[KWPeace-groups] Book Launch event on March 17

[Tamara Lorincz]

A Book Launch and Discussion on the obstacles preventing the repatriation from Northeast Syria of over two dozen arbitrarily detained Canadian Muslim men, women, and children.
Sunday, March 17, 7 pm.
Free, Iftar refreshments provided for those breaking their fast
Grand River Unitarian Congregation, 299 Sydney St. S, Kitchener
With:
Sally Lane, whose son Jack Letts has been wrongfully defamed by an inflammatory UK media and illegally held almost 7 years under conditions the UN calls “akin to torture”
Sally Lane’s memoir of trying to free her Canadian son from a Kurdish prison after almost 7 long years of indefinite detention (Reasonable Cause to Suspect, https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459750944-reasonable-cause-to-suspect). She has not seen Jack in a decade, since he went to Syria to help the victims of the civil war and became a target of ISIS. Three times arrested and jailed by them, he eventually escaped only to be captured and detained by Kurdish officials. Sally’s book addresses this painful history as well as the many misconceptions about Jack that were trumpeted by the British tabloid media.
Matthew Behrens of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, who has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. “national security” repression for over 25 years.
Presented Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, Dundurn Press
Background
Guantanamo in the Desert – where 50,000 Muslims are off-shored in NE Syria, beyond reach of law & rights, respect & dignity. Over two dozen Muslim Canadians – men, women & kids – are illegally detained there under conditions the UN calls akin to torture because Ottawa either refuses to repatriate them or has offered to repatriate children only if they are forcibly separated from their mothers. There is no clean water, nutritious food or proper medical care. The men’s prison cells are packed with bone-thin prisoners, many with amputated limbs.
In January, 2023, a Federal Court judge called on Ottawa to repatriate them, noting: “Canadians are dying or at risk of dying every day this matter is adjourned.” Over one year later, Canada still refuses, going all the way to the Supreme Court to block their return, thereby participating in the illegal practice of forced exile.



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