Friends, As we continue to grow our campaign to bring home Jack Letts and 43 arbitrarily detained Canadian men, women & kids from conditions akin to torture in NE Syria, below are 3 new very compelling media pieces, links to a chain fast and 5-hour Ottawa vigil, and other ideas on how you can keep up the pressure to end this human rights atrocity. Thanks for your support, and scroll down to learn more!
Thank you!
Matthew Behrens
Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture
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1. In the News
Sally Lane, whose son Jack marked 5 years in arbitrary detention on May 3, has been speaking out this month in a series of very compelling interviews.
a. On May 12, Sally delivered a letter (http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/2022/05/ottawa-mother-of-son-detained-5-years.html to the Prime Minister and Global Affairs Minister seeking an urgent meeting. Here’s her interview on the steps of the Prime Minister's Office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8e-Jlfn0i4
b. On May 16, Sally gave a heart-breaking interview with the wonderful Sam Laprade for Ottawa's City News, tune in at 19:45: https://ottawa.citynews.ca/all-audio/the-sam-laprade-show/hour-2-of-the-sam-laprade-show-for-may-16-2022-5374128
c. Today Sally’s interview on the history of her family's efforts to bring home Jack and the other detainees, situated in a broader pattern of decades-long Canadian government abuses, was released. It's an outstanding work of journalistic integrity by Talking Radical Radio's Scott Neigh, accompanied by excellent in-depth writing: https://mediacoop.ca/node/119059?fbclid=IwAR3U2Np3xbU8I9eg0duMR2FBDu5xO7WRWBQcQ8-VXID6khmQVAZUyRwhejU
2. Mother's Day to Father's Day Chain Fast
Please pick a day to fast in support of freeing and bringing home arbitrarily detained Canadian Muslim Jack Letts and four dozen other Canadian Muslim men, women, and children. The chain fast runs Mother’s Day to Father’s Day because among those imprisoned are mothers and fathers, as well as the sons and daughters of parents and grandparents who have worked for years to bring their loved ones home. In addition, the Canadian government, taking a page from its own history of genocidal violence against Indigenous people, is engaged in an insidious process by which it seeks to separate the imprisoned babies and young kids from their moms and dads. Family separation – especially based on racist notions – is never acceptable. Open dates are at: http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/2022/04/mothers-day-to-fathers-day-chain-fast.html
3. Five Hours for 5 Years: An Ottawa Vigil to Free the 44 and Bring Them Home
In Ottawa on May 19, Sally will lead a 5-hour vigil at the Prime Minister’s office. If you are in town, please drop by when you can between 10:30 am and 3:30 pm. Details at https://www.facebook.com/events/1025053714793296
4. Keep sharing our petition: https://www.change.org/p/what-if-he-were-your-son-sign-to-free-jack-letts-and-43-canadian-kids-women-and-men-in-ne-syria
5. Write a letter and make a call
SAMPLE EMAIL (be sure to include the CC-ed MPs and add your own MP if they are not already listed below!)
(Feel free to personalize with your own statement imagining what it would be like to know your loved ones are condemned to these brutal camps and prisons and the Canadian government is refusing to lift a finger for them. Use a creative subject line as well that does not make your email look like it is computer-generated!)
To: Melanie.Joly@parl.gc.ca, Melanie.Joly@international.gc.ca
CC: pam.damoff@parl.gc.ca, rob.oliphant@parl.gc.ca, marco.mendicino@parl.gc.ca, michael.chong@parl.gc.ca, sven.spengemann@parl.gc.ca, Marty.Morantz@parl.gc.ca, Stephane.Bergeron@parl.gc.ca, Rachel.Bendayan@parl.gc.ca, Hedy.Fry@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, Heather.McPherson@parl.gc.ca, alistair.macgregor@parl.gc.ca , Randeep.Sarai@parl.gc.ca, Chandra.Arya@parl.gc.ca, Peter.Schiefke@parl.gc.ca, Kamal.Khera@parl.gc.ca, Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca, Iqra.khalid@parl.gc.ca, Joel.Lightbound@parl.gc.ca, Ruby.Sahota@parl.gc.ca, Majid.Jowhari@parl.gc.ca, Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca, ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca
Dear Minister Joly,
I am writing today in support of the call to repatriate four dozen Canadian Muslim men, women, and children from NE Syrian detention centres and prisons known as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.”
Canada is an international embarrassment, as noted by the United Nations, for its failure to do what so many other countries have been willing and able to do: bring their nationals home.
Countries from Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Netherlands, Albania, France, the USA, Germany, Iraq and Russia have repatriated their citizens from these camps.
So why not Canada?
Recently, Canada celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While it’s an important document, it is too often applied unevenly in this country depending on one’s heritage or religious belief. In this instance, four dozen Muslims missed yet another Ramadan with their loved ones here because you are refusing to honour and uphold their Section 6 Charter right to return home.
As you know, some four dozen Canadians remain arbitrarily detained largely because Global Affairs Canada has refused to take the necessary steps to bring them home. How can the government of Canada, which played a lead role in drafting and signing a global pact on ending arbitrary detention, refuse to take immediate action to end the arbitrary detention of Canadian men, women and children enduring conditions that the United Nations has described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”
Even worse, why is Canada actively fighting a legal challenge in court and trying to prevent these families from seeking an order to have Global Affairs Canada do its job and bring their loved ones home?
A group of retired diplomats wrote in the January 31, 2022 edition of the Hill-Times that the Canadian “government’s reasons for not helping are specious and are meant to disguise its complete unwillingness to help this specific group of Canadians.”
It is beyond unacceptable that your government claims it is unable to assist these arbitrarily detained Canadian citizens when so many governments have been able to repatriate their own citizens with ease. In fact, you are constantly putting up roadblocks that interfere with their Charter-guaranteed right to return to Canada.
If you are unsure what to do, perhaps pick up the phone and call the ambassadors of Kazakhstan or Albania or France for pointers on how to repatriate citizens. Better yet, simply respond to the repeated requests of Kurdish authorities to come and claim your citizens. They are, after all, Canada’s ally!
On February 22, 2022, Human Rights Watch declared the following: “Canada has an obligation under international law to take necessary and reasonable steps to assist nationals abroad facing serious abuses including risks to life, torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment. International law also grants everyone the right to return to their country of nationality, without their government throwing up direct or indirect barriers.”
I agree with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which in January 2022 clearly called on Canada and other nations to do the right thing: “States must repatriate their own citizens. Not just children. Children, women and men.”
I am calling on you to take immediate action to save the at-risk lives of these Canadian citizens. Prime Minister Trudeau campaigned on a platform that declared, “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.” These arbitrarily detained Canadians are no less deserving of human rights than anyone else. Your government said it stood with the two Michaels when they were detained in China. It’s time, now, to stand with the Canadians who, like Jack Letts, remain imprisoned without charge under appalling conditions akin to torture.
I expect better of the Canadian government when it comes to respecting the rights of Canadians detained abroad, and demand that you end this nightmare immediately.
Name
Town/City
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SAMPLE Call (feel free to use your own wording)
Mélanie Joly
613-992-0983 (Ottawa office)
514-383-3709 (Montreal office)
You may or may not get an answering machine (if you do, please leave a message).
Hi, my name is XXXXXXXX and I'm calling from XXXXXXX. I find it unbelievable and cruel that the Canadian government has done nothing to free and bring home 44 of its Muslim citizens, including Jack Letts. The United Nations describes their conditions as akin to torture. The detainees’ captors, human rights groups, the United Nations, a Parliamentary committee, the US State Department, and the Red Cross have all called for their repatriation. Dozens of countries that recognize it is wrong to perpetuate the arbitrary detention of their citizens have intervened to bring them home with no problems whatsoever. I expect Canada to do the same. There are at least 8 Canadian men, 15 women, and 23 children held in Northeast Syria. I am calling on Minister Joly to stop putting barriers in their way and assist them in coming home immediately. Thank you.