A climate activist who accrued numerous arrests while on a study permit has been told to leave Canada by January 25.
Zain Haq, who had his deportation stayed once already to allow him to apply for permanent residence via spousal sponsorship, has claimed that the most recent order is due to a bureaucratic error.
According to Haq, he and his Canadian wife submitted their application in October 2024 but were recently informed by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada that the documents had been lost.
Despite the fact that Haq had a receipt from FedEx showing that IRCC received the application, the government allowed the Canada Border Services Agency to reactivate his removal order.
"Zain Haq is not a violent criminal, and his mischievous convictions do not meet the legal threshold for serious criminality," Haq's lawyer, Randall Cohn, said.
"Even the CBSA officer who is charged with enforcing his removal has explicitly acknowledged that he poses no threat to public safety."
Cohn emphasized that Haq "has made a lawful application for permanent residence as the spouse of a Canadian citizen, and he has properly applied to extend the temporary status that was granted to him in April."
"This deportation is entirely avoidable," he added, "resulting from IRCC's inability to locate his application and CBSA's unwillingness to exercise its discretion by deferring removal until that error can be corrected."
Haq first came to Canada from Pakistan in 2019 to study economics at Simon Fraser University, and immediately continued taking part in climate activism, as he had done for years in his home country.
He has since been arrested over a dozen times for non-violent offences related to protests, including blocking a tree clearing by Trans Mountain. He has also served nine days in a correctional facility after being found guilty of contempt of court.
It was following the latter that his study permit was revoked and CBSA found him inadmissible to Canada. He was set to be deported on April 22, 2024, but managed to get that stayed as he and his wife worked to keep him in the country.
"Deportation means being permanently removed from a country I call home, and a place I've lived in my entire adult life," Haq said. "The thought of being separated from my wife, Sophia, and the life we've built together in Canada is devastating."
Among those calling for action to keep him in Canada is Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
"This is a moment for Canada to show the world what fairness and democracy truly mean,” she said. "[Immigration] Minister Miller has shown leadership and integrity before, and I am confident he can do so again to prevent an unjust outcome. This is not just about Zain — it's about ensuring that Canada upholds its values of democracy and justice."