Shortly after the UN slammed Canada for breaching international law in these cases, 4 Canadians (including Kimberly Polman) are headed home after years arbitrarily detained in Syria under conditions akin to torture. While our efforts to expose Canadian complicity in the torture of our fellow citizens and to bring them home as soon as possible are making progress, we have much to do (details on how to help below). Last week, Ottawa applied for, and was granted, a secret hearing in the upcoming court case of the detainees. And at least 40 Canadian men, women & kids remain in camps under unbearable conditions, including a rise in cholera cases.
Learn more about what the UN said about Canada’s complicity in the arbitrary detention and torture of Canadian Jack Letts at: http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/2022/09/un-slams-canadas-failure-to-repatriate.html
Take action:
1. Send Jack Letts a birthday card (the longest-held detainee, he turns 27 on November 14, and has not seen his Mom in almost 9 years). Visit: http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/2022/10/send-birthday-cards-to-jack-letts.html
2. Call the office of Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly with the following suggested script (feel free to use your own wording)
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. It is great that four Canadians have finally been released from Syria and are headed home, but Canada must do more, and fast. The Canadians' captors have long asked you to come and get the Canadians. It's long past time to do so now. Repatriate ALL the Canadians – men, women, and children – from camps that are described as akin to torture. I expect nothing less than their return home as soon as possible. I also ask that you stop the secret hearing that you applied for and were granted last week, and to drop your resistance to the legal challenge requiring you to do your job and bring everyone home. Thank you.
3. Send this email to the following individuals and add in your MP as well
(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, Stephane.Bergeron@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, Heather.McPherson@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, sameer.zuberi@parl.gc.ca
Dear Minister Joly,
While I welcome the news that four Canadians appear headed home after years arbitrarily detained in Northeast Syria, I am writing to remind you of the immediate need to repatriate four dozen other Canadian Muslim men, women, and children from NE Syrian detention centres and prisons known as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.”
Perhaps it is more accurate to say these detainees are in “Canada’s Guantanamo,” since it is Canada’s policies which perpetuate the arbitrary detention of men, women and children under conditions akin to torture for years on end.
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. Your government was recently slammed for breaching international law by the United Nations, which questioned how you could keep your own citizens detained by your own ally under conditions described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”
Indeed, your government spends $2.9 million on repatriating Iraqis, which is great, by why not your own citizens?
Even worse, why is Canada now charging ahead with a secret hearing to prevent these families from seeking an order to have Global Affairs Canada do its job and bring their loved ones home?
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