Facebook posting of Judi Tyabji regarding arrest of son Kaz for Fentanly

Importation for trafficking puporoses

August 13 at 4:34pm

It is said that we mother's have a sixth sense, and when our children are in danger, we feel it.
I have, and one of my strongest premonitions of "danger coming" was in July 2015 when my
son Kaz was living in Calgary.
Kaz had moved there for work in construction, but by June, the jobs were disappearing, and
he decided to move home to Powell River for a management job. My husband and I were
happy about this, and we tried to convince him to come right away; we both had a bad
feeling. Instead, he wanted to stay in Calgary through stampede, and arrive home just before
BC Day.
On the day he was leaving for the long trek west, he was messaging me about travel options.
The lack of work had left him pretty broke, and his credit card didn't take the car rental
charge. I remember I was in Lund having lunch with my daughter Tanita, my granddaughter
Maitreya, and Tanita's beau Jason, when Kaz' texts stopped arriving.
The cell service in Lund can be sketchy, so I assumed Kaz had sorted out his travel and was
on his way, but I was anxious. He's a considerate communicator, so I was sure I would hear
from him somewhere in the Rockies. Instead, the afternoon turned into night time with no
replies to my messages. In my heart, I knew something was wrong.
It was the next day, a Thursday, that I finally heard back from Kaz' then-girlfriend, who said
Kaz had been arrested. We were stunned. What did this mean? We could not understand it.
She sent me a copy of a search warrant and it had words on it we had never heard. Meantime,
the only thing we knew was there would be a hearing on Friday.
We did some research and learned the word "fentanyl", which was just starting to be in the
news as a lethal street drug. We did not understand how this was connected to Kaz, and we
spent time frantically calling lawyers in Alberta, trying to figure out what was going on.
On Friday, Kaz was led into court in handcuffs. The hearing lasted only seconds, and he was
told to get a lawyer for the following Wednesday. He was then sent to jail at the Calgary
Remand Centre.
I was in shock. Kaz had no prior record, was not in any way fitting the profile of a drug person,
so how was he under arrest? Also, how was he being sent to jail without a full hearing?
We were told he was being held under the Controlled Substance Act, suspected of being an
importer of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking. None of this made any sense - I was so sure
it would be cleared up quickly and they would realize they had the wrong person.
On Sunday night, after a sleepless weekend of leaving messages with anyone who might be
able to help or give insights, Kaz was finally able to call. He had one minute. He started by

saying "I'm so sorry mum, and please believe I didn't do this." I told him I knew he didn't, and
needed to know he was ok in jail. He said he would manage and not to worry.
What followed over the next few weeks was a frantic effort by our family to pay lawyers, send
food and clothing money to Kaz in jail, and get him released from the Calgary Remand Centre,
which has been described as one of the worst jails in Canada.
Kaz was denied bail on tertiary grounds. I have read the judge's reasons: regardless of his
character or plans upon release, the judge ruled that the public interest was served with his
detention. Media stories about fentanyl were included in the decision.
Every minute of every day, I walked around with an invisible knife in my heart. It was hard to
breathe, I was so distraught and worried.
On August 13, after Kaz had been in jail since July 22, the Calgary police called a news
conference. In it, they named Kaz (legal name Kasimir Tyabji Sandana) and released a picture
of him. They announced that he had been charged with importation of fentanyl. They talked
about how many people had died from fentanyl overdoses, and how the police were focusing
on prosecuting drug dealers. Media stories showed tables laden with drugs that had been
seized.
Almost all the stories also referenced Kaz as my son, and that I was a former MLA, and other
family details. The news was like a body blow on top of the weeks of endless stress.
No other names or photos were released of any other people arrested or charged with drug
crimes.
The media stories were carried across Canada, they were high profile, and social media
erupted with them. My phone, email, and social media accounts were filled with reporters
offering me a "sympathetic interview" as the parent of a child with serious drug issues. Some
of them contacted my sisters trying to reach me. I gave no comments.
That's when I started hearing from parents about how my son had killed their child, and since
that day, seldom does a day go by that Kaz and I are not targeted on Facebook or Twitter for
his charge as a fentanyl importer. I block the extreme ones, but new ones pop up each day.
Kaz, who is half Cree, was even taunted by racists as an Al Quaeda person who should be
deported.
This story is my first public comment about this issue, and everything I mention about Kaz'
case here is available in the public record.
Meanwhile, Kaz was in jail and our family was working on every point of law to get him out.
When his second appeal failed just before Thanksgiving, I had a breakdown. It was my
daughter Kyrie, who had emerged as a ferocious fighter for Kaz, who put together the
strategy that finally worked. She found a Calgary lawyer named Hersh Wolch, and after
another two months of hard work, there was a fourth hearing.

This hearing was on Wednesday, December 16, and I knew I had to be there. I was an
emotional wreck, and the morning of the hearing, got lost walking the few blocks to the
courthouse. Kaz was supposed to attend, and had traded food in the remand centre to get a
haircut and shave so he could look presentable. He called me as I slogged through snowy
streets, lost, and he was really upset. The remand centre had cancelled his attendance at his
own hearing!
At the hearing, Wolch was calm and factual. The judge asked the lawyers how long until the
trial, if she upheld denial of bail. They replied at least a year. That was when I lost my
composure.
The hearing was adjourned to the Friday, and we all waited. On Friday afternoon, the judge
agreed to release Kaz on bail under strict conditions of house arrest.
At 1:30 on December 24, Kaz and I walked off the ferry at Saltery Bay. Gordon was there to
pick us up, and our family had a quiet Christmas.
Kaz had been in jail for five months. He was on house arrest for an additional six months,
which made work and school difficult. He has been to the hospital twice with panic attacks,
when he cannot breathe. He won't talk about his experiences in jail, at least not yet, although
he exhibits PTSD from it. He is unable to rent an apartment, because he fails the record
check, even though he has not been convicted. It is almost impossible for him to find work, for
the same reason, and so he works with us on our farm, and I am training him as a consultant.
Kaz entered university in January, and came out with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
All of the evidence against Kaz is in front of the court: his name was on a package shipped to
his Calgary apartment. This package came from China, and contained fentanyl. It was
intercepted in Vancouver, where the police removed the fentanyl, replaced it with a benign
substance and resealed it. An undercover police officer delivered the resealed package, which
had Chinese characters on it, to Kaz' Calgary apartment. He signed for it, and put it on the
counter.
Minutes later, the Calgary drug police, fully armed, broke into the apartment. Kaz tossed the
package out the window. Kaz was thrown to the floor and arrested, and his apartment was
fully searched. No drugs, no paraphenalia and no weapons were found. Kaz cell phone and
laptop were seized and yielded no evidence related to drugs of any kind. His bank records and
credit card records showed he barely had money for his travel home, and had no evidence
related to drugs of any kind.
Some time late in 2017 a judge will have a chance to decide if this is evidence for fentanyl
importation. Kaz told the police he had never heard of fentanyl before.
If the police had knocked on Kaz' door an hour later, he would have been on his way to Powell
River. I still have my text messages from that day on my phone, waiting to be able to share
them with someone who is ready to see.

Kaz is a gentle giant, a happy Buddha of a person who has spent his entire life helping others.
He is always quick to smile, and generous with his friends.
Shortly after coming home, he read the news stories and the comments. "Everyone thinks I'm
guilty mum," he said after.
"Only the people who don't know you," I replied.
The many people who know Kaz have been quick to send messages of support. I think the
hardest thing for him now is that when he walks into a room, he is often wondering, what
does this person think of me?
Although the knife is out of my heart, and I no longer lie sleepless, praying for my son's safety
in jail, my heart still bleeds a little when I'm with Kaz and he sees one of my friends for the
first time since his arrest, and he says quickly, "I didn't do it, you know." I'm always a little
lighter when I hear a friend reply, "Of course not, Kaz, I know you."
I look forward to the resolution of this case, and then Kaz will be truly free to rebuild his life.
He will have the support of his family and his true friends, always.
Please share if you think your friends have heard of Kaz' story from the news.