Farai is a well-respected member of his community, beloved older brother, and son. He should not be ripped away from his friends, and his family who themselves are all Canadian citizens in Hamilton. This has been an incredibly stressful time for him and his family. Almost 3 years ago, Farai came into contact with the criminal justice system. He spent 8 months in pre-trial detention maintaining his innocence. After his three co-accused made plea agreements he felt obliged to plead guilty to robbery. Farai served 15 months in prison. During that time, his kind and gentle nature was deeply missed by his family, friends, and peers at the Youth Centre. While in prison, Farai was notified that he would be deported from Canada upon his release. These deportations are a double punishment; after serving a sentence, members of our community are punished again by being torn from their families and homes. New rules have also made appealing these decisions more difficult, another example of the tightening of Canada’s immigration system. “Farai has been an active leader in our community,” says Jennifer Hompoth, a co-founder of NGen Youth Centre, “ He has served as a citizen member of the Hamilton Youth Advisory Council and has been a youth leader at NGen. He is a proud Hamiltonian and he has done a lot of good work here. We all believe in him and we want him to stay.” Throughout his ordeal, Farai has continued to work towards completing his high school diploma in the hopes of becoming a social worker. “Beginning with the anti-Black racism in Canada’s criminal justice system, and ending with the unfairness of Canada’s immigration law with double punishment deportations, this is an injustice that needs to be righted,” says youth advocate and law student Riaz Sayani-Mulji. Please take the time to spread Farai’s story with your networks (justice-for-farai/). Explain to them that #blacklivesmatter https://youtube/watch?v=3auyDmPyMSs
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:44:53 +0000