TORONTO —
The question of what to do with Canadians who left the country to join ISIS, and who are languishing in camps along the Syrian-Iraq border, is one that has haunted the federal government for years.
ISIS fighters, their wives, widows and children are scattered throughout camps in northern Syria or detained in prisons. It’s estimated that 35 women and children are in the Al-Roj camp alone, and eight Canadian men accused of being ISIS fighters are currently incarcerated in Kurdish prisons.
Last October, five-year-old Amira, who was living in Syria’s Al-Hol camp after losing her father and mother in an airstrike, was finally able to be reunited with her uncle in Canada. Amira was handed over by the Kurds to an official Canadian delegation at a Syrian border town.
For Leila Sakhir of Montreal, watching those two children be repatriated is a painful reminder of her own two-year-old niece, stranded in a Syrian camp.
“I always think about her and her mother,” Sakhir told CTV News. “I have two daughters…and I think about her in her tent, such different conditions and it seems so unfair, so inexplicable.”
Sakhir is concerned that if she one day is able to get her niece out of Al-Hol camp, it may have to be without the child’s mother — “an impossible choice to make,” she says.
Sakhir’s brother Youssef was one of the several Quebec men who left Canada in 2014 and 2015 to join the ranks of ISIS overseas, where he eventually married a Moroccan woman and had a child.
“It was a real shock. It was a shock for my whole family,” Sakhir said. “We just could not believe it…I remembered I just fell to my knees.”
Youssef was killed in a 2019 bombing. One of the last photos Sakhir has of her brother is a picture of him and his baby girl.
Sakhir’s story was the subject of a documentary film entitled “Les Poussieres De Daesch,” or “The Dust of ISIS,” chronicling her journey to find her niece and sister-in-law in Al-Hol and then the short time she spent with them inside the camp.
And while Sakhir acknowledged that there is very little sympathy from the public for those who joined the terrorist organization, she told CTV News that Canada needs to step up and perform its duty for the sake of the children who are serving a sentence alongside their parents in the camps.
“They are not dealing with the situation right now,” Sakhir said of the federal government. “I think it is not Canadian, it is not what we imagine Canada would do – ignore them.”
Advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch (HRW) have repeatedly criticized Canada for “appearing to withhold effective consular assistance to detainees over their suspected links to ISIS,” which the group argues “could amount to unlawful discrimination.”
According to the HRW the “indefinite detention without charge of the Canadians amounts to guilt by association and collective punishment, prohibited under international law. The inhuman or degrading treatment in the camps and prisons may constitute torture,” and Canada is “failing to take adequate steps” to repatriate its citizens, the HRW said.
Extremism scholar at Queen’s University, Amarnath Amarasingam, told CTV News that the “moral thing to do from a rich first world country is to bring back people who are your citizens and charge them at home.”
“Then provide support for the children who were there through no fault of their own, many were born in Syria, many were born in the camps” he continued.
Sakhir, reflecting on her brother’s actions, told CTV News that she lays blame squarely at his feet.
“I blame him for everything, I blame him for making this stupid choice, for having a kid in those conditions, for dying, for pretty much everything.”
Government officials and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have said little about the Canadian children and their parents held in these camps, continuing to maintain that the security situation in the region limits Canada’s ability to provide help on the ground.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
