by KEN HECHTMAN

There are about 1,000 non-status Algerians in Canada and they all fit into one slot or another of Immigration Canada senior spokesperson Robert Gervais’ spreadsheet. There are 379 people still waiting for a final decision from the feds, but their chances of being accepted are admittedly slim. Five have already been refused entry because of criminal records. Another 39 have been deported, four of them by force. Fifty-eight have been recently granted landed immigrant status, and 173 are missing. There are now 268 people under review by the Quebec-Canada joint procedures.

Another 51, however, won’t get the chance to apply. Any criminal conviction, no matter how old, no matter how minor, makes an immigrant ineligible. The three-month moratorium on deportations ends Jan. 30 and after that, says Gervais, those deemed ineligible will go back to wherever they were in the deportation process.

Jaggi Singh, recently returned from the Middle East and back on the job with the refugee rights group No One Is Illegal, is quick to denounce the labelling. “Once an immigrant has a criminal record - as 10 per cent of native Canadians do - they have no more rights. They’re not entitled to fair treatment. It doesn’t matter to the government if they live or die.”

Say what you like about the Israelis, at least they only deport people out of war zones; as of next Thursday, the Canadian government is back in the business of deporting people back into them.

One of the stories behind the statistics is that of Jamal, Malika and their five children. Nine years ago, Jamal paid a phone bill at the Bell office. Two of the $20 bills he handed over were counterfeit. “He had no idea how he got them,” says Malika. “Usually they just tell you to bring them to the bank. This time the cashier called the police.”

Two years later, Malika says, Denis Mondor, Jamal’s legal aid lawyer, advised his client to plead guilty. Malika insists her husband told Mondore, “I am a refugee. Are you sure this won’t hurt my immigration case?” Jamal pleaded guilty in exchange for no jail time and a $400 fine and assumed his debt to society was paid. Last fall the family learned that, due to the criminal conviction, they’re barred from making a Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds application to Immigration Quebec.

“We cannot set ourselves up as a second tribunal,” Gervais initially told the Mirror. “Once the court finds someone guilty of criminality, there’s nothing we can do.” Later, he conceded, “Actually we can - in extreme circumstances, if a family will be broken up, if the breadwinner will be deported - but we don’t.” He went on to explain that Immigration Canada’s top priority for deportation is anyone convicted of a violent crime against a person.

“They always want to talk about violent crime,” says Singh. “That’s how they normalize a zero-tolerance policy.”

A demonstration against the deportations of Algerians will be held this Saturday, Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. in front of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s downtown office, 1010 St-Antoine W. :