You may have heard about the cases of Suad Hagi Mohamud, Faraz Siddiqui, or Abousfian Abdelrazik. All Canadian citizens who were recently detained overseas, and received little help from the Canadian government to get back home. In some cases, Canadian consular officials actually worked against their interests. To help bring attention to the increasing trend of the federal government “disowning” Canadians abroad — especially if they happen to be Muslim and of colour — the Canadian Arab Federation and a students’ union at the University of Toronto organised a panel discussion featuring these individuals as speakers.
After receiving an invitation to the event, an assistant for Conservative MP Bob Dechert accidentally hit “reply all” and sent this e-mail back to the organisers, denouncing the panel speakers as “hostile.”
To buy tickets to the October 10th event, visit the Canadian Arab Federation website.