An Alberta Court of Appeal judge has granted a convicted drug trafficker and sex offender more time to appeal his criminal convictions, ruling that exceptional circumstances justify hearing the case despite the missed deadline because the convictions could result in his deportation to Somalia.

In a July 27 decision reported in the National Post, Justice Kevin Feth of the Alberta Court of Appeal granted Mahir Yahya Sharif an extension of time to appeal convictions stemming from guilty pleas entered in 2022. Sharif argues he would not have pleaded guilty had he understood that doing so would almost certainly result in his removal from Canada.

Sharif, who arrived in Canada as a refugee in 2019 after his family was recognized as Convention refugees by the United Nations, pleaded guilty to trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl, sexual assault, taxi fraud, theft under $5,000 and mischief. He was sentenced to three years in prison and has since been found inadmissible to Canada on grounds of serious criminality.

According to Justice Feth's decision, Sharif alleges his lawyer advised him that pleading guilty would likely avoid deportation because the charges were "not serious." Sharif says he was unaware that a conviction for sexual assault or a sentence exceeding six months would make him inadmissible to Canada and eliminate his right to appeal a removal order as a permanent resident.

Justice Feth concluded there were "unique and special circumstances" warranting an extension of time to pursue the appeal.

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"To deny the extension means he will suffer the unduly punitive effect of removal from Canada based on guilty pleas that would not have been entered had he been properly informed," the judge wrote, according to the decision.

Sharif was born in Saudi Arabia after his parents fled Somalia and speaks Arabic rather than Somali. Justice Feth noted evidence that Somalia has refused to issue him travel documents and that Canada Border Services Agency records indicated Somalia does not accept the return of individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness.

The judge also referenced evidence concerning Sharif's schizophrenia, his lengthy psychiatric treatment, and reports that deportees from Western countries may face significant security risks from the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

The ruling comes after a series of unsuccessful legal challenges to Sharif's deportation. A delegate of the federal immigration minister determined he posed a present and future danger to the Canadian public because of the seriousness of his offences and the lack of evidence of rehabilitation.

The Federal Court dismissed his application for judicial review, and the Ontario Court of Appeal also rejected a related appeal concerning his removal.

In granting the extension, Justice Feth emphasized that the decision does not determine the merits of Sharif's criminal appeal.

Instead, it allows him to proceed with challenging his convictions on the basis that his guilty pleas may not have been fully informed because he allegedly did not understand their immigration consequences.