Two men vying for the helm of the Manitoba Tories make their pitch to party members

OTTAWA – A former senior official at Canada’s foreign ministry says there were fears two decades ago that Montreal man Abousfian Abdelrazik might end up at a prison for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Daniel Livermore, who was director general in the department’s security and intelligence bureau, testified Wednesday in Federal Court in Abdelrazik’s civil lawsuit against Ottawa over his detention and alleged torture in Sudan.

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik became a Canadian citizen in the 1990s and was arrested during a 2003 visit to his native country to see his ailing mother.

Abdelrazik, who denies involvement in terrorism, says he was tortured during two periods of detention by the Sudanese intelligence agency.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers visited him in custody in October 2003.

Livermore told the court of efforts in 2004 to have Abdelrazik fly home from Khartoum via Germany on commercial flights.

He recalled fears in the Canadian foreign ministry that Abdelrazik’s journey might be interrupted due to the U.S. no-fly list and that he could wind up in an American military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The Americans were “quite concerned” about the Abdelrazik case and did not want him to return to Canada, Livermore said.

There was “profound disagreement” between CSIS and Canada’s foreign ministry over whether Abdelrazik should return, Livermore said.

“CSIS continued to express the view to us that he was a dangerous terrorist.”

Abdelrazik, 62, is suing the Canadian government, claiming officials arranged for his arbitrary imprisonment, encouraged his detention by Sudanese authorities and actively obstructed his repatriation to Canada for several years.

The suit also names Lawrence Cannon, Conservative foreign affairs minister from October 2008 to May 2011.

Federal lawyers argue Abdelrazik was an author of his own misfortune, saying Canada did not urge Sudan to keep him in detention or mistreat him, or create a risk that these things might happen.

Abdelrazik’s second release from Sudanese custody came in July 2006. However, his inclusion on a United Nations security watch list complicated his efforts to return to Canada.

In response to a query from the Canadian foreign ministry, CSIS and the RCMP said in November 2007 that neither agency had current and substantive information to support Abdelrazik’s continued listing.

In December 2007, Maxime Bernier, foreign affairs minister at the time, conveyed a request to a UN committee to have Abdelrazik removed from the list. However, the committee did not agree.

Bernier, foreign minister from August 2007 to May 2008, told the court Wednesday “it was concerning for me” to hear a suggestion the Sudanese had detained Abdelrazik at the request of Canada.

“I wanted to know more about it,” said Bernier, who later left the Conservatives and now leads the People’s Party of Canada.

He noted that Abdelrazik had not been charged with anything, and that Canadians enjoyed the protection of the Charter of Rights.

In March 2008, Deepak Obhrai, who was parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, met Abdelrazik in Sudan together with Canadian foreign ministry officials.

According to an agreed statement of facts in the case, Abdelrazik told them that Sudanese authorities had tortured him. He lifted up his shirt to show marks on his elbow, stomach and back that he alleged were caused by the abuse.

In March 2009, Abdelrazik obtained a ticket to Canada for the following month. However, he was denied an emergency passport.

Abdelrazik returned to Canada in June 2009 after a judge ruled Ottawa breached his constitutional rights by refusing to give him the travel document.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

OTTAWA – The Liberal caucus turned its attention to the party’s plan for the next election on Wednesday, after an unsuccessful attempt by some MPs to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week.

Longtime Liberal operative Andrew Bevan was named the new national campaign director two weeks ago and made his first presentation to the full caucus during the weekly meeting.

The next election must be held by Oct. 20, 2025, but it could come much sooner. The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have pledged to try to bring down the minority government this fall.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that his party wouldn’t help them topple the Liberals. The Conservatives and Bloc don’t have enough MPs between them to defeat the government if the Liberals and NDP vote together.

The presentation was initially scheduled to happen last Wednesday, but that nearly three-hour meeting was instead dominated by discussions of Trudeau’s leadership.

Toronto-area MP Nate Erskine-Smith said the party’s leadership was not the focus of caucus this week, and the priority was hearing from Bevan.

“It was very much focused on: these are the next steps from a party perspective, and people were able to weigh in with their own feedback as far as it goes,” Erskine-Smith said following the meeting.

“That question from last week to what’s the finality, that wasn’t part of it.”

MPs were not able to share specific details of what was discussed in the meeting due to caucus confidentiality.

At last week’s meeting, a group of around two dozen MPs presented a letter to Trudeau calling on him to step aside. The dissenters gave him until Monday to make a decision — but he made it clear he plans to lead the party in the next election.

Several MPs have since said they want to hold a secret ballot vote to decide on whether Trudeau should stay on as leader. However, the Liberal party chose after the last election not to use Reform Act rules that would have allowed a caucus to hold a secret vote to oust the leader.

British Columbia MP Patrick Weiler said he thinks the leadership concerns are not over.

“I think we had a very good meeting last week, and I think there are a lot of unresolved questions from that, that still need to be addressed,” Weiler said while heading to question period on Wednesday.

“I think there are a lot of people that are still looking for some answers to those things and until that’s addressed, that’s going to be lingering.”

But several other MPs and cabinet ministers said they feel the matter is resolved and it’s time to move on to planning for the next campaign.

Judy Sgro, a veteran Ontario MP of nearly 25 years, said even though the Liberals are trailing the Conservatives in the polls, she believes they can pull off a victory.

“I’ve been through five leaders, this is my fifth leader. Most of the time they’re unpopular, but we still manage to win,” she said.

Erskine-Smith said the “overwhelming focus” for now is on what comes next, but he could see leadership troubles come up again depending on the results of two upcoming votes.

Byelections are pending in former Liberal ridings on both coasts: a vote must happen in Cloverdale—Langley City by Jan. 13 and in Halifax by April 14.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

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VANCOUVER – A British Columbia judge has granted an urgent injunction stopping a woman’s medically assisted death, the day before it was scheduled to take place in Vancouver.

The injunction granted on Saturday to the woman’s common-law partner prevents Dr. Ellen Wiebe or any other medical professional from helping end the life of the 53-year-old Alberta woman within 30 days.

The judge’s ruling says the woman appears to have a mental health condition with no physical ailment.

The B.C. Supreme Court application for the injunction says that after she was denied medical assistance in dying, or MAID, in her home province, she found Wiebe in Vancouver.

It says Wiebe approved MAID on her first meeting with the woman, without consulting the patient’s other doctors.

Justice Simon R. Coval said on Sunday in his reasons for granting the injunction that it was “clearly a situation of extreme irreparable harm” to both the woman and her partner if the injunction was not granted before she was scheduled to die on Oct. 27.

He said there were “extremely pressing circumstances,” and a serious question about “whether there should be judicial oversight” when someone chooses to die by MAID.

Coval said he recognized the injunction “is a severe intrusion into (the woman’s) personal and medical autonomy.”

“I can only imagine the pain she has been experiencing and I recognize that this injunction will likely make that worse,” he said.

Coval said there is an “arguable case” about whether the MAID criteria were properly applied to the woman.

“As I’ve said, the evidence suggests (her) situation appears to be a mental health condition or illness without a link to any physical condition and it may not only be remediable, but remediable relatively quickly,” he said.

The woman and her partner have been granted anonymity by the court.

The application says the woman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and later became convinced she had akathisia — an inability to sit still that is linked to certain types of medication — and began exploring medical assistance in dying.

“At the same time, (she) continued to express her desire to die. She did not want to do it herself, and regularly begged the plaintiff to end her life,” the application said.

It said two practitioners with expertise in the condition told her it was treatable, transitory and manageable, and if she followed their recommendations, “her akathisia could resolve within two to six months.”

The document claims she did not exhaust all medical treatments and was unable to obtain approval for assistance to die in Alberta.

The application says Wiebe did not try to consult with the woman’s treating physicians and “relied solely on the information provided” by the woman.

It also says the woman could not find an independent witness for the authorization form, or a second person to authorize MAID so Wiebe provided both.

Medically assisted death in Canada is only currently legal for people on the basis of a physical health condition.

Applicants whose medical condition is mental illness will remain ineligible until at least March 2027.

The application says Wiebe breached her statutory duty by approving assistance in dying for a condition that does not qualify, while failing to review the patient’s medical history or conduct a full health assessment.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and Wiebe declined a request for comment by The Canadian Press.

Wiebe was interviewed for a BBC documentary that screened this year, telling an interviewer that she had been involved with more than 400 MAID deaths.

She said there were situations “where I find someone not eligible or eligible when another person won’t, because of the way our law is written.”

Wiebe told the BBC the “No. 1 reason” people wanted MAID was to maintain “autonomy and control.”

The B.C. Supreme Court application names the woman, Wiebe and her clinic as defendants.

It had sought a permanent injunction against MAID for the woman, or a 30-day injunction in the alternative, as well as a declaration the woman does not qualify for MAID, and damages.

The applicant’s lawyer did not immediately respond to voicemails left with her firm.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.