A Black American Is Seeking Refuge In Canada From Police Racism
Kyle Lydell Canty applied for a asylum to escape police brutality.
7 hours ago
Daniel Marans Reporter, The Huffington Post
An African-American U.S. citizen is seeking asylum in Canada to escape police mistreatment.
Vice reported that Kyle Lydell Canty traveled to Canada in September as a tourist and decided to apply for protection as a refugee.
Canty is facing criminal charges for a number of misdemeanors, including offenses as minor as jaywalking, which he claims are all unfounded and the result of racist policing. He also says he has been denied due process in his efforts to challenge the charges.
Canty is under no illusions that Canada’s criminal justice system is entirely free of racial bias, but he thinks it would be a marked improvement.
"I've had interactions with police officers here, and they're very different from police in the States," Canty told Vice. "I'm not stupid enough to think Canada doesn't have any racism, because North America has a history of racism. However Canada is a much safer place for me than the States."
Black people are "being exterminated at an alarming rate" in the U.S., he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., saying, "I'm in fear of my life."
Canty made his case for asylum to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in a hearing Oct. 23, according to reports, where he presented evidence of his own alleged mistreatment, as well as the broader pattern of racial discrimination in the U.S. criminal justice system.
An IRB spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse that Canty presented media reports of police killings of unarmed black people and video of his own interactions with police.
But AFP noted that the IRB does not consider American asylum seekers conventional refugees deserving of protection under United Nations rules.
The IRB did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment or information on U.S. citizens seeking asylum in Canada.
However, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported that 10 or fewer U.S. citizens are granted asylum in Canada each year. In 2013, there were only three. So far this year, just two out of the 71 U.S. citizens who applied were granted asylum, according to Vice.
It is not altogether surprising that Canty -- and others -- would seek refuge in the United States’ more liberal neighbor to the north.
The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes.
Historically, as Dave Zirin notes in The Nation, Canada has earned a reputation for being more welcoming to black Americans than their native country.
Branch Rickey, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who hired Jackie Robinson, sent Robinson to play for the minor-league Montréal Royals before starting in the major leagues because he knew the Canadian city would be more welcoming than a U.S. metropolis.
John Carlos, the bronze medalist in track and field at the 1968 Olympics, also went to Montréal in 1971 to play Canadian football. Carlos’ famous Black Power salute on the medal platform at the 1968 Olympics sank his career, but he said that going to Canada was like “therapy” for him and his family.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-american-canada-asylum-police_5633e125e4b0631799127eb2/
* 2 Videos on link *
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American Renaissance
By Henry Wolff
Black U.S. Citizen Kyle Lydell Canty Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Posted by Henry Wolff
A U.S. citizen has argued before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver that he should be granted refugee status over fears that he will be killed in his home country by police because he is black.
Kyle Lydell Canty, 30, crossed into B.C.’s Lower Mainland in early September of 2015, telling border agents that he was here to visit and take photographs, but once in Vancouver decided he would apply to remain as a refugee.
“I’m in fear of my life because I’m black,” he told IRB member Ron Yamauchi in a hearing on October 23rd in Vancouver. “This is a well-founded fear.”
Canty argues that black people are “being exterminated at an alarming rate” in the U.S. and included examples such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and the death of Eric Garner in New York City at the hands of police.
Canty represented himself at the hearing, which he applied to have made public, and was commended by Yamauchi at its conclusion, who said Canty had put together a “well prepared case . . . and argued it as well as it could be.”
Canty submitted a significant evidence package to the IRB including videos, media reports and the UNHCR’s handbook on determining refugee status.
{snip}
He told the IRB that in every state he resided, police have harassed him and targeted him because of his race.
As part of evidence submitted to the board, Canty edited together multiple point-of-view videos of his interaction with police, including one where he was arrested for trespass in Salem, Oregon, when he spent two hours talking on the phone and using free Wi-Fi at a bus station.
“I got bothered because I’m black,” he said. “This is a history of false arrest. My name is ruined because of the false arrest.”
He described another video submitted to the IRB that shows a police car driving past him and then stopping.
Two officers emerge. Canty asks them why they are stopping. The officers reply they believed he was flagging them. When Canty says no, they depart without incident.
Yamauchi questioned Canty over whether or not this could be considered a negative, threatening interaction with police.
Canty admits that he has several outstanding charges in multiple states for things including jaywalking, issuing threats, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest but says he has no intention of returning to his home country to face those charges.
“I’m in fear of my life,” he said. “I already know the outcome.”
His goal is to stay in Canada where he says he feels safe and even comfortable enough to talk to police.
{snip}
No more than 10 U.S. citizens are granted asylum by the IRB in Canada each year. In 2013 there were only three.
{snip}
If it is approved he can apply for permanent residency. If denied, removal from Canada is a possibility, but Canty says if he does not get a favourable result he will appeal.
http://www.amren.com/news/2015/10/black-u-s-citizen-kyle-lydell-canty-seeks-refugee-status-in-canada/
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Facts or Friction -
http://mcfriction.blogspot.com/ * Video*
Canty wants to own a photography business and open a training centre for a martial art that he practises. Currently he is residing at a homeless shelter in Vancouvappeal.If it is approved he can apply for permanent residency. If denied, removal from Canada is a possibility, but Canty says if he does not get a favourable result he will appeal
Born in New York & has lived in 6 states, before arriving in Canada where he says he has never been before.
Edited by
SassyEuro2
on Sun 11/01/15 11:02 PM
