Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government has yet to decide if it will appeal or accept a federal court order to repatriate Canadian men who have been jailed in northeastern Syria.
The men are suspected of joining ISIS during Syria’s civil war, but none have been charged.
“We’re looking at it carefully. Obviously – making sure we’re defending Canadians’ safety and security is always going to be a priority for us,” PM Trudeau said Monday, while taking questions from reporters during a visit to a quantum technology firm in Toronto.
The ruling applies to four men who were applicants in a federal court case referred to as “Bring Our Loved Ones Home,” or BOLOH. The case was first filed in 2021, and initially included 6 women and 13 children as well. All have been detained in camps or prisons for years.
MISSING PROOF OF LIFE
Last week, the government reached an agreement to repatriate the 19 women and children within a “mutually agreed time frame,” but not the men.
One day later, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled it would be a violation of the Charter to abandon the men.
“Based on evidence before this Court, the conditions of the Applicant Canadian men are even more dire than those of the women and children who Canada has just agreed to repatriate,” wrote Justice Brown in an 85-page decision.
But the conditions of the men aren’t known. Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who represents three of the four men, says, in some cases, Global Affairs Canada hasn’t provided proof of life to the families since 2019.
“Can I tell you for sure all four men are still alive? I can’t, but it’s certainly our hope that these four men will be able to be brought home to Canada,” said Greenspon.
‘GROUNDBREAKING’ RULING
Letta Tayler, the associate director of the crisis and conflict division of Human Rights Watch calls the decision “potentially groundbreaking.”
“This is the first court order that I am aware of that explicitly instructs a government to bring back men, ” she said.
Canada has brought home just 3 women and 4 children since 2021.
Only the United States and Italy have repatriated men, but Tayler says the federal court ruling could influence other countries to do the same.
A POLICY THAT SEPARATES MOTHERS FROM THEIR CHILDREN
Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the status of 20 Canadians who were not part of the BOLOH case, because they weren’t able to collect the necessary documents in time to join the legal challenge.
This group includes 2 men, one woman and 17 children.
Ten of the children are offspring of Canadian fathers who died overseas. Their mothers are not Canadians. Tayler says Global Affairs has sent the mothers letters informing them their children qualify for repatriation, but not the women.
“This is putting these mothers into an untenable situation, giving them this horrific choice.” Tayler said the mothers are being forced to cut ties with their children in order to provide them with a future.
“Canada says that it will consider the best interests of the child in all its decisions and that it believes that family unity should be retained whenever possible. Yet Ottawa has told these foreign mothers that they can’t come home with their children,” said Tayler.
According to the most recent report from Human Rights Watch, hundreds of people in the camps and prisons have died from malnutrition and disease and in violence perpetrated by extremists in the camp. Children are drowning and dying in tent fires, and being made victims of sexual predators. Their lives are also at risk as Turkish forces target Kurdish-held territory with air and artillery strikes.
“I am sure that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not want the blood of a Canadian man, woman or child on his hands, ” said Tayler. “This would be a terrible tragedy and a political failing.”
Two years after the BOLOH court case was filed in federal court, the lives of at least 43 Canadians, 30 of whom are children, hang in the balance as the Canadian government ponders what move to make next.
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.
