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A former Arab-Israeli counter-terrorism operative who attempted suicide to prevent his deportation remains in custody but is not facing imminent removal from the country, says the minister responsible for Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canada Border Services Agency.

“I would say this, to the best of my knowledge in this case there is no immediate deportation step that is being taken,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday while in Herring Cove surveying the aftermath of hurricane Dorian. “There are a number of legal steps in the process that have to unfold. ... The Government of Canada will ensure that every legal step is properly followed according to the laws of Canada.”

The former Halifax-based operative, who does not want his name published because he fears for his life, is still under a removal order and is currently in CBSA custody following his suicide attempt Sunday afternoon, the day he was scheduled to be deported.

The former operative claims to have saved many Canadians as an agent for the Canadian intelligence agency for four years while based in Halifax and believes he faces certain death if deported to Israel. On Sunday he showed up outside the CSIS Halifax office doused in gasoline and tried to light himself on fire, before being arrested by Halifax police.

He now faces a detention review hearing, likely to be held later this week, which will determine if he’s allowed to be released pending his new removal date.

His Halifax-based lawyer Lee Cohen is desperately attempting to convince Goodale to intervene and delay the removal order to allow him time to make the case that the former operative’s life is in jeopardy if deported. CBSA is awaiting an additional travel document from the Israeli government that will allow his client to be deported immediately, said Cohen.

But in the meantime Cohen is focused on the upcoming detention hearing, a case he has little confidence he’ll win.

“The threshold to get my client released is very, very high and it’s a threshold that I’m almost sure that we will not be able to get over,” said Cohen. “The most fundamental question is why is he being detained at all? He’s being detained so they can hold him to remove him; they’re not detaining him to not remove him.”

Since taking on the man’s case in mid-July, Cohen has been trying to get the deportation order stayed in order to pursue a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) application that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada uses to determine whether an applicant’s life is at risk by being deported.

But having gotten no response, Cohen made a last-ditch appeal to Goodale in writing Tuesday asking the minister to use compassion in “exercising your ministerial discretion to stay the removal” to allow his client’s PRRA application to be reassessed.

The former operative had completed a PRRA application in 2017, roughly a year after he said he was dropped by CSIS without reason. But he did not disclose that he worked for the agency on the application because he was told never to tell anyone about his work. Cohen is asking the minister for permission to resubmit details of his client’s work and have it evaluated through a hearing process.

While Goodale said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the case, he did insist that the former operative would be entitled to due process.

Cohen is hoping the minister will decide to do the right thing on behalf of his clients who he says has served Canada “admirably.”

“There’s a very small hint of the possibility that the minister might intervene at some point,” said Cohen. “I do think this minister is a decent person based on his conduct and the things he’s said in the past. I still have faith Minister Goodale will do the right thing in this case.”