Even though their captors (as well as the US State Department, the UN, and many human rights organizations) have repeatedly begged Canada to repatriate them, Canada has spent millions in court to prevent Canadians from enjoying their Charter-protected right to come home.
For years, Canada’s Guantanamo Bay – where Muslims have been off-shored beyond reach of law & rights, respect & dignity – was in NE Syria. After the return of 32 long-detained women and children due to public and legal pressure, 16 Canadians – men, women & kids – remained illegally detained there under conditions the UN calls "akin to torture" because Ottawa refused to repatriate them.
In the same way the Trump administration has used El Salvador as an illegal dumping ground – a policy condemned by a US Federal Court as the President wrongfully “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order” – Canada is behaving in a similarly illegal and unconstitutional manner.
From Syria to Iraq
As of February 2026, most of the Canadian men were illegally rendered to Iraq along with 5,700+ others in an act of mass rendition almost ten times the size of Guantanamo Bay. None of these men has ever been charged with an offence, much less faced an opportunity to challenge their arbitrary detention in a fair, impartial, transparent proceeding.
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.
But Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety Canada continue to spend millions to prevent their return, while the women and children remain in a terrifying and volatile state of detention in Syria. Canada has refused to grant temporary residence permits to the two mothers of five Canadian children who remain detained, and on numerous occasions, the mothers have been given a sickening, forced family separation dictate by Canada: if you want your children to be free, you must stay behind, likely separating them forever.
This is state-sponsored Islamophobia in action. The Federal Court of Canada concluded in 2023 there is absolutely no evidence that the men in the “BOLOH” (Bring Our Loved Ones Home”) case 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. The men have directly communicated to the government of Canada that if it has ANY concerns about them, they are happy to face allegations in a fair, open, transparent judicial proceeding in Canada.
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. And yet when it comes to arbitrarily detained Muslim Canadians, the government has not only looked away. It has actively fought Canadian families to prevent their loved ones from exercising their Charter right to come home.
Please follow the instructions below and send a letter. This human rights nightmare must be ended.
Matthew Behrens
Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Write a letter to the Ministers of Public Safety, Immigration and Global Affairs Canada (template below, feel free to personalize)
2. Sign and share this petition: https://www.change.org/p/canada-must-free-16-canadian-kids-women-men-illegally-detained-in-iraq-and-syria
3. Learn more at https://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/, which holds a collection of archived stories on this human rights issue.
Template Letter (feel free to personalize and CC your MP)
To: gary.anand@parl.gc.ca; lenametlege.diab@parl.gc.ca; Anita.Anand@parl.gc.ca
CC: rob.oliphant@parl.gc.ca; yasir.naqvi@parl.gc.ca; sameer.zuberi@parl.gc.ca; tasc@web.ca; Heather.McPherson@parl.gc.ca; Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca; Iqra.khalid@parl.gc.ca; pm@pm.gc.ca; ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca; Anita.Anand@international.gc.ca; IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca; Minister@cic.gc.ca; Mark.carney@parl.gc.ca; Tricia.Geddes@ps-sp.gc.ca; Daniel.Mills@ps-sp.gc.ca
Subject: (Personalize the subject so it doesn’t look auto-generated. Suggestions:
Please Repatriate the Canadians Detained in Iraq and Syria or
Bring Home the Women, Men and Children Detained in Syria and Iraq or
I Urge you to Repatriate Illegally Detained Canadians in Iraq and Syria
Dear Ministers,
In December 2022, a Federal Court Judge declared about the Canadian detainees then in northeastern Syria: “Canadians are dying or at risk of dying every day this matter is adjourned.”
Almost four years later, I am ashamed to learn that, despite the pleas of their captors in Syria and Iraq to repatriate Canadian children and men (and grant temporary resident permits to the mothers of those children), Canada continues to be complicit in their arbitrary detention.
I find it completely unacceptable that Canada can stand on the world stage as an upholder of human rights while it denies a core Charter right to return home to this group of 16 people.
I understand that the only reason 32 women and children have returned to Canada from years of arbitrary detention in Syria is because of public pressure and legal action (or the threat of such legal action). But Canadians should never be forced to go to Court to compel the government to uphold its human rights commitments and responsibilities to Canadians in distress while abroad.
I refuse to condemn these individuals because of their faith, their heritage, or what you allege to be their political beliefs. Human rights are universal, and apply to all. If you think they have done anything wrong, you have the option of bringing them home and charging them here, as you have done in a number of the cases of adult women who have returned.
It is difficult to accept your publicly stated position that you are not pursuing repatriation when Iraqi authorities have clearly asked you to bring back my fellow Canadians. I am equally concerned that you continue to inform the detained children that their freedom is contingent on possibly permanent separation from their mothers. Canada has a wretched history of forced family separation, and I am both saddened and angered to see this shameful practice remains a core Canadian policy.
It is completely unacceptable that this human rights nightmare has gone on for almost a full decade when it could be so easily resolved.
I urge you to immediately work with your US allies to bring back the Canadian men and children and to grant temporary resident permits so the children’s mothers can accompany them as a family unit.
NAME/TOWN
Postal Code
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