conoline gisloson LAWYERS LLP Uel. 604 633 1880 Pox. 604 633 1883 15 gone ovenue voncouven bC v60 298 June 2, 2017 Via email only The Honourable Freeland, P.C., M.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 Dear Minister: Re: Abderrahmane Ghanem We continue to represent Abderrahmane Ghanem, a 30-year?old Canadian?Algerian dual citizen imprisoned in Algeria, where he is charged with being ?affiliated with a foreign terrorist group?. When we first contacted your Ministry and the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in December of last year, we explained Abderrahmane?s circumstances and noted Canada?s apparent complicity in his ongoing ordeal. Our December 12, 2016 letter (attached for ease of reference) set out in some detail our basis for the conclusion that Canada - evidently through CSIS and likely with the cooperation of other departments or agencies improperly enlisted foreign governments to detain, interrogate and prosecute a Canadian citizen for suspected behavior taking place entirely on Canadian soil. In particular, we noted the following. - In the period 2011?2012, Abderrahmane attended Calgary?s 8th and 8th mosque where he was acquainted with certain individuals who became radicalized and left Canada for conflict zones in the Middle East (the ?Calgary group?). Abderrahmane did not follow this path and to the best of the family?s knowledge his last contact with any members of the Calgary group was in the spring of 2013. Abderrahmane left Canada in late 2012 to pursue business opportunities and to be closer to his family who at the time resided variously in Algeria, Oman and the UAE. From 2013 onward, both Abderrahmane and his father willingly spoke with CSIS agents on numerous occasions. - Beginning in September 2013, Abderrahmane began to encounter serious difficulties travelling on his Canadian passport. He was denied entry to Turkey (2013), Oman (2014) and the UAE (2014), each time with no explanation. In February 2015, Abderrahmane applied to renew his Canadian passport. Shortly thereafter, Abderrahmane was contacted by a Canadian official ostensibly for the purpose of discussing his renewal application. Once Abderrahmane agreed to speak with the official who identified himself only as ?Philip? it quickly became apparent that the official was a CSIS agent and that the mention of Abderrahmane?s passport application was a ruse. The agent aggressively questioned Abderrahmane about his former Calgary ?friends?, who by this time had travelled to conflict zones. The agent told Abderrahmane that if he didn?t cooperate, the agent would get other countries involved and that those unnamed countries wouldn?t be ?as nice?. The agent also told Abderrahmane to forget about Page:2 Gonoline gisloson I LAWYERS up travelling to Oman or Dubai, where members of his immediate family were then living. Abderrahmane refused further contact with this agent and later filed a written complaint with the Director of CSIS. - Two weeks after Abderrahmane?s last contact with the agent, Abderrahmane was detained at the airport by Algerian state security as he was attempting to visit family in Oman. The Algerian state security officers? questions focused on Abderrahmane?s Calgary ?friends?. Abderrahmane was released later the same night, by which time his trip had to be cancelled. - In March 2015, Canada?s Passport Program notified Abderrahmane that his renewal application was under review. Today, more than two years later, Abderrahmane remains without a Canadian passport. - In May 2015, travelling on his Algerian passport, Abderrahmane moved to Oman to live with his parents. In April 2016, Abderrahmane was summoned for questioning by the Royal Oman Police (ROP). The questioning focused on Abderrahmane?s relationship with the Calgary group. Abderrahmane?s father was later informed by a senior ROP officer that the ROP had been contacted by a ?foreign intelligence service? with a request to investigate Abderrahmane. Abderrahmane was held by the ROP for over a month before he was effectively deported to Algeria, the only country for which he had a valid travel document. - Upon landing in Algeria on May 24, 2016, Algerian state security took Abderrahmane into custody where he remains today. The nature of the charge Abderrahmane faces in Algeria being ?affiliated with a foreign terrorist group? indicates that it has nothing to do with Algeria and instead relates solely to relationships formed at Calgary?s 8th and 8th mosque. The Algerian prosecutor has specifically indicated that the charge is based on information provided to Algerian state security by CSIS. In short, all known facts indicate that Canada has actively outsourced the detention, interrogation and prosecution of a Canadian citizen for theorized or suspected activities which apparently took place in Calgary more than four years ago. Since we first wrote in December 2016, your Ministry and the Ministry of Public Safety have had ample opportunity to deny or correct the facts and conclusions set out above. We have received no such denials or corrections. If our understanding is generally accurate, then it would appear that Canada has deliberately breached a number of moral and legal duties owed to Abderrahmane and indeed to all Canadians. Given that this is far from the first time that Canada?s information-sharing practices have wrongly exposed Canadian citizens to the perils of severe mistreatment abroad, Canada?s misconduct in this case is inexcusable. In 2002?2003, for example, Maher Arar endured unspeakable suffering at the hands of Syrian officials after the RCMP disseminated information about Mr. Arar without proper verifications and controls. In that same period, three other Canadian citizens Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou?Elmaati and Muayyad Nureddin suffered similar fates for broadly similar reasons. Page:3 conoline gisloson I LAWYERS up In his 2006 Report on the Events Relating to Maher Arar, Justice O'Connor made a number of recommendations, including the following (Recommendation 14). Information should never be provided to a foreign country where there is a credible risk that it will cause or contribute to the use of torture. Policies should include specific directions aimed at eliminating any possible Canadian complicity in torture, avoiding the risk of other human rights abuses and ensuring accountability. Justice Iacobucci?s 2008 Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Of?cials in Relation to Abdul/ah Alma/ki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, meanwhile, describes how the risk of mistreatment at the hands of foreign agencies may be created or exacerbated when a Canadian agency such as CSIS decides to supply a foreign counterpart with questions to be put to Canadians detained abroad.1 Unfortunately, it appears that this likely occurred in Abderrahmane?s case. Both the O?Connor and Iacobucci Reports also note the importance of attaching ?caveats? to information that is shared with foreign agencies (see, Justice O?Connor?s Recommendations 9 and 11). These caveats may warn, among other things, that the information being provided is not to be used for ulterior or unintended purposes for example, as evidence in a legal proceeding without Canada?s consent.2 Given that the Algerian prosecutor?s case whatever it may be appears to rely heavily and perhaps exclusively on information provided by CSIS, it would seem that one of the following must be true: CSIS failed to attach sufficient caveats to whatever information it provided to the Algerian state security service; (ii) CSIS attached sufficient caveats but subsequently consented to the use of its information in the Algerian prosecution of Abderrahmane; or CSIS attached sufficient caveats but the Algerian security service disregarded them. If either of the first two is correct, then CSIS has much to answer for. If instead Algeria has defied a CSIS caveat, then Justice O?Connor?s Recommendation 12 must be acted upon and formal objections must be lodged with Algeria forthwith.3 The O?Connor and Iacobucci Reports starkly illustrate how inappropriate information? sharing can contribute to grave human rights abuses against Canadians abroad. Yet 10 years on, Canada?s treatment of Abderrahmane suggests that the lessons gleaned from these comprehensive inquiries are being ignored or, worse, deliberately flouted. The constitutional significance of such disregard is deeply troubling, for if Canada has indeed shared information with Algeria for the purpose of subjecting Abderrahmane to a lesser form of justice in a state with a comparatively weak human?rights record, then Canada has actively undermined the fundamental protections enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These include, among others, the right to liberty and 1 See, pp. 363-64. 2 Justice Iacobucci?s report, for example, reproduces a standard CSIS caveat which reads in part as follows 71). you be in possession of any information that originated from our Service regarding the individual we ask that this information not be used to support the detention or prosecution of the individual without prior formal consultation with our service. 3 Recommendation 12 reads as follows. Where Canadian agencies become aware that foreign agencies have made improper use of information provided by a Canadian agency, a formal objection should be made to the foreign agency and the foreign minister of the recipient country. Page:4 conoline gisloson LAWYERS up security of the person the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned the right to a fair trial (5. 11); and the right not to be subjected to cruel or unusual treatment (5. 12). Put simply, if Canadian authorities believe they have evidence of criminal wrongdoing sufficient to justify charges against Abderrahmane, then those charges must be brought here in Canada. They cannot be outsourced to a country where the requirements of due process and the rule of law are less stringent. It is now time for Canada to acknowledge its role in Abderrahmane?s harrowing ordeal and to fulfill its moral and legal obligation to do everything in its power to remedy the serious harm it has visited upon Abderrahmane and his family. Abderrahmane?s trial is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks, on June 13th. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years? imprisonment. It is imperative that your Ministry act quickly and decisively to secure Abderrahmane?s return to Canada. Assuming your Ministry has in fact been quietly seeking Abderrahmane?s release, it is by now apparent that such minimalist efforts are proving unsuccessful. A forceful and public demand from your Ministry to its Algerian counterpart is clearly needed. We look forward to your prompt reply. Yours truly, CAROLINE GISLASON LAWYERS LLP Gary Caroli:e Encl. c. Omar Alghabra, MP Global Affairs Canada