Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the committee for going to committee business right off.
I want to table the motion. The motion is that pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), Abousfian Abdelrazik be asked to appear before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.
Mr. Chair, I won't go to great lengths about the reasons for this motion, other than to say that we know there has been a lot of interest in the case of Mr. Abdelrazik. The basic facts, of course, are that he has been in Sudan since 2003. He has been in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for over a year now. We know there were attempts to have Mr. Abdelrazik returned to Canada, and up until recently we believed that all that was lacking was a ticket for an air flight home. We know the recent news, which is that when the government was asked to provide him with a travel document, the government, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had decided Mr. Abdelrazik was a security risk and that they would turn him down for that request.
Mr. Chair, I believe that within the powers of this committee we are able to ask that Mr. Abdelrazik come to committee--that is, come from Khartoum to Ottawa and be present for the committee to hear his circumstance directly from him--and in addition, to address the fact that according to the Security Council committee's resolution 1267.... The chair of that committee, Richard Barrett, who is responsible for managing the travel ban, was asked if Mr. Abdelrazik could travel to Canada and if there was anything he would deem as being in the way of Mr. Abdelrazik travelling. He said, “Sure, they”--that is, the Canadian government--“can let him come back. This is a decision for the Canadian government, not for the Security Council.”
Therefore, I would submit, Mr. Chair, that we have the ability to have Mr. Abdelrazik appear before this committee, and not through any other means than having him sit in a chair right in this room to hear from him. That is the spirit of the motion, but most importantly that is the essence of the motion: to have Mr. Abdelrazik appear before this committee in this place as soon as possible.
Thank you.