Accused in Haiart killing fights deportation

The accused killer of an innocent man caught in the crossfire of a gang war over the Winnipeg drug trade is waging his own battle for the right to stay in Canada.

The office of the Minister of Public Safety has ordered Jeffrey Cansanay deported from the country.

Cansanay, 23, formally launched an appeal of his deportation before the Immigration Review Board in a Winnipeg courtroom on Tuesday.

Cansanay is arguing he presents no danger to the public and his efforts at rehabilitation while in and out of jail over the last three years have been successful.

But the man police allege is a member of the notoriously violent African Mafia street gang testified he might resort to crime if he's deported back to the Philippines.

"I feel that I'd be more reckless than when I was here," Cansanay testified, adding that without his family around him for support, he might resort to crime to earn a living.

"I would have no responsibilities and no one to take care of," he said.

"I'd have to figure out a different way to make money, illegally that's what I think that I would turn to," he said under cross-examination froma Canada Border Services hearings officer.

"[But], I would also try to think of other ways," he said.

Cansanay came to Canada with his father and his sisters in 1994. He was often emotional during his testimony at the hearing. He described how he and his family suffered intense abuse at the hands of his father as a young child.

"Physically. Hands. Sticks. Shoes," he said. "You just had to deal with it. Shut up."

Cansanay testified his father was deported back to the Philippines two years ago because of a drug-trafficking conviction.

Retrial will go ahead

The threat of deportation has been looming over Cansanay since he pleaded guilty to intimidating a corrections guard at a Manitoba jail in 2007 and was handed a sentence of two years less a day.

He was being held on remand on a second-degree murder charge at the time a charge he was acquitted of.

However, the Supreme Court recently ordered Cansanay to be retried for the killing of Phillipe Haiart in 2005.

An errant bullet fired in a shootout between members of the African Mafia and Mad Cowz gangs struck Haiart, killing him.

Cansanay's acquittal came in 2007 after Mad Cowz members Gharib Abdullah and Corey Amyotte refused to testify against him and the judge would not admit earlier statements they had made.

Last year, the Manitoba Court of Appeal struck down the acquittal and ordered a new trial. Cansanay appealed that decision but lostafterthe Supreme Court refused to hear it.

Even if his deportation order is upheld, the trial will still go ahead. A spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services said outstanding criminal matters take precedent over immigration concerns.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Cansanay denied any gang involvement or knowing that his friends were in any way involved in the gang-driven crack cocaine trade in Winnipeg.

About four months after he was released from jail on the intimidation offence, Cansanay was convicted of drug-trafficking and was ordered to serve an 18-month sentence.

Cansanay testified at the hearing that he was innocent of the crime, and only pleaded guilty on the advice of a lawyer.

But a former Winnipeg police organized crime officer called to testify as an expert witness on street gangs said Cansanay was with another known African Mafia member at the time of his drug arrest.

That association, along with the allegations that the killing of Haiart happened in a shootout with rival gang members over drug turf in the city's west end, is enough for police to identify him as a member of the gang, Const. William DeGroot said.

No decision on Cansanay's deportation was reached on Tuesday. Further hearings are slated for later this year.

More details on gangfriction revealed

CBC News first reported on Jan. 21 that the African Mafia gang has splintered off and expanded into parts of Alberta.

The gang, made up of new Canadians from war-torn east Africa was formed in 2005 as a splinter group of the Mad Cowz gang, police said.

Some members of the Mad Cowz were upset that the gang's leadership didn't do enough to avenge the death of a young member and broke off into their own group, DeGroot said.

"It really caused a problem with the African-born members," the officer testified.

But DeGroot testified on Tuesday that tensions between the two groups are forcing Mad Cowz members to also migrate west from Winnipeg. Mad Cowz members have been spotted in places like Red Deer, Alta.,and Calgary.

Degroot said the African Mafia sent a violent message to the gang that they were no longer welcome in Winnipeg in January 2009.

Two Mad Cowz members, Jessie Henderson and Dennis Baptiste, were found dead in a rooming house on Maryland Street.

While their killings remain unsolved, investigators believe the deaths are tied to tensions between the two gangs.

"It sent a message that [the Mad Cowz aren't] welcome in Winnipeg," DeGroot said.

The fuse may have been lit weeks earlier after Lahai Conteh, 19 who DeGroot described as a "prominent" member of the African Mafia was shot to death in a back lane in the west end on Dec. 21.

The dynamics of Winnipeg's street gangs changed dramatically after Conteh was killed, a report authored by DeGroot submitted in court said.

Conteh's slaying is also unsolved.