During #MoeVember, we are asking you to take 2 minutes to write a letter (sample below) urging that the Minister of Health and related officials end a very unhealthy situation. For 20 years, Ottawa residents Moe and Sophie Harkat have lived with illegal detention, secret hearings, the surveillance state invading their home, and the threat of deportation to torture. In addition to the legal and moral failings at the heart of this state-sponsored repression are the profound health effects of living every day and night with this nightmare.
1. Below is a sample email.
2. In addition, please click to send a message at https://iclmg.ca/stop-harkat-deportation/
3. If you have not signed and shared it yet, please join 72,000+ others demanding an end to this grave injustice at: https://www.change.org/p/help-stop-my-husband-s-deportation-to-torture
SAMPLE EMAIL
Please include your own MP in the CC and feel free to add in a line or two that personalizes your message
To: jean-yves.duclos@parl.gc.ca
CC: hcinfo.infosc@canada.ca, tasc@web.ca, gord.johns@parl.gc.ca, lisamarie.barron@parl.gc.ca, Bonita.Zarrillo@parl.gc.ca, don.davies@parl.gc.ca, Élisabeth.Brière@parl.gc.ca, Adam.vanKoeverden@parl.gc.ca, Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca, ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@canada.ca
Dear Jean-Yves Duclos,
During the month of #MoeVember, I am concerned about the physical and mental health of Ottawa refugee Mohamed (Moe) Harkat, who for 20 years has faced incarceration without charge (including solitary confinement), secret trials with allegations and informants he has not been allowed to see or cross-examine, 16 years of intrusive and harassing surveillance, and the ever-present threat of deportation to torture hanging over his head.
None of this is healthy for any human being. Yet Moe and his wife Sophie have dealt with this every day of their lives since December 10, 2002. The incessant stress has contributed to the development and exacerbation of Moe’s Post-Polio Syndrome, preventing him from being able to work, severely limiting his physical movements, and leaving him in constant physical pain.
He also suffers PTSD, severe depression, nightmares and anxiety, as would anyone under such enormous state-sponsored stress.
I am asking that you as Minister of Health raise this horrible state-sponsored health crisis with your cabinet colleagues as a means of opening discussion on ending this nightmare for the Harkats.
One way of ending this health crisis is to grant permanent residency Moe Harkat and end the threat of deportation to torture. A well-supported application to allow Mr. Harkat to stay in Canada has been on the desk of the Public Safety Minister for over six years.
Another is to throw out the “security certificate” that has allowed this human rights abuse to continue. Starting in 2002, Moe spent 43 months in maximum security detention without charge on secret allegations he was not allowed to properly contest. He was released in 2006 on the strictest bail conditions in Canadian history, and while they have lessened, they are still incredibly intrusive and humiliating 16 years later. The original “evidence” against Mr. Harkat was destroyed by CSIS, and the allegations against him are based on two secret informants – one failed a lie detector test and the other had an affair with his CSIS handler – who were never cross-examined in court.
If this had been a regular criminal trial, the term “wrongful conviction” would fit perfectly.
This is grossly unfair. Moe is a United Nations Convention refugee who has lived in Canada for almost 30 years. If deported, he faces the risk of imprisonment, torture, and possibly death in Algeria. Courts in the UK and Ireland have barred their governments from deporting people to Algeria who face a substantial risk of torture. Canada must do the same in Moe’s case.
In your Mandate letter as Minister of Health, you were instructed to “continue to address the profound systemic inequities and disparities that remain present in the core fabric of our society, including our core institutions.” There is no better example of those inequities than the case of Moe Harkat.
On October 26, 2017, Prime Minister Trudeau clearly stated: “Nobody ever deserves to be tortured. And when a Canadian government is either complicit in that or was not active enough in preventing it, there needs to be responsibility taken.”
It’s time to end the Canadian government’s complicity in the abusive mistreatment of Moe Harkat and remove the underlying conditions that have contributed to the physical and mental health crisis he faces.
I look forward to hearing from you about how you will contribute to ending this human rights nightmare.
Thank you
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