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AFTER TWO YEARS OF actively campaigning for his family's right to stay in Canada as political refugees, Alan Maki has moved temporarily to the United States.
"I believed the refugee claim was at a no-win situation for us," says Maki. "It was strictly a question of who could hold out the longest." The family made a refugee claim in November 1997, when an RCMP officer investigated Alan for writing articles against racism and threatened to deport the family. They have won broad support for their right to stay in Canada. Most recently, on Nov. 2 the Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress approved a resolution for the family to stay in Canada and get a fair hearing.
The hearing date for Carol and Jeremy Maki's refugee claim remains set for Dec. 6. It remains urgent to support a fair hearing, since they face deportation should their well-documented claim be rejected.
A letter from Communist Party leader Miguel Figueroa to immigration minister Elinor Caplan called on Ottawa to cease all efforts to deport the family, and to grant their request to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
"The evidence in this case shows beyond doubt that Alan Maki and his family experienced political persecution over a prolonged period of time while living in the USA. This included threats and intimidation, and actual life-threatening assaults. The U.S. government's repeated refusal to turn over evidence in this case goes to prove the legitimacy of the family's claim." Figueroa also asked the Minister to apologize for investigating the family only after Alan Maki wrote articles against racism.
The FBI is still withholding more than 9,000 pages of documents, and the RCMP are illegally refuses to release information that could be of great assistance to the family. A hearing without this evidence would be unfair and "should never take place," wrote Figueroa.
"I would very much like to continue living in Canada and working as a member of the Communist Party of Canada, and that is my long term goal," says Alan, vowing to continue pressuring the U.S. government to release documentation.
While the FBI has monitored and persecuted members of the Communist Party USA under the Communist Control Act, a recent Boston Globe article said the FBI refuses to monitor right wing terrorist groups due to the U.S.
Constitution's "first amendment" rights. The number of cases of domestic terrorism being investigated by the FBI was 1,000 in 1998, up from 100 in 1993.
Supporters of the Maki family can demand a fair hearing and ask for the Government of Canada to seek FBI documents by writing to:
Minister of Immigration Elinor Caplan, House of Commons, Ottawa ON, K1A 0A6, fax (613)957-2688, email caplae@parl.gc.ca.
Full information, including the refugee claim, can be obtained from (204)453-3994 or www.interlog.com/~almaki.