BC: Alleged attacker had been ordered deported

Alleged attacker had been ordered deportedCatherine Rolfsen, Vancouver SunPublished: Monday, April 07, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER - A failed 23-year-old refugee claimant from Rwanda was ordered deported from Canada long before he was charged in a violent Surrey home invasion last week that left a woman with serious leg injuries.

But he wasn't removed from the country because he was waiting to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting two minors in 2005, according to immigration documents.

Alex Ishmail (or Ismail) Murwanashyaka is accused of breaking into a Surrey home on April 1, tying up a mother and her nine-year-old daughter with wire and slashing the backs of the woman's legs before making off with $15, a bank card and the victim's car.

t's just the latest in a string of violent criminal charges dating back to when Murwanashyaka was a teenager in Ontario.

The transcript of an Immigration and Refugee Board detention review hearing on July 25, 2007 chronicles years of criminal activity by the young man who entered Canada at the age of 14.As of last year, Murwanashyaka had been convicted twice for assaulting a police officer, five times for possession of drugs for the purposes of trafficking, once for assault and once for possession of a dangerous weapon.Murwanashyaka said then that he was working in construction and living with his twin brother, Felix, near the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station in Vancouver.

Gregory Zuck, counsel for Citizen and Immigration Canada, said at last July's hearing that Murwanashyaka was ordered deported in 2006, having failed to qualify as a refugee.But he wasn't removed because of two outstanding charges of sexual assault of minors dating back to 2005, Zuck said."If Mr. Murwanashyaka was not facing Crown charges right now, he more likely than not would have been removed a long time ago," Zuck said at the hearing.Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Faith St. John said in an interview Sunday that's because criminal cases take precedence over immigration cases.

"If somebody has committed a crime in Canada, they must face those charges before removal will take place," St. John said.At the time of the 2007 hearing, Murwanashyaka also faced charges of assault with a weapon and theft under $5,000.

Court files were not available Sunday to determine the current status of these charges and the sexual assault case.Despite his violent past and frequent failure to comply with his probation terms, the Immigration and Refugee Board didn't see fit to keep Murwanashyaka in custody in 2007. Instead, board member Shaw Dyck put him under curfew and ordered him to report to border services on a weekly basis.

Dyck said Murwanashyaka was "a nuisance and very annoying" because of his unreliability, but concluded that it would be "inappropriate" for the board to order Murwanashyaka detained when the courts had given him probation."The Immigration Division is not a substitute for the judicial system," Dyck said to Murwanashyaka. "If there really are such serious concerns about you being a danger to the public, then certainly that information can be presented to the courts, who can revoke your probation."

The paper trail of Murwanashyaka's encounters with the immigration system picks up again less than a month before the home invasion for which he is now charged. On March 6, after being detained by the Canada Border Services Agency, he was again ordered released by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Transcripts for that decision are unavailable.Even when the criminal charges against Murwanashyaka are resolved, it's unclear whether he can be deported to Rwanda, as Canada has temporarily suspended removals to the troubled country because of security risks there, according to the Citizen and Immigration Canada website.

crolfsen@png.canwest.com