying at Seneca College in Toronto. Fahim was intrigued by Canada.

“I went through the [Canadian Consulate’s] literature,” Fahim told me. The Consulate’s pamphlets described Canada “as a very peaceful country, there’s freedom of speech, human rights. That’s when I decided to come to Canada.” And he did. He arrived in Canada in August, 1999, on a student visa.

From 1999 until late summer 2003, Fahim lived as any other Toronto student might: applying to universities, attending classes, listening to music, watching movies. But his life was shattered one early summer morning.

Just before dawn on August 14, 2003, members of Canadian security services stormed into Fahim’s apartment, cuffed him, interrogated him at gunpoint and then shipped him off to a detention centre.

He wasn’t alone. That morning, 18 other Pakistani students were arrested in what the RCMP called Project Thread. Two other Pakistani students had already been arrested in May in connection with the investigation. And after August 14, three more men have been detained. The men detained under Project Thread were initially accused of being terrorists and were held as threats to national security.

The media jumped into terror hysteria mode, gratuitously reporting on unsubstantiated government claims about the men — suggesting they were an al-Qaeda sleeper cell, planning to destroy either the Pickering Nuclear Plant or the CN Tower. But the evidence was so flimsy that just weeks after the detentions the government backed off the terror allegations — “Case of 19 terrorists unravelling” The Globe and Mail reported. Note The Globe still referred to the men as “terrorists.”

The terror talk was dropped and the men were held on minor visa violations and, following the American model, as media coverage subsided the men were slowly and quietly deported to Pakistan where they faced torment at the hands of the Pakistani government and vigilantes.

Before he was able to get legal counsel, Fahim signed a so-called exclusion order in the hope of getting released from detention, but he also set in motion his own deportation. Since retaining Amina Sherazee as counsel, Fahim has argued that deportation to Pakistan poses a serious risk to his safety. At a hearing Sherazee presented 400 pages of documents detailing the real threat Fahim would face from the Pakistani government and the vigilantes.

With his supporters

On an overcast day the Canada Life building stands out from the dreary downtown Toronto skyline. It’s Monday, March 15 — the day of Fahim’s hearing — maybe his last chance to stay in Canada. The 70-year-old limestone building looks serene, almost majestic — it’s a symbol of an imagined Canada, a landmark: proud, free and united. But these days, appearances can be deceiving and what’s imagined differs so much from reality.

Today, the lights on the weather beacon that sits atop the Canada Life building are flashing downward — even as the sun rises, the temperature is dropping. Outside the gates a rabble of folk have gathered carrying placards — one reads: “Immigration is a Human Right. Keep Fahim in Canada.” Sima carries the sign. She’s one of the leaders of Project Threadbare, a citywide coalition that formed in the wake of the Project Thread arrests. I look over at her and wonder what is she thinking. I know what she’s thinking, what everyone there is thinking, and they know what I’m thinking: how is he? Where is he?

And then he appears, walking slowly out of the building dressed like the gentleman he is. I run up the steps to greet him and he smiles and embraces me and I think he reminds me of my cousin Raja in Jabalpur. But this is Fahim, this is why the rabble has gathered, to support him and to fight with him.

Ayesha, a Project Threadbare member tells me later over the phone that she believes Fahim is “a man of integrity, courage and compassion.” She’s right, so right, and I’d add strength and dignity to that list.

Fighting on

Later I see Fahim again at an informal get-together and I’m reminded of Raja again but maybe I see myself too — he’s brown like me, Muslim like me, we just have different passports — but that didn’t save Maher Arar. But people like Ayesha and Sima and other courageous souls in Project Threadbare and other activist groups are making sure the struggle goes on and Fahim has his rights restored and the Thread 24 are exonerated.

But more broadly these groups are challenging the nature of our purported “multicultural” society and fighting for equality for all Canadians, including immigrants and refugees.

Take action

If you’re in the Greater Toronto Area, Project Threadbare will be holding an organizing meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor Street West (at the St. George subway station). Meet in the Lobby of OISE.

If you’re outside the GTA check out Project Threadbare

Or voice your opinion to the Immigration Minister, Judy Sgro at [email protected]. and to Anne McLellan, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness at [email protected].