ICLMG’s National Coordinator, Tim McSorley, testified at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development meeting on November 28, 2024 for their study of Bill C-353, the Foreign Hostage Takers Accountability Act.

Although we agree with the intent of the bill to support survivors of hostage-taking and arbitrary detention as well as their families, this bill is unnecessary, and would have very broad, negative, and unintended consequences.

1. We are overall skeptical of attempts to establish new sanctions regimes in general, as they have not been effective in protecting rights internationally.
2. We are concerned about low thresholds in this bill, such as levying sanctions on the basis of “opinion”.
3. The definition of “arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations” will exclude some of the gravest cases of state-sanctioned arbitrary detention.
4. The very broad application of sanctions within this legislation, including to anyone who makes available any property to a sanctioned state, entity or individual working on their behalf, would prohibit the provision of aid.
5. We agree completely that more must be done to support survivors of these horrendous acts and their families and loved ones. However, this support should not be tied to a sanctions regime.

You can watch the full committee meeting on ParlVu here.

TRANSCRIPT

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to the committee for this invitation to speak to Bill C-353.

I am here on behalf of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, a coalition of 44 Canadian civil society organizations, which works to defend civil liberties in the context of national security and anti-terrorism measures.

Through our work, we are acutely aware of the severe impacts faced by individuals who are taken hostage or arbitrarily detained. It is clear more must be done to support the survivors of such acts, and their families and loved ones. We have been active in supporting Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have faced arbitrary detention abroad. This includes the well-known cases of Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati, and Muayyed Nureddin, all detained and tortured in Syrian prisons, as well as Khaled Al Qazzaz, arbitrarily detained by the military government in Egypt, and Abousfian Abdelrazik, arbitrarily detained and tortured by Sudanese national security forces. More recently, we have advocated for the return of all Canadians arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria, including Canadian women and children in detention camps and Canadian men being held incommunicado and without charges in life-threatening conditions in prisons.

We cannot be clearer that hostage-taking and arbitrary detention violate Canadian and international law and that Canada must act to address these crimes.

While we agree with the intent of the bill to support survivors and their families, we do not believe that this bill is necessary, and that in fact it could have negative, unintended consequences both in countering arbitrary detention and more broadly.

First, we are overall skeptical of attempts to establish new sanctions regimes in general. There is a growing body of research that the increase in unilateral sanctions regimes has not been effective in protecting rights internationally, and that they can result in wasted resources, and have severe, unintended consequences on the delivery and provision of international aid.

If sanctions are believed to be necessary, they must be narrow and targeted. This is not the case with Bill C-353. It would target not just individuals, but broadly defined foreign entities, and entire foreign states, including, according to section 5(3)(a), the property of any national within a sanctioned state. This poses a real threat of unintended consequences that could impact humanitarian aid, international assistance, peacebuilding and even diplomacy. It also means that such sanctions could, if a government wanted to, be used to punish broad swathes of foreign nationals, their governments and their associations in arbitrary, political ways.

Second, we are concerned about low thresholds in this bill. For example, section 5(1) allows for the levying of sanctions on the basis that the Governor in Council is “of the opinion” that a foreign national, state or entity is responsible for or complicit in, hostage taking or state-to-state arbitrary detention. These are incredibly broad powers to be granted based solely an opinion.

Moreover, section 7, in allowing the Minister to require any person to provide them with any information that is relevant to an order or regulation under 5(1), would permit the Minister to go on a fishing expedition for information. There are no provisions for how that information is to be handled or disposed of.

Third, the definition of “arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations” will exclude some of the gravest cases of state-sanctioned arbitrary detention. The definition of arbitrary detention in this bill requires that, “when a person arbitrarily arrests or detains the individual to compel action from, or exercise leverage over, a foreign government.” In all the cases I listed at the beginning, the arbitrary detention was either done with Canada’s complicity or for objectives unrelated to Canada, and not to “compel action from a foreign government.” Beyond the cases I cited above, we can also look, among others, to that of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen and a Uyghur human rights activist originally from China, who has been arbitrarily detained by that government since 2006. Given that China’s interest has nothing to do with influencing Canada or another state, but rather punishing human rights activism, this Act would not apply.

Fourth, the very broad application of sanctions within this legislation, including to anyone who makes available any property to a sanctioned state, entity or individual working on their behalf, would prohibit the provision of aid. And while section 6 allows for the Minister to provide a permit to carry out an activity that would violate an order under this act, the length of time it would take to secure a permit could have severe impacts on the timely delivery of aid and could lead to organizations simply not applying at all. Moreover, it could negatively impact instances where families or employers are negotiating with hostage-takers. They may need to act quickly, but would risk violating this order unless they receive a permit.

Finally, we agree completely that more must be done to support survivors of these horrendous acts and their families and loved ones. However, this support should not be tied to a sanctions regime. Nor are we convinced that the answer lies in new legislation. We would point instead to the recommendations of this committee’s 2018 report on the provision of consular services. There are clearly other levers that are already available to the government to act in this area, and would urge the government and committee to further pursue that path.

Thank you and I look forward to your questions.