CALL FOR URGENT ACTION: ENSURE THE GOVERNMENT COMPLIES WITH COURT ORDER TO BRING ABOUSFIAN ABDELRAZIK HOME
*Act now, before the government comes up with any more excuses*
Family members, lawyers and supporters of Abousfian Abdelrazik are delighted with today's Federal Court order directing the Federal
government to issue Mr. Abdelrazik an emergency passport and to arrange transportation for his return to Montreal within thirty days.
The ruling found that Mr. Abdelrazik’s Charter right to enter Canada had been breached. The full decision can be found here:
www.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php
However, Project Fly Home strongly agrees with the judge's remark that the breach "was done in bad faith".
To prepare against the possibility of more of the same bad faith, Project Fly Home is calling on all organizations and individual
supporters to TAKE ACTION NOW to hold the government to the court order - before they have time to come up with more excuses.
As you know, the ticket that over 100 people from across Canada bought for Abousfian has been re-scheduled for 12 June. We suggest that this might be the easiest means for the government to bring Abousfian home promptly, in compliance with the court order. (However, if the government choses to bring Abousfian home more quickly than that, it is certainly welcome to do so!) At the same time, the civil society delegation slated to leave Montreal for Khartoum on Monday, June 8th to escort Abousfian home on June 12th has been postponed, but remains on standby.
PLEASE IMMEDIATELY:
1) Write to Minister Lawrence Cannon, copying Stephen Harper and your MP, asking him to comply with the court order to bring Abousfian Abdelrazik back to Montreal and suggesting that the government make use of the ticket that Abousfian already has for 12 June.
Lawrence Cannon
Telephone: (613) 992-5516
Fax: (613) 992-6802
Email: CannoL@parl.gc.ca
Stephen Harper
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: HarpeS@parl.gc.ca
Contact details of MPs via www.parl.gc.ca (click on "Members of Parliament (Current)").
2) If you are an organization, make this letter/statement available to your media contacts and post it on your website.
3) If you are in Montreal, please come out to the Kite Rally on 10 June at noon, Peel and Ste-Catherine's, to call on Lawrence Cannon to
bow to popular opinion, the will of Parliament, the Federal Court of Canada, and basic justice and humanity and let Abousfian come home on 12 June. (Outside Montreal: check the events section of our website for events in other cities or get in touch with the local contact in your area, www.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php.)
4) Please circulate this appeal in your networks. You can refer people to www.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php for background information and updates.
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SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS OF THE DECISION:
[156] I have found that Canada has engaged in a course of conduct and specific acts that constitute a breach of Mr. Abdelrazik's right to enter Canada. Specifically, I find:
(i) That CSIS was complicit in the detention of Mr. Abdelrazik by the Sudanese authorities in 2003;
(ii) That by mid 2004 Canadian authorities had determined that they would not take any active steps to assist Mr. Abdelrazik to return to Canada and, in spite of its numerous assurances to the contrary, would consider refusing him an emergency passport if that was required in order to ensure that he could not return to Canada;
(iii) That there is no impediment from the UN Resolution to Mr. Abdelrazik being repatriated to Canada - no permission of a foreign government is required to transit through its airspace - and the respondents' assertion to the contrary is a part of the conduct engaged in to ensure that Mr. Abdelrazik could not return to Canada; and
(iv) That Canada's denial of an emergency passport on April 3, 2009, after all of the preconditions for the issuance of an emergency passport previously set by Canada had been met, is a breach of his Charter right to enter Canada, and it has not been shown to be saved under section 1 of the Charter.