Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, vice-chair and members of the committee. Thank you for this invitation.
I'm a human rights lawyer in Ottawa. I specialize in constitutional and international law. I've represented many Canadians detained abroad in a variety of different contexts. That's why I believe I've been invited to speak to you today.
I'm also going to discuss the issue that Mr. Mohammed just raised about the thousands of people who are held in Syria, in particular the 25 Canadian children who are being held in the two prison camps at al-Hol and Roj. We know there are 64,000 people in those camps, two-thirds of whom are children under 12, including those 25 Canadian children. UN investigators have described the conditions in these camps as appalling and inhumane.
Some humanitarian services have now been scaled back because of COVID. Workers from UNICEF and from MSF, Médecins Sans Frontières, have pulled back some of their services because some of their workers have contracted COVID in the camps.
The UN has also reported that many of these children are dying. They are dying from malnutrition, as well as dehydration, diarrhea and hypoglycemia. Their daily lives could not be more desperate were it not also for the violence in these camps. Exploitation and abuse is rife. People are killed by gunfire almost daily.
Committee members, I know you've heard about some of these dire reports. However, as a lawyer, I want to provide you with a different perspective. I want to advise you that in my legal opinion, Canada has a duty to take whatever measures are reasonably available to repatriate these Canadian citizens, especially the children. There can be no dispute that these children are being subjected to serious human rights abuses, such as arbitrary detention and cruel and inhumane treatment. The rights to life and security of the person are being jeopardized. There is also discrimination on a prohibited ground—nationality.
On that last one, the irony is that while Canada has not yet done anything for these individuals, those children are being detained now because they are Canadian citizens. Thousands of Syrians have been released from these camps, but foreigners and the children of foreigners continue to be held. Here's the tragic point in this: The Syrian defence forces want to release these Canadian children. Their condition: They want Canada to take them back. Unless and until Canada does so, they're going to continue to detain them indefinitely in these appalling and dangerous prison camps.
Canadian government officials will disagree with my legal opinion that's there's a duty on Canada to take action. They will say that the charter does not extend abroad and does not obligate the government to intervene to assist Canadians abroad in their efforts to leave a foreign country. In most contexts, I would agree with that, but I've been involved in other cases in which I've successfully compelled the Canadian government to return Canadian citizens to Canada when they were at risk of serious human rights abuse. That is the difference. Where Canada knows that a citizen abroad is at risk of a serious human rights abuse, such as torture or death, Canada can take measures. If it is within its power to diminish or alleviate that risk, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is triggered.
That's the crucial point in this particular humanitarian crisis. When the SDF says that they will only release these Canadian children if Canada agrees to return them, it is Canada that holds the keys to those prison camps. It is within Canada's power, and therefore Canada's responsibility, to repatriate these Canadian children from prison camps in the conflict-affected area. I'm sure they will never admit it publicly—and I see some members perhaps shaking their head—but I'm sure some Canadian government officials know that I'm right, or believe that I'm right, and that Canada's legal duties in the circumstances include repatriating people at risk of serious human rights abuses.
I know this because when faced with a lawsuit from a family with an orphan, Amira, in October, Canada returned her.
I'll leave you with this: You can think of this another way. What if China said tomorrow that they would release the two Michaels, but only if Canada would agree to come and retrieve them? Do any of us here doubt that there would be wheels up on a CF plane to China within hours? However, these children have been waiting for years. Let's not forget that the two Michaels travelled to China as adults, knowingly. These children are innocent. They did not make the choice to travel to a war zone, yet it is in a war zone that they are trapped. They are completely innocent. Canada has the power to return them.
Thank you.