Mr. Abdelrazik abandoned by Harper Government

[elevennevele]

I have decided that this guy's life deserves it's own forum. I'm not sure what kind of heartless society we plan to become. This however has nothing but sad written all over it. How can we justify this?

globeandmail.com: PM failing Abdelrazik, opposition parties charge

Mr. Abdelrazik, who has been cleared in writing of any terrorist or criminal activity by both the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and the RCMP, remains stranded in Khartoum because the Harper government refuses to issue him either a passport or an emergency travel document.

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Mr. Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen who is believed to have been tortured abroad, and who the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and the RCMP have cleared in writing of any wrongdoing regarding terrorist or criminal activity can not get our government, 'the Harper -minority- government' to bring him home despite having met conditions for his return home. He can not get the Harper government to act on his behalf despite being a Canadian and one who has been tortured.

This Harper government is WEAK in protecting Canadians. Is WEAK in standing up for Canadians.

globeandmail.com: PM failing Abdelrazik, opposition parties charge

Mr. Abdelrazik has lived in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for nearly a year. He left Canada in 2003 to visit his ailing mother in Khartoum, was arrested (government documents suggest it was at the request of Canadian security agents) spent 19 months in prison where he says he was beaten and tortured before eventually being released after Sudan said it could no longer detain an innocent man at the behest of foreign governments.


Canada also rejected a Sudanese offer to fly Mr. Abdelrazik back to his family in Montreal on a Sudanese government flight.


Last year the government said he would be issued a travel document if he could find an airline willing to carry him. When he did, that requirement was changed to a fully paid ticket.


Last month, more than 160 Canadian raised funds to buy the ticket.

"Now that the ticket has been purchased, not by the government of Canada, but by Canadians, the government has changed its tune again," Mr. Dewar said. "I don't understand why the government is playing these games with one of our citizens."

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The conditions of which this government said they would allow him back have been met. From all that we know now, there is no reason to leave this guy in limbo. If Harper can send his politicians to bring back a blond hair woman who was charged in Mexico then they can bring back this guy that our RCMP and CSIS regard in written statements as not being guilty of anything. Nor has the Sudanese government determined him to be guilty of anything.

Unless this government has some cultural bias in who they will eventually fight for, there is no excuse left.

 

[CDNBear]

Must be cultural...we hate immigrants here in Canuckistan.

 

[shadowshiv]

There are numerous other threads with regards to this gentleman. Why do we need another?

 

[CDNBear]

There are numerous other threads with regards to this gentleman. Why do we need another?

E didn't think that was enough...no seems to be paying enough attention to him. :roll:

 

[Tonington]

I counted four threads when I searched the forum for threads containing "Abdelrazik", and I actually hadn't heard of this.

It's mind numbingly ridiculous if the links 1111 posted are correct. I guess I can take solace at least that I don't have too many A's, B's, D's, H's or L's in my full name.

 

[elevennevele]

shadowshiv: There are numerous other threads with regards to this gentleman. Why do we need another?

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Well, then maybe I'll have to keep this one alive. The other threads on this guy appear so buried you have lift a hundred tonnes of Conservative apathy to find them.

 

[L Gilbert]

Canada seems to be really dense when it comes to extradition and other related issues like bringing Canadians back to Canada. And it's changed very little in decades under either Cons or Glibs.

 

[elevennevele]

There is absolutely no reason for this government to prevent this Canadian Citizen from being able to return home to his kids.

globeandmail.com: Stranded and abandoned in Sudan

Stranded and abandoned in Sudan

IRWIN COTLER

Globe and Mail

April 3, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

It has been nearly six years since Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Sudanese Canadian, was jailed while visiting his ailing mother in Khartoum. It has been nearly four years since he was released for the second time by Sudanese authorities after suffering torture but without having been charged. Yet, Mr. Abdelrazik is unable to return home, and has spent the past 11 months living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy.

Initially considered a terror threat by the Bush administration, Mr. Abdelrazik was made the object of a travel ban and placed on a United Nations Security Council watch list. More recently, however, on being released from a Sudanese prison, Mr. Abdelrazik was given a letter stating that it was "never possible" for him to be a member of al-Qaeda and that he does not "bear any threat to any international interests." Indeed, both the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP have formally advised the Canadian government there is no reason to believe that Mr. Abdelrazik is a terrorist.

With the Conservative government continuing to refuse permission for Mr. Abdelrazik to return to Canada, only two possibilities present themselves: Either the government knows something our intelligence agencies do not, or it is simply being unreasonable.

Inexcusably, Canada has turned Mr. Abdelrazik's return into a game of moving targets. The Security Council watch list expressly allows Mr. Abdelrazik to return home, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms compels the government to respect a citizen's right to re-enter the country. Yet, the government's first response was to refuse to issue an emergency passport to Mr. Abdelrazik. Then it said the passport would be granted if Mr. Abdelrazik could book a flight. Finally, knowing that Mr. Abdelrazik was destitute, it said the ticket would need to be fully paid before the government would act.

Mr. Abdelrazik has now accomplished everything the government asked. He has a plane ticket leaving Khartoum today confirmed. But just as the government refused Mr. Abdelrazik a passport for his Sept. 15, 2008, ticket to Canada, it appears it will ensure that today's ticket home goes unused as well. The government's new stand is that Mr. Abdelrazik must remove himself from the UN watch list - the same watch list that already allows individuals to return to their home country.

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Right now we have a government that is using their position to deny a Canadian Citizen their fundamental rights as a Canadian. This government is placing their authority above the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that would guarantee this man's right to return to Canada.

This is an incredible abomination of an abuse of power if ever I saw one.

 

[petros]

There is absolutely no reason for this government to prevent this Canadian Citizen from being able to return home to his kids.

Just one....fascism.

 

[Colpy]

Just one....fascism.

The guy is on the UN no-fly list, according to the CBC News last night.

I didn't even know there WAS a UN no-fly list.

Certainly bad publicity for our gov't. I personally suspect there is something else going on here.....but it is time to poop or get off the pot.....bring him home or publically announce the reasons for not doing so......

 

[petros]

He was put on the list by CDN Govt post being cleared by CSIS. That appears to show malice on the CDN Govt's part.

 

[elevennevele]

What this is going to come down to is whether or not Canadians are going to be apathetic enough to watch an innocent man 'get hanged' so that this Harper government can try to avoid the already deep hole they've dug for themselves on this.

However, something tells me this isn't going to blow over as this government wanted. I don't think an average Canadian likes to see an innocent man's life get destroyed like this. I also don't think the average Canadian likes a precedent being set that if one leaves the country lawfully, the Federal Government can then simply deny entry using their political position superseding our legal rights as Canadian Citizens, as well as our judicial system, as well as superseding the advisement of our national intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

This type of action is nothing but a huge disgrace for our country. If I heard of a country doing this to one of their own, I would think so poorly of such a country. I now find myself waking up to that country being Canada under Stephen Harper's watch.


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globeandmail.com: Canada denies passport to blacklisted citizen

In a one-sentence letter, delivered this morning to Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyers, the justice department said “the minister of foreign affairs has decided to refuse your client's request for an emergency passport.” It cited Section 10.1 of the Canada Passport Order which says “the minister may refuse or revoke a passport if the minister is of the option that such action is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country.”

The refusal represents a complete reversal of the government's written promise of three months ago to issue Mr. Abdelrazik an emergency passport if he had a paid-for ticket home. Mr. Abdelrazik remains stranded in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, where he has living for nearly 11 months, granted “temporary safe haven” by former Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.

Organizers of the groups representing nearly 200 Canadians who dared the government to charge them for buying him a ticket -- in defiance of a law forbidding anyone from providing funds to those on the terrorist blacklist -- were planning protests in several cities this morning.

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The government is just making up conditions as they go along to prevent this person from having their fundamental right as a Canadian to return home. Every time this person meets the written conditions set, this government invents new ones and then outright declares him 'guilty' when they have nothing left.

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globeandmail.com: Canadian can't come home, Cannon says

"It's up to him, its incumbent on him to make sure he gets off that list," Mr. Cannon said, referring to the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist, notwithstanding the specific UN exemption that permits those on the list to return home.

"What has changed now is that [Mr. Cannon] can't blame this on anyone else — not the United States nor the United Nations. Now the Harper government has to explain to all of us the basis for denying Mr. Abdelrazik the right to return home," Mr. Dewar said.

 

[CDNBear]

Or maybe some Canadians, just don't give a rats ass...

Like me.

 

[elevennevele]

CDNBear: Or maybe some Canadians, just don't give a rats ass...

Like me.

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And you can keep wearing that image for yourself. That doesn't bother me in the slightest.

 

[CDNBear]

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And you can keep wearing that image for yourself. That doesn't bother me in the slightest.

It's not an 'image'. It's a fact.

I could careless...

With the state of this Nation, thanx to successive Liberal Gov'ts and people that would sell out the Canadian coffers to save every ass hat that broke foreign laws (Not that this guy broke any laws, that I can see). I think we can forgo all the whining, crying and waste of bandwidth.

It's one man.

If this is the greatest injustice in this country that you see...your 'image' is less then stellar E. And that's a fact.

 

[VanIsle]

There are numerous other threads with regards to this gentleman. Why do we need another?

That's what I keep wondering about everytime China opens yet another thread regarding the incident at YVR about Robert D. There must be at least 4 or more.

 

[shadowshiv]

That's what I keep wondering about everytime China opens yet another thread regarding the incident at YVR about Robert D. There must be at least 4 or more.

And more each day.

ETA: This thread, however, has changed into a different topic now.

 

[elevennevele]

This isn't about one man. This is also about our fundamental rights as Canadians. This is also about what powers we are giving the government over our courts, over our law enforcement agencies, over our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

These actions by a government define a nation. It's not isolated. It's national. It also defines us on the international stage.

It's a disgrace. Any innocent life is worth fighting for let alone the fundamental principles of our country.

 

[CDNBear]

This isn't about one man. This is also about our fundamental rights as Canadians. This is also about what powers we are giving the government over our courts, over our law enforcement agencies, over our Charter of rights and Freedoms.

These actions by a government define a nation. It's not isolated. It's national. It also defines us on the international stage.

It's a disgrace. Any innocent life is worth fighting for let alone the fundamental principles of our country.

What a lot of shyte...

We have thousands of Canadians that have suffered under Canadian Gov'ts for years. And this is the story that lights your fire...

Seems disingenuous to me...rings hollow at best.

 

[elevennevele]

Personally I'm not interested in your apathy, or that you don't care x times over, or how you have a problem with what I take interest in on a public forum. So are you going to just fill up this forum with more on how you don't care? Or do you have more to say on the subject other than to try to take shots at my character?