(Ottawa) A Russian woman who feared deportation to face sentencing for opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been granted Canadian citizenship, months after authorities blocked her from lending oath.
“I was very anxious today when I woke up, but now I feel much more relaxed,” Maria Kartasheva said Tuesday afternoon, moments after obtaining Canadian citizenship.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing, because it was a very scary experience,” she added.
Last week, Mme Kartasheva revealed that the Immigration Ministry prevented her from taking the oath of citizenship, just before the ceremony began.
Mme Kartasheva left Russia in 2019 due to rising authoritarianism and is now a tech worker in Ottawa who co-founded a democracy activist group in Russia.
As first reported by CBC News, Mme Kartasheva, 30, learned from her family that in late 2022 she had been charged by Russian authorities for deliberately spreading false information about Russian forces
The charges related to two blog posts she wrote in March 2022, while living in Canada, in which she expressed horror at seeing Russian troops killing Ukrainians in the town of Bucha. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that this attack included “unlawful executions, including summary executions, of at least 50 civilians”.
“More stressful than political persecution in Russia”
Mme Kartasheva informed Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada of the charges against her. Ministry records show she downloaded translated Russian court documents last May.
A few days later, the ministry sent him an invitation to his citizenship ceremony, which was to be virtual.
On June 7, 2023, she logged into the ceremony alongside her husband. During the interview before entering the ceremony room, he was asked if anyone had faced criminal charges, as part of a list of standard questions.
When she explained what had happened, an official stopped her from carrying out the ceremony.
Mme Kartasheva was arrested in absentia (in the absence of the person concerned) by a judge sanctioned by Canada. A few months later, a Moscow court also sanctioned by Canada convicted Mme Kartasheva to eight years in prison.
Last month, the department sent him a letter indicating that his conviction in Russia corresponded to an offense under the Canadian Criminal Code relating to false information. Mme Kartasheva appealed the letter, asking the government to reconsider its decision to bar her from citizenship.
She feared she would be deported if her appeal failed
“To be honest, it was more stressful than the political persecution in Russia. Because political persecution in Russia […] wasn’t too surprising. But with Canada, I was shocked,” she said.
Immigration lawyers and the Conservative opposition argued that this was a blatant misinterpretation of Canadian law. The Immigration Department responded to media reports that such cases were “carefully reviewed” before authorities issued barring notices to people like Mme Kartasheva.
Last Friday, while the media reported on the situation of Mme Kartasheva, she received a call from her MP, the liberal Anita Vandenbeld, who told her that she would find out about her case. On Tuesday midday, immigration officials called Mme Kartasheva, inviting him to attend a virtual citizenship ceremony that same afternoon.
The office of Immigration Minister Marc Miller would not say whether he had personally intervened in this matter. Mr. Miller indicated on the X platform that Mme Kartasheva had been invited to become a citizen.
“The eligibility rules are designed to bar criminals’ access to Canadian citizenship, not to repress or punish legitimate political dissidents,” he wrote.
Make things change
Mme Kartasheva said she is now working to prevent others from finding themselves in the same situation.
The activist group she co-founded, the Democratic Alliance of Russian Canadians, plans to launch a parliamentary petition asking Ottawa to list politically motivated foreign laws that have no equivalent in Canada, in order to to avoid situations like his.
The idea would be that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship would have a list of laws in different countries that are used for political persecution, which Canadian bureaucrats would not use when listing citizenship applicants in with a view to a possible ban.
In his communication with the ministry, Mr.me Kartasheva had to pay for the services of a lawyer and the official translation of her Russian court documents.
“It is not up to the person being politically prosecuted to prove this; the Canadian government would do it for her, argued Mme Kartasheva. I hope no one else has to experience the same thing. »
Russian human rights group OVD-Info says more than 19,000 people have been arrested during anti-war protests, leading to more than 850 criminal cases. Many of them face several years in prison for calling the Russian invasion a war.
Mme Kartasheva says she knows of another Russian who fled to Canada before being prosecuted in absentia, who has applied for refugee status and is awaiting a decision.