The Canadian government has agreed to repatriate six Canadian women and 13 children currently being held in prison camps in northeast Syria, according to Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer representing them in a federal court case.
Most Canadians have been held in camps run by Kurdish authorities since the fall of Islamic State in 2019.
Greenspon had argued that their detention was a violation of their constitutional rights. He says the repatriation deal does not include four men who are also claimants.
“This is great news for the families and especially for the women and children who are detained,” he said.
Greenspon says he received the signed confidential agreement with Global Affairs Canada on Thursday morning. The agreement provides for the return of the Canadians within a “mutually agreed timeframe”, but Greenspon did not provide further details.
The cases of four men remain before the court.
In December, Greenspon and fellow lawyer Barbara Jackman argued in federal court that allowing Canadians to languish in these camps and prisons violated their constitutional right to “life, liberty and security of the person” under of section 7 of the Charter.
Meanwhile, federal lawyers have argued that Canada has no obligation to repatriate because it has no diplomatic presence in Syria. The Human Rights Watch’s most recent report, published last December, estimates that more than 40,000 foreigners, mostly children, remain in the camps. They are subject to Turkish artillery strikes, disease and violent attacks by Islamic extremists.
Judge Henry Brown is currently weighing the evidence after four days of hearings, including a closed session last Friday, which included top secret information from the Canadian Forces.
In addition to the 19 women and children targeted by this agreement, there could be two dozen more Canadians in camps and prisons in Syria. Most are children – but there are at least four men among the detainees. The government suspects the detainees of having ties to Islamic State, but has presented no evidence. Greenspon says they should all be brought back to Canada.
“The Prime Minister said a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. These are Canadian men, women and children…none of them have been charged with any offence. They are illegally detained in detention camps and prisons for years. And our position has always been that it is the responsibility of the Canadian government to bring them home.
Since 2021, three other Canadian women and four children have been repatriated. The women have either been charged with criminal offenses or placed on bail and monitored by authorities since their return.
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