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Abdoul Abdi had one advantage over Kevin Pinder.

He had an advocate, a tough lawyer who went to bat for him, and even two groups, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Justice for Children and Youth, who were granted intervener status in Abdi’s most recent court case.

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And what happened to him — the shameful treatment given him as a child ward of the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, or DCS — was so egregious it shocked many Canadians.

As a ward of the state, Abdi was shunted in and out of 31 group homes and when he “aged out” of the system, at 18, he had all of a Grade 6 education and a burgeoning criminal record.

By 2014, he was in really serious trouble: He pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, theft of a car, dangerous driving and assault of a police officer with a vehicle.

He received four and a half years in prison.

Abdi was a permanent resident, not a citizen: His aunt, who had brought him to Canada after his mother, a Somalian, died in a refugee camp, tried to apply for it on his behalf, but was waved off by DCS. DCS never followed through, so Abdi now was a candidate for an “admissibility hearing.”