As Israel and Hezbollah inch toward war, Canada braces for a repeat of the 2006 evacuation

2024/06/27 Leave a comment

More details. In the end, of course, despite the warnings, many stay and the government is compelled to arrange evacuations. More than likely, a significant number of those who were evacuated in 2006 and subsequently returned would be part of any evacuation:

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly had a stark warning Tuesday for Canadian citizens in Lebanon.

“If the armed conflict intensifies, it could impact your ability to leave the country and our ability to provide you with consular services,” she said. “Canada is not currently offering assisted departures or evacuations for Canadians in Lebanon, and these are not guaranteed.

“My message to Canadians has been clear since the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East: it is not the time to travel to Lebanon. And for Canadians currently in Lebanon, it is time to leave, while commercial flights remain available.”

Canadian officials are acutely aware of the fact that a large-scale Israeli air attack on Lebanon could force Canada to evacuate thousands of citizens under fire, as it did during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

Canada spent $94 million and leased seven ships to evacuate Canadians from Lebanon to Cyprus and Turkey in 2006.

Three naval ships participated in the operation. Even the prime minister’s jet was roped into service.

The evacuation led to complaints in Canada about “citizens of convenience” after reports emerged that many evacuees returned to live in Lebanon as soon as it was safe to do so.

Canada ultimately evacuated about 15,000 people. Today, a similar number of Canadian citizens have registered with the embassy in Lebanon. Joly has said that is likely just a “fraction” of the true number of Canadians in the Middle Eastern country.

Canada doesn’t have many resources in the area right now. The frigate HMCS Charlottetown entered the Mediterranean Tuesday morning, steaming through the Strait of Gibraltar on its way to join NATO’s Maritime Group 2.

The utility of Cyprus as a base of operations has also been cast into some doubt after Hezbollah warned the island’s government that it could be a target if it assists Israel in an attack on Lebanon.

Cyprus is within range of the Zelzal-2 ballistic missiles Hezbollah acquired from Iran, and the M-600 missiles it got from Syria….

Source: As Israel and Hezbollah inch toward war, Canada braces for a repeat of the 2006 evacuation

Further article on Canadian military preparations:

The country’s top military commander says contingency evacuation plans have been drawn up to extract roughly 20,000 Canadians from Lebanon should full-scale fighting erupt between Israel and Hezbollah, but those plans are heavily dependent on allied support.

Gen. Wayne Eyre, the chief of the defence staff, made the remarks in a wide-ranging exit interview with CBC News on Wednesday prior to his retirement next month.

“We can’t do it alone,” Eyre said. “It will very much be a coalition effort, and we are tightly tied in — very tight — with our allies.”

He noted that in terms of the Canadian government response, Global Affairs Canada is in charge, but allied military leaders who will have to carry out the evacuation met Tuesday to discuss what’s available and how it can be done safely.

On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly warned Canadians to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.

Following a recent conversation between Joly and her Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, Israeli media reported that Canada was considering evacuating up to 45,000 people.

Evacuation plans echo 2006 efforts

The scale of getting noncombatants out of Lebanon is something that preoccupies military planners, Eyre said, noting “the figure that we are looking at is somewhere just over 20,000, and based on historical [data], what we did in 2006.”

Eighteen years ago, over a two week period in July, almost 15,000 people — most of them Canadians — were evacuated from Lebanon after war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah.

Despite the preparation, Eyre acknowledged that he’s “very concerned” about the prospect of war between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group this summer.

Shortly after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel. Last week, the Israeli army acknowledged it had approved plans for an offensive against Lebanon and that it was only waiting for political approval to begin the operation.

Eyre said a Canadian military team is currently in Lebanon and co-ordinating with the embassy in Beirut in case the worst happens. …

Source: Canadian military planning for evacuation of 20,000 from Lebanon, says top commander

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Appeal court overturns ruling directing Ottawa to repatriate 4 men detained in Syria

2023/06/02 Leave a comment

Of note and, IMO, correct decision:

The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a high-profile ruling ordering Canada to bring home four Canadian men detained in northeastern Syrian prisons for suspected ISIS members.

In January, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled the four men were entitled to have the federal government make a formal request for their release “as soon as reasonably possible.”

But three appeal court judges disagreed with Brown’s decision and overturned it on Wednesday.

In their ruling, the judges wrote that Brown’s decision interpreted the right to enter Canada too broadly.

“[The previous ruling] took the right of Canadian citizens ‘to enter … Canada’ and transformed it into a right of Canadian citizens, wherever they might be, regardless of their conduct abroad, to return to Canada or to have their government take steps to rescue them and return them to Canada,” Wednesday’s ruling says.

“The right to enter, remain in and leave Canada, is not a golden ticket for Canadian citizens abroad to force their government to take steps — even risky, dangerous steps — so they can escape the consequences of their actions,” the ruling says.

The men travelled to northeastern Syria against the travel advice of the Canadian government and have been held in prisons for those suspected of ISIS affiliations. The camps in northeastern Syria are run by the Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the extremist group.

Canada not responsible for men’s detention: judges

In his January decision, Brown cited the conditions of the prison and the fact that the men haven’t been charged and brought to trial.

“The conditions of the … men are even more dire than those of the women and children who Canada has just agreed to repatriate,” Brown’s decision reads.

“There is no evidence any of them have been tried or convicted, let alone tried in a manner recognized or sanctioned by international law.”

But Wednesday’s appeal court ruling said the Canadian government is not responsible for the men’s detention in Syria.

“Canadian state conduct did not lead to the respondents being in northeastern Syria, did not prevent them from entering Canada, and did not cause or continue their plight. The respondents’ own conduct and persons abroad who have control over them alone are responsible,” the ruling reads.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the government will take time to “absorb” the court’s ruling.

“Our priority first and foremost is that we safeguard the country and our borders from any potential terrorist activity,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Jack Letts, who has been imprisoned in Syria for more than four years after allegedly joining ISIS, is among the four men.

Sally Lane, Letts’ mother, said the appeal court decided to “to perpetuate the arbitrary detention and torture” of her son.

“The decision is nothing but victim-blaming and narrow legalese that stands in utter contempt of human rights law and fails to rise to the challenge of the moment,” Lane said in a statement provided by the family’s lawyer, Barbara Jackman.

Letts admitted in a 2019 interview to joining ISIS in Syria. His family says he made that admission under duress and there is no evidence that he ever fought for the group.

Jackman told CBC that they are considering taking the case to the Supreme Court, but a final decision hasn’t been made yet.

Lawrence Greenspon, a lawyer for the other applicants, also told CBC that his clients are considering an appeal.

In the past, Greenspon has argued that if there is any evidence the Canadians took part in terrorist activities, Canada should put them on trial here.

But former CSIS analyst Phil Gurski said he fears that any trial likely would end in an acquittal because the witnesses and evidence are located in Syria.

“I’m just not confident that the Canadian court system would have the resources to locate the witnesses … and the evidence to bring forward a successful trial,” he said.

Family members of Canadians detained in Syria — including the four men — have been asking the federal government to arrange for their return to Canada.

Prior to the January ruling, the government agreed to repatriate six women and 13 children from northeastern Syria.

At least three of those women have returned and were taken into police custody upon arrival. They have all been released pending terrorism peace bond applications.

A terrorism peace bond allows a judge to order a defendant to maintain good behaviour — sometimes with conditions such as a curfew — or face a prison sentence.

Source: Appeal court overturns ruling directing Ottawa to repatriate 4 men detained in Syria

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Repatriation order for men in Syria raises questions about Canada’s consular obligations

2023/02/02 Leave a comment

I’m on the more cautious side on repatriation and the likelihood of rehabilitation, particularly with respect to adults:

Former diplomats say Canada should have moved to repatriate four men from northeastern Syria without a court order, avoiding another decision from the federal bench that casts more doubt on the country’s obligations to its citizens held for wrongdoing in foreign countries.

A day after the government came to an agreement to repatriate 19 women and children, the Federal Court ruled on Jan. 20 that four men held in detention camps for suspected ISIS members in northeastern Syria must be repatriated, too, noting that their living conditions are “even more dire than those of the women and children who Canada has just agreed to repatriate.”

The government has yet to indicate whether it will appeal the case. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) said on Jan. 23 that the government is looking at the situation “carefully” and is “making sure we’re defending Canadians’ safety and security.”

Former Canadian diplomat Daniel Livermore, who was director general of security and intelligence in Canada’s foreign service, said the Federal Court ruling will force Global Affairs to change its consular policy unless it is appealed.

“The tradition in consular service, the way it has been delivered … it doesn’t matter who you are and what you’ve done, you get consular service irrespective of background,” said Livermore, who authored Detained: Islamic Fundamentalist Extremism and the War on Terror in Canada. “Now, that didn’t happen with these people, and it didn’t happen because of their background.”

Livermore noted that there is little sympathy to provide any kind of assistance for those who are linked with allegedly going abroad to join a terrorist organization.

“I think the court case is really going to force the hands of Global Affairs to come up with something a lot better, and hopefully it is something that is anchored in a more sensible policy than they’ve pursued so far,” he said.

He added that in an “ideal world,” the case shouldn’t have even come to court and the repatriation should have taken place long ago.

In its policy framework to “evaluate the provision of extraordinary assistance,” the government notes that it has “no positive obligation under domestic or international law to provide consular assistance, including repatriation.”

The framework was unearthed as part of the Federal Court case.

The policy notes that Global Affairs “may” provide consular assistance to Canadians abroad with their request and consent, and pursuant to the government’s “royal prerogative on international relations.” The Federal Court ruled that the royal prerogative isn’t “exempt from constitutional scrutiny.”

Livermore said Canadian courts, in successive cases, have undermined the government’s claim of not having to provide consular assistance, including the most recent January decision. He said the notion was also disputed in 2010 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Omar Khadr’s case. The top court ruled it could order the government to ask the United States to repatriate Khadr from detention in Guantanamo Bay, but chose not to. Livermore also cited the case of Abousfian Abdelrazik, who the Federal Court ordered be repatriated from Sudan in 2009.

“[The three cases show] a nice little pattern, which undermines the royal prerogative argument and limits it very substantially,” he said.

He said the consular policy is a “residue” of Canada’s post-9/11 policies.

“A lot of our policies were changed without thinking them through,” he said. “A lot of the security agencies at the centre, at the [Privy Council Office], began to exercise powers that they don’t legitimately have a right to claim. Now we’re starting to untangle all this stuff … so presumably Global Affairs will have to work on that a bit and it will be interesting to see how it will come up with it.”

Livermore said one solution for future consular cases is to remove the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) from the co-management of the situation, suggesting that could be done by invoking the individual’s rights under the Privacy Act.

Under the government’s framework, CSIS and the RCMP will determine the “potential threat” an individual poses to public safety and national security, which includes “the individual’s involvement in, or association with, terrorist activity, and whether the risk of their return to Canada can be sufficiently mitigated in transit and upon arrival.”

Unlike other countries, Canada has made little progress to repatriate its citizens who have been held in Kurdish-controlled camps in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).

The government has cited safety concerns for its inability to travel to the camps to assess the consular cases. Under its framework, it notes that one of the guiding principles is that government officials “must not be put in harm’s way.” Other countries’ diplomats, as well as academics, journalists, and civil society advocates, have gone to the AANES camps.

Patricia Fortier, who served as Global Affairs Canada’s assistant deputy minister responsible for security, consular, and emergency management prior to her retirement in 2016, said the duty-of-care issue is a “very live issue.”

“There is no question that it is more top of mind now than it was in the past,” she said. “No one wants to order an officer into a place where they might not come back or they might be injured.”

She said the recent Federal Court decision continues a “long string” of cases involving the post-9/11 context and return to Canada.

“In each of those, everyone predicted that it would change things and it didn’t,” she said.

She said that the repatriation of the women and children had to come, but the question of the men is a more difficult one for potential public safety reasons.

“It’s going to be a really difficult security question,” she said, noting the situation is unlike many other consular cases as the Kurds who have control over the camps want to offload all the detainees.

“It is an odd situation,” she said, noting that it is unlikely that a similar case will have to be dealt with in the future.

Fortier said the situation will likely be resolved by Global Affairs and the security agencies, with the possible input of the defence department, before winding up on Trudeau’s desk.

She also noted the concern of the Yazidi population in Canada. In 2016, the House of Commons passed a motion that recognized that ISIS was committing genocide against Yazidi people. CBC News reported that survivors of the genocide who have resettled in Canada feel “heartbroken and betrayed.”

She said it is not always possible for the government to have a positive obligation to provide consular assistance, noting that could require Canada to repatriate a Canadian abroad who simply runs out of money.

Former diplomat Gar Pardy, who was the director general of the consular affairs bureau in the foreign service, said he doubted that the government would be interested in using the Federal Court’s decision as a foundation to change its consular policy.

He said that is why he thinks the government will appeal the decision.

Regardless of how the court process ends, Pardy said the government should be repatriating its citizens in northeastern Syria.

“The Canadian government should join what other governments have done,” he said, noting that many of Canada’s allies have repatriated their citizens who were in Syria. “Why the Canadian government has not followed this path—it just doesn’t seem to make any sense.”

The NDP and Green Party have called on the government to move forward on repatriation.

Source: Repatriation order for men in Syria raises questions about Canada’s consular obligations

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Non-citizen parents allowed to return home with Canadian children from Wuhan

2020/02/05 Leave a comment

Good:

The Liberal government insisted China let the primary caregivers of Canadian children return to the country with those children after leaving Wuhan, the epicentre of an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, even if they are not citizens themselves.

“We insisted on the concept of family unity,” Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Monday in Ottawa.

A chartered plane will soon be in Hanoi, Vietnam, where it will wait to pick up Canadian citizens — and some permanent residents accompanying their children — from Wuhan, the city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province that is currently under quarantine in response to the outbreak.

The federal government is awaiting final approval from the Chinese government to fly through the restricted airspace and land at the closed airport in Wuhan, but Champagne said other preparations are already well underway.

“We will be in touch with Canadians in Wuhan later this afternoon to provide them all the necessary details,” Champagne said.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said 304 Canadians have asked for assistance to return home but only 280 have Canadian passports.

The numbers remain fluid and Canada has secured a second flight, as well as seats on other flights, should they be needed.

China is allowing only foreign nationals from all countries to board repatriation flights, but Champagne said Canada insisted that children be able to fly with their primary caregivers, even if they are permanent residents, and China agreed to let this happen.

That will not apply to families where no minors are involved.

Hajdu says China will not allow anyone who is showing symptoms of coronavirus to board a flight to leave the country, even if they are Canadian citizens, as part of that country’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.

“I don’t anticipate we will be able to get the Chinese to concede on that point,” Hajdu said.

Those who remain will be offered consular services from the rapid deployment team already on the ground in Wuhan.

Passengers will be screened twice — once by Chinese authorities and then again before they board — and will be monitored during the flight for possible symptoms of the virus.

If any fall ill, they will be transported to a health facility in British Columbia while the plane refuels. Otherwise, passengers will not be allowed to leave the plane until they arrive at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, where they will be held in isolation for 14 days.

The Ontario base was chosen because it has the space to allow large numbers of people to be processed quickly, and a facility where people can be housed with dignity, said Hajdu.

“I want to remind people that these are Canadians who have been through a very traumatic experience over the past couple of months and in many cases will have significant stressors,” Hajdu said.

The repatriated Canadians will be housed at the nearby Yukon Lodge until they are cleared to return home.

“Part of the reason we’re offering social support is they will also be isolated from one another,” Hajdu said. “So if one person falls ill, that won’t necessitate the start of an entire other quarantine for all of the passengers.”

Source: Non-citizen parents allowed to return home with Canadian children from Wuhan

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Five Saudi Students Accused of Rape and Murder Have Vanished Before Trial: Updated with Canadian case

2019/02/02 2 Comments

Yet another example of bad behaviour by the Saudi government:

New legislation introduced by Oregon senators aims to punish Saudi Arabia following shocking allegations that the kingdom has whisked as many as five young men facing criminal charges, ranging from rape to murder, out of the country from that state alone.

Speaking publicly for the first time Thursday, the parents of Fallon Smart, a 15-year-old victim of a hit and run by Saudi student Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah in 2016, said they were horrified to learn their daughter’s alleged assailant had disappeared two weeks before his trial with the help of the Saudi government. Noorah was charged with manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, and reckless driving in the teen’s death. He faced a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

Federal investigators confirmed to the Oregonian/Oregon Live that a private lawyer hired by the Saudi consulate posted $100,000 of a $1 million bail for the 21-year-old and apparently arranged for a dark SUV to pick him up shortly after he left jail. His severed electronic bracelet was found at a nearby gravel yard. Authorities believe he was given a forged passport, since his was sequestered by Oregon authorities, and flown back to Saudi Arabia on a private jet. He was seen back in his home country a week after he disappeared.

“It’s like the laws of physics go out the door,” Fallon’s mother, Fawn Lengvenis, told Oregon Live on Thursday. “And it all starts from the beginning again.”

The teen victim’s father, Seth Smart, said he cannot help obsessing about his daughter’s killer. “The imagination runs wild,” he said. “Is he just leading his normal life somewhere? Does he even think about it? Does he even care?”

The cases of Saudi students disappearing from Oregon justice are hauntingly familiar. In 2014, Abdulaziz Al Duways was arrested on accusations that he drugged and raped a classmate in Monmouth, Oregon. He, too, disappeared after the Saudi consulate helped secure bail. Four of the young men who vanished have been represented by the same attorney, Ginger Mooney, according to local court documents.

The new legislation introduced by Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden would allow the federal government to actively investigate alleged disappearances and make it more difficult for foreign nationals to be granted bail arranged by consulates.

“When anyone within our nation commits a crime, they need to be held accountable—especially when that crime results in the death of an innocent teenager,” Sen. Merkley said in a statement “Saudi Arabia’s blatant disrespect for international norms cannot be allowed to stand. We should all be able to agree that any nation that helps their citizens escape from the law needs to be held fully accountable.”

Around 1,000 of an estimated 60,000 Saudi students currently studying in the United States live in Oregon, according to a recent report in Gulf News, which estimates that only 8,272 are self-sponsored. The rest are on stipends provided by the Saudi kingdom. Disappearances of Saudi nationals facing criminal justice have also been reported in Ohio and California as well as Canada.

Source: Five Saudi Students Accused of Rape and Murder Have Vanished Before Trial

Information on the Canadian case can be found here: Saudi embassy helped accused rapist flee Canada | Toronto Sun

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Mohamed Fahmy foundation created to help others imprisoned abroad

2016/05/09 Leave a comment

Understand the position of Fahmy and his supporters but not sure whether a new law is needed, if it would make a difference to governments in the future.

One of the other questions is with respect to its effectiveness for dual citizens who entered a country under that country’s passport (a situation when “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” does not apply according to the other government):

Mohamed Fahmy, the Egyptian-born Canadian journalist who was wrongly arrested and spent a year in a prison in Egypt, is working to make it law for the federal government step in and help others imprisoned abroad.

Fahmy, who is speaking in Halifax today at an Atlantic Journalism Awards event, said he is working on a “protection charter” through a non-profit foundation called Fahmy Foundation for a Free Press.

“I have been working with Amnesty [International] on this protective charter.  We are hoping to improve consular services for Canadians abroad,” he told CBC’s Mainstreet.

“At the moment the Canadian government deals on its own discretion when a Canadian is imprisoned abroad. We are pushing and hoping to obligate it to make it a law, enshrined in the Canadian system.”

Fahmy also gave a public talk in Halifax Saturday to raise funds for his foundation.

The foundation wants a mechanism that directs Canadian ambassadors to speak to families, NGOs and the media in a timely manner about Canadians being jailed abroad, he said.

“The urgency about moving in the first 48 hours someone is detained because that is the time someone can get tortured or killed in some of these Middle Eastern prisons, that I have seen myself.”

Source: Mohamed Fahmy foundation created to help others imprisoned abroad – Nova Scotia – CBC News

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