Haq said that while he is disappointed, he accepted the decision, and said that if there were any irregularities in the decision-making process, he holds no ill will
Climate activist Zain Haq boarded a plan to Pakistan in Toronto shortly before 1 p.m. PST on Sunday, still hoping for Immigration Minister Marc Miller to intervene in his deportation.
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That last minute reprieve did not come.
Minutes before boarding he was calm — and tired — after spending 10 hours on a layover following his late night flight from Vancouver.
He was also resigned to the fact despite months spent searching for a way to stay in the country he now calls home.
“I accept my fate,” said Haq.
Haq reported to the CBSA office at YVR last night accompanied by his wife, Sophia Papp, and her parents, to whom he is close.
CBSA officers then escorted Haq to WestJet to check in.
Haq, who co-founded the activist group Save Old Growth, came to Canada in 2019 on a study permit. After his high profile climate activism led to arrests in 2021 and 2022 and a guilty plea to five counts of mischief, CBSA claimed he was not meeting his study conditions and revoked his student visa.
Although SFU wrote a letter of support for Haq, his deportation was ordered based on the student visa issue.
In 2022 he married Papp, a Canadian. Papp applied for Haq’s permanent residency through the spousal sponsorship process.
After a Federal Court hearing dismissed Haq’s application to delay the student-visa-related deportation in 2024, Immigration minister Marc Miller intervened.
Haq received notice from CBSA that the deportation was cancelled and he was given a six-month temporary residency.
That residency expired on Dec. 6. Haq, in the meantime, had applied for an extension to the temporary residence, pending the spousal application, but IRCC claimed not to have received Haq’s application for that extension and the deportation order was reinstated.
On Thursday, Jan. 23, the couple learned that their spousal application had been refused.
The couple’s lawyer Randall Cohn called the refusal “troubling and frustrating.”
“When an individual is refused they are entitled to meaningful and substantive intelligence on the reason for that decision,” said Cohn, who immediately filed for a judicial review of the decision.
Without a judicial review, the couple has no opportunity to understand why they were denied or file an appeal.
Unfortunately, such a review takes time, which Haq did not have.
“This is wrong,” said Cohn.
Papp, who is already applying for a Visa to join Haq in Pakistan, said she feels let down by Canada.
“The timeline was such that we don’t have time for due process or procedural fairness,” said Papp.
The couple plans to start the application process again from outside of Canada, but it can take five years or more when you apply from outside the country.
As Haq prepared to board the plane in Toronto, he was exhausted, but calm.
Haq said that while he is disappointed, he accepted the decision, and said that if there were any irregularities in the decision-making process, he holds no ill will.
“This whole struggle is so much bigger than the actions of any individual [immigration] officers. We’re talking about the climate crisis, which affects all of us, and our own marriage and future, which is what I am focused on.”
Papp hopes to travel to Pakistan, where she plans to stay with Haq as they reapply for spousal sponsorship.
“We’ll have to start figuring out a new normal, and we are committed to staying together,” said Papp.