A judge has ruled that four Canadians detained in Syrian camps are eligible for federal government assistance to return home.
In a ruling on Friday, Federal Court Judge Henry Brown effectively ordered Ottawa to seek the men’s repatriation as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents.
The judge said the men were also entitled to the presence of a federal government official who would travel to Syria to help facilitate their release once their captors agree to hand them over to Canadian authorities.
The Canadians are among many foreign nationals in Syrian camps and detention centers run by Kurdish forces who have retaken the war-torn region from Daesh (the armed group Islamic State).
Among them was Jack Letts, whose parents John Letts and Sally Lane led a public campaign to pressure Ottawa to come to his aid. The parents say they have seen no evidence that their son became a terrorist fighter, adding that Jack Letts opposed Daesh and was even put on trial for publicly condemning the group.
Family members of these men, as well as several women and children, argued in court that Global Affairs Canada should arrange for their return, claiming that refusing to do so violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lawrence Greenspon, an attorney for all the plaintiffs except Jack Letts, this week reached a deal with the federal government to bring home six Canadian women and 13 children.
“That’s what we were hoping for,” Mr Greenspon said on Friday.
“With the agreement of the Canadian government, the women and children will be brought home. And now, as a result of this judge’s order, the four men who are in prisons in northeast Syria will also be brought home by Global Affairs Canada.”
In the ruling, Judge Brown said the least that can be said is that the Canadian women and children in the case were kept in poor conditions in the camps. He spoke of overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and detentions without charge or trial.
The men have not been heard from since 2019, the judge said, but indications point to even worse circumstances for them.