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 Canadian
outrage can be selective
June 24, 2008
Toronto Star
A Canadian citizen, Bashir Makhtal, has been sitting in an Ethiopian
detention facility for 16 months without a trial or a single charge
being laid.
Worse, he has been denied his basic right to Canadian consular
access with excuses ranging from ongoing Ethiopian investigations to
an Ethiopian promise, that upon the conclusion of the
investigations, Canadian consular officials will be granted access.
According to information received by community members from
Ethiopia, these supposed investigations were completed months ago
but Canada still has not been granted access.
Makhtal is a former Torontonian who was arrested in December 2006 on
the Kenya-Somalia border after fleeing fighting in Somalia and sent
to Ethiopia in January 2007.
While the Prime Minister and some of his ministers displayed urgency
and made a determined, albeit belated, effort in the case of Brenda
Martin, who was held in a Mexican jail, Makhtal's case appears to
have been left in the hands of junior members of the foreign affairs
department.
Where is the Canadian outrage over this obvious case of rendition
and indefinite detention of one of our citizens?
Why did the Martin case "trouble" the Prime Minister while that of
Makhtal, who could very well face the death penalty, has not led to
a ministerial level visit or a response from the higher echelons of
the Canadian government?
Does the Canadian government engage in selective advocacy on behalf
of Canadians detained abroad? Why did the Prime Minister dispatch
his internal security minister to plead with the Saudis about the
case of Mohamed Kohail, a Canadian citizen from Montreal "convicted
of murder for a schoolyard brawl gone awry," but not send someone of
equal status to Addis Ababa?
Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to the
foreign minister, was dispatched to deliver a letter in March. Given
the lack of results, it might have been more cost effective to fax
it.
This government has not fulfilled its responsibilities in protecting
Makhtal's rights. Whether this lack of effort has to do with
ideology, political expediency or both is open to debate.
What is not debatable is that a citizen was rendered from Kenya to
Ethiopia via Somalia, has been held without charge, without
conviction and without access to a lawyer or Canadian consular
officials for 16 months while the Canadian government has "insisted"
it is doing everything it can to enable consular access.
As a nation we are known as an advocate of human rights yet now we
just watch as a fellow citizen is held in indefinite detention.
Isn't our human rights reputation sullied if Canada cannot convince
Ethiopia – a nation that according to the Canadian International
Development Agency received more than $108 million in official
development assistance in 2004-2005 – to allow due process for one
of our citizens?
Makhtal has been left to rot in an Ethiopian detention centre while
Ottawa does very little to advocate for his rights. Makhtal's
continued detention in Ethiopia is a visible reminder of the failure
of our government to protect the rights of Canadians detained
abroad.
This is a troubling case that should elicit our outrage with
Ethiopia and also with the failure of our elected officials to
advocate due process for a Canadian citizen.
Canadians of all stripes should be ashamed of watching a Canadian
citizen linger in an Ethiopian jail while Ottawa displays minimal
concern.
Makhtal's case deserves the same, if not more, urgency that the
Canadian government displayed in dealing with Mexico in the Martin
affair. Nothing less should suffice.
Mohamed Osman Hassan, originally from Somalia, lives in Toronto
and is an information technology security specialist.
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Do all the
good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you
can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to
all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
by John
Wesley |
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