Murder Suspect’s Presence in Canada Queried
cbc.ca, Jan. 11
OTTAWA — Ottawa police detectives continue to gather evidence in the murder of Barbara Galway, the Almonte mother of three whose badly burned body was found in the Mer Bleue Bog area last Thursday morning.
Galway’s brother-in-law, Allen Tehrankari, 36, was in court Monday to face a charge of first-degree murder in the case.
Tehrankari has a long criminal record, and was ordered deported back to his home country, Iran, while he was serving a prison sentence for a bank robbery and hostage-taking incident in Ottawa in 1992. Citizenship and Immigration Canada said he posed a danger to the Canadian public.
However, a federal court overturned the deportation order on the grounds that Tehrankari had been tortured in Iran, and would face persecution if he was sent back. It also ruled that Immigration had not taken this into consideration when ruling him a danger to Canada.
“It’s very, very troubling, very disturbing when one considers what this guy has been up to since he’s been in Canada,” Peter MacKay, Conservative critic for the Canadian Border Services Agency, told The Canadian Press. (CBSA handles deportations.)
“It’s the kind of scenario that just leaves Canadians shaking their heads in wonder and frustration, and wondering what on earth is our Immigration Department doing?”
A spokesperson for the border agency, Rejean Cantlon, said Tehrankari’s case is a difficult one because of the complexities associated with deporting a so-called convention refugee.
“Removing a protected person is a very complex process that has a very high threshold,” Cantlon said.
“Once a danger [to the Canadian public] opinion is overturned by the Federal Court, it’s very difficult to obtain that same danger opinion without new information that would justify a new danger opinion,” Cantlon says.
Officials didn’t have any such new information, so Tehrankari was released on an immigration bond. Cantlon said Tehrankari was complying with the conditions of his release.
