As you may know, this week marks the beginning of Ramadan, the holy month fasting for Muslims. The Muslim faithful of the world will be forgoing food and drink during the daylight hours for an entire month. There’s one Muslim in Toronto who has had plenty of practice in fasting; Ramadan should be a breeze for him. As of the writing of this article, he has not eaten a single bite of food for the past 26 days. And Ramadan hasn’t even started yet.
Hassan Almrei is a 29-year old refugee from Syria who has been held in solitary confinement in the Metro West Detention Centre since October 19, 2001. He was arrested in a blanket crackdown by CSIS on Muslim and Arab people after September 11, 2001.
Almrei’s situation is unfathomable to those of us who walk freely in the streets: two years alone in a cell for 23 hours of the day. One would hope that there would be a reason for his confinement; there must have been a tremendous crime committed for such a severe punishment to ensue.
So what are Almrei’s charges? The plain fact is that no charges have been laid.
Well then how can he possibly be held in solitary confinement? He is being detained simply on the basis of the new CSIS secret trial security certificate.
But what evidence has been presented against him? Almrei and his lawyer are not allowed to see any evidence to support his detention. Moreover, Almrei is facing the threat of deportation to Syria; Amnesty International has concluded Almrei’s life is at risk if deported from Canada.
So we can understand why Almrei has lost his appetite. But it gets more nauseating:
Criticism has erupted as it has been found that Almeri has not been provided with proper heating in his cell-a basic requirement for prisoners, spelled out in the International Prisoner’s Declaration, which Canada has signed. He has no shoes, nor a jacket provided for him. Hence, Metro West Detention Centre is now being called “Guantanamo North.” Human rights violations to call our own.
Although Almrei was imprisoned over two years ago, the stocking up of immigrant and Muslim men in Canadian prisons is still in vogue. In August 2003, 20 Pakistani immigrant men of Muslim heritage were arrested on suspicion of being somehow, possibly, maybe, likely, perhaps, sorta kinda distantly linked to terrorists. They were placed in Maplehurst, a maximum security prison, on immigration charges. Many of them still remain imprisoned; several face deportation.
Canada has a bleak history when it comes to racial scapegoating and wrongful treatment of individuals from minority groups associated with a perceived foe. Lest we forget that in 1942, during the frenzy of World War II, 22,000 Japanese Canadians were uprooted from their homes and scattered to internment camps around our country, simply because they looked like the enemy of the day.
Shamefully, the Canadian public was resoundingly silent as their Japanese neighbours disappeared. Will we again be silent today, as our Muslim, Arab and Pakistani neighbours are whisked away and imprisoned?
