One day before he was to be deported to Kenya, Charles Mwangi was granted a temporary residence permit.

Mwangi, 48, fled to Canada five years ago to escape prosecution because he is bisexual and because same-sex relations are punishable in Kenya.

After protests, a petition and an emergency application to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Mwangi has been granted a one-year temporary residence permit by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada.

“I am so happy today, we won. My deportation has been cancelled and I call on the government to legalize all those who do not have papers because this journey is not a joke, it is a nightmare,” Mwangi said in a press release issued on Saturday. He was due to be deported on Sunday morning.

The father of three sought asylum in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood and worked on the frontlines of the pandemic as a personal support worker and health care provider for Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Mwangi and his supporters protested his deportation order earlier this week outside the office of his local MP Judy Sgro, to fight for his right to stay. He eventually pleaded his case in his MP’s office and delivered the petition, signed by more than 4,600 people, begging the federal government to intervene and stop the deportation order.

“Thank you to everyone who supported me and took action,” Mwangi said.

Diana Da Silva, an organiser with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said while this is a victory for Mwangi, they did not have to fight so hard for it.

“Stopping Charles’ deportation is a victory for immigrant and queer justice and the power of community action. But we shouldn’t have had to fight to stop his deportation, we call on Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau to honor his promise and regularize all undocumented immigrants,” Da Silva said in a statement.

Earlier this year, in May, Trudeau acknowledged that some immigrants who do not have official status need better support to remain in the country.

“There needs to be a path to regularization and citizenship. I know the Minister of Immigration is working on that,” Trudeau said, noting that in other cases, deportation procedures need to be expedited.

In 2021, the federal Liberals promised to find ways to regularize permanent status for undocumented workers who contribute to Canadian communities. The prime minister said he had no timeline for when this would actually be implemented.

Mwangi will protest this inaction and will lead a demonstration in Toronto on September 15.

With files from Beth Macdonell of CTV News Toronto and The Canadian Press