To end Abdelrazik’s ordeal, he needed travel documents from the Canadian government to allow him to fly home. After months of refusing to provide Abdelrazik with these documents, a Canadian Federal Court Judge ordered the Canadian Government on June 4, 2009, to “issue [Abousfian Abdelrazik] an emergency passport in order that he may return to and enter Canada” and to “arrange transportation for [Mr. Abdelrazik] from Khartoum to Montreal, Canada such that he arrives in Canada no later than 30 days from the date hereof.”
In his story, Abdelrazik tells how he was twice arrested and imprisoned, why he took sanctuary inside the Canadian Embassy (much to the embassy’s consternation), and when he was put on the United Nations 1267 no-fly list by the United States.
For more details about his story, visit Peoples Commission Network website.
The video below is a ten-minute condensation of his presentation, in his own words, of the lengthy ordeal at the hands of Canadian, American and Sudanese intelligence agencies that left him in forced exile in Sudan for six years.
Documents obtained under the Privacy Act (.pdf 169Mb or ZIP 52Mb) and available from the website of the People’s Commission on Immigration Security Measures indicate that Mr. Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen, was incarcerated in Sudan on the request of Canadian officials. While in prison in December 2003, he was interrogated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Since his release in July 2006, he has been blocked from returning home to Montréal.
Mr. Abdelrazik’s family lives in Montréal and has not seen him since he left for Sudan in 2003. Human rights activists and citizens groups have began a public campaign to repatriate Abousfian Abdelrazik. Project Fly Home, raised enough funds from at least 171 Canadian citizens to purchase a airline ticket to take Abdelrazik back to Canada. His ticket is scheduled for April 3, 2009.
UPDATE: Abousfian returned home to Montréal on Saturday June 27, 2009 around midnight after a six-year forced exile in Sudan, where he experienced torture, imprisonment without trial, and over one year trapped in the Canadian embassy. All with the involvement of Canadian officials.
- Abdelrazik pleads to clear his name: ‘I want to live like a normal Canadian — G&M July 24, 2009
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- Abdelrazik ‘very glad to come back home’ — CBC June 27, 2009
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Below is a timeline taken from the ‘Project Fly Home’ campaign organizers:
1990
Mr. Absoufian Abdelrazik, flees the violence of a civil war and coup in Sudan, arrives in Canada and is granted political refugee status.
1995
Mr. Absoufian Abdelrazik becomes a Canadian citizen.
2000
After the arrest of Ahmed Ressam, the millennium bomber, Mr. Abdelrazik and other Muslims living in Montreal come under close surveillance by Canadian counter-terrorism agents. Mr. Abdelrazik says it amounts to harassment so severe that he calls the Montreal police for help. He is never charged with any crime, denies any connection with al-Qaeda and testifies for the prosecution at Mr. Ressam’s trial.
2003
MARCH 23: He arrives in Khartoum from Montréal, travelling on his Canadian passport to visit his mother.
SEPTEMBER 12: Mr. Abdelrazik is arrested and imprisoned by Sudan.
DECEMBER: Interrogated by people he identifies as “Canadians” while in prison. Mr. Abdelrazik says he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. In an affidavit this year, he admits to telling his interrogators “what they wanted to hear.”
2004
JULY: Mr. Abdelrazik is released from prison after 11 months. He was expected to fly home to Canada with a Lufthansa-Air Canada ticket paid for by his family. A Canadian diplomat was to escort him on temporary travel papers because his passport had expired.
JULY 23: The flight home is scrapped at the last minute when Air Canada and Lufthansa refuse to carry him on the grounds that he has been added to the U.S. no-fly list, even through routing doesn’t involve a U.S. stop. Mr. Abdelrazik is not told about the U.S. no- fly list but is told that the government of Canada is powerless to tell airlines to transport him. He’s required to live in a police-owned and monitored house.
JULY 29: In DFA Case Note 123, senior consular official Odette Gaudet-Fee, says when Mr. Abdelrazik’s wife inquired about chartering a private plane, she was told that the government would not pay for this.
SEPTEMBER 29: Senior Sudan official warns Canadian diplomats that “Sudan realized however that keeping an innocent man in detention was a human-rights violation. So far, they had prevented him from having access to news media and HR organizations but this could not go on forever. He thought that protest and public attention to this story would impact adversely on both our countries. In particular, it would tarnish Canada’s reputation in Arab countries.”
OCTOBER 10: Sudan offers a private aircraft to get Abdelrzik to Canada if Canada will contribute to costs and provide escorts.
OCTOBER 31: Canada is not prepared to contribute to the cost of the flight and also not prepared to provide an escort for Mr. Abdelrazik on the flight.
NOVEMBER 24:Then-PM Paul Martin arrives in Khartoum on a Canadian military Airbus with seating for more than 150. Embassy officials thwart Mr. Abdelrazik’s efforts to meet with PM and the aircraft leaves with scores of empty seats. A senior official travelling with the prime minister meets Mr. Abdelrazik.
2005
APRIL 13: Canada’s senior diplomat in Sudan agrees to tell Mr. Abdelrazik “I can assure you that the Govt of Canada has had no involvement whatsoever in any decision to place your name on such lists.”
MAY 9: Senior Foreign Affairs diplomat warns that Mr. Abdelrazik “has reached the end of his rope, he has no money, no future, very little freedom and no hope. Should this case break wide open in the media, we may have a lot of explaining to do.”
JULY 26: Sudan Minister of Justice issues Mr. Abdelrazik a formal document exonerating him. We “did not find any evidence’” linking him to terrorism or crime or al-Qaeda.
OCTOBER 5: With a Canadian delegation scheduled to visit, Mr. Abdelrazik is arrested again and detained, without charge. Canadian consular access is denied. But an undated and heavily redacted Canadian Foreign Affairs document marked secret and carrying a CSIS stamp says he was imprisoned “at our request,” but it isn’t clear whether that was the first, second or both times.
DECEMBER 16: In a cable marked secret, diplomats warn Ottawa that “further delay in this case risks the perception of complacency on the part of the Government should this case become public, especially given our repeated observations regarding Mr. Abdelrazikis increasingly desperate frame of mind.”
2006
JULY 20: He is released from prison after 10 months as the Sudanese say they cannot hold an “innocent” man. A Canadian diplomat, in a message to Ottawa, says he “appears to be a broken man,” but Ottawa tells diplomats to tell Mr. Abdelrazik they won’t give him a passport or travel documents.
JULY 23: The United States formally designates him a terrorist “for his high-level ties to and support for the al-Qaeda.”
JULY 31: He’s added to UN Security Council terrorist no-fly blacklist by the U.S. All his personal assets are frozen. The ban, however, specifically exempts travel for return to the country of citizenship, for the fulfillment of a judicial process and for other justifications (such as for medical and religious purposes) if allowed by the U.N.
DECEMBER 16: A secret document sent from Khartoum to senior Foreign Affairs and security officials in Ottawa says, “Abousfian Abdelrazik was arrested on September 10, 2003 [word blacked out] recommendation by CSIS, for suspected involvement with terrorist elements.”
2007
MAY 15: Mr. Abdelrazik is called by the Sudanese secret police for an interrogation by a visiting FBI anti-terrorist team. He asks for Canadian consular help, but Ottawa expresslyforbids diplomats in Khartoum to escort him. After the interrogation, Canadian diplomats report to Ottawa that Mr. Abdelrazik was told that “he will never return to Canada” unless he co-operates fully.
NOVEMBER 6: In the process of examining Aboudelrazik’s request for de-listing from the U.N. list, CSIS declared that it had “no current substantial information regarding Mr. Abdelrazik”.
NOVEMBER 15: RCMP anti-terrorism branch formally tells Harper government that it has “conducted a review of its files and was unable to locate any current and substantive information that indicates Mr. Abdelrazik is involved in criminal activity.”
2008
FEBRUARY 22: Despite RCMP’s exoneration, CSIS’s most recent terrorist update summary still says Abdelrazik received training at the Khalden camp in Afghanistan in 1996 and is important Islamic Jihad activist.”
MARCH 25: Maxime Bernier, the Canadian foreign minister, visits Khartoum. His chief of staff and MP Deepak Obhrai meet with Mr. Abdelrazik, who lifts his shirt to show scars that he says were from torture and beatings while in prison.
APRIL: Sean Robertson, a senior foreign affairs official, formally writes to Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawyers assuring them that the government of Canada had already “transmitted our support for Mr. Abdelrazik’s de−listing request to the 1267 Committee,” (the Security Council resolution bearing that number that blacklists known al−Qaeda members).
APRIL 18: Sean Robinson, director of consular affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs, confirms in writing that “we stand by the commitment” to “ensure that [Mr. Abdelrazik] has an emergency travel document to facilitate his return to Canada.”
APRIL 20: Senior Transport Canada intelligence and security officials, in a classified document say, “Senior government of Canada officials should be mindful of the potential reaction of our U.S. counterparts to Abdelrazik’s return to Canada as he is on the U.S. no-fly list.” Transport Canada documents state it was the U.S. no-fly lists that prevented Mr. Abdelrazik’s return to Canada when he was released from prison in July 2005.
APRIL 29: Mr. Abdelrazik seeks refuge in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum. Mr. Bernier grants him “temporary safe haven,” suggesting that he poses no threat to the embassy but may be at risk of re-imprisonment in Sudan.
SEPTEMBER 15: Etihad Airlines agrees to fly Mr. Abdelrazik from Khartoum to Toronto via Abu Dhabi on this date. The Canadian government fails to deliver on its promise, first made in 2004, that Mr. Abdelrazik, like all Canadian citizens, is entitled to emergency travel documents to return home.
DECEMBER 23: Passport Canada adds a new condition – a fully paid-for ticket, not just a confirmed reservation – must be presented before Mr. Abdelrazik will be issued emergency travel documents. Mr. Abdelrazik is destitute. The government says it must seize his assets and anyone who gives him any money is committing a crime.
2009
MARCH 12: One hundred and sixteen Canadians break federal law by contributing towards the purchase of a plane ticket for Mr. Abdelrazik with a departure date set for April 3. The government has untilthen to issue travel documents.
(Most of this timeline appears in a March 5, 2009 article entitled “Exiled in Khartoum: CSIS asked Sudan to arrest Canadian, files reveal” written by Globe and Mail Correspondent Paul Koring. Additional sources, Globe and Mail.)
MARCH 20: CSIS posted a request on its website asking SIRC to investigate its role in Mr. Abdelrazik’s detention in Sudan, hoping to clear itself of allegations that it had acted inappropriately.
MARCH 27: Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon says Mr. Abdelrazik must have his name removed from the 1267 UN no-fly list before the government will issue travel documents.
APRIL 3: On the day Mr. Abdelrazik is booked to fly home, Minister Cannon uses his discretionary powers under the Canadian Passport Order to bar Mr. Abdelrazik from coming home. He continues to wait in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum.
APRIL 28: One year anniversary of Mr. Abdelrazik’s “temporary safe haven” in Canadian embassy in Khartoum.
MAY 7: Court hearing begins in Ottawa where Mr. Abdelrazik is seeking a mandatory order to compel the government to bring him back “on any safe means at its disposal.” The motion is based on section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which states, “Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.”
Members from his community in Montréal considered the IRB’s decision to be discriminatory and decided to come to his aid by creating the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni. They stipulated that the IRB’s decision, based on the fact that Kader did not have a family in Canada and did not have a job discriminated against him because of his blindness.
Kader says that the IRB left him in a “vicious circle” whereby he could not attain a job because he was without status in Canada and he could not get status because he was unemployed. Three months after arriving in Canada in March 2003, Kader registered with the job bank at Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille to help him find work. “Every time they found found a job for me, I was unable to take it because I had no papers. I was not allowed to work,” he insisted. “Everyone told me that as soon as I had the papers, I should contact them because they’s like to hire me.”
As for him not having a family, Kader replies that his family here are his friends. “The guy cleaning my room right now, is my family. The girl who called earlier will bring my my supper. She is my friend. I find that I have a large circle of friends that are my family,” he says with a smile.
When asked what he does to pass the time, Kader says that four months into his stay in St-Gabriel’s Church, he decided that his time here would be time to spend learning. Sanctuary would become his music school. He has a piano teacher and several musician friends who have helped him compose original music. He already has an album and is working on his second. He also excercises on his stationary bike and the purple Pilates ball you see in the photo.
Kader says that he might make the same decision today after three years if he had to choose again whether or not to go into sanctuary. But he’s glad that he doesn’t know the future. “If I
knew I would still be here three years later, I might hae been afraid to move forward,” he says, adding that destiny brings with it many things. “It’s true that I’m enclosed in this church but I’ve become a musician. I host a radio show called Radio Sanctuary.
Although he wants to leave as soon as possible, Kader says, “I am will in the church. I miss nothing. What I denounce in the injustice. Other than that, there is little else I can do. Other than be patient.”
On January 17, more than one hundred of Kader’s ‘family’ came out to denounce the Canadian government’s refusal to grant Kader refugee status on humanitarian grounds, which would allow him to rejoin his community outside the walls that have kept him confined for over three years. The demonstrators walked through the streets of Pointe Saint Charles to remind those that may have forgotten, that Kader is indeed still confined after three years. The march was postponed to one week (as the poster indicates) because a large demonstration in support of Gaza was organized on January 10th.
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The IRB was accused of being arbitrary and prejudicial against Palestinians seeking refugee status in Canada. One case that the Montréal Palestinians often referred to to back up their claim are of two brothers who are both from the Burj el-Barajneh Refugee Camp. “One brother got accepted while the other was refused even though they both lived in the same harsh conditions in the camp,” said one Plestinian refugee who requested anonymity becaue his case was still pending before his commissioner.
Questions I wanted to answer in the 16-minute film below, Mythos Canadensis (2003), attemped to reconcile the divide between official Canadian immigration policy and the practice of refusing to give refugee status in Canada to a Palestinian, already recognized as a refugee by the United Nations.
The Citizenship and Immigration Canada website writes that their department, “resettles, protects and provides a safe haven for refugees,” yet young Palestinian men, who were born refugees and who are card-carrying beneficiaries of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), are still refused refugee status in Canada and deported back to refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon.
Between 2002 and 2003, I followed Montréal-based Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees to meetings, demonstrations, occupations, concerts, presentations, everywhere I could.
The short film is my attempt to document and understand the challenges faced by Palestinian refugees seeking status in Canada from Montréal. While following the Palestinian refugees’ activities within the coalition as they mobilized to get status in Canada, I was confronted by several questions whose answers I had previously–and wrongfully–assumed: 1) are Palestinians genuine refugees? 2) Is Citizenship and Immigration canada genuinely committed to providing a safe haven to all those in genuine need of protection?; 3) Are IRB commissioners well informed and non-partisan?; 4) Are Palestinians persecuted inside refugee camps?, and 5) Has Citizenship and Immigration Canada ever deported stateless refugees and does the government department always tell the truth?
Mythos Canadensis – David Widgington – 15:44
