This time, we have documents showing that the government is all worried about getting the Bushites in Washington upset with us for repatriating him.
The Conservative government "is happy to keep him halfway around the world" to avoid upsetting Washington, said Yavar Hameed, the Ottawa lawyer who represents Mr. Abdelrazik.
"He's at the mercy of the Americans," Mr. Hameed said, adding the Canadian government is "fighting tooth and nail" against his effort to prove he has "a right to return home."
This is utterly ridiculous. A Canadian citizen is arrested in a foreign country, and held without charge not for days or weeks, but years. Now, our government is refusing to grant him passage back to Canada for fear of upsetting its masters in Washington?
The documents, dated April 30, 2008, and marked "Secret - Canadian eyes only" also designate Mr. Abdelrazik, a citizen who has never been charged with a crime, as "involved in Islamic extremist activities."
Oh, I see - he's one of them 'evil ones'. In five years of having him detained by a foreign government, our own government agencies haven't been able to scrape together enough evidence to charge him with anything. What the heck happened to the presumption of innocence?
It's time to replace Canada's neo-Rethuglican government with one that actually pays attention to Canada and Canadians. If Harper is so scared of upsetting Washington that he won't take action on behalf of a Canadian citizen, then it's past time to replace him - preferably with someone who actually understands that citizens are people, and that you get a lot more stature on the world stage by standing up for your citizens than you will ever get for kowtowing to the Bushites.
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