Sign to Free 16 Canadian Kids, Women & Men Illegally Detained in Iraq and Syria

Please sign and share to free illegally detained Canadian children, men and women, held in some cases over 9 years without charge in Syria and Iraq https://www.change.org/p/canada-must-free-16-canadian-kids-women-men-illegally-detained-in-iraq-and-syria Canada must immediately repatriate Canadian men, women and children illegally detained and issue temporary resident permits to two mothers that would allow them to come to Canada with their currently detained Canadian children.

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. 

Please sign and share!

Matthew Behrens 
Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture