Only Because You're Muslim

By Sofia Ijaz, 1L

Ahmed El-Maati was detained and tortured in Syrian and Egyptian prisons for 790 days with, according to the 2008 Iacobucci Com- mission of Inquiry, the complicity and contribution of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). He was released without charge.

El-Maati is a Canadian citizen.

El-Maati, along with his lawyer Barbara Jackman, Professor Kent Roach, and Faraz Sid- diqui – a young Muslim Canadian activist who was detained in Lebanon in 2009 – sat on the panel for the Muslim Law Students Association’s event, “Anti-Terror Measures Directed at Muslims in Canada,” on March 2nd, 2011.

Jackman described the role of Canadian offi- cials in El-Maati’s case: “It’s what I would call opportunistic rendition. Canada didn’t kidnap him and put him on a plane. They knew he was going to travel [to Syria] to visit – to get married actually; and so they advised the others – the Americans we think, and likely the Syrians in order to ensure that he would be detained. And he was.”

Such actions by government officials go un-checked in the realm of national security. Professor Roach cited the government’s power to “over-claim” secrecy as a recipe for abuse: “The Canadian Parliament is the only advanced legislature that I know that does not let elected officials see secret information[...] if you don’t see the secret infor- mation, you can’t hold people to account.”

Canada began issuing security certificates in 1991. In addition, there is an “inadmissibility” provision in immigration law which holds that, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that you are a member of a terrorist group, you are inadmissible for immigration to Canada (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, s. 34(1)). The court’s broad interpretation of “member” is the key problem with this provision. A broad under- standing of who qualifies as a member of a terrorist group means that the provision captures even those who pose no threat to Canada – Jackman noted the example of a Palestinian who worked at a PLO hospital.

In reality, this provision further victimizes those fleeing persecution - i.e., refugees: “People who have fled their country because of severe oppression are often from a minority group that has taken up arms – so you think of the Kurds, the Tamils, the Palestinians. They’ve all had representative organizations involved in armed conflict.” Jackman cautions, “You don’t have to be a member of a terrorist organization to be caught by the provision.”

El-Maati’s case is emblematic of the injustice faced by Canadian Muslims, but he isn’t alone. Maher Arar, Muayyad Nureddin, and Abdullah Almalki are all Canadians who met similar fates, and the story of injustice is more widespread than the media lets on. Siddiqui recalled his detention by the Lebanese army, who believed he was part of Al-Qaeda and was holding a fake passport. As a brown-skinned Muslim, he didn’t look all that “Canadian” to those detaining him. For Siddiqui to be released, the Canadian embas- sy needed only to verify his citizenship. They refused.

Siddiqui, in feeling the weight of El-Maati’s injustice, said, “sometimes I feel embar- rassed to even bring my topic up.” But, he aptly pointed out, “I realize that the relative insignificance of [it] is its most important aspect. “

Complicity in torture. Abandonment. Detention without charge. Demonization. This is what Canada has subjected its own citizens to. It is unacceptable.