The Globe and Mail reports today that, “An all-party Commons committee called yesterday for Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian citizen labelled a national security threat by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, to appear before it.”
NDP MP Paul Dewar, who put forward the motion to the committee, says, “I’m convinced that this motion should allow Mr. Abdelrazik to return home, sooner rather than later. Passing this motion means that Mr. Abdelrazik will finally be able to come home. It is critical that the government not block his return, to do so would be blocking the will of Parliament.”
On April 25, the following message was sent on our chapter list serve and posted to the campaign blog:
“Along with the Council of Canadians action alert demanding that Abousfian Abdelrazik be allowed to return to Canada at http://canadians.org/action/2009/14-Apr-09.html, please see below an urgent action alert from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG). As you may know, the Council of Canadians is a member of the ICLMG.”
The ICLMG action alert asked that people call members of the Foreign Affairs committee to support the motion, “That Abousfian Abdelrazik be asked to appear before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs”.
Congratulations to the ICLMG and to everyone, particularly chapter activists, who called members of the Foreign Affairs committee to press for Mr. Abdelrazik’s return.
You are encouraged to respond to our April 14 action alert at http://canadians.org/action/2009/14-Apr-09.html, to pressure the Harper government to comply with the Foreign Affairs committee vote.
Today’s Globe and Mail article can be read at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090505.ABDELRAZIK05ART21422/TPStory/International
The ICLMG action alert can be read at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=390
