When Maria Kartasheva appeared at a Canadian citizenship ceremony last June, she thought she would cut up her permanent residency card and take the oath. Instead, her officials barred her from attending, saying that her criminal charges in Russia for criticizing the war in Ukraine could disqualify her from citizenship.
She finally took the oath of office in a virtual ceremony from her home in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon and became a Canadian citizen. But the moment came after what she described as a nerve-wracking seven-month saga that included a frantic effort to win public support for her case. If she had been sent back to Russia, as she was contemplating Canada, she would have been sentenced to eight years in prison.
“I put all that hope in Canada only to be betrayed,” said Ms. Kartasheva, 30. “So who would take care of me? “I was very afraid that no one would want to support me.”
Ms. Kartasheva was arrested in absentia last spring and was convicted in November by a Moscow judge over anti-war comments she posted on social media while living in Canada.
Permanent residents with criminal records in other countries may lose their immigration status in Canada if an equivalent crime is identified in Canadian law. But after a review, officials decided to grant her citizenship.
Ms Kartasheva launched a petition last month and has been overwhelmed by the letters of support she has received from Russian dissidents and human rights groups.
“I find it really appalling that we have a bureaucracy that is so rigid, at best, or so totally obtuse that it doesn’t understand that someone in this situation needs protection rather than persecution in Canada,” Aurel Braun said. , professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto and author of numerous books on Russian politics.
Ms. Kartasheva and her husband, both tech workers, arrived in Ottawa in 2019 as permanent residents, reluctant to leave a country they loved. But, she said, the political climate in Russia has also made going to work, under the gaze of heavily armed police, a daily anxiety. One of her first culture shocks in Canada was the lack of uniformed officers patrolling the streets of the capital.
As she adjusted to life in Canada, Ms. Kartasheva freely expressed the political views she had mostly repressed at home, participating in anti-Putin protests outside the Russian embassy in Ottawa and sharing her views on social media. She also co-founded the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance, a pro-democracy organization.
His activism soon attracted the attention of the Russian authorities. They arrested Ms. Kartasheva in absentia in April 2023, alleging that she spread “false information” about the Russian military in statements Canada made in social media posts about the massacre in Bucha, Ukraine. The charges were made as part of a series of censorship laws introduced as part of Russia’s crackdown on opposition to the war.
[Read: How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent]
Kartasheva’s arrest was ordered by Elena Lenskaya, a judge at the Basmanny District Court in central Moscow, known for hearing cases of high-profile opponents of President Vladimir Putin, including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Aleksei Navalny.
Both Judge Lenskaya and the Basmanny District Court have been sanctioned by Canada in the last 14 months for human rights abuses.
“There are some regimes that do not hesitate to prosecute their former citizens, even if they have left the country, because they will do anything to stay in power,” Professor Braun said. “They are absolutely ruthless.”
Ms Kartasheva believes the Russian embassy reported her to the Russian authorities. The embassy did not respond to a question about that claim.
“To the best of our knowledge, these types of crimes are prosecuted in other national jurisdictions, including Canada,” it said in an emailed statement.
Canada’s fake news law was ruled unconstitutional in 1992, and the Supreme Court noted that other democracies had no such provision, said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, executive director and general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Even before it was abolished, a federal legal commission recommended its repetition.
“They had said it was anachronistic because it was intended to protect the lords of the kingdom,” he said. “And in a democracy, in a free and democratic society, it is above all public figures who must be able to resist criticism and scrutiny.”
In a letter from her immigration officer, Ms. Kartasheva was told that officials had identified a different Canadian law that they believed was equivalent to the Russian one, a law that prohibited Canadians from transmitting “information that they know to be false” and ” with the intent to insult or alarm a person.”
This Canadian provision falls under the property rights section of the criminal code, Ms. Mendelsohn Aviv noted, and has been used to prosecute people for making false emergency calls and for harassing or alarming others. Officials approved Ms. Kartasheva’s citizenship after considering arguments from her immigration lawyer, Mikhail Golichenko, that Russian law has no equivalent in Canada.
Ms. Kartasheva, relieved to be a Canadian citizen, plans to return to her activism after the order.
“I still believe Canada could have prevented this,” she said, adding: “At the same time, I’m very grateful.”
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Vjosa Isai is a journalist and researcher for the New York Times in Toronto.
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