Khat (qat) a growing problem in Canada. Arrest in Toronto

From CBC News (Toronto khat bust part of a growing trend, police say, January 26, 2007):

An arrest in a Toronto drug case on Thursday has shed more light on what officials say is a growing problem in Canada — khat.

Common in East Africa where users chew the leaves, khat (Catha edulis Forsk) is a flowering evergreen shrub or small tree native to East Africa and southern Arabia.

It can also act as a stimulant that, according to the RCMP, produces a "euphoria comparable to that of a very mild cocaine or amphetamine high."

[. . .]

Thursday's arrest of a woman in the Dixon Road and Islington Avenue area in the city's west end involved seven kilos of khat worth about $3,000 on the street.

[. . .]

Read all of the CBC article.

In September the Toronto Star published an article about Somalis in three Dixon Rd. high-rises who claimed that they were being harassed by security guards from Intelligarde. Security guards said the real issue was drug trafficking. From the September Star article:

Intelligarde's president, Ross McLeod, said his firm was hired to deal with a drug-trafficking problem in the buildings.

McLeod claims that large amounts of khat (or qat), an amphetimine-like stimulant popular in the Middle East and East Africa, are being bought and sold within the buildings. Legal in some countries but listed as a controlled substance in Canada since 1998, khat is typically chewed or made into a tea. It is a traditional part of social gatherings in the Somali community.

In the late 1980s large numbers of Somali refugees started to settle in the Dixon Rd. area. This led to serious tensions between the newcomers and the established residents. The CBC produced a dreadful documentary called "A place called Dixon" which put all the blame for the friction on the established residents and made no effort to understand how the latter's lives had been disrupted by the flood of East African refugees.

Daniel Stoffman who has written a series on immigration as an Atkinson fellow and who would later write an important book about immigration called Who Gets In went to Dixon to investigate. He published an article in Toronto Life that tried to understand the situation from the point of view of both sides. He discussed, for example, the strains on services caused by having large Somali families sharing small apartments.

One of the problems Stoffman mentioned was that residents couldn't sleep at night because the Somalis would gather outdoors in large groups and talk loudly well into the early hours. Khat was part of that talking culture, if I can put it that way. It wasn't necessarily that the Somalis were bad people. They were conforming to the norms of their own culture, but their customs conflicted with the habits of the residents who had been their first.

The tensions in Dixon are a good example of how people in Ottawa make immigration decisions that have a negative impact on the quality of life of other Canadians. It's easy for officials in Ottawa to be 'generous' when they're not the ones directly affected. Simply put, Canada took in far too many Somali refugees, but the decision-makers didn't care, because the burden was put on a group of Torontonians who were powerless to protect themselves. For the CBC to attack the victims of Ottawa's bad policies was nothing less than shameful but that's the par for the course with Canada's 'public' broadcaster.

There is disagreement about the harmfulness of khat. The drug is legal in countries like the UK, but the Union of Islamic Courts banned it when they were in power in Somalia. The new transitional government installed by Ethiopian troops has allowed its sale again.

Meanwhile the Sun newspaper in Britain reports (Man jailed after 'khat' attack, January 17):

A man who attacked and killed his wife after “chewing khat” was jailed for life at the Old Bailey today.

Omar Saleh, 32, was found guilty of murdering 24-year-old Hodan who was found collapsed with stab wounds, including a fatal one to her neck at their north London home in April, last year.

Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, said: “It is likely this defendant was experiencing the effects of khat.”

See also:

Somalis organize tenants association to fight 'harassment'

Somalis claim discrimination. Security guard company says the real problem is drugs

Talk to the elder first. African tribal custom comes to Toronto

Technorati tags: Toronto crime illegal drugs Canada immigration policy Somalis Somalia khat qat