The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) has made public an open letter addressed to the Minister of Justice David Lametti. The letter is signed by 118 members of the legal profession and legal scholars in Canada. It has also been copied to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister, and leaders of political parties. In it, the signatories call on Minister Lametti and his colleagues to take immediate action to protect the rights of Dr. Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen, who continues to face a 13-year-long Kafkaesque process in the French legal system.
The full letter is below, or click for a PDF.
In the open letter, the signatories request:
- That, as Minister of Justice, you give immediate assurances that Canada will not accept nor accede to a second request for Hassan Diab’s extradition;
- That, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister Marc Garneau urge France to put an immediate end to this continuing miscarriage of justice;
- That, as the head of the Government of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspend the extradition treaty with France.
Among the signatories:
Alex Neve (human rights activist and former Secretary General of Amnesty international, Canada), Gary Botting (one of Canada’s leading authorities on extradition law), Rob Currie (specialist in the area of international and transnational criminal law), Don Bayne (Hassan Diab’s Canadian lawyer, has conducted trial and appellate advocacy at all levels of courts in Canada and at public inquiries around the world), Dennis Edney (defense lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr), Paul Champ (widely recognized as a leading authority on human rights and employment law issues), John Packer (Director of the Human Rights Research & Education Centre, University of Ottawa), Pearl Eliadis (human rights lawyer, expert in national institutions, human rights and democratic development), Barbara Jackman (lawyer specializing in immigration, refugee and national security law, human rights activist and recipient of the Order of Canada), and Allan Rock (president emeritus and professor of law at the University of Ottawa, former Minister of Justice & Attorney General (1993-97).
Full letter:
September 14, 2021
The Honourable David Lametti
Minister of Justice
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H8
Dear Minister Lametti,
Recently, over 10,000 letters from individuals and organisations were sent to your government expressing grave concern about the latest news regarding Hassan Diab and the prospects of a second extradition. In what appears to be a standard reply, you wrote the following:
“As extradition requests are confidential state-to-state communications, I cannot confirm or deny the existence of a request until and unless it is acted upon. Canada would review a new extradition request in accordance with the Extradition Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and our treaty obligations. A decision to start extradition proceedings would consider whether there is sufficient evidence to support the request as well as whether it is in the public interest to proceed.”
Your reply is unconvincing for the following reasons:
- A wait-and-see approach is unjustifiable
The urgency of the Hassan Diab case demands your intervention and, as expert lawyers have noted, you have the power to act now and not delay. Your wait-and-see approach is thus unjustified. “Parliament [has given you] full discretion not only to reject extradition requests out of hand but also to terminate them when to proceed appears to be against the national interest. This unusual provision, repeated in sections 14, 23(3) and 48(1) of the Extradition Act, is founded on the notion that extradition is not at base a legal or judicial issue, but rather is political in nature” (Gary Botting, https://legalmatterscanada.ca/hassan-diab-deserves-better-from-the-justice-minister).
Parliament has also given you, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, certain extraordinary powers, including the ability to exercise your “discretion to stop an extradition proceeding in its tracks… where proceeding to court would likely have major political ramifications” (Gary Botting, https://legalmatterscanada.ca/hassan-diab-deserves-better-from-the-justice-minister).
You are no doubt aware “that in extradition matters, the courts act only in an advisory capacity. As soon as [you decide] to exercise [your] discretion to say “enough is enough” in an extradition case, the extradition is over, because under s. 23 of the Act, the judge is then compelled to discharge the person facing extradition” (Gary Botting, https://legalmatterscanada.ca/hassan-diab-deserves-better-from-the-justice-minister).
- A Non-reciprocal Extradition Treaty between France and Canada is iniquitous and defective
The extradition treaty with France to which you refer is inherently defective. There is no comity between France and Canada. In the Hassan Diab case, this lack of reciprocity has revealed France’s disrespect towards Canada. France has proven to be an untrustworthy extradition partner. It claimed to have evidence where there was none; it claimed to be ready for trial when it was not; and it lied in 2007 about a lack of fingerprint evidence when there was an abundance of fingerprints, each of which excluded Dr. Diab. France’s dishonesty was one of several factors that led to Dr. Diab’s unconscionable 39-month imprisonment in France.
As Rob Currie, Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie, has pointed out, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) requires fair criminal investigation and trial procedures (Rob Currie, https://rabble.ca/news/2021/06/canada-should-suspend-its-extradition-treaty-france-over-persecution-hassan-diab). By ignoring evidence and substituting speculation, France has clearly violated this covenant in its Court of Appeal ruling of January 27, 2021.
- There is no evidence to support a second extradition request
The last shred of flimsy handwriting “evidence”, on which Dr. Diab was wrongly extradited in 2014, was jettisoned earlier this year by French handwriting analysts. There is no more evidence to support any extradition request. Short of veritable proof, the French Court of Appeal has thus resorted to fictions. In an exhaustive statement, Dr. Diab’s lawyer, Don Bayne, showed with impeccable logic that France’s Court of Appeal misstated facts, relied on discredited evidence, made up non-existent evidence (fanciful speculation), and engaged in contradictory reasoning (Don Bayne, https://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/bayne-memos-2021-05).
- It is not in the public interest to proceed
The persecution of Dr. Diab has now exceeded 14 years of his life, including more than 3 years in a French maximum-security prison, mostly in solitary confinement. He should no longer face the uncertainty of another extradition and Canada should take strong action to let France know that unfair political trials of Canadian citizens are not tolerated.
Thousands of Canadians have come to know the Ottawa professor as an innocent man, whose life has been massively damaged and whose rights and freedoms have been violated by France’s relentless persecution. These many persons, along with many organizations, have become Dr. Diab’s fervent supporters. They understand that he represents every Canadian, and that his loss of freedom could one day be theirs. That realization governs their passionate and persistent vindication of his cause. And they will not renounce their fight for justice until it is served. You, Sir, together with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marc Garneau, have the power to make that happen. Indeed, you have the obligation to reject any renewed extradition request from France and to bring this case to a close.
We, the undersigned, therefore ask:
- That, as Minister of Justice, you give immediate assurances that Canada will not accept nor accede to a second request for Hassan Diab’s extradition;
- That, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister Marc Garneau urge France to put an immediate end to this continuing miscarriage of justice;
- That, as the head of the Government of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspend the extradition treaty with France.
cc:
- The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
- The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
- The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
- The Honourable Erin O’Toole, leader, Conservative Party of Canada
- Jagmeet Singh, leader, New Democratic Party of Canada
- Annamie Paul, leader, Green Party of Canada
- Yves-François Blanchet, leader, Bloc Québécois
SIGNATORIES:
Melanie Adrian, Associate Professor – Law, Ottawa, Ontario
Sharry Aiken, Queen’s University, Toronto, Ontario
Rabiat Akande, Assistant Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario
Ahmad Ammar, Lawyer, Windsor, Ontario
Amir Attaran, Professor, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Amanda Aziz, Lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Tharani Balachandran, Lawyer, Victoria, British Columbia
Saptarishi Bandopadhyay, Asst. Prof., Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Donald Bayne, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
James Benham, Lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Faisal Bhabha, Associate Professor of Law, Toronto, Ontario
Amar Bhatia, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario
Michael Blazer, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Gary Botting, Lawyer, Hope, British Columbia
Mary Boyce, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Susan Boyd, Professor Emerita, University of British Columbia, Allard School of Law, Vancouver, British Columbia
Janne Burton, Lawyer, retired, Toronto, Ontario
Doris Buss, Professor of Law, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Fathima Cader, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Paul Champ, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Avineet Cheema, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Donald Chiasson, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Michael Christensen, Dept. of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Sharon Cohen, Law, Toronto, Ontario
Kristina Cooke, PSAC, Ottawa, Ontario
Paul Copeland C M, Lawyer, Life Bencher, Law Society of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Edward Corrigan, Lawyer, London, Ontario
Karen Coulter, Law Society of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
Robert Currie, Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Gail Davidson, Lawyer, retired, rights activist, Vancouver, British Columbia
Michael Edelson, Criminal Defence Lawyer Certified by the LSO as a specialist in Criminal Litigation, Ottawa, Ontario
Dennis Edney Q.C., Lawyer, Osoyoos, British Columbia
Hagar Ehab Eldin Ahmed El Sayed, Barrister and Solicitor, Windsor, Ontario
Khalid Elgazzar, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Pearl Eliadis, Human rights lawyer, Member of the Quebec Bar and the Law Society of Ontario; Adjunct Professor of Law, McGill University; Full Member of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Montreal, Quebec
Jacques Emond, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
James Foord, Lawyer / Adjunct Professor of Law, Ottawa, Ontario
Kate Forrest, Lawyer, Montreal, Quebec
Tyler Goettl, Lawyer, Burlington, Ontario
Deryk Gravesande, Criminal Defence Counsel, Toronto, Ontario
Leslie Green, Professor of Law, Queen’s University, Toronto, Ontario
Jeremy Greenberg, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Ronald, Guertin, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Yavar Hameed, Human Rights Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Sheryl Hamilton, Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Mary Ann Higgs, Lawyer, Kingston, Ontario
Barbara Jackman, Lawyer, Jackman & Associates, Toronto, Ontario
Martha Jackman, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Peter Jacobsen, Lawyer, Chair of Canadian Issues Committee of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and Senior Fellow of the Center for Free Expression, Toronto, Ontario
Talia Joundi, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
James Kafieh, Lawyer, Perth, Ontario
Azeezah Kanji, Legal academic and journalist, Toronto, Ontario
Ariel Katz, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Toronto, Ontario
Lisa Kelly, Queen’s University, Faculty of Law (Assistant Professor), Kingston, Ontario
Kyong-ae Kim, Retired lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Aaron King, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Ayesha Kumararatne, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Dimitri Lascaris, Lawyer, Montreal, Quebec
Yves Le Bouthillier, Professeur de droit, Université d’Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Trudo Lemmens, Professor, Toronto, Ontario
John Liss, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Mary Liston, Associate Professor, Allard School of Law, Vancouver, British Columbia
Clifford Luyt, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Robin MacKay, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Jessica Magonet, Lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Dania Majib, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Peggy Malpass, Lawyer and Adjunct Professor, retired, Toronto, Ontario
Raji Mangat, Lawyer, West Coast LEAF, Vancouver, British Columbia
Pacifique Manirakiza, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Heidi Matthews, Assistant Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario
Meghan McDermott, Lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Maeve McMahon, Associate Professor, Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Emily McMurtry, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Robert Meagher, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Richard Moon, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
Les Morley, Lawyer, Kingston, Ontario
Catherine Morris, Lawyer (non-practicing), Victoria, British Columbia
Mary Jane Mossman, Professor Emerita, Toronto, Ontario
William Edmund Mugford, Lawyer (presently in retired status), Vancouver, British Columbia
Will Murray, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Roxanne Mykitiuk, Professor of Law, Toronto, Ontario
Alex Neve, Barrister and Solicitor, Adjunct Professor of International Human Rights Law, Ottawa, Ontario
Valerie Oosterveld, Professor, Western Law, London, Ontario
John Packer, Human Rights Research and Education Centre and Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Nicholas Pope, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Denise Réaume, Professor of Law, Toronto, Ontario
Karen Ann Reid, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Allan Rock, Professor of Law, Ottawa, Ontario
Mitchell Rowe, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Bijon Roy, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Sukhpreet Sangha, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Teresa Scassa, Professor, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Ottawa, Ontario
Craig Scott, Professor of Law, Toronto, Ontario
Rodney Sellar, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Lisa Sharp, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Daniel Sheppard, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Len Shore, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Penelope Simons, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Adrian Smith, Associate Professor, Law, Toronto, Ontario
Dan Snyder, Lawyer, Vancouver, British Columbia
Michael Spratt, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Don Stuart, Emeritus Professor, Kingston, Ontario
Emilie Taman, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Stephen Tasson, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Eric, Tucker, Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Philip Tunley, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Nicholas Valela, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Kim Veller, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Mark Wallace, Lawyer, Ottawa, Ontario
Adriel Weaver, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Noah Weisbord, Associate Professor of Law, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
Christiane Wilke, Associate Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Jared Will, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Vincent Wong, PhD Student, Toronto, Ontario
Stepan Wood, Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
Bruce Woodrow, Lawyer (retired), Clarington (Newcastle), Ontario
Garrett Zehr, Lawyer, Toronto, Ontario
Cara Zwibel, Lawyer, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Toronto, Ontario