Abdi Hassan Ali, a Somali refugee who once made Winnipeg his home, will spend the next 500 days in custody after admitting he profited from smuggling immigrants across the Canada-U.S. border.
Ali pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by “organizing, inducing, aiding or abetting people not in possession of a VISA or passport.”
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Provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen accepted a joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and Ali’s lawyer, sentencing him to four years in prison in Winnipeg. After credit for time already served, Ali has about 500 days remaining in custody.
“Your participation, which was premeditated and deliberate, placed several vulnerable people in real and imminent danger,” Rusen told Ali, who appeared in court with the assistance of a Somali translator.
“The fact that nobody was injured or killed walking hours in cold weather conditions in a foreign land is by luck.”
Ali, 33, admitted Wednesday to the immigration offence, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in Canada, court heard.
He was arrested twice in 2024 after allegedly helping transport foreign nationals who crossed on foot from the United States into Manitoba during severe winter weather.
Manitoba RCMP first arrested Ali on Feb. 22, 2024.
Officers stopped him in the rural municipality of Macdonald and found several passengers in his vehicle. Ali said he was working as an Uber driver and was initially released.
Mounties later searched his name in their database and learned it was the third time they had encountered him within a matter of months. That gave them grounds to detain him on suspicion of human smuggling, court heard.
Police found the vehicle again in Winnipeg later that day and arrested Ali. He was carrying US$2,300, court heard.
Eight foreign nationals were also inside the vehicle: seven men and one woman.
“Several of them indicated harrowing travel stories from their country of origin,” Crown prosecutor Colin Gray told the court.
“Several of them indicate that it cost hundreds of dollars to get to the American border and thousands of dollars for their total trip.”
One man told investigators he had spent $12,000 in total to reach Canada illegally.
He had travelled alone from Chad to New York, continued to Minneapolis and paid $800 to reach the border. He then followed a map on his phone and walked for hours through snow to cross into Canada.
“This is February, in Manitoba,” Gray said.
Ali was released in March on conditions that barred him from leaving Winnipeg and prohibited him from using a password-protected cellphone.
2nd smuggling incident
On the evening of Dec. 1, 2024, after dark and with temperatures between –20 and –25, including wind chill, RCMP received a report from a farmer who had found footprints in a snow-covered field leading from the border into Canada.
Patrolling officers encountered a couple who said they had picked up someone they saw left behind after watching five or six people climb into a white pickup truck, court heard.
RCMP found Ali driving the truck, a rental vehicle with Alberta licence plates. He was also carrying a password-protected cellphone.
Five foreign nationals ran from the vehicle, but officers used infrared cameras to find them in the darkness, court heard.
Ali has remained in custody since his December 2024 arrest.
‘Exceedingly dangerous’: Crown
Gray cited the deaths of the Patels, a family of four from India who froze to death while crossing the border on foot in winter, as he outlined the seriousness of Ali’s offence and the dangers associated with human smuggling.
“This was a situation where it was rather sophisticated, premeditated, planned for commercial benefit and exceedingly dangerous,” he said.
“The Crown wants to emphasize both to the public and Mr. Ali that further conduct like this will garner substantial penitentiary sentences.”
Ali’s defence lawyer, Brett Gladstone, said his client understands that his actions were wrong and could result in his deportation.
‘Desire to help’: defence
Court heard Ali worked as a mechanic in Somalia and was forced to repair vehicles for people involved in political violence. He was unwilling to continue doing that work.
“His offence before the court in Canada is to help other people get to Canada and achieve that safety … this was not the right way to go about it,” Gladstone said.
“Mr. Ali made a mistake but that mistake was one that came not from a desire to harm, but desire to help.”
Gladstone said Ali has family and friends in Winnipeg, as well as a job waiting for him after his release.
Rusen said Ali’s prospects for rehabilitation appeared positive, noting in part that he has a wife and children.
“You are a man with family, a wife and children … and a community of people to support you,” she said as nine of Ali’s supporters listened from the gallery.
“There is hope for you, and I don’t want you to lose the hope that you have for your future.”
