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… unfortunately, we Canadians did. More of us need to wake up and realize the Harper government are thinly veiled fascists, and getting more overt by the minute.

First, the immigration minister, Jason Kenney, bans a British MP opposed to the war in Afghanistan (and who has some sharp things to say about Israel’s behaviour) from entering Canada on flimsy ‘terror’ accusations.

Now comes the culmination of a Kafkaesque game being played on Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik by Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon and his higher-ups.

Abdelrazik, as some may know, was accused by RCMP/CSIS of some sort of terror charge after the Bush administration put him on a terror watch list. As a result, when he visited his ailing mother in Sudan, he was detained there and tortured, his passport revoked. Now that even the Sudanese have no crime with which to charge him, and RCMP/CSIS have cleared him, he would like to come home to his family.

Unfortunately, Harper’s cronies will have none of it. They will not charge him with anything, but are refusing to issue him a passport by setting arbitrary and difficult beurocratic hoops for him to jump through. First, our Government stated they would issue a passport if Abdelrazik obtained a reservation on an airline, in spite of his name being on a US no-fly list. He did that. The government then shifted the goalposts, asking for a fully-paid ticket from a destitute man taking shelter in their own embassy, being sure to highlight in the same breath that any Canadian who gives him money will be a Terrorist by association (even though Abdelrazik has been officially accused, much less convicted, of nothing).

Well, he managed that. The new rule set out by Lawrence Cannon? Abdelrazik was given a few days to get his name off the no-fly list, a feat the Canadian government was unable to accomplish.

The bottom line of this scenario, is that the government is refusing to issue a passport to one of its citizens for no legal reason. It seems his only crimes are being brown and Muslim.

Makes me wonder, can I trust my government to help me if I go abroad and something happens? After all, I don’t have an English-sounding name, and while I am Caucasian, I don’t share the religion of those in power. What recourse would I have in Abdelrazik’s situation? What could you, dear reader, do, in his shoes?

(local cache Globe Article: Globe – Abdelrazik Can’t Come Home)

(via Dawg’s Blog)

Possibly related posts:

1. Foreign Affairs Catch-22
2. Lawrence Cannon dissapoints again
3. A Law to make the government protect Canadians stranded abroad?
4. Oh Canada!
5. Harper Govt Smackdown by Federal Judge Zinn