Canada's Back - In the Dark Ages
From the CBC:
* Canadian citizen travels to the Sudan in 2003.
* Is arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of terrorist ties but eventually released as no evidence of any guilt is found. Passport has expired by the time he is released from prison.
* Is cleared in writing by Canadian security agencies.
* Canadian government says it can not issue necessary travel documents for him to come home because he does not have an air ticket.
* Canadian citizens chip in to buy him a ticket.
* Canadian government now says it can not issue him travel documents until he gets himself off of the no-fly list - even though the No-fly list has a specific exemption allowing people on it to return home.
* Citizen is living on a cot in the Canadian embassy for almost a year, with no money and little prospect of getting himself of a no-fly list.
* Government refuses to answer questions about why it is refusing to allow Canadian citizen to return home, having made up a series of obviously fraudulent excuses, moving on to a new one after each arbitrary hurdle is cleared.
I don't remember them covering this part of our constitution in my civics classes.
Contact info for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon here
---
And if you feel like making yourself depressed, read the comments on the CBC site as a steady stream of right wing folks argue that a Canadian citizen who has been convicted of nothing should be refused entry to the country and forced to live indefinitely in the Canadian embassy in Sudan, never returning to his home country.
* Canadian citizen travels to the Sudan in 2003.
* Is arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of terrorist ties but eventually released as no evidence of any guilt is found. Passport has expired by the time he is released from prison.
* Is cleared in writing by Canadian security agencies.
* Canadian government says it can not issue necessary travel documents for him to come home because he does not have an air ticket.
* Canadian citizens chip in to buy him a ticket.
* Canadian government now says it can not issue him travel documents until he gets himself off of the no-fly list - even though the No-fly list has a specific exemption allowing people on it to return home.
* Citizen is living on a cot in the Canadian embassy for almost a year, with no money and little prospect of getting himself of a no-fly list.
* Government refuses to answer questions about why it is refusing to allow Canadian citizen to return home, having made up a series of obviously fraudulent excuses, moving on to a new one after each arbitrary hurdle is cleared.
I don't remember them covering this part of our constitution in my civics classes.
Contact info for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon here
---
And if you feel like making yourself depressed, read the comments on the CBC site as a steady stream of right wing folks argue that a Canadian citizen who has been convicted of nothing should be refused entry to the country and forced to live indefinitely in the Canadian embassy in Sudan, never returning to his home country.
Labels: human rights, racism, terrorists under the bed
posted by Declan at
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
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