The Globe and Mail reports, “Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian citizen labelled a national security risk by the Harper government and kept in forced exile for years, was taken off the UN Security Council terrorist blacklist Wednesday, ending a nearly decade-long ordeal. On being told of the delisting, Mr. Abdelrazik ‘shouted for joy, and then he wept,’ his lawyer, Paul Champ said. ‘You could hear his children cheering and clapping,’ at their home in Montreal. …Canadian government documents, marked ‘Secret’ admit that Mr. Abdelrazik was imprisoned ‘at our request’ when he returned to Sudan in 2003 to visit his ailing mother. In prison, he was interrogated by a CSIS team, who, he says, threatened to make sure he never saw Canada again.”
“The delisting removes the stain of being labelled an al-Qaeda operative in the secretive UN process and vindicates Mr. Abdelrazik’s long-standing assertion that he was never a jihadist, nor the paymaster, plotter or terror cell leader portrayed by the United States and echoed by Canadian agencies. The removal from the UN’s 1267 terrorist blacklist represents a second significant victory for Mr. Abdelrazik. The first was his return to Canada after a federal 2009 court ruling that said the government had trampled his constitutional rights and Canadian Security and Intelligence Agents were complicit in his imprisonment abroad. The government refused to pay for his return, leaving ordinary citizens to buy the airline ticket.”
The Council of Canadians first called for Abdelrazik’s release in April 2009, http://canadians.org/action/2009/14-Apr-09.html. After his June 2009 return to Canada, the Council also helped support his speaking tour across Canada, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=1633.
Congratulations to the London, Montreal and Peterborough & Kawarthas chapters of the Council of Canadians (who were active in their support for Abdelrazik), Project Fly Home, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Amnesty International, the federal New Democratic Party, the Canadian Labour Congress, and all other groups and individuals who were instrumental in this win.
