Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence: a speaking tour with Abousfian Abdelrazik
Saturday, November 20 at 7:00 pm
Law Centre 207A
U of A campus
(Click here for map)
FREE

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Presented by Project Fly Home, Palestine Solidarity Network-U of A, and the Department of Political Science (University of Alberta).

Between November 17 and 23, 2010, Abousfian Abdelrazik will be speaking at public events organized in five cities (Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver) across Western Canada. This tour follows the Breaking the Silence tour which brought Mr. Abdelrazik from Halifax to Winnipeg one year ago.

It is now over 16 months since Mr. Abdelrazik returned to Canada after six years of exile — which included two years of arbitrary and abusive detention and a further year trapped within the Canadian consulate in Khartoum. As Federal Court judge Russell Zinn concluded, Mr. Abdelrazik’s initial detention probably took place at the request of CSIS, Canada’s spy agency.

Mr. Abdelrazik’s life remains in limbo. Not only have Canadian officials failed to take responsibility for the central role they played in his wrongful imprisonment, torture and exile in Sudan, they have failed to take steps within their power to free him from the sanctions imposed on him when his name was arbitrarily placed on the UN Security Council’s notoriously unjust “1267 list.” Under these sanctions, Mr. Abdelrazik has been subject to the harsh effects of a travel ban and complete asset freeze for more than four years now. This means that in Canada it is illegal for anyone to provide him with any financial aid — including a gift, a loan, or a salary.

Project Fly Home is embarking on a new speaking tour with Mr. Abdelrazik, which will bring him to five western cities, including Stephen Harper’s home town of Calgary. On this speaking tour, Project Fly Home will be seeking the support of others to put pressure on the government to immediately lift the sanctions on Mr. Abdelrazik, to ask all security council members to support delisting Mr. Abdelrazik, and to withdraw from the unjust and unconstitutional 1267 sanctions regime.

Come out to the event in Edmonton to hear Mr. Abdelrazik’s account first-hand and to learn more about the “1267 list” and why you should be concerned.

For more information, visit the People’s Commission Network or email projectflyhome@gmail.com

The tour is organized by Project Fly Home and is sponsored by:
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
Candian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Saskatchewan
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)

Project Fly Home is a working group of QPIRG McGill.