PRESS RELEASE
Abdelrazik
Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister
The Sudanese-Canadian was trapped in Khartoum for years, imprisoned, and tortured.
Abdelrazik
Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister
In a decision that must have added a certain edge to the next Cabinet meeting after it was announced, the Federal Court of Canada on Aug. 30 gave the green light to a $3-million lawsuit brought by Abousfian Abdelrazik against Lawrence Cannon, minister of foreign affairs. Abdelrazik is suing Cannon for misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering and breaches of his charter rights to mobility and to life, liberty and security of the person.
Six more hire Abousfian Abdelrazik in defiance of UN Security Council
Media Advisory
June 1, 2010
The open rebellion against a UN Security Council "terrorist" list is growing in Canada. The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) are the latest labour organizations to announce that they will hire Abousfian Abdelrazik despite Canadian law saying that it is illegal to do so.
When the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Canadian section of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), announced at a press conference on 18 May that they, together with the Windsor District Labour Council, were hiring Abousfian Abdelrazik, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon was forced to respond.
Sanctions-busting telethon supporters risked jail for Abdelrazik
Viewers tuning in to Wednesday evening's rabble.ca videocast from Montreal could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled across a surreal version of the infamous PBS fund drives that annually dominate American airwaves.
Indeed, the perky pitches from energetic hosts, a phone bank of pledge takers, and a large map of Canada with pins marking the city of each donation would have seemed familiar to anyone who enjoys public television or radio.
Sanctions-busting telethon for Abousfian Abdelrazik a success
Project Fly Home last week raised $6,000 in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Sudanese-Canadian man on the United Nations 1267 list.
Related rabble.ca story:
Abdelrazik and the sanctions-busting telethon
Abousfian Abdelrazik's extraordinary story first hit the news on April 28, 2008, the day the Sudanese-born Canadian walked into the Canadian embassy in Khartoum and informed staff that he wouldn't leave until he was booked on a plane back to Montreal.
His decision to go public was a courageous one. If the embassy threw him out -- as the consul indeed threatened to do -- it was almost certain that Sudan would arrest him again, and he would pay the heavy price of torture or even death.
But, after five years of exile, including two ghastly prison terms, Abdelrazik was desperate, and his gamble paid off. The Embassy granted him "temporary safe haven" and Canadians across the country began mobilizing in support of him.
Harper's hitlist: A Kafkaesque nightmare for abandoned Canadians
rabble.ca columnist Murray Dobbin details the harm Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doing to the political and social fabric of Canada in a new essay commissioned by The Council of Canadians. This article is an excerpt taken from the essay, the seventh in a 10-part series on Harper's assault on democracy.
Refusing to seek clemency for Canadian death row inmates overseas.
