MONTREAL – For Abousfian Abdelrazik, having his name stricken from a United Nations terrorist watchlist means the first step towards resuming a normal life.
It means the 49-year-old Montreal man can once again do his banking without a government certificate; get government child benefits without needing a lawyer’s intervention; and just get a job.
“I was in a prison. I walked in the streets, but I was in a prison,” Abdelrazik said of his years living with the stigma of being the only Canadian citizen on the UN terror list.
“My life was not the same as other people.”
After learning he’d been removed from the list, Abdelrazik had one message for the people of Canada on Thursday – and an entirely different one for the Canadian government.
Abdelrazik expressed thanks to Canadians, many of whom offered their help and support while he lived in legal limbo and ensured his return to Canada.
He said Canadians helped him get off the terror list, which affected his ability to earn a wage, travel freely or hold a bank account.
But his message to the Government of Canada was the polar opposite: Thanks for nothing.
“You abandoned me for seven years – and you caused me all this suffering,” he said. ”You made my life and my children’s life very miserable.
- ‘Shock and disbelief’ after Manitoba school trustee’s Indigenous comments
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- Several baby products have been recalled by Health Canada. Here’s the list
- ‘Sciatica was gone’: hospital performs robot-assisted spinal surgery in Canadian first
“Now I am a free person. Not because of your support, but because of the support of Canadians. Now I wish you realize this fact…. (and) do the right things you were supposed to do a long time ago.”
At a minimum, the single father of two wants a public apology from Canadian officials.
He said his reputation was tarnished and, although his name was finally stricken from the list on Wednesday, Abdelrazik said his heart goes out to other innocent people who remain on the list.
Abdelrazik and his supporters said what made the difference in his case was a vocal lobby and legal effort that shed light on his situation.
“It would not be fair to claim this victory as my victory,” he told a news conference in his hometown of Montreal.
“I would say to my friends in Halifax, in Quebec, Ontario, anywhere in Canada, this is our victory. If not for your support I think I cannot reach this moment.
“But,” he added, “my happiness is not complete.”
Abdelrazik remains on a United States no-fly list, which means he can’t fly through American airspace. He also remains on a U.S. treasury list which means he can’t have a bank account in that country.
Abdelrazik said he has no plans to go to the U.S., but he’ll still fight to have his name removed from the U.S. no-fly list which his lawyers said includes many Canadians.
Abdelrazik was accused of being an operative for the al-Qaida terrorist network who trained in Afghanistan. He always denied the allegations.
He was arrested but not charged during a 2003 visit to see his mother in his native Sudan.
While he was behind bars in Sudan, Abdelrazik’s passport expired and he subsequently lived in makeshift quarters at the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.
The United States later branded him a supporter of al-Qaida, and the UN subsequently added his name to the Security Council’s 1267 terror blacklist.
Abdelrazik has already been formally cleared by CSIS and the RCMP of terrorist allegations; but from the time he returned to Canada in 2009 until this week, he had been unable to have his name cleared from the UN list.
His financial assets were frozen and he was barred from leaving the country while his name was on that list.
Lawyer Paul Champ said that Abdelrazik benefited from widespread interest and support from Canadians – something many other innocent people on that list don’t get.
The Ottawa lawyer said he hoped the decision would help put an end to the listing process, which he compared to the methods used under McCarthyism and the totalitarian regimes of the former Soviet bloc.
“This whole concept of secret lists based on secret evidence and unfair processes must come to an end and we’re very hopeful today is another big step in that coming to be,” said Champ.
With the UN decision taken Wednesday, Abdelrazik’s lawyers say they hope he can now do things most Canadians take for granted: get paid for work, and withdraw money from his own bank account without requiring written permission from the federal government.
“Every time he tried to do the most simple transaction at the bank – even though we planned it ahead of time and it was approved by security certificates from the UN – he always had problems with bank tellers,” Champ said.
He hoped that would change imminently.
Abdelrazik added that, after celebrating for a few days, he plans to get back to a more routine life.
“I’m going to start my new life and look for a job and become like a normal person,” said Abdelrazik, who previously worked as a machinist.
Meanwhile, a legal challenge to 1267 as it is applied in Canada is moving forward with Abdelrazik and two rights groups banding together.
Abdelrazik has also launched a $27-million lawsuit against former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon and the Canadian government, a case that remains stalled before the courts, Champ said.
The federal government sought to distance itself from the case Thursday.
In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said he had no insight into how the UN reached its decision.
“I don’t know what evidence the United Nations had to put him on the list in the first place, what evidence they had not to take him off several years ago or what evidence they had to take him off yesterday,” Baird said.
“It’s the UN’s prerogative. Obviously we’ve followed Canadian law and followed through with after the UN delisting yesterday.”
Another senior Conservative cabinet minister explained that he never meant to cast aspersions on Abdelrazik.
Jason Kenney said the times he commented in the past – like when he said several months ago when asked about Abdelrazik, “I read the protected confidential dossiers on such individuals and I can tell you, without commenting on any one individual, some of this intelligence makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck” – he was speaking in general, and not in reference to any specific case.
When asked about the case by reporters Thursday, Kenney said: “What I said (before) is that I think groups should be very careful about who they associate with if such people have questions raised about their background. I just think people should be prudent…
“I think that’s a common principle. I certainly am, I can tell you. Whenever I go to functions or whatnot, I try to be prudent about the people I associate with.”
Comments