Action Report from Montreal: Bring Abousfian Abdelrazik Home!

Action Report from Montreal: Bring Abousfian Abdelrazik Home!
Part one in a series opposing Canadian complicity in torture

--> Photos of the Montreal action can be seen here.

--> A rally in support of Abdelrazik was also held in Ottawa on Friday. The video can be found here.

It is a sign that things are not as bad as they could be that the sight of three people being tortured in the middle of a busy sidewalk still has the power to check the pace of pedestrians in downtown Montreal. As people rounded the corner of Peel and Ste-Catherine on their lunch breaks, they almost stumbled over the prostrate bodies: blind-folded, hands bound behind their backs, forced into unnatural poses with tires and chains. While some averted their eyes and quickened their pace and a few hurled racist insults, many paused to take a tract calling for the immediate repatriation of Abousfian Abdelrazik and an end to Canadian complicity in torture.

A poster hanging above the victims offered passers-by the opportunity to donate to a fund to pay for Abousfian Abdelrazik's plane ticket home to Montreal.

Yet another Maher Arar case, Mr. Abdelrazik is stuck in Sudan, where he was detained and tortured on and off for years, with the knowledge and complicity of Canadian authorities. Finally released without charge, Abdelrazik found that there was no coming home: airline companies refused him and the Canadian consulate seemingly could not secure his passage.

The situation became more stark late Thursday evening. The Globe and Mail revealed that a flight had been booked for Abdelrazik to come home this Monday but, despite an urgent request from his lawyer Yavar Hameed in August, the government had failed to issue the travel document he would need to board the flight. (Read full Globe article.) In fact, until the Globe contacted them on Thursday, Canadian consular officials had not even responded to Hameed's urgent message. Within hours of the Globe's call, Canadian officials sent a fax, citing as the reason for their hesitation UN-imposed sanctions on financial assistance, including paying airfare, to people on the UN resolution 1267 blacklist. Hence the public collection in Montreal.

In an official memo dated 30 July 2004, obtained under the Privacy Act, a Canadian official described how Abdelrazik's former wife was thinking of hiring a private charter to bring him back to Canada. The Foreign Affairs official concluded, "So, should she get a private plane, there is very little we could do to stop him from entering Canada. He would need an EP [travel document] and I guess this could be refused but on what ground."

It seems the grounds have now been found.

Links to news coverage of the public actions.

To keep on top of developments, to find out whether Abelrazik will be allowed to fly home on Monday (tomorrow) and, if not, what you can do, click here.

The torture techniques used in the Montreal action were based on drawings by Abdullah Almalki of how he was tortured in Syria and Egypt. The Iacobucci Inquiry into the role of Canadian authorities in his detention and torture and that of fellow Canadians Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin will be released by 20 October 2008.

Yesterday's action was one of a series of creative actions being organized in Montreal throughout the fall of 2008 to expose Canadian complicity in torture in the name of the so-called "war on terror". Inspired by the People's Commission on Immigration "Security" Measures, each action will focus on a different case of Canada's current involvement in torture.

From Omar Khadr in Guantanamo Bay to Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, who has been held at RDP prison in Montreal for over a year and threatened with deportation on the basis of information obtained under torture, to Hassan Almrei, a security certificate victim in Ontario who has been detained without charge for almost seven years under threat of being deported to face torture in Syria, Canadian officials are involved in torture.

This is part of a dangerous trend to deny certain people their most fundamental human rights, ironically, in the name of "security" and even "civilization". Public ignorance, political exclusion and racism have allowed this to continue for far too long.

For more information or to get involved (everyone welcome!), get in touch at abolissons@gmail.com.