PUBLICATION:          The Ottawa Citizen

DATE:                         2005.01.12

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  City

PAGE:                         C1 / Front

COLUMN:                  Kelly Egan

BYLINE:                     Kelly Egan

SOURCE:                   The Ottawa Citizen

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Failed bids to deport Tehrankari a travesty

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What do you have to do to get deported from this country?

Allen Tehrankari, an Iranian refugee, tried just about everything.

He robbed banks. He shot at the police. He shot at a civilian trying to do his civic duty, leaving bullet holes in the guy's windshield. He endangered a whole neighbourhood by fleeing on foot from the law. He took two hostages. He held them at gunpoint. He terrified two innocent people. He even threw up during the hostage drama, leaving a small business owner to clean up the mess. He tied up the court system. He spent eight years in Canadian prisons, at taxpayers' expense, during which he acted like a litigious ninny.

He should have gone directly from jail, in leg irons, to the airport, en route to Tehran .

Hey, Mr. Tehrankari, here is a Canadian value you might have missed at citizenship school: we don't steal and shoot at people because we're hard up for cash; we don't threaten to kill people to settle grievances. What a travesty.

Here is an e-mail I received from a family member still reeling from the weekend news that Barbara Galway, 46, may have died at the hands of this misfit. "Any and every person in our legal system who aided in his remaining here now have Barbara's blood on their hands. Damn them all."  People are that mad.

To back up for a moment, Mr. Tehrankari was an ex-soldier in Iran who went on a breath-taking criminal spree in March 1992.

One afternoon, he robbed a Canada Trust branch on Carling Avenue with a semi-automatic rifle. He made for a lousy bandit. He wore no mask, instead screaming at bank employees "Don't look at me!" He then escaped on foot. What kind of a bank robber doesn't have a getaway car? What kind of a bank robber runs across the Queensway?

The foot chase, complete with flying bullets, continued down Carling Avenue . He stopped at two car dealerships. At the last one, Carling Motors, he stole a white shop coat, which made him look like a crazed lab technician. He then took two hostages and kept them terrorized in a small office building for about two hours. If not for the courage of one Bob Ireland, who booted his hostage-taker in the head and disarmed him, there might well have been two homicides that day.

About the only thing he's done right in this country is plead guilty to the charges related to the bank robbery. He was sentenced in September 1992 to 12 years in prison and served eight.

In defence of the Immigration Department, it recognized it had a bad apple on its hands. As senior writer Andrew Duffy explains in today's editions, the federal government twice tried to deport him to Iran , but was thwarted by the Federal Court of Canada.

Seems Mr. Tehrankari would have got a frosty welcome back in Iran . No kidding. Maybe he should have kept his nose clean in Canada and tried to earn his citizenship, not abuse our goodwill with flying bullets.

When he gets out of jail, a deportation order hanging over his head, his life resumes in a mundane manner. At some point, he gets an overnight job pumping gas at an Esso on Innes Road . He has a child. He becomes a landlord of a house on Florence Street in Centretown. He convinces people he is a Bible-following Christian.

The most hideous part of the story was yet to come.

Mr. Tehrankari is now charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ms. Galway, his sister-in-law. First killed, she was then set on fire and left in a remote part of the Mer Bleue Bog. This was a monstrous act.

If the accusation holds up, it is all the more shocking. Ms. Galway came from a devout Christian family that tried its best to keep him in this country. How they must be feeling betrayed today. A terrible price has been exacted, though it is not yet known whose hand is responsible. Still, three children awake today without a mother; a husband without his wife.

Stepping back for a moment, here is the part of the story that should concern everyone. The Canadian public is losing faith in the system that handles dangerous refugees. It is one thing to be compassionate. It is quite another to be stupid. We twice meted out one and the other.

The pathetic conclusion to this story, wherever the guilt lies, is we now seem to be stuck with this villain for years to come. Allen Tehrankari wanted to stay in this country; to call Canada home. There was a better way than booking a bunk in a cell.

Contact Kelly Egan at 726-5896 or by e-mail, kegan@thecitizen.canwest.com

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DECEMBER 15, 2004 - BREITKREUZ'S ACCESS TO INFORMATION REQUEST TO ANNE McLELLAN'S DEPARTMENT

On October 27, 2004, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan explained to the Standing Committee on Justice that “there are roughly 30,000 people in this country who are under removal order.”  On December 15, 2004, the National Post had a front page story on a “twice-deported career criminal” facing deportation his arrest following a six-month crime spree.  The article went on to state: “Det. Sgt. Townley complained his desk is buried in similar files belonging to foreign criminals who manage to remain in the country.”

For the years 2003 and 2004, please provide copies of documents and reports showing: (1) The number of persons in Canada under “removal orders” including the reasons why they were ordered removed; (2) The number and types of crimes committed by persons subject to removal orders; and (3) The number of times persons under removal orders have been previously deported for committing criminal offences.