MAY 1, 2024, OTTAWA
In an urgent letter to Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc, renowned Canadian lawyer Barbara Jackman called for the repatriation of her client, Jack Letts, who is set to mark 7 years of unlawful, arbitrary detention on May 3 in a northeast Syrian prison. The letter was delivered during the same week that a number of non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children also illegally detained in northeast Syria for over 5 years were once again told the price of their children’s freedom was giving them up permanently to Canadian officials.
“I have learned that a flight to repatriate a number of Canadian children from Northeast Syria is imminent,” Jackman wrote. “I urgently request that my client be placed on that same aircraft and brought back to his family in Canada.”
Jackman continued, “There is clearly no reason for you to deny this urgent request for repatriation, one which would finally put an end to the arbitrary detention of Jack Letts. This would be the 8th such repatriation flight since they began in 2020, which shows Canada can engage seriously and constructively with this issue…. Clearly, it is unreasonable to not place Mr. Letts on the next Canada-bound flight and, upon his arrival, place him under terms and conditions (such as a peace bond) if borne out by credible evidence and a competent judicial authority believes it is necessary to do so. Jack has indicated time and again his willingness to cooperate with any such judicial process.”
Jackman’s extensive letter pointed out that the Federal Court of Canada criticized the current repatriation framework employed by Global Affairs Canada that allegedly determines whether or not Canadian citizens can return to Canada. She also referenced the publication of a blockbuster Amnesty International report 10 days ago that condemned the system of camps and prisons that hold Letts and 56,000 other men, women and children, dozens of whom are Canadian. All of them, Amnesty points out, “are facing systematic violations and dying in large numbers due to inhumane conditions.”
Although the Federal Court of Appeal denied the request to repatriate Letts and three other men in May, 2023, Justice Stratas pointed out: “In a number of other cases the Government of Canada has surmounted the practical and legal obstacles and has successfully repatriated Canadian citizens from camps in northeastern Syria… these reasons should not be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about that result.”
Following up on that point, Jackman reminded the Ministers: “Unfortunately, the record clearly shows that almost a full year on from that decision, no steps have been taken by your government to advance Jack’s repatriation. If that glaring human rights failure is due to application of the Policy Framework, it simply underscores how flawed that framework is. It should be abandoned and the government should instead proceed with life-saving repatriation for Jack, all other Canadian citizens held in Northeast Syria, and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children who remain detained there.”
Those mothers and their children, represented by lawyer Asiya Hirji, were re-traumatized both by the early April decision denying them temporary resident permits to accompany their children, as well as by the ultimatum to give up their children, one to which they were required to respond in less than 30 hours. Both released statements through their Ms Hirji.
“I reiterate my confirmation back in March and in June [2023], that I'm not declining any travel assistance for my children whatsoever,” said one of the moms. “I’m rather earnestly requesting that I, as their mother, accompany them. I'm only confirming that I'm a mother. Requesting to forcibly separate my underaged and already-distressed children from their mother is primitive and uncivil in my opinion. Raising the issue with my children has not been an easy one. It was a harrowing experience and often left them overwrought for weeks. A country that cares about its citizens shouldn't repeatedly and unnecessarily put them through this torment.”
The other mother shared with her lawyer this statement: "My kids cried when I told them the news for two reasons: first, when they pictured themselves away from me in a foster care or whatever. Second, that Canada will do it for the third time, that they come to the camp and intentionally rescue more people but not them. İt hurts them the most that they see there is an opportunity, but it’s not for them for some reason, and they don't understand. We have seen so many countries (i.e Spain, France, Ireland) did rescue their own citizen children including their mothers, as it's their right to not be separated from their mothers, but this is what Canada is denying for these small kids unmercifully. They are so disappointed and feel their life doesn't count at all. My kids are dying slowly. What is the Canadian government plan for these kids? To just die in the desert? There should be a solution based on human rights.”
Sally Lane, Jack Letts’ Canadian mother, hand delivered a copy of the letter to Global Affairs Canada on April 29. “This letter also reminds Ms. Joly that the Federal Court concluded there is absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of my son or any of the other detainees whose cases were before the Federal Court. Last week we were astounded to learn that Canada had refused return for a disabled, traumatized Canadian mother of 6 children simply because they didn’t have anything to charge her with. I am concerned that this is the same Orwellian nonsense being used to prevent Jack’s return.”
Lane, who authored a book about her struggle to free her son, recently returned from a 9-city speaking tour. “Everywhere I spoke, Canadians were horrified to learn about the atrocious misbehaviour of their government officials, their so-called intelligence agencies, and some of their courts, all of whom have given a seal of approval to the arbitrary detention and torture of their citizens even as they spout their alleged respect for rule of law and human rights. I honestly feel like we’ve been dropped into a Kafkaesque rabbit hole.”
Currently, the Supreme Court of Canada, which refused to even hear an appeal from Letts and three other men last November, is deciding whether it will accept a rare reconsideration appeal given the grave human rights abuses faced by the male detainees as well as the important unresolved legal issues about the obligations Canada has to its endangered citizens abroad.
In addition, a judicial review is planned for the refusal of Temporary Resident Permits for the mothers of Canadian children.
“We are extremely disappointed that Canada refuses to honour the integrity of these family units, and continues to insist on a policy of forced child separation, which in practice means the children could come here, go into foster care, become separated from their siblings, and likely never again see the only adult who has cared for them since birth,” says one of the lawyers for the mothers, Asiya Hirji. “Telling mothers arbitrarily detained for five years that the price of freedom for your children is for you to remain forever jailed 9,000 kilometres away from them is cruel, inhumane, and not at all in keeping with Canada’s domestic and international human rights obligations towards women, children, and the right to family.”
Information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca, 613-300-9536
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