Listen to:
* winter morning blues
for Abdelrazik

Listen to an audio statement from Abousfian Abdelrazik on April 1st, 2009 by clicking the play button below. You can download the MP3 here.

No to Kenney’s fear!

Yes to our communities!

Abdelrazik - Time to take action again.

In August 2011, an article appeared in the Montreal newspaper La Presse, based on a leaked CSIS document that made unsubstantiated allegations against Abousfian Abdelrazik and others. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney immediately responded by saying that the allegations proved the security agencies right and that “people should be patient and thoughtful and give the government and its agencies the benefit of the doubt” when they labelled people threats without giving any evidence. Kenney went on to say that groups supporting Abousfian Abdelrazik and others targetted by security agencies should “think very carefully about this.”

We will continue to support those who are isolated by racist profiling and fear-mongering and join our voices to the many others who are calling for Jason Kenney to step down.

The illegal leak of the CSIS document was strategically-timed — Abdelrazik’s application to be removed from the Security Council’s 1267 Blacklist is currently being studied at the United Nations. A decision could be made in weeks or months.

In light of the urgency of the situation for Abdelrazik, Project Fly Home is providing this short update and appealing to everyone to take action to support Abdelrazik’s struggle for justice and his challenge to the UN 1267 blacklisting regime and all it stands for.

1. Following up… Backfired! How the leak reveals only desperate, last-resort tactics.
2. Checking in… Keeping focus on the 1267 blacklist!
3. Calling for more action… What’s the next step? We need your help.

Following up… Backfired! How the leak reveals only desperate, last-resort tactics.

After its first smear article, La Presse followed up with a second, on September 1. This time the guilt-by-association innuendo was based on eleven-year old court documents from France, whose claims have long since been discounted, including by French and American authorities.

This smear campaign was unleashed at a time calculated to do most damage to Abdelrazik’s application to get off the UN blacklist. Remember that Abdelrazik submitted an application for delisting to the UN committee that oversees the blacklist in January 2011. At the time of the publication of the two articles, Abdelrazik’s application was in the last stages of the review process and moving into the final, decision-making phase, in which Security Council members examine a report written by the 1267 regime’s Ombudsperson and decide whether or not to remove his name from the list.

At this sensitive time, someone gave La Presse a secret document, written by CSIS for Transport Canada seven years ago, containing allegations against Abdelrazik. The Federal Court had earlier found those same allegations to be unproven; Transport Canada had not taken them seriously; and, in fall 2007, CSIS and RCMP told the Canadian government that they had no information against Abdelrazik. Moreover, the UN Ombudsperson had, just weeks before the leak, asked Canada if it knew of any reasons why Abdelrazik should remain on the blacklist, and had been informed, again, that CSIS could provide no information indicating that he should remain on the list. Finally, the leak was illegal and the same story had already been leaked in June 2007. Despite all of this, national and international media gleefully pounced on the wild allegations, even spicing the story up.

The strategic leak demonstrates Abdelrazik’s vulnerability under a blacklisting regime that lacks all due process and accountability. We can only hope that this media smear campaign will not—as it certainly should not—negatively impact the outcome of Abdelrazik's bid for freedom. Indeed, there are encouraging signs that, at least to people with a grasp of the principles of justice, it has only made the lack of credibility of the 1267 blacklisting regime more apparent.

Although the leak was illegal, neither CSIS nor RCMP have made any moves to investigate it. Compare this to 2007, when the leak of a secret CSIS document containing the same allegations provoked a CSIS internal investigation and a criminal investigation by the RCMP. Though neither investigation ultimately produced any public result, the complete absence of even professed concern from officials or opposition this time around is certainly ominous.

* See “Response to the false allegations against Abousfian Abdelrazik: Project Fly Home calls for an investigation into the leak and the resignation of Jason Kenney”.

Checking in… Keeping focus on the 1267 list!

These are desperate attempts to legitimize a regime that has been widely rejected. This leak should not distract us from challenging the unjust UN 1267 blacklisting regime and similar tools of social division and isolation of individuals through systematic racial profiling.

Abdelrazik's delisting application and the Ombudsperson's report on his application are currently before the Security Council committee. The committee will make a decision on whether or not to remove Abdelrazik from the list in the coming weeks or months - that is, Abdelrazik could get an answer any day now.

While we certainly hope for a positive decision in this delisting application, we recognize that a decision either way won’t bring any legitimacy to a process defined by vague and politicized allegations, guilt by association, the use of information obtained under torture, secret evidence, absence of standards, reversed burden of proof, and lack of distinction between accuser and judge. This blacklist is ultimately a political tool with legal trappings.

In mid-June 2011, a seven-member delegation organized by Project Fly Home met with representatives of the UN 1267 blacklisting regime in New York (see write-up of delegation). Later that week, the Security Council was due to meet and vote on two resolutions pertaining to the 1267 blacklisting regime. The resulting reforms to the regime were announced as a step towards improving the fairness of the blacklist. For the most part, they reflected shifting US and UK strategies in Afghanistan.

A first resolution bifurcated the blacklist; creating one list for suspected Taliban supporters and another for suspected Al Qaeda associates. The new Taliban list is a tool for the Karzai government in its attempts to gain control over Afghanistan. Essentially, Taliban members agreeing to work with Karzai are taken off the list, while people suspected of association with Taliban who don't support the western-backed constitution, remain on the list and under sanctions. A second resolution tinkered with the delisting process of the rump 1267 List, now devoted solely to purported Al Qaeda associates and renamed the 1267/1989 List. This latter is the regime that continues to keep Abdelrazik's life in limbo. For our purposes, the essence of these reforms is that, instead of all fifteen members holding an absolute veto over delisting applications, now only five members of the committee have the power to arbitrarily block a delisting bid - UK, France, US, Russia and China.

Parallel to his delisting application, within Canada Abdelrazik is currently challenging the legal basis of the 1267 blacklisting regime, which violates numerous human rights enshrined in Canadian law (see legal motion). Successful legal challenges have already been mounted in UK and European courts. Abdelrazik's legal challenge may come to court as early as this fall, but a date has not yet been set for hearings.

Meanwhile, life under sanctions continues its usual bizarre and oppressive course for Abdelrazik. Child assistance benefits owed to him by the Québec government are still being withheld. Last month, the Régie des rentes finally sent the money owing to Abdelrazik to his bank, the Caisse populaire -- and his bank promptly returned it to the Régie des rentes, demanding a certificate from the Department of Foreign Affairs, just as the Régie had done five months earlier.

(See the background to this story at and a related news article.)

Calling for more action… What’s the next step? We need your help.

We need your help with three immediate actions.

Project Fly Home believes it is important to continue to demand that there be accountability for the illegal leak of information. At the same time, we want to put the focus back on the blacklisting regime.

• Challenge La Presse: Between September 19 and September 23rd, we urge organizations and individuals to: 1. let the La Presse editorial board know that you consider the two smear articles on Abousfian Abdelrazik to be irresponsible journalism; and 2. challenge La Presse to devote equal space to an analysis of the scandalous blacklist that keeps Abdelrazik in a prison without walls.

  Refer to the following two articles:

  • Une conversation compromettante entre Charkaoui et Abdelrazik, 4 August 2011, La Presse, Pierre-André Normandin
  • Abdelrazik, «important activiste djihadiste», 1 September 2011, La Presse, Fabrice de Pierrebourg

  Address letters to:
  Président et éditeur: Guy Crevier
  Email: commentaires@LaPresse.ca

  Copy letters to:
  Fabrice de Pierrebourg - fabrice.depierrebourg@LaPresse.ca
  Pierre-André Normandin - pierre-andre.normandin@LaPresse.ca
  

• Challenge those responsible for the leak: Project Fly Home is planning to move forward on its request for an investigation into the leak during the first week of parliament. If you can support us by a simple ten minute action you can do from your computer or phone this coming week, please write to us at projectflyhome AT gmail.com for details.
• Challenge the 1268 List: If you are in a position to publish an article or letter providing an update about Abdelrazik's case and background on dangers of the 1267 blacklisting regime, this is a very important time to do so. Self-publishing, organizational newsletters, websites, alternative, community, campus, local or national corporate or state media are all useful. Please get in contact for background information and other support.