“Many in Ottawa may remember the day he returned to Canada from France. A crowd of longstanding supporters, his wife, and little children received him with open arms and crimson flowers. It was a euphoric moment. Dr. Hassan Diab, the man who was falsely accused of carrying out the 1980 bombing of the Paris synagogue on rue Copernic, who was wrongly extradited in 2014 on the basis of an egregiously flawed handwriting analysis, and who spent more than three years in solitary confinement without charge or formal trial, was finally released on January 12, 2018, from France’s Fleury-Mérogis Prison.
Two French investigative judges, Jean-Marc Herbaut and Richard Foltzer, had studied Diab’s case meticulously over several years (the former even made a trip to Lebanon to interview eye witnesses), and finally declared, ‘There is no evidence to indicate, or even imply, that … investigations will enable [the gathering of] further incriminating evidence against him.’”
Read — and share — the full article By Michelle Weinroth, published in The Bullet on May 11, 2022:
Canada’s extradition system is broken. It has led to grave rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr. Hassan Diab and many others. It needs to be reformed now.
The above video, produced by the International Civil Liberties Association (ICLMG), summarizes the issues with Canada’s Extradition Act, using Hassan Diab’s case as a pertinent example, and presents the recommendations of the Halifax Proposals to reform what Gary Botting, one of the country’s leading authorities on extradition law, called: “the least fair law in Canada”.
Please urge the Canadian government to take immediate action and end the injustice Hassan Diab is facing, by signing the letter: http://iclmg.ca/diab-letter
Join us for an important discussion on why we must fix the broken extradition system in Canada, and learn about a new blueprint, known as the Halifax Proposals, for how to make it happen.
What: Panel on Reforming Canada’s Extradition Act
When: Tuesday April 12, 2022, at 12:00 pm ET
Featuring:
Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University and co-editor-in-chief of PKI Global Justice Journal
Rob Currie, Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG)
John Packer, Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
Plus: A premiere screening of a short video on the problems with the Extradition Act from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.
Co-hosted by Queen’s University, the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa, and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.
The grave violations of the rights of Dr. Hassan Diab, wrongfully extradited to France, lays bare how the Extradition Act fails Canadian citizens.
On Oct. 21, 2021, media were invited to an exclusive online press briefing on the Halifax Proposals, a new blueprint for urgent reform of Canada’s Extradition Act (1999), developed by leading extradition, legal, and human rights experts in Canada. The proposals present a clear path for Canadian MPs and the incoming government to address the significant failings in Canada’s extradition system.
At the briefing, Don Bayne (Hassan Diab’s Canadian lawyer), Rob Currie (Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University), and John Packer (Director of the Human Rights Research & Education Centre, University of Ottawa) highlighted the weaknesses and failings of Canada’s Extradition Act, the growing demands for its reform, and presented the Halifax Proposals, a comprehensive model for the fundamental renewal of this essential piece of legislation and its protection of the rights of Canadian citizens.
The briefing was moderated by Sharry Aiken (associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University and co-editor-in-chief of PKI Global Justice Journal). It was hosted by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG).
On January 25, 2022, the Hassan Diab Support Committee and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) held a press conference commenting on the setting of a date (April 2023) for the trial of Dr. Hassan Diab.
This is a shocking and inexplicable reversal of the January 2018 decision clearing Dr. Diab of all accusations and freeing him unconditionally. France continues its baseless prosecution more than four years after Hassan was exonerated by French anti-terrorism magistrates.
At the press conference, Tim McSorley (National Coordinator, ICLMG), Jo Wood (representing the Hassan Diab Support Committee), Alex Neve (Former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs), and Rob Currie (Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University), commented on the shocking implications for Dr. Diab and his family.
A copy of the media advisory about the press conference is available:here
In a decision that shocks the conscience, the French judiciary has set an April 2023 date for the trial of Ottawa professor Dr. Hassan Diab. This is a shocking and inexplicable reversal of the January 2018 decision clearing Dr. Diab of all accusations and freeing him unconditionally. France continues its baseless prosecution more than four years after Hassan was exonerated by French anti-terrorism magistrates.
The Hassan Diab Support Committee will hold a press conference commenting on the setting of a trial date.
What: Press conference (Zoom) reacting to the announcement by the French judiciary of a trial date for Dr. Hassan Diab
When: Tuesday, 25 January, 2022, at 10:30 am (EST)
At the press conference, Tim McSorley (National Coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group – ICLMG), Jo Wood (representing the Hassan Diab Support Committee), Alex Neve (Former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs), and Rob Currie (Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University), will comment on the shocking implications for Dr. Diab and his family.
A copy of the media advisory about the press conference is available:here
How You Can Help
Canada must speak out in defence of this innocent Canadian who faces a continuing miscarriage of justice. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government must declare publicly that Canada will NOT entertain another French request for Hassan’s extradition. PM Trudeau must honour the words he uttered in 2018:
“I think, for Hassan Diab, we have to recognize first of all that what happened to him never should have happened […] and make sure that it never happens again.”
1) Send a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Please send a letter to PM Trudeau asking him to honour his words and put an end to Dr. Hassan Diab’s long and troubling ordeal. You may write your own letter, or send the online letter at:
If you live in Canada: https://iclmg.ca/diab-letter (a copy of the letter will be sent to your Member of Parliament)
Postcards addressed to PM Trudeau are available at Octopus Books, 116 Third Avenue, Ottawa. Please drop by Octopus Books to sign a postcard, and get extra postcards to share with friends.
If you are not in the Ottawa area, you can order postcards by sending an email to diabsupport@gmail.com indicating your postal mailing address and the number of postcards you’d like to receive, and we will gladly mail postcards to you.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the phone-in on November 25 asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to honor his words from June 2018 and refuse any future request from France for the extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab. Your support is vital to protecting the rights of people in Canada against unjust prosecution and violation of fundamental rights.
If you haven’t called PM Trudeau yet, please do so. The Prime Minister’s contact information is included below, as well as a sample message in both English and French.
Here is a link to a media advisory about this important action:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Hill Office – House of Commons: (613) 992-4211
Constituency Office (Montreal, Quebec): (514) 277-6020
When you call, you will probably be transferred to leave your message on an answering machine, which is fine. Please be sure to say your name and give your phone number.
Click on the links below for an example of a message you can leave, but please feel free to use your own words. Even one sentence, asking the PM to publicly declare Canada’s intent to refuse another request from France for Hassan’s extradition, will help!
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has selected new cabinet ministers and today is the start of a new Parliamentary session. We need to keep up the pressure to make sure that the Canadian government prioritizes justice. Hassan Diab must be protected and his persecution must end. No one should go through what Hassan has endured, and Canada’s Extradition Act must be reformed!
We ask you to please telephone the office of Prime Minister Trudeau and insist politely but firmly that the Prime Minister follow through on the statement he made on June 20, 2018, by publicly declaring that Canada will refuse any future request from France for Hassan Diab’s extradition.
When you call, you will probably be transferred to leave your message on an answering machine, which is fine. Please, be sure to say your name and give your phone number.
Click on the links below for an example of a message you can leave, but please feel free to use your own words. Even one sentence, asking the PM to publicly declare Canada’s intent to refuse another request from France for Hassan’s extradition, will help!
Postcards calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to protect Hassan Diab from ongoing persecution are available at Octopus Books, 116 Third Avenue, Ottawa. Please drop by Octopus Books to sign a postcard, and get extra postcards to share with friends.
If you are not in the Ottawa area, you can order postcards by sending an email to diabsupport@gmail.com with your postal mailing address and the number of postcards you’d like to receive, and we will gladly mail postcards to you.
You can see a photo of the postcard (front and back): here.
No postage is necessary to mail the postcard from Canada.
Neve, Aiken and Champ: Canada’s Next Justice Minister Must Defend Hassan Diab’s Rights
“Will France have the audacity to seek Diab’s extradition a second time? Will it instead opt to try him in absentia, itself a flagrant violation of fair trial rights? Either way, Diab and his family, who have been trapped in a Kafkaesque world of injustice for 14 years, currently face the prospect of several more years of the same. It is intolerable and it must end. That is why we recently joined more than 100 lawyers and legal academics in an open letter to Minister Lametti during the recent election, urging him to convey to French authorities that Canada will not in any way continue to participate in this profound miscarriage of justice.”
Read the full opinion piece by Alex Neve, Sharry Aiken, and Paul Champ in the Ottawa Citizen:
“Under the current law, a state requesting extradition need only shows up with a summary of the evidence it claims to have. But that summary cannot be challenged or tested, says Robert Currie, a Schulich School of Law professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. ‘It’s an unfair process.’… Currie says that the Diab case is an egregious example of how the Supreme Court’s intention in Ferras has failed. ‘If Hassan Diab could be committed for extradition, then there’s no meaningful way to challenge it at all,’ he says. ‘The judge just becomes a rubber stamp on the whole thing.’”
Read the full article by Dale Smith in the Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine:
The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) has made public an open letter addressed to the Minister of Justice David Lametti. The letter is signed by 118 members of the legal profession and legal scholars in Canada.
In the letter, the signatories call on Minister Lametti and his colleagues to take immediate action to protect the rights of Dr. Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen, who continues to face a 13-year-long Kafkaesque process in the French legal system.
