Valdano Toussaint Alleged leader of the Blood Mafia Family street gang was to be deported yesterday to his native Haiti
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Alleged leader of the Blood Mafia Family street gang and who was to be deported yesterday to his native Haiti has received a last-minute reprieve from a Federal Court judge.Federal Court Chief Justice Allan Lutfy ruled late Monday that Valdano Toussaint should be allowed to stay in Canada, given the precarious humanitarian situation in the Caribbean country."We also argued that he committed crimes when he was a youth, and that his age should be taken into consideration," Toussaint's lawyer, Marie-Hélène Giroux, said in an interview.How can you know the consequences of your actions when you're 12?"Toussaint will be 22 next week. He arrived in Canada in 1997 and spent much of his youth in foster care. While he has no convictions as an adult, he pleaded guilty to weapons crimes as a youth.Lutfy ordered the stay of removal until Toussaint's lawyer can appeal the deportation order before the Federal Court.If deported, Toussaint would be imprisoned in Haiti, which has been pummelled by four tropical storms this summer and is struggling to feed its people in the wake of increasing food and gas prices. Unless he had someone bringing him food in prison, he wouldn't eat, his lawyer argued."We've heard from (non-governmental organizations) and reporters there that criminal deportees are imprisoned and forgotten there," Giroux said
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