On June 23rd, we hosted an online international media conference/public event to expose and demand an end to one of the gravest human rights violations currently perpetrated by the Canadian government.
Canada’s Guantanamo Bay – where Canadian Muslims are off-shored beyond reach of law & rights, respect & dignity – is located in North Eastern Syria. Forty-four Canadians – 8 men, 13 women and 23 children – are illegally detained there under conditions the United Nations and many human rights groups describe as akin to torture.
The Canadian government is violating their Charter Rights by refusing to repatriate them. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, the US State Department, Save the Children and, in a rare show of cross-party unanimity, a Canadian Parliamentary Committee, have all called for repatriation.
A stellar line-up of human rights advocates appeared at this conference, including:
- Monia Mazigh, human rights activist, author and academic
- Heather McPherson, NDP MP and Foreign Affairs Critic
- Elizabeth May, Green Party MP
- Moazzam Begg, former Guantanamo Bay detainee and outreach director of Cage, UK
- Clive Stafford Smith, human rights lawyer, who was one of the first lawyers into Guantanamo 20 years ago, and co-founder of Reprieve
- Natascha Mikkelsen, Repatriate the Children, Denmark
- Sally Lane, author and mother of Jack Letts, detainee in Syria
- Taha Ghayyur, Justice for All
- Matthew Behrens, Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture
- Nafeesa Mohammed, attorney and former Senator of Trinidad & Tobago, suing her government for repatriation
- Moderated by Tim McSorley, national coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
To take action, please sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/canada-s-guantanamo-bay-sign-to-free-jack-letts-43-canadian-kids-women-men-in-syria
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