An Ontario Superior Court judge has ordered the release of Kashif Ali, an immigration detainee who spent more than seven years in a maximum-security jail because the Canadian government has been unable to deport him.In a forceful rebuke of Canada’s practice of indefinite immigration detention, an Ontario court ordered the release Wednesday of the West African man who has told the Star he just wants to go home.Justice Ian Nordheimer called the lengthy detention “unacceptable” and said that it violated Ali’s Charter rights."One thing is clear and that is that Canada cannot purport to hold someone in detention forever," Nordheimer said, reading from his decision. "Mr. Ali has not been convicted of a criminal offence, and yet he has been held for over seven years in detention facilities, facilities that, if he had been convicted of a criminal offence, would have entitled him to a credit of more than 10 1/2 years against any sentence that might be imposed."Ali is the longest-serving immigration detainee currently in detention. He was one of two detainees profiled in Caged in Canada, a recent Star investigation.Dressed not in an orange prison jumpsuit as he had in earlier court appearances, but a crisp, white, dress shirt and dark slacks, Ali smiled and hugged his lawyers after the decision was read.Sakina Millington, Ali`s 26-year-old Canadian daughter, cried as she listened in the court`s second pew with her mother. “I`m in shock,” she told the Star.Ali was born in Ghana to a Ghanaian father and Nigerian mother. The 51-year-old has a long criminal record of mostly petty crimes from years ago. The government has been trying to deport him since 1995 without success. Ali is willing to be deported, but he lacks the documentation to prove his citizenship so neither country will take him back.The Canadian government had been seeking Ali`s continued detention, saying he was intentionally thwarting his removal. B ...
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