UN Calls on Canada to Repatriate Detainees from North-eastern Syria and Iraq

March 24, 2026 – The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Canada to repatriate 14 Canadian men and children (as well as two mothers of the children) in order to end what has in some cases been upwards of a decade of arbitrary detention under appalling conditions in north-eastern Syria and, more recently, in Iraq.   

In a concluding report (Online Link) from its 145^th session, the Committee noted that Canada had already repatriated from north-eastern Syria 30 Canadians (22 children and 8 women) since 2020, but expressed concern “about reports indicating that at least nine men and five Canadian children continue to be held in very difficult conditions in north-eastern Syria, together with two mothers who are not Canadian nationals.” 

The Committee also raised concerns that Canada has made repatriation of the children contingent on forced separation from their mothers. 

 

Multiple Violations

While pointing out this crisis violated Articles 6 (inherent right to life), 7 (prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment ) and 24 (non-discriminatory guarantees of child protection) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Committee called on Canada to “intensify its efforts to repatriate all its nationals currently held in armed conflict zones, in particular in the Syrian Arab Republic, together with the mothers of the Canadian children, through a clear and fair procedure that upholds the principle of the best interests of the child and ensures adequate access to rehabilitation services and care upon repatriation.”

 

In response to the report, human rights activist and international human rights lawyer Alex Neve, who visited some of the Canadian detainees in north-eastern Syria as part of a civic delegation in August 2023, declared: “The Human Rights Committee has, in fact, been generous in calling on Canada to ‘intensify its efforts’ to repatriate all of the Canadians the government has abandoned in north-eastern Syria for years, and now also in Iraq. The truth is that there are no efforts of any kind underway at all. Clearly this exhortation from the body responsible for overseeing one of the world's most important human rights instruments must finally catalyze action from the federal government. Given the precarious and rapidly evolving political, security and human rights situation in the region, it has never been more important - but also there has never been a clearer opportunity - to bring all Canadians home.”

 

The UN recommendations come in response to a brief (Online Link) submitted earlier this year by Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which for years has led a campaign to repatriate the detainees. Group spokesperson Matthew Behrens noted that the Canadian detainees were on the verge of being illegally transferred to Iraq at the time the group’s brief was submitted, adding that the Committee’s reference to “armed conflict zones” is clearly intended to include those now held in Iraq. 

 

Canada Backtracks on Repatriation Pledge

Earlier this month, Canada’s ambassador in Baghdad led Iraqi officials to believe Canada would repatriate its citizens, only to see Global Affairs Canada (GAC) walk back that commitment once the office of Iraqi national security adviser Qasim Al-Araji posted online about Canada’s “readiness to receive its nationals among the detainees who were recently handed over” to Iraq.

"Canada is not currently in the process of repatriating any detained Canadians from Iraq," GAC subsequently wrote to Sally Lane, the mother of the longest held detainee, Canadian Jack Letts.

“Canada has subcontracted my son Jack’s arbitrary detention and torture to Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria and now Iraq for almost nine full years in complete violation of his Charter rights and this country’s international human right commitments,” Lane said. “Will Canada continue to defy the calls from many United Nations Special Rapporteurs on human rights, and now this committee, to repatriate my son and the other Canadians?”

Lane is especially incensed that Canada did nothing to prevent the illegal transfer of her son and other Canadians to Iraq where, in addition to arbitrary detention, they face the prospect of torture, unfair trials based on brutally coerced statements, and possible execution under a judicial system widely condemned for its failure to uphold international fair trial standards.

“Is Canada really going to allow my son’s death by hanging?” asked Lane, who has not seen the 30-year-old Jack since he was 18 and traveled to Syria to assist those under attack by the former Assad regime. “Canada refuses to justify its deliberate inaction to me; perhaps they can now explain to the UN why they condone arbitrary detention, torture and, possibly, execution?”

The UN’s report is the latest in a significant body of repatriation calls from a diverse set of voices, from the US State Department, UN Special Rapporteurs, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, former Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock and hundreds of Canadian legal professionals, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a Canadian Parliamentary committee, the Kurdish jailers in NE Syria, and, more recently, Iraqi officials currently holding five Canadian men who were illegally transferred to their custody by the US in January and February, 2026.

“Every day, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posts that Canada is there for its citizens in the region, and has rightly expended considerable resources to help with evacuations,” Behrens says. “But while even Canadian troops have pulled out of Iraq because it has been deemed too dangerous for them, Anand has chosen to abandon these unarmed, defenceless, and traumatized Canadians in detention centres that are perilously close to the bombing.” 

 

Canada’s Ongoing History of Obstruction

The issue of Canadians illegally detained in north-eastern Syria and now Iraq has previously been challenged at the Federal Court, which in January 2023 issued a decision calling on Ottawa to take the necessary steps to repatriate the men. Notably, the Court wrote: “The [Government of Canada] Respondents filed no evidence identifying the Applicants’ motives for their travel or of their activities in the region. Notably the Respondents do not allege any of the Applicants engaged in or assisted in terrorist activities. The Respondents affirmed this position at the hearing,” adding that “Canadians are entitled to have political opinions, no matter how abhorrent they may be to other Canadians. The limitation is when Canadian opinion holders take actions, whether inside or outside of Canada, that constitute offences against Canadian law including the Criminal Code of Canada. However there is no evidence to that effect before this Court.”

That decision was appealed and overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal which, while declining to rule in favour of the detainees, nonetheless reminded the government that “these reasons should not be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about [repatriation].” The Supreme Court twice refused to hear an appeal.

 

In November 2024, Global Affairs Canada invited representatives of the male detainees to make submissions on the question of whether Canada would consider repatriation under a widely criticized “Policy Framework” that was found to discriminate against the men by the Federal Court (that Framework is also the subject of a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint launched in May 2025). Despite the brutal conditions endured by the men and the passing of 15 months, Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety have yet to render a decision after receiving extensive submissions. 

 

The toll this has taken on families is severe. John Letts, father of Jack Letts, said: “Mr. Carney claims he wants Canada to lead a new democratic world order based on genuinely ethical values, but it seems he wants to outsource Canada’s dirty work abroad. He’d prefer Canadian citizens to be burned as witches out of sight, far from home, rather than be returned and investigated to see if they’ve actually done something wrong. We know the Federal Court of Canada has said there’s no evidence they've committed a crime. This injustice has been going on for 10 years. My Canadian son is dying of torture and neglect, and Canada won't lift a finger to help. When is this nightmare going to end?”

 

For more information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca 

Families of Canadian Detainees Transferred to Iraq Demand Answers from Ottawa

One of many vigils held at Global Affairs Canada in support of Canadian family repatriation from Northeast Syria and, now, Iraq. 

OTTAWA – Almost a month after the United States began its illegal transfer of thousands of detainees from arbitrary detention in northeast Syria to arbitrary detention in Iraq, and even after the Iraqi Ministry of Justice has posted that 5 Canadians are in its custody, families of these long-suffering men still have no official confirmation of their location or well-being.

Family members are demanding that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) take immediate steps to confirm the status of their loved ones and repatriate them to Canada.

“We, along with the families, have repeatedly shared with Global Affairs Canada the illegal nature of these forced transfers, the brutal detention conditions in Iraq, our concerns about unfair investigations and trials, and the distinct fear of execution,” explains Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture coordinator Matthew Behrens. “We have also shared the repeated public pleas of both senior Iraqi leaders as well as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for countries like Canada to repatriate their citizens. But Canada refuses to cooperate with its allies and these families to resolve this decade-long human rights crisis by bringing everyone home.”

Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture recently submitted a brief to the United Nations, urging the global body to call on Canada to immediately repatriate all detainees, some of whom have been held almost 9 years without charge or judicial review of their detention.

“Sayyida,” the mother of one of the detainees, despairs at the fact that Global Affairs Canada has yet to confirm her son’s location either in Syria or in Iraq. “The dreams I had of my son coming back have vanished,” Sayyida says. “The move to Iraq puts my son at risk of enforced disappearance, which could place him at greater risk of being tortured or killed. I send email after email and make call after call to Global Affairs Canada asking about my son’s whereabouts, hoping for an answer that will relieve my pain, but all I receive is a long period of silence followed by the claim that they do not know where he is. I find this difficult to believe when the US knows all of the detainees and has coordinated this whole operation. My family is going through a lot because of this. We miss him so much in everything we do, and there’s a big part of our life gone without him. When will this nightmare end?”

Sally Lane, the mother of Canadian Jack Letts, says she received a letter on February 13 from Global Affairs Canada stating that Canada has “received preliminary information that indicates that your son Jack Letts may be among the individuals transferred. Please note that the information we have received at this time is incomplete and is not a direct match for the name we have on file, so we cannot confirm his identity with certainty.”

“What should I take away from this email sent a week ago?” Lane asks. “Is the Canadian government so inept that it cannot make a simple confirmation of Jack’s location and well-being when our embassy is in the same city that now holds the detainees? Or is a Canadian government that has for 9 years refused the repatriation requests of Jack’s jailers, and fought us all the way to the Supreme Court, still refusing to stand up for the rights of Jack and the other Canadian men because they don’t want them to come home? We know the Federal Court has said there is no evidence that Jack or the other men have committed crimes or acts of violence. What can we conclude here other than that this is state-sponsored Islamophobia?”

John Letts, Jack’s father, points out that the current crisis could have been avoided had Canada acted on repeated requests over 9 years by Kurdish authorities to repatriate his son. “We know the US has interviewed all of the men and never sought to extradite them. The FBI has seen Jack on numerous occasions. It beggars belief that Canada cannot confirm where he is even after the Iraqis have said they have five Canadians in their custody and the US would have a list of everyone it illegally sent to Iraq. It’s not rocket science for the Canadian embassy to demand immediate access to the men and to facilitate visits with us and legal counsel.” 

The long-standing issue of Canada’s refusal to repatriate its citizens from northeast Syria (Canada has, under threat of court action, returned 32 women and children) led international human rights lawyer and former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada Alex Neve to join a civil society delegation in 2023 (alongside Senator Kim Pate, former GAC official Scott Heatherington, and human rights lawyer Hadayt Nazami) that visited Letts and other detainees. 

Neve says he had hoped that the change of government in Damascus in December 2024 would provide “the long overdue opening to address years of contemptuous disregard for human rights throughout the country. It should have become the moment when the Canadian government finally took action to protect the rights of Canadians, including children, unlawfully locked up in prisons and detention camps in the northeast. Instead, the government has consistently refused to intervene. The news that Canadian prisoners are now being illegally transferred to jails in Iraq, where they face a serious risk of torture and the death penalty, must become the turning point. Prime Minister Carney's government must - finally - act, and bring all Canadians home, to safety, to human rights protection, and to face justice when there is evidence of criminality.”

It’s a sentiment also shared by “Israa,” a Canadian woman who notes that she and her family “have been begging Global Affairs Canada for answers. For years we have written emails, made calls, submitted requests, and pleaded for the most basic information that every family deserves: Is he alive? Is he safe? What is being done to protect him? And for years, Global Affairs Canada has responded with silence, delays, and vague empty statements. They have avoided answering our questions and have refused to provide us with clear answers. They have refused to be transparent and have refused to treat our loved one like what he is, a Canadian citizen with rights. This silence is not neutral and has consequences.”

Israa notes that the United Nations as well as international human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long shared with Ottawa their findings of the appalling conditions endured by the male detainees in northeast Syria, conditions that are likely to be replicated in Iraq. “These conditions destroy people physically and psychologically. And if our loved one has been transferred to Iraq, the danger is even more severe. Iraq has a well-documented record of torture, unfair trails, and executions. If Canada has allowed that to happen, through action or inaction, then Canada has effectively signed their torture and death certificates. 

“Every single day, our family lives with the grief and constant fear of not knowing whether our loved one is alive or dead,” Israa says. “We live with the helplessness and anger we feel and are forced to imagine the worst because the Canadian government refuses to tell us the truth. My loved one is not a file or case number. He is a human being. He is loved. He is missed. And he deserves to come home. We will not stop speaking and fighting. We will not allow him to be forgotten.”

In addition to the nine detained Canadian men whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed, Canada is still refusing to issue temporary residents permits to two women so that they could come to Canada together with their five Canadian children, all of whom have been illegally detained in northeast Syria for six years. They submitted those permit applications three years ago.

For more information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca, 613-300-9536

 
     

Families of Canadian Detainees in Syria Demand Ottawa Prevent Renditions to Torture in Iraq

 

January 22, 2026 – Canadian families whose loved ones have been arbitrarily detained for up to 9 years under appalling conditions in northeast Syrian prisons and prison camps are calling on Ottawa to immediately repatriate them before they are rendered to potential torture in Iraq.

The demand comes on the heels of a United States CENTCOM statement that thousands of detainees similarly held for years without charge or access to any form of judicial review are in the process of being transferred to Iraq during a 4-day ceasefire that follows weeks of armed conflict between the new government in Damascus and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have held custody of the Canadians. 

Amnesty International has pointed out that Iraq remains a country rife with arbitrary detention, torture, a systemic failure to conduct fair trials, and execution in so-called national security cases.

“This is an act of extraordinary rendition to torture on top of the years of arbitrary detention, torture, and complete abandonment of our loved ones by the Canadian government,” said Sally Lane, mother of the longest held detainee, Jack Letts. “How on earth can Canada stand by when we’ve informed them that my son and other Canadian citizens are now at risk of going from one legal black hole into another when all along, all they’ve had to do is agree to the request of Jack’s jailers and the US State Department for repatriation? Canada doesn’t actually have to do anything besides make a request and provide travel documents. The Americans do the rest.” 

The issue of repatriation from northeast Syria has long been a point of contention resisted by the federal government, which has only repatriated Canadians – to date, 32 formerly detained women and children – when forced to by public pressure and legal action. But Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada have expended millions to try and prevent the return of the remaining 9 men while also refusing to grant temporary residence permits to the two mothers of five Canadian children who remain detained.

“This is state-sponsored Islamophobia in action,” explained Matthew Behrens of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which for years has worked to bring the Canadians home. “The Federal Court of Canada concluded there is absolutely no evidence that these men have ever been involved in acts of violence or criminality, but unfortunately, they have all been tarred with the same unsubstantiated security brush simply because as Muslim men they were in Syria at a particular time in history and had no way of escaping. And Canada has refused to end their detention in what many have called Guantanamo in the Desert, where over half of the tens of thousands of detainees are children.”

 

(Jack Letts, during a prison interview with CTV's W5, Fall, 2024, Syria)

Lane notes that her son had gone to Syria to help the people suffering under Assad’s barrel bombs and mass torture, and had been detained on three occasions by ISIS for opposing their hateful ideology and atrocities. When he finally escaped in May 2017, he was captured by the Kurdish SDF, and has been held without charge or access to lawyers, family, or a judicial review ever since.

Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada currently operate under a “Policy Framework” that determines whether or not they will consider repatriation of the Canadians. The Framework has been criticized as discriminatory and fundamentally flawed by the Federal Court of Canada, human rights organizations and international law experts. In December, 2024, at the invitation of the government, family members presented submissions to those departments demanding repatriation, but more than 13 months later, have received no response.

“When the Two Michaels were arbitrarily detained in China, Canada started a global coalition against such detention and did everything under the sun to bring them home, as well they should,” said John Letts, Jack’s father. “And yet when it comes to Muslim Canadians, the government has not only looked away. It has actively fought us and tried to prevent our loved ones from exercising their Charter right to come home. Unless they act in the coming days, will our families be condemned to another decade of this torturous black hole? It’s all well and good for Prime Minister Carney to extol the importance of international law at Davos, but my long-suffering son knows that this is just more hot air from Canada.” 

Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture

2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052

Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7

(613) 300-9536

CENTCOM Statement: https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4383698/us-forces-launch-mission-in-syria-to-transfer-isis-detainees-to-iraq/

Human Rights Commission to Hear Discrimination Complaints of Canadians Detained in Syria

 OTTAWA – The Canadian Human Rights Commission has agreed to hear a series of complaints made by Canadian children and men who have been arbitrarily detained in Northeast Syria for between 6 and 8 years under conditions the United Nations has called akin to torture.

             The crux of the complaints centres on Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada’s use of a Trudeau cabinet-approved 2021 “Government of Canada Policy Framework to Evaluate the Provision of Extraordinary Assistance: Consular Cases in North-Eastern Syria” that determines whether the detainees can even be considered for repatriation, despite their Kurdish jailers having repeatedly called on Canada to come and take its citizens home. Since 2020, 32 Canadian women and children have been repatriated from arbitrary detention in eight separate returns courtesy of private actors, court action, and U.S. military assistance. 

             According to Ottawa lawyer Nicholas Pope, who launched the complaints, “These cases present clear illustrations of discrimination based on age, sex, and family status. For example, the Framework gives less favourable treatment to Canadian children whose mothers were not born in Canada. Canada has insisted that the remaining detained Canadian children (of three non-Canadian mothers) be forcibly separated from their mothers and become orphans in Canada in order to receive repatriation services. In doing so, the government is making the exercise of the childrens’ equality rights contingent upon forfeiting another fundamental right: the right not to be separated from their parents.”

             Currently in Northeast Syria, in addition to the three detained mothers and eight Canadian children (with one non-Canadian minor sibling), there are believed to be 9 Canadian adult male detainees. The men’s complaints centre on the Framework thusfar being employed to offer assistance to Canadian women but not men, as well as refusing to consider repatriation for adults in the same way as for those under the age of 18.

             “When my son Jack’s case was before the Federal Court, the government seemed to realize it had no case and immediately agreed on the eve of the decision to repatriate a group of women and children,” says Sally Lane, whose son Jack Letts, one of the complainants, just marked 8 years of arbitrary detention in Northeast Syria. “Yet when the Court ordered Jack and the other men brought home, Canada appealed and had that order dismissed. Then the Supreme Court twice refused to hear the case. If that does not scream discrimination against the male detainees, I don’t know what does.” 

             Lane has not seen her son, who was the focus of a W5 investigation last November, for over a decade.
             “The Two Michaels were arbitrarily detained in China for 1,019 days, and the federal government rightfully made their return a top foreign policy priority,” says Lane. “My son will soon mark 3,000 days of arbitrary detention. But for him, and the other men, the barrier is not in Syria, it’s in Canada, which has invested endless resources in refusing the long-standing request of their Kurdish jailers to come and get them.” 

             Another mother of one of the Canadian men detained, who asked that her name not be shared, declared: “My son is having his rights as a Canadian stripped away with every day that he’s enduring physical and psychological torture, starvation, and inhumane living conditions. He has no contact with the outside world and has no updates about his family or loved ones. This is cruelty beyond words to me, and as a Canadian he has the right to be heard in a Canadian court instead of being held with no charge in a foreign country. Our government has the responsibility to bring the men home, the same way they did the women and children.”

             As the Canadian Human Rights Commission considers the detainees’ complaints, it may benefit from the findings of Federal Court Justice Henry Brown, who in January 2023 ordered the government to begin the three-step process to repatriate the men: write a letter to Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria, issue travel documents, and provide a representative to attend a signing ceremony, after which the US military would handle the rest.

             Justice Brown wrote that he felt “compelled to observe the three threshold criteria for eligibility to be considered under the Policy Framework appear drafted to exclude the Canadian men imprisoned,” adding that it would not likely withstand Charter scrutiny.  He wrote those comments “in the hope the Policy Framework will be materially revised, or that the Canadian male prisoners be considered for repatriation [as was] the case with the Canadian women and children.”

             In addition to the complaint of discrimination, the Framework has also come under fire by repatriation advocates for its denial of basic procedural fairness, failure to provide benchmarks or results of its alleged ongoing assessments, and its assumption of guilt.

             “The Framework hinges on a legally non-compliant foundation that improperly balances the risks posed to Canadian citizens enduring an arbitrary detention that it is within Canada’s power to end, and the rationale that unspecified, unsubstantiated, unsourced, uncontestable secret security concerns prevent Canada from ending that arbitrary detention and bringing them home,” says Matthew Behrens of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which leads the campaign to repatriate the detainees. “The Framework paints all detainees with a singular, damning brush, and demands that they defend themselves against this labeling without having any access to the alleged evidence that may be in the Government of Canada’s hands.”

             Pope hopes that a favourable ruling will declare the Framework inconsistent with Canadian human rights standards and call on the Government of Canada to act quickly to return the detainees. “Every Canadian has the right to be treated equally,” he explains. “This is a rare situation in which the detaining authority holding Canadians abroad is actually pleading with us to end the detention, but it is Ottawa that is selectively refusing to let some Canadians return home.”

            A petition in support of repatriation has over 28,500 signatures: https://www.change.org/p/canadians-are-dying-free-jack-letts-19-canadian-kids-women-men-in-syria

 For further information, contact Nicholas Pope at npope@hameedlaw.ca or 613-656-6917 and Matthew Behrens at tasc@web.ca or 613-300-9536

Family Reunification February Call to Action: Canada Must Urgently Complete all Gaza Applications and Open the Borders During Ceasefire

 (Details on letter writing, phone calls, and Family Day public vigils below)

 During the first several weeks of February, please take the simple actions described below to ensure we can save the lives of loved ones in the Palestinian Canadian community.

THE ISSUE
During the fragile temporary ceasefire in Gaza – one whose second phase may not come to pass, especially given the daily violations by Israeli forces that have killed over 80 Palestinians in Gaza – Canada has a rare but very brief opportunity to fix the Gaza temporary residence program.

As the much criticized Gaza program marked its 1-year anniversary January 9, some 4,700 applications had been received, but only 616 individuals had arrived in Canada. None received Canadian assistance exiting Gaza; rather, those lucky enough to escape and their Canadian sponsors exhausted life savings to pay exorbitant border crossing fees into Egypt. An estimated 3,500+ applications remain unprocessed after more than a year.

The punishingly slow pace of visa processing for Gazans – a paltry average of 2.5 applications completed per day, with a lethal waiting time for some of over a year – stands in stark contrast to the Canada–Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. During CUAET’s first year, Canada welcomed 129,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion and approved over half a million visas (an average of 1,370 applications per day), usually within a two-week turnaround. Canada waived security screening for those aged up to 17 and over 61, and dropped a required medical exam despite the Ukrainian population’s much higher risk of carrying tuberculosis, which Ottawa conceded “posed potential health risks to Canada.”  

Similarly, Canada welcomed over 8,000 Israeli visa holders during 2024. Palestinian Canadians and refugee advocates point to such figures as clear proof of a painful, discriminatory double standard that fails to adequately respond to what Canadian officials acknowledge are “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza.

To make best use of this short ceasefire time frame, Canadian immigration officials must urgently devote the same energy they invested into the Ukraine program, complete remaining Gaza applications (which could be done over 3 business days based on the Ukraine program pace), and negotiate with the Egyptian government and the Israeli regime for the rapid exit of Canadians’ loved ones.

TAKE ACTION
Write to and Call Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly to demand they take immediate urgent action to save the lives of Canadians’ loved ones still in Gaza and those languishing in Egypt.

 Sample Letter (feel free to personalize this and change up the subject line as well)  

Subject: Urgently Process all Gaza Visa Applications; Ensure Safe, Speedy Exits!

To:  IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca,  Minister@cic.gc.ca, Melanie.Joly@parl.gc.ca, Melanie.Joly@international.gc.ca, marc.miller@parl.gc.ca

Cc: Pam.Damoff@parl.gc.ca, rob.oliphant@parl.gc.ca, Paul.Chiang@parl.gc.ca, Harpreet.Kochhar@cic.gc.ca, Scott.Harris@cic.gc.ca, Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca,  ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca
 

Dear Ms Joly and Mr. Miller,

The devastation in Gaza grows more serious by the day, and the risk of renewed carpet bombing by Israeli forces continues to increase.

I am writing to you to urge that you take emergency action to immediately process all remaining Gaza visa applications and ensure that those applicants will be able to exit Gaza and make it to either Egypt or Jordan on their way to being reunited in Canada no later than Family Day, February 17, 2025. You must also immediately approve for travel the almost 1,000 loved ones of Canadians languishing in Egypt who have been waiting more than a year.

You have both expressed frustration and even admitted the Gaza visa program was a failure as early as February 2024, but have done little to fix it. As a result, hundreds of lives of those hoping to escape have been wiped out.  It is clear, however, that both Canadian immigration and Global Affairs officials have the capacity to not only immediately process the remaining 3500+ applications in a very short time frame (it would take 3 days based on the pace of the Ukraine program), but also to leverage your diplomatic relationship with the Israeli regime to facilitate the exit of Canadians’ loved ones. This is a rare opportunity to act and prevent further losses in a genocide that has only been suspended temporarily, with many indications that it is set to resume.

The average number of Gaza applications processed per day – 2 to 3 – has utterly failed to meet the moment (especially when 1,370 Ukraine applications were processed daily). Other countries like Australia have been able to get the loved ones of their citizens out of Gaza without going through the obstructive Israeli border authorities. 

Canada must do the same in the coming weeks before it is once again too late.  As most people in Gaza return to their utterly destroyed former homes, they are seeing for the first time the complete obliteration of the lives they had before the current slaughter, one that some medical experts believe has wiped out 10% of the population, decimated the health care system, destroyed food distribution networks, and eliminated basic services like sewage treatment and water purification.

Canada must take the lives of Palestinians seriously. I join in the voices of those who are tired of your excuses blaming others for your failure to do the right thing and step up to save lives.  I urge you to act now, as Palestinian Canadians and supporters have been urging you to do for the past 16 months, before it is too late. 

Sadly, it is too late for those who could have survived had Canada cared enough to push for their right to live.

But it is never too late to recognize failure and fix it when lives are on the line.

Instead of writing a form letter back to me, I instead urge you to devote all staff time to addressing this crisis

Name
City/Town

Sample Phone Call
(Feel free to use your own wording, but please, do NOT leave hostile or abusive messages, as that will only hurt this effort. ALSO call your own MP as well. You may or may not get an answering machine (if you do, please leave a polite message)

Mélanie Joly (Foreign Affairs)
613-992-0983 (Ottawa office)
514-383-3709 (Montreal office)

Hi, my name is XXXXXXXX and I'm calling from XXXXXXX. I am shocked that Canada has failed the people of Gaza. I am shocked that Canada has only processed 2 applications a day when people are trying to escape a genocide and that there are still 3500 unfinished applications. During this fragile ceasefire, I am urging that you take every possible step to engage Egypt and Israel to ensure the immediate exit of the loved ones of Canadians under the Gaza temporary residence program.  

Marc Miller (Immigration)
Ottawa office: 613-995-6403

Hi, my name is XXXXXXXX and I'm calling from XXXXXXX. I am shocked that Canada has failed the people of Gaza. I am shocked that Canada has only processed 2 applications a day when people are trying to escape a genocide and that there are still 3,500 unfinished applications. During this fragile ceasefire, I am urging that you assign the necessary staff to urgently finish application processing so that everyone waiting to be reunited with their loved ones in Canada is ready to leave within one week’s time. You did this for Ukrainians. You did this for Israelis. You can do it for Palestinians.

Please call Justin Trudeau at 613-992-4211 with a similar message

Vigils
Hold a Family Reunification Vigil sometime during February (including the Family Day Weekend, February 17) at a Liberal MP’s office or federal government building. Ask that those MPs put pressure on the federal government to act urgently. Bring pictures of loved ones. Need help or have questions? Contact us at tasc@web.ca

For more information contact the Rural Refugee Rights Network and the Gazan Canadians League at tasc@web.ca  

Canada Must Urgently Process Gaza Visa Applications During Ceasefire Window

 

By Matthew Behrens

 As a fragile temporary ceasefire takes hold in Gaza – one whose second phase may not come to pass, given the governing Israeli coalition’s reliance on members opposed to the deal – Canada has a rare but very brief opportunity to belatedly fix its modest Gaza temporary residence program, one that Immigration Minister Marc Miller had already concluded was a failure six weeks after its launch.

As the much criticized Gaza program marked its 1-year anniversary January 9, some 4,700 applications had been received, but only 616 individuals had arrived in Canada. None received Canadian assistance exiting Gaza; rather, those lucky enough to escape and their Canadian sponsors exhausted life savings to pay exorbitant border crossing fees into Egypt. An estimated 3,500+ applications remain unprocessed.

 The punishingly slow pace of visa processing for Gazans – a paltry average of 2.5 applications completed per day, with a lethal waiting time for some of over a year – stands in stark contrast to the Canada–Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program. During CUAET’s first year, Canada welcomed 129,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion and approved over half a million visas (an average of 1,370 applications per day), usually within a two-week turnaround. Canada waived security screening for those aged up to 17 and over 61, and dropped a required medical exam despite the Ukrainian population’s much higher risk of carrying tuberculosis, which Ottawa conceded “posed potential health risks to Canada.”  

Similarly, Canada welcomed over 8,000 Israeli visa holders during 2024. Palestinian Canadians and refugee advocates point to such figures as clear proof of a painful, discriminatory double standard that fails to adequately respond to what Canadian officials acknowledge are “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza.

 While some 600 individuals still in Gaza were pre-approved last year for Canadian visas contingent on completing final biometric security screening in Egypt, they  remained in limbo as their names gathered dust on a list at the Israeli Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which has thus far failed to issue exit permits. Advocates were informed last week that the Canadian list is now considered outdated, and all names will have to be submitted anew, a further delay that exposes applicants to the ongoing threats of disease, death from exposure, and malnutrition that will only worsen if the ceasefire ends.  

While other governments – notably Australia – were able to facilitate the exit of thousands of Palestinians until the May closing of the Rafah border crossing, Miller glumly waved the white flag, claiming there was nothing Canada could do. Even if that were the case, it failed to explain why upwards of 1,000 Canadian visa applicants have been stranded for close to a year in Cairo, with no access to employment, education, medical care, or income supports.  

The Gaza immigration program has been controversial since its launch, from racial profiling questions to a ridiculously low cap. Palestinian community members have felt unwelcome – baselessly smeared as security risks – while Gaza health care workers seeking visas were asked questions violating patient confidentiality. Some of those lucky enough to arrive have faced rude and intimidating airport questioning from Canadian border officers, while others have struggled to receive provincial health care coverage. (Ontario relented last month, but Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador still refuse access).

 While there’s temporary relief that bombs are no longer falling in Gaza, current conditions remain unlivable for the vast majority of the 2.1 million people squeezed into an area 1/7th the size of Ottawa.

To make best use of this short ceasefire time frame, Canadian immigration officials must urgently devote the same energy they invested into the Ukraine program, complete remaining Gaza applications (which could be done over 3 business days based on the CUAET pace), and negotiate with the Egyptian government and COGAT for the rapid exit of Canadians’ loved ones.

 After 15 months of inexcusable Canadian program failures, it’s the least we can do to fulfill our promise to reunite Canadian families with their traumatized loved ones.

 Matthew Behrens coordinates the Rural Refugee Rights Network. 

Support Abousfian Abdelrazik as Canadian Complicity in Torture Trial Concludes (Online and in Ottawa)

 

Join us in court beginning January 29 to 31 in Ottawa or online for the final submissions in the landmark case focused on Canadian complicity in the arbitrary detention, torture and exile of Abousfian Abdelrazik.

To register online to observe proceedings, visit: https://cas-satj.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fSbwmniiRZ2f7_T7xFLkGg 

To receive court location details for Ottawa, contact tasc@web.ca

Abousfian Abdelrazik is “the victim of a series of gross injustices attributable directly or indirectly to Canadian state actors, including arbitrary and illegal detention, prolonged solitary confinement, torture, and forced exile and separation from his home and young children. These breaches of the Plaintiff’s fundamental human rights were flagrant, extreme and continuous over a period of six years. Most egregiously, many senior Canadian officials were fully aware that Canada could have ended the Plaintiff’s cruel and unjust ordeal at any moment by simply securing a flight home to Montreal. In this action, he seeks redress and compensation that vindicates his Charter rights and is proportionate to the unprecedented seriousness of this wrongful state conduct.” (from his lawsuit).

Paul Champ, Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyer, recalls: "I was in the room in July 2009 when Mr Abdelrazik was reunited with his children in Montreal. It was a moment I’ll never forget. When he later asked if I would help to bring a claim for damages for these egregious violations of his rights, I agreed. I didn’t imagine I would still be fighting this case over 15 years later."

Canada has a loathsome history of rendering Muslim citizens to torture abroad and being complicit in their torture. The case of Abousfian Abdlerazik is the first time such a case has been hear at trial, which took place over 7 weeks during the fall.

When a combination of civic action and a court action successfully brought him home in 2009, Abdelrazik told the Globe and Mail a “ chilling account of six years of imprisonment and forced exile abroad… Mr. Abdelrazik recounted stories of interrogation and alleged torture. He told of Canadian Security and Intelligence Service agents laughingly saying "Sudan will be your Guantanamo" when he begged to be allowed to return home.

His ordeal - described as Kafkaesque by the federal court judge who ordered him repatriated - is far from ended. But the Harper government made it clear that Mr. Abdelrazik couldn't expect any support in his efforts to remove his name from the UN list.

Mr. Abdelrazik said one of the two CSIS interrogators was the same agent who questioned him at his home two days before he flew to Khartoum in March of 2003. Mr. Abdelrazik said he had called the Montreal police to get the CSIS agents to leave.

"One of them, he turned and said to me, 'You will see…' " he said.

Although CSIS denies it arranged for Mr. Abdelrazik to be imprisoned in Sudan, heavily redacted government documents say he was arrested "at our request," meaning Canada's.
After months in solitary with little food and occasional torture, Mr. Abdelrazik said one day his Sudanese jailers told him the "Canadian muhabarat want to talk to me," using the feared Arabic term for secret police.

Mr. Abdelrazik says he was taken to a room with a table laden "with cakes and fruits and juice and bottles of water," but before he could say anything, one of the CSIS agents said, "Remember I told you in Montreal that 'You will see,' … and now, you will see."

Mr. Abdelrazik said he begged to be allowed to go home and offered to face any charges the agents wanted to press.

"I am not going to help a terrorist," the CSIS agent replied, according to Mr. Abdelrazik. The agent added that Mr. Abdelrazik was "Sudanese, not a Canadian, and should stay in Sudan forever."

"My country doesn't need you," the CSIS agent said. After the two left, Mr. Abdelrazik said the worst period of torture and abuse began.

Stay in touch at Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca 

https://www.facebook.com/events/585215024296593

Some background videos and history:

In May 2009, 225 people defied Canadian law and purchased an airline ticket for Abousfian Abdelrazik. He had been tortured in Sudan with Canadian complicity. He was prevented from coming home by Ottawa because of CSIS lies about state security. CSIS had told Abdelrazik "Sudan will be your Guantanamo." Ottawa issued a warning: anyone providing financial support to Abdelrazik risked prosecution and 10 years imprisonment.

As Abdelrazik occupied a cot at the Canadian embassy for over a year, groups like Project Fly Home and Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture worked to bring him home. Finally, when then Global Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon refused to issue travel documents (and failed to have us charged), Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyers (Yavar Hameed, Paul Champ, Audrey Brousseau, Khalid  Elgazzar) went to Federal Court and won a repatriation order. Canadians have a right to return home.

The day before court, the Wizard of Oz characters took to the streets with hundreds to chant There's No Place Like Home, including Murray Lumley (Tin Person), Tom Smarda (Scarecrow), Beth Guthrie (Glinda the Good Witch), Matthew Behrens (Cowardly Lion) and Kirsten Romaine (Dorothy Gale).

Video of that event:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMIvK4AFMDw&t=265s

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ-BKbR6pmw

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62sGo6AHvW8

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ZjygBoLC0

Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gTjSZhPcCM

Part 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuOoaiqSeM

An Ottawa Rally at the same time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stLm8c1vhq0

Abdelrazik arrives in Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoN7LXisOUE

Interview with Abousfian after he was home and trying to get off the UN 1267 List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftG47TXoh_E

Abousfian speaks at House of Commons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxZTmzrJlM

When the CLC gave Abousfian a sanctions-busting salary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRcxb0FAYU

Abousfian Abdelrazik talks about why he should be taken off the United Nations' terror watch list as shown to the UN sanctions committee in New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aD46CTW0KI

Documents suggest Canada's spies lied to Sudan to keep an innocent man in prison, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewb4WzS0DFI

Part 1of the Abdelrazik Speaking Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7tm322hFRg

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVX2nbA7mHI

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7lcWYWvIA4

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIn4hHwxP0

Prism TV Documentary, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih19ndPVaTs