Demonstrations took place recently in major cities across Canada to demand Omar Khadr’s return.  On July 25 and 26, there were gatherings in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, and on July 29 in Vancouver.

Gina Hill, past president of Amnesty International Canada, addressed the Ottawa demonstration near the U.S. embassy and called for “due process” in his case, “where there is no inhumane treatment.”  Sponsors of the Ottawa protest included the Council of Canadians, a left-wing nationalist organization, the United Church of Canada, which is Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, the Canadian Arab Federation and the Canadian Peace Alliance.

A recent poll commissioned by the National Post found 60% of respondents in favor of Khadr staying where he is, with 40% wanting him to come home.    

 

Canadian intelligence opposed Abdelrazik’s return

Abdelrazik

Abousfian Abdelrazik is on the U.S. no-fly list.  This past April the Transport Canada’s branch responsible for Canada’s no-fly list warned government officials that the U.S. would be very upset were he to be returned to Canada.  As it is, he has been stuck in Sudan since going there to visit his sick mother in 2003, jailed at times at Canada’s request.  There are no outstanding charges against him.

The document from Transport Canada was obtained by the Toronto Globe and Mail.  In it, officials are told that they “should be mindful of the potential reaction of our U.S. counterparts to Abdelrazik’s return,” as “Continued co-operation between Canada and the U.S. in matters of security is essential.”  Apparently more essential than Abdelrazik’s human rights and his rights as a Canadian citizen.

While former Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier told the House of Commons that he could not return to Canada because he is on the U.N. list of suspected terrorists, that was a lie.  The U.N. travel ban makes an exception for those on the list to return to the country of their citizenship. 

Just recently, U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins told Canadian Press that if there were a disagreement between Canada and the U.S. if Canada decided to bring Abdelrazik home, “we’d work through it.”  So now that Canada has gotten Washington’s go-ahead, perhaps it will act, even if it did not have the courage to do what might not please Uncle Sam before this reassurance.

 

More on polygamy in Toronto

Aly Hindy, imam of the Salahedin Islamic Center in the Toronto borough of Scarborough, has tried to set the record straight, as it were, on the issue of polygamy.  The media reported that he had acknowledged performing some 30 polygamous marriages.  He is also quoted as saying that the religious law permitting such marriages supersedes Canadian law.  As well, he said that he had advised men taking a second wife to keep the matter secret, even from wife number one.

To clarify matters, Hindy denied saying that religious law supersedes Canadian law.  That statement, he claimed, was taken out of context.  He had, he said, held that his religious beliefs would, for instance, prevent him from fighting in Afghanistan.

He explained his performing polygamous marriages by saying that “the majority” of such marriages “are transitional,” in that men soon divorce one or both wives.  The polygamous marriage is described as a useful step “because of the lengthy process it takes to attain a divorce.” 

 

In Canada, we have no-fault divorce.  After one year of living apart, a divorce can be granted. Mine did not even require a court appearance.  A large majority of cases are no-fault.  This is “the lengthy process.”

Hindy contrasted the Canadian attitude toward polygamy to that toward adultery.  However, Islamic polygamy is a one-sided arrangement—plural wives—while adultery is not.  And in any case he has not in his statement dealt with the matter of his advising men to keep their second marriage secret, even from the first wife.