Tortured Winnipeg man decries Supreme Court decision in favour of state immunity

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This article was published 14/10/2014 (4013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Supreme Court of Canada closing the door on a lawsuit against the Iranian government by the family of murdered Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi means it’s open season on Canadians abroad, says a Winnipeg man who says he was tortured by Qatar.

“It’s scary for all Canadians,” said Yousif Ibrahim Ismaeil. The Canadian citizen says he was stripped of his passport, tortured and held for two months while taking part in Sudan peace talks hosted by Qatar in 2010.

The 40-year-old hired human rights lawyer David Matas to try to get answers from the Qatar embassy in Ottawa. Matas wrote to Qatar’s ambassador in May demanding an investigation of Ismaeil’s case, his hospital records, an apology, compensation and prosecution of those who victimized him.

Matas was hoping the Supreme Court of Canada would rule on Friday against state immunity for torturers.

“I was disappointed,” he said.

Matas, acting on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association, which had intervenor status in the Kazemi case, argued countries that are signatories to UN treaties such as the Convention Against Torture, and then violate it, shouldn’t be able to hide behind state immunity.

The Supreme Court ruled Kazemi’s son, Stephan Hashemi, does not have the right to sue the Iranian government over her death, ruling 6-1 that the State Immunity Act prohibits such a suit.

But they lobbed the issue back to Parliament, saying legislators could simply change the act, which would open the door for Stephan Hashemi’s civil lawsuit.

“Parliament has the power and capacity to decide whether Canadian courts should exercise civil jurisdiction,” Justice Louis LeBel wrote for the majority. “Parliament has the ability to change the current state of the law on exceptions to state immunity, just as it did in the case of terrorism and allow those in situations like Mr. Hashemi and his mother’s estate to seek redress in Canadian courts. Parliament has simply chosen not to do it yet.”

Ismaeil was a negotiator with the Liberation and Justice Movement trying to bring peace to Sudan’s Darfur region when he attended talks hosted by Qatar in January 2010. He was a lawyer in Sudan before fleeing to Canada in the 1990s and is one of the founders of the United Revolutionary Forces Front, an opposition group. He became a Canadian citizen in 2007 and was invited to 2010 peace talks by the Qatar government. He left his home in Canada hoping to help. When he and other peace talk participants challenged the Qatari government taking over the peace talks, his passport was taken away, he was locked up in a psychiatric facility and injected with an unknown substance then held for two months in a hotel. He struggled to get his Canadian passport back while Qatari officials told him he would never be able to leave. Friday’s Supreme Court decision in the Kazemi case is discouraging, he said.

“I feel like this decision is actually a gift for this kind of country that is torturing people,” said Ismaeil. “For Canadians going abroad who have a Canadian passport, we are no longer safe.”

Matas, who is also an immigration lawyer, said there are many Canadians who have been tortured abroad but most won’t seek justice.

“When you’re dealing with human rights litigation and have victims come forward — many want to move on,” said Matas. “I see them almost every day in my office. Most would not go to court once they’ve got permanent resident status and are moving on with their lives,” he said.

“It’s very difficult to get victims to seek redress,” Matas said. Changing the law to hold countries accountable here for torturing people abroad wouldn’t open up the “floodgates” of torture victims taking legal action, he said.

“It wouldn’t, simply because they don’t want to,” he said. “Litigation can be a form of re-traumatization.”

Ismaeil said he’s still waiting for answers from Qatar and wants the Canadian government to urge the Gulf emirate to respond. The embassy of Qatar has not responded to requests for comment.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

With file from CP