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Ottawa, April, 26 2010
The Honourable Rob Nicholson
Minister of Justice
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Dear Mr. Nicholson,
I am writing you regarding the case of Dr. Hassan Diab who is fighting extradition to France. I have been following his case through media reports and as many other citizens I am very concerned by the perspectives of sending Canadian citizens to foreign countries based on secret and unsourced intelligence that may be the product of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and which cannot be tested or challenged in court.
As a wife of a man who was deported on the basis of distorted and false intelligence, I can sympathize with the case of Dr. Diab and deeply understand the worries of his wife, friends and supporters.
Eight years ago my husband Maher Arar was sent to Syria where he was physically and mentally tortured. He came back a totally different man suffering from post traumatic stress and still enduring the everyday consequences of his abuse. His ordeal began when safeguards were not respected in the exchange of intelligence. Distorted, incomplete and biased intelligence can take the life of one individual in another direction, and destroy it.
The world has totally changed since 9/11. While we need more security and more vigilance, also we need to be more careful when it comes to human rights. Security cannot be obtained at the expense of fundamental human rights such as personal liberty and the presumption of innocence. We do not want security for the sake of security; we need more security with a better justice.
In my opinion, the definition of “national security” should be reexamined after so many innocent lives were destroyed by security agencies in the wake of 9/11. It is always necessary to remember and avoid repeating the many cases where intelligence - first presented as clear evidence to prosecute a suspect - turned out to be unreliable. In some cases, the “intelligence” was the product of torture. In others, the nature and source of the “intelligence” was unknown and could not be adequately tested or challenged. It is offensive to democratic values to imprison a person on the basis of such unreliable and untested information.
Dr. Hassan Diab should be able to challenge all the allegations against him in a clear, transparent and unambiguous way. Dr. Diab deserves justice as any other Canadian.
Sincerely,
Dr. Monia Mazigh
Ottawa, Ontario
Cc: Hon. John Baird, MP, Ottawa-West Nepean
Cc: Paul Dewar, MP, Ottawa Centre
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