Canadians held in Syria: No authorized obligation to bring them back, law firm states
OTTAWA –

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not obligate Ottawa to repatriate Canadians held in Syrian camps, a authorities lawyer told a Federal Courtroom listening to Tuesday.

Loved ones members of 23 detained Canadians — 6 women of all ages, four adult men and 13 young children — are inquiring the courtroom to get the government to set up for their return, saying that refusing to do so violates the Charter.

The Canadian citizens are amongst the quite a few international nationals in Syrian camps operate by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn area from the extremist Islamic Condition of Iraq and the Levant.

Federal law firm Anne Turley explained to the court docket there is no lawful obligation to aid their repatriation less than the Charter, or in any statute or global regulation.

“In arguing that the failure to repatriate violates Charter rights, the applicants are generating novel arguments. To date the courts have taken a measured and cautious strategy to the extraterritorial application of the Constitution,” Turley stated.

“It manufactured it distinct that in buy for the Charter to use abroad, there need to be proof of Canadian officers taking part in activities of the international point out that are contrary to Canada’s international obligations or elementary human rights norms. There is no these evidence listed here or allegations of that nature.”

The people included in the courtroom circumstance are detained overseas by foreign entities that are running independently of Canada’s jurisdiction or command, Turley additional.

Demanding the governing administration to acquire action would call for the court to wade into issues of Crown management more than global relations and overseas affairs, she explained.

A handful of women of all ages and kids have returned from the region in recent decades, but Canada has, for the most section, not adopted the route of other nations around the world that have successfully repatriated citizens.

Even so, Global Affairs Canada just lately established that the 6 females and 13 small children incorporated in the court docket case have fulfilled a threshold less than its January 2021 plan framework for supplying amazing help.

As a end result, World wide Affairs has started assessments under the guiding principles of the framework to establish regardless of whether to offer that support.

The names of the women of all ages and youngsters have not been disclosed.

The Canadian guys contain Jack Letts, whose parents have publicly pushed the authorities to aid their son. They sustain there is no evidence he grew to become a terrorist fighter abroad.

In a filing with the courtroom, the households of the detained Canadians argue the process by which the government has established whether to repatriate its citizens “constitutes a breach of procedural fairness.”

They say no applicant was knowledgeable of the federal policy framework put in place to establish whether or not to increase help until November 2021, some 10 months following it was applied, and about two months after the court docket application commenced.

The loved ones customers want a declaration that the government’s lack of action was unreasonable, a formal ask for for repatriation of the household members, issuance of unexpected emergency travel paperwork and authorization of a consultant to aid their return.

Turley argued that the system is a lot more complicated than it could show up.

“It really is not, as the candidates would have you see it, a basic, easy exercise,” she stated. “This is not a a single-measurement-suits-all approach.”

The government’s plan framework is intended to guideline determination-earning with regards to feasible extraordinary guidance “on an personal foundation,” Turley claimed.

Officials need to take into consideration the protection and security of Canadian govt officers involved in repatriation attempts as perfectly as that of the individual detainees, she said.

In addition, the authorities have to weigh “the danger to general public safety and national protection, the protection of the Canadian community,” Turley extra.

“The government has to evaluate these variables, and they are fluid. It is really a level-in-time final decision.”

This report by The Canadian Push was initially posted Dec. 6, 2022.
