Members of a Religious Group Flee to Trinidad - Detained at Piarco

[pecan]

This group was living just an hour's drive from me. Now they run to Trinidad.


WINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA • Members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect at the centre of a child custody battle have vanished just before a Chatham, Ont., judge was to decide if they must give up their kids. It’s unclear where all the 13 children and their parents — members of the Lev Tahor fringe group — have gone. But an official at Piarco International Airport in Trinidad confirmed Wednesday that nine people were detained there.

Trinidad’s Security Ministry said Wednesday that Lev Tahor members arrived aboard a Monday flight from Toronto. They wanted to transit to Guatemala. Members of the group still in Chatham weren’t saying Wednesday where the families had gone.

“They’re not in the community,” spokesman Uriel Goldman said. “I cannot respond to their situation. They decide whatever they decide. They decide to leave, that’s it. I cannot respond to that. That’s their decision.

“I’m really not concerned where they are, really not. They are, both families, really responsible parents. They know exactly what they are doing.”

It’s the second time that members of the ultra-Orthodox group have apparently skipped town to avoid facing a judge. The families, including a teenaged mom and her infant, were supposed to appear in a Chatham court Wednesday.

A judge was set to rule on their appeal of a previous decision that their children be put into Quebec foster care. About 200 members of the group — half of which are children — fled Quebec in the middle of the night last November just before a judge there ordered the children be placed in foster care.

The Quebec judge made the ruling based on allegations that children under the age of 16 were forced into marriage, their health was being neglected, they weren’t receiving adequate education and they were subjected to corporal punishment.

When they first arrived in Chatham, where they set up a small community, group members told The Windsor Star they had no intention of returning. After the group landed in Chatham, children’s services lobbied for permission to enforce the Quebec judge’s decision and deliver the children to child welfare authorities in that province.

Chatham Justice Stephen Fuerth ruled last month that the 13 children must be returned to Quebec and placed in foster care. But instead of immediately enforcing his ruling, he gave the parents 30 days to appeal.

That was supposed to happen Wednesday, but the families didn’t show up and the hearing was postponed. A lawyer for children’s services brought an emergency motion after the families didn’t show up. But media were barred from the courtroom, so the subject of the motion is unknown.

Stephen Doig, executive director of Chatham-Kent Children’s Services, said, “Before we knew they were actually out of the country, we did alert our sister agencies where they have jurisdiction where there are Canadian-American border crossings,” he said.


    6 Mar 2014
    National Post - (Latest Edition)
    By Trevor Wilhelm
    Postmedia News, with files from The Associated Press

[asylumseeker]

Jews appeal order: under lockdown
Story Updated: Mar 7, 2014

ATTORNEYS representing the nine members of an orthodox Hasidic Jewish group, who were denied travel to Guatemala when they entered Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, have appealed their Immigration rejection order.

The group are currently staying at the Piarco International Hotel, which is under hea­vy security, while they await a decision on the appeal.

The front door to the hotel has been locked.

Persons arriving at the ho­tel are questioned by security.

Attorney General Anand Ram­logan yesterday confirmed the appeal and expressed confidence the Chief Immigration Officer would deal with the matter “expeditiously”.

Ramlogan however expressed “extreme concern” a child protection order is currently being breached in the matter.

On Monday, around 5 a.m., nine members of Lev Tahor arrived in Trinidad on board a WestJet flight.

The group, consisting of six children and three adults, were in transit to Guatemala, through Trinidad and Tobago, from Toronto, Canada, when they arrived at Piarco International Airport.

When Immigration officials interviewed the group, “inconsistencies in their responses” were discovered.

The group was rejected and advised of their inability to travel to Guatemala.

They refused to return to Can­ada.

Local attorney Farai Hove Masaisai, who specialises in immigration cases, was contacted on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Masaisai filed an application for habeas corpus.

Justice Vashiest Kokaram heard the application on an “emergency basis” on Thursday and dismissed the application.

Speaking to the Express yesterday, Masaisai said while he was not successful in the application before Kokaram, the situation turned out favourable as he was able to meet with his clients.

Masaisai said Avrohom Din­kel, the group’s spokesman, expressed pleasure in being able to see him.

Dinkel, 22, is the only member of the group who speaks English fluently.

He is the only Canadian citizen among the group.

The other members of the group speak Yiddish.

The group has slammed the actions of this country’s Immigration.

“We all cry out to the public in Trinidad and Tobago not to give a hand for religious persecution against innocent girls, boys, mothers and fathers,” correspondence from a member of Lev Tahor stated.

In an interview on Thursday night with TV6 reporter Mark Bassant, Dinkel said the actions by local authorities are political and religious persecution because this country does not want to affect its relationship with Canada.

He claimed the group is not receiving the proper food nor the proper equipment to prepare food, especially as it prepares to observe the Sabbath (on Saturday).

“The authorities are purposely trying to break our morale to make us go back to Canada,” he said.

Dinkle said allegations against the group (in Canada) are false and “anti-Semitic” and people have an agenda, adding “a lot going on behind the scenes” was not being reported in the Canadian media.

Masaisai said the group was only shown the rejection order on Thursday night, during his visit to the Piarco Internation­al Hotel.

Masaisai yesterday said this was the longest he has ever seen a situation like this take to be resolved.

The situation has “spiralled out of control”, Masaisai said.

He yesterday called on due process to be taken, with the utmost urgency.

Masaisai served a notice of appeal to the Lev Tahor rejection order to the Chief Immigration Officer yesterday mor­ning.

Because the appeal has been lodged, the Lev Tahor nine cannot be deported without a special enquiry being held first.

Ramlogan expressed confidence the matter will be dealt with “expeditiously”, adding the Chief Immigration Officer has sought legal advice on the matter.

“The group is being treated well and we are ensuring they are treated in a humane and decent manner, pending the determination of the appeal,” Ram­logan said.

Ramlogan said the Central Authority Unit has been liai­sing with its counterpart in Canada and has been advised the children are the subject of a child protection order in the province of Quebec in Canada.

The order awarded custody of the children to the Department of Child Protection in Que­bec.

That decision was appealed.

The Court of Appeal of Ontario yesterday dismissed the appeal and confirmed the court order.

Ramlogan said the allegations are quite serious and the welfare of the children is of  “paramount importance”.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Jews-appeal-order-under-lockdown-249080001.html?m=y&smobile=y&clmob=y&c=n

[asylumseeker]

2. Who is Shlomo Helbrans?

Shlomo Helbrans, the leader of Lev Tahor, grew up in Jerusalem in a secular household. He didn't discover religion until his teenage years, when he became engrossed in the teachings of Jewish mystics.

At 22, Helbrans declared himself a rabbi and claimed to have unique insights. In the late 1980s, Helbrans started recruiting followers in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods for his new religious community: Lev Tahor.

CBC's the fifth estate spoke with various people who said Helbrans has a magnetic personality and is very persuasive.

In 1990, Helbrans and his followers suddenly left Israel for New York. Helbrans took up residence in Brooklyn's Boro Park, which houses various ultra-Orthodox communities. There, he found financial support for his ideas and opened a religious school.

At the school, Helbrans started working with a young boy, Shai Fhima, before his bar mitzvah. He told the boy and his father that Fhima had special talents and a grand destiny.

Fhima started spending more and more time at the school. One day, he did not return home. Helbrans denied kidnapping the boy.

In 1994, Helbrans, however, was convicted of kidnapping Fhima. He served two years in prison after an appeal resulted in a reduced sentence from an original four years. On his release, Helbrans was deported to Israel.

Six weeks later, he arrived in Canada to re-establish his religious community in Quebec.

In 2003, he applied to be admitted to Canada as a refugee, arguing before a refugee board that as an anti-Zionist Rabbi he was a threat to Israel. His application was granted, but the fifth estate's investigation found he may have used misleading or false evidence at his hearing.

Helbrans denies the accusation.

...

In Israel, a parliamentary committee on the rights of the child has been gathering evidence on Lev Tahor, which is viewed as bizarre even among the ultra Orthodox of Israel.
...

In January 2014, a rabbinical council in New York, which had previously publicly criticized the sect, reissued a statement of concern.

...

"We have confirmed that all their behaviours are repulsive, and are clearly against the ways and the teaching of the Torah, and the teaching and guidance of our great rabbis and forefathers. The families, especially the young children, are in a horrifying situation," an English translation of the letter said.

The council members called on fellow Jews to not support the sect financially or otherwise, and labelled Helbrans as "one who pursues another with evil intent."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lev-tahor-5-questions-answered-on-the-ultra-orthodox-jewish-sect-fleeing-canada-1.2561937