The relatives of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who arrived in Canada are permanent residents and not asylum-seekers, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Sunday.
Kenney, attending a Conservative party meeting in Ottawa, said some members of Ben Ali’s family “are permanent residents” and “have the right to be in Canada.”
He spoke days after one of Ben Ali’s many brothers-in-law arrived in Montreal aboard a private jet accompanied by his wife, their children and a governess, according to news reports confirmed by a government official.
Ben Ali’s wife Leila Trabelsi has several brothers, and the official declined to say which one had arrived in Canada. The family reportedly checked into a hotel in Montreal.
A spokesman for a Montreal-based group formed to support Tunisians who have risen up against Ben Ali’s government told The Montreal Gazette he was dismayed to hear that Canada had allowed the ex-president’s relatives into the country.
“We’re very disappointed that Canada has accepted these people who are directly related to the dictatorship and to the family that has been ruling Tunisia for the past 23 years,” said Haroun Bouazzi, of the Collectif de solidarite au Canada avec les luttes sociales en Tunisie.
Bouazzi, who was born and raised in Tunisia but has lived in Canada for the past 11 years, said the Canadian government should have refused entry to Ben Ali’s family even if they were carrying the proper documentation.
“When Ben Ali left Tunisia, he was still president, and countries like Malta and France didn’t accept him even then,” he said. “Countries always have a choice to be on the side of the Tunisian people.”
An official at Citizenship and Immigration Canada said Saturday that Ottawa was not offering asylum to Ben Ali’s family.
Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia this month after weeks of violent protests against his iron-fisted rule.
Montreal Gazette
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