Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Canadian Detainees in Iraq Plead for Repatriation in Surprise Calls from Baghdad


August 5, 2026 – The loved ones of Canadians who’ve been illegally detained first in Northeast Syria and now in Iraq have finally been allowed to receive phone calls from sons, brothers, and fathers whose voices they have not heard in almost a decade.

Over the past several weeks, calls from the Baghdad prisons where 7 Canadians are held – among the 5,700+ men illegally rendered to Iraq earlier this year from northeastern Syria – have communicated a singular message: Iraqi authorities’ prime interest is the repatriation to Canada of these arbitrarily detained men.

Ottawa lawyer Nicholas Pope, who represents most of the Canadian men, says “in those calls, my clients stated that Iraqi officials have stressed that they want the Canadians to be returned to Canada so they do not have to conduct any judicial processes. As we have shared repeatedly with the Canadian government, any trials will be patently unfair, biased, and likely result in the death penalty or a life sentence.  The jeopardy these men face due to the Canadian government’s inaction imposes a duty on Canada to respond affirmatively to the Iraqi authorities who are calling on Ottawa to accept them to be sent home.”

 

Since 2017, the Canadian government has actively interfered with any effort to repatriate its arbitrarily detained citizens, long held under conditions the United Nations described as akin to torture, and has only brought back 32 Canadian women and children when forced to by court action or the threat of litigation. When detained by Kurdish authorities in Northeastern Syria (from 2017 to early 2026), the men’s jailers repeatedly called on Canada to bring its citizens back, and the federal government fought such requests both in the Federal Court (which ordered the men home) and Federal Court of Appeal (which, despite finding no legal obligation to repatriate, nonetheless informed Canadian officials that the decision was not meant to “ be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about that result.”)

 

While Global Affairs Canada has informed the families it will not seek repatriation due to unsubstantiated concerns about interfering with a judicial process, Iraqi officials have repeatedly asked for countries to allow their citizens to go home and to be dealt with, if needed, according to the laws of their own countries. 

 

Call Out of the Blue

John Letts, father of the longest-held detainee, Jack, recounts receiving a call out of the blue. “What do you say to the son you love when he suddenly calls you after 11 years of silence, torture and detention without evidence, charge or trial? We had two and a half minutes to catch up. When will you end this nightmare Mr. Carney? The Iraqis are begging Canada to repatriate Jack before any legal proceedings begin. So why is Global Affairs Canada still claiming that Canada ‘can’t interfere in the legal proceedings of a foreign country’? Is our Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms more than just words on paper? Jack’s detention is political and has nothing to do with national security or protecting Canadians.”

 

“Sumayyah,” who has spoken to her long-detained son on several occasions, similarly questions the nature of citizenship when it comes to the overseas detention of Canadian Muslims. “Hearing my son’s voice for the first time was a surreal experience. It was bittersweet in feeling both relief to hear his voice but concern to hear how much the suffering and stress has aged him. He described to us the extreme abandonment he felt from the Canadian government. His late father took the call from the emergency room, surrounded by doctors and specialists during his final days. He was finally able to speak to our son for the first time in many years, and what turned out to be the last time, as his father passed away 6 days later.”

 

Matthew Behrens, coordinator of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which has led a campaign for repatriation, questions why Canada is refusing to accede to the requests of its Iraqi allies. “We have written to them time and again with clear statements from Iraqi officials, and they refuse to respond to them. We appeared before the UN Human Rights Committee earlier this year and they clearly called for repatriation. The famous Davos speech of Mark Carney informed the world that Canada would chart a newer path that respected the UN and international law, yet in these cases especially, it continues to stand in bold violation.”

 

Lengthy List of Iraqi Repatriation Requests

Behrens said his group provided a chronology to Global Affairs Canada earlier this summer to illustrate the pattern of Iraqi requests, and while the group contests the inflammatory language used in headlines and by some officials (indeed, some of the men opposed ISIS), the timeline speaks for itself:

 

·      On January 23, 2026, it was reported, “Iraqi PM Urges European Repatriation of ISIS Detainees Following Transfer Operation from Syria.”[1]

·      On February 13, 2026, it was reported that Moroccan officials were planning repatriations.[2]

·      On February 25, 2026, we learned of Russia’s intent to repatriate its nationals.[3]

·      On February 26, 2026, it was reported, “Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their own citizens from among the detainees.”[4]

·      On March 10, 2026, Canada’s Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Boehm reportedly met Iraq’s national security adviser Qasim Al-Araji. Al-Araji’s office issued a summary in Arabic and English stating that Boehm “indicated his government’s readiness to receive its nationals among the detainees who were recently handed over” to Iraq. But Global Affairs wrote in response to one family member: “This information is incorrect and Ambassador Boehm was unfortunately misquoted. Canada is not currently in the process of repatriating any detained Canadians from Iraq.”[5]

·      On March 17, 2026, Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani spoke about the need for repatriation with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.[6]

·      On April 2, 2026, 2026, the United Nations Human Rights Committee called on Canada to repatriate its male nationals, as well as the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children still detained in northeastern Syria.[7]

·      On April 4, 2026, news reports indicated Russia, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Egypt were among countries that have indicated a willingness to repatriate their nationals. (https://shafaq.com/en/society/Iraq-probes-1K-ISIS-suspects-as-repatriation-deals-advance)

·      On April 14, 2026, Iraq  repatriated American and Finnish detainees.[8]

·      On May 10, 2026, it was reported that “Justice Minister Khaled Shwani said in March that Iraqi law applies to all Islamic State members regardless of nationality and that courts may issue death sentences. ‘If a state is keen that this terrorist not be tried under Iraqi rulings, we are ready to sign memoranda of understanding to return these elements to their original countries, and the United States supports us in this context,’ he said.”[9]  

“This has been a unique circumstance of Canadians detained abroad in which the jailers have consistently expressed their willingness to return our citizens home,” Behrens said. “Most of the time, as we saw with the Two Michaels, it is a struggle to release detained Canadians. In this instance, the key to those jail cells is held by the Canadians. By refusing to open those prison doors, we remain deeply complicit in their decade-long arbitrary detention.”

 

More info: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, 2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052, Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7, tasc@web.ca 

 

 

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