Escaping Zimbabwe

"The facts of this case speak for themselves. The applicant had a private relationship with four different women and despite being asked by each of them whether he had HIV, he answered negatively and proceeded to have sexual relations with each one of them.
"I see no reasons in law or in fact to disagree with this finding."
Federal Court Justice Simon Noel

Citizenship and Immigration Canada in 2012 determined that Charles Kokanai Mzite, formerly of Zimbabwe, a talented singer who plied his trade both in his home country and in Canada where he hoped to become a landed immigrant, represented a danger to the public in Canada.

On the basis of the man's sexual misdeeds and his having demurred to inform Immigration officials of his health status on an application for permanent status - making him in fact, ineligible - he was ordered deported.

That is, when he was released from prison. He was earlier found guilty of four counts of aggravated sexual assault in 2009 and sentenced to ten years in prison. The sentencing judge had castigated him for his abuse of the trust of women, of deceiving them deliberately about his health status, and of lacking empathy for them.

This sensitive artist, wishing to make Canada his home, had the experience of watching his wife die in Zimbabwe in 2000. He knew that they were both HIV positive; his country is ravaged with an AIDS epidemic. He had tested positive, and his wife, he said, likely died of HIV/AIDS. Yet knowing the end result of exposure to HIV, he felt no compunction about advising his future sex partners.

He had come to Canada, having met a Canadian women in Zimbabwe, responding to her invitation to visit. He obtained a visitor's visa in 2001, asked for refugee protection status and it was granted in 2002. Although currently submission to an HIV test is required of applicants, it was not a requirement back then.

But when he filled out an application for permanent residence status, he declined to complete the medical portion of the immigration procedure. As a result, his application was turned down. Of the four sex partners he had whom he assured he was clear of an infection, one contracted HIV, and reported him to police.

"This is not about revenge or getting him put away. The only reason I'm here is that women and children just keep getting hurt" the former sex partner who contracted HIV stated, during his trial.