Deported lawyer slams Canadian Government

A Canadian lawyer who was deported from Kenya after overseeing a ceremony that declared the opposition leader ‘the people's president’ says the Canadian Government failed to protect him during the ordeal. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Miguna Miguna was charged with witnessing the mock inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga. Shortly after he refused to enter a plea, he was forcibly escorted to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Miguna practises law both in Kenya and Canada, where he was previously granted political asylum in the 1970s. He claims Canadian immigration officials failed to provide him with consular assistance. ‘It's a big failure because they needed to scream, they needed to make noise. They needed to do something drastic and they never did,’ he said. The Globe and Mail reports that Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government is ‘deeply concerned’ by Nairobi’s ‘unlawful’ detention of opposition supporters and the shutdown of some media outlets. ‘We urge the government of Kenya to uphold its constitution, to allow freedom of expression and to respect court orders, including those that order the release of those granted bail,’ Freeland said.