"Canada's New Government" – is it too soon for a nostalgic flashback of the Harper government's first catchphrase? Before there was an Economic Action Plan (and Economic Action Plan sequels – next year I believe they will exceed the Police Academy franchise) there was our New Government.
You see, back in 2006 (for those too young to remember), there was massive confusion after the election. "Yes, we have a new government, but are they Canada's new government?" people would often ask strangers on the street. "Stephen Harper, he leads Bptswana's New Government, doesn't he? They sure are lucky to have him" someone famously said - hence the need for Canada's new government to use "Canada's New Government" on everything from mundane press releases to TV ads on the amazing things Canada's New Government was doing.
So many memories. Well, as weeks became months and months years, it became a bit of a joke. You see, they weren't so "new" anymore. And then, while none of us were paying attention, the whole Canada's New Government thing went away. Except it sort of didn't.
On Monday the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney held a press conference to announce that Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and convicted terrorist, had been deported after 26 long years in Canada.
A total no-brainer. Convicted terrorists should not be allowed to come to Canada. Easy. You lie on your immigration or refugee application (as he did), no dice. Get him out of here. How has it possibly taken 26 years to deport somebody who should never have been let into Canada in the first place?
So it wasn't surprising when Minister Kenney pulled his best "Neon" Deion Sanders imitation and high-stepped to the podium in what was billed as "one of the most heavily promoted deportations in recent years" to declare: ""Mr. Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad represents just how broken Canada's immigration and refugee determination systems had become under previous governments." Yes! "This case is almost a comedy of errors" Amen! "Since becoming Minister of Immigration and learning of this case…we've done everything we possibly could to secure his deportation" Finally! Action!
While previous governments dithered, "we did everything we possibly could to secure his deportation". As with so many other files with this government, we may be into year eight of governing but everything bad is still the fault of those dastardly Liberals (and in this case also the fault of Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell).
Us? We're heroes. Men of action. Cleaners of messes we just inherited minutes ago from the Liberals as they were leaving office, like, yesterday.
Except, well, a couple of things. Jason Kenney isn't a new immigration minister. No, he's the longest serving minister of the last 26 years. He's coming up on his fifth anniversary in the job in October. That's just under 20 per cent of the time that Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad was in Canada. Stephen Harper's been Prime Minister for almost 30 per cent of Mr. Mohammad's stay here.
And what did Mr. Kenney do over his first 1,660 days as minister to get Mr. Mohammad out of the country? As The Globe reported : "In 2007, a Canadian government risk assessment officer found Mr. Mohammad to be at risk of torture if he was deported... In 2012, a government official acting for the minister decided Mr. Mohammad was not at risk if he was removed to Lebanon."
As Mr. Mohammed's lawyer Barbara Jackman said, Mr. Kenney was meant to decide in 2007 whether Mr. Mr. Mohammed should be deported, but "they don't do anything until the end of 2012... It's not a broken system. It's that they didn't do anything. There's no explanation why they sat on it for all those years."
It's that they – the people in power from 2007 until today – didn't do anything. There's no explanation why they – the people in power during that time – sat on it for all those years. The obvious question is what happened between 2007 (Mr. Kenney became Minister in 2008) and 2012? Why the delay?
We heard a lot on Monday about why, according to Mr. Kenney, this could never happen again (get back to me once the courts rule of the constitutionality of his legislation) but nothing on what happened over the last 7 years to prevent this deportation. It's great that he did something as his fifth anniversary in the job approached, but why did Mr. Kenney sit on this file for all these years?
But never mind all that. While previous governments did nothing, Canada's self-proclaimed New Government is bringing change as fresh as the Leafs' locker room at midnight Monday (too soon?). People who have worked in government know that there's a fine line between being fresh and new and being old and tired.
It really is fantastic that Canada deported Mr. Mohammad yesterday. He should never have been here in the first place and it is embarrassing that it took us this long to get rid of him. But that doesn't mean there aren't lots of questions about how this case unfolded and what it means for future cases under this or a future, new government.
In the mean time, please excuse Minister Kenney as he unpacks his boxes and gets settled in, he's brand new here.
Robert silver, a partner at Crestview Public Affairs, has been a policy advisor to Ontario Liberal governments.