## Facts

- George Christian Hanna was born at sea on a voyage from Djibouti toward Liberia; his birth was not registered, and he lacked documentary proof of nationality or lawful residence anywhere.
- Orphaned as a child, Hanna moved among countries in Africa and the Middle East but was not accepted as a national or lawful resident by any state.
- Hanna stowed away on vessels seeking a place to regularize his status; on a Norwegian ship, the *Gudveig*, he was discovered and kept under guard.
- The *Gudveig* repeatedly called at Canadian ports over an extended period; Hanna remained confined aboard as a stowaway for about 16 months while attempting to obtain admission under Canadian immigration law.
- A writ of habeas corpus brought Hanna off the ship and into the custody of Canadian immigration authorities.
- An immigration officer acting as a special inquiry officer issued a deportation order with multiple directives, including a primary direction to deport Hanna “to the place whence he came to Canada.”
- Hanna appealed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, arguing the order was defective, incomplete, unintelligible, impossible to enforce, and beyond statutory authority.

## Issues

1. Whether a deportation order directing removal “to the place whence he came to Canada” was valid where, given the person’s statelessness and circumstances, no definite place of return could be identified.
2. Whether the Immigration Act authorized a deportation order whose practical effect would be open-ended detention aboard a vessel because no state would accept the person.

## Decision

- The court set aside (quashed) the deportation order as unlawful.
- The court held the order was defective and unenforceable because it failed to specify a determinate, meaningful destination.
- The court ordered Hanna’s release from immigration detention.

## Legal Principles

- A deportation order must identify a definite destination capable of interpretation and execution; an indeterminate direction to remove a person to “the place whence he came” is invalid when the phrase cannot be applied to the facts.
- Statutory deportation authority does not extend to measures that, in operation, amount to indefinite detention as a substitute for removal.
- Where statutory destination options (place of origin, nationality, birth, or another directed place) are inoperable on the facts, an order that cannot be lawfully carried out is ultra vires and must be quashed.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated a deportation order against a stateless stowaway because the order provided no workable destination and would foreseeably result in indefinite shipboard confinement, a consequence not authorized by the deportation power.


Re Immigration Act & Hanna, 21 W.W.R. 400 (B.C. 1957)