His name is Abousfian Abdelrazik.He is a Canadian citizen. After six years of enforced exile, he now lives in Montreal. The photo, worth a thousand words, depicts his arrival last summer.
Abousfian remains on the infamous "1267 list," a UN no-fly list. He is unable to learn why, or to confront his accusers. Contrary to the guarantees of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is illegal under our United Nations Act for anyone to employ him, or to give him food, shelter or clothing. He is not permitted to have a bank account. His life savings, a bequest for his deceased wife, have been frozen by the federal government.
The fact that Abousfian is still alive means that the law is being continually broken.
We need more law-breakers.
Tomorrow evening, there is to be a telethon to "bust the sanctions" against our fellow-citizen. Between 7 and 9pm EDT, call in to 877.737.4070 and make a pledge. You might also feel moved to pass along a message of "solidarity and encouragement," which will be broadcast live at the "Sanctions-Busting Telethon and Spaghetti Dinner event" in Montreal.
You can tune in to rabble.ca to watch the telethon broadcast live, or listen to live updates on CKUT 90.3 FM.
As I said in an earlier post on this subject, but it bears repeating:
Surely I do not have to quote the always timely Pastor Niemöller. But at this point it is abundantly clear that we, the ordinary citizens of this country, have a civic duty to stand up, not only for Abousfian Abdelrazik, but for the values that make us all Canadian.
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