After an ex-UN special rapporteur who investigated Israeli abuses against Palestinians was questioning on “national security grounds at the Canadian border, Canadian human rights activists are demanding answers from their government.
On Thursday, Richard Falk, 95, was questioned for several hours at Toronto Pearson International Airport. He claimed a security official informed him that Canada was concerned that Hilal Elver, his wife, and themselves posed a “danger to the country’s security.”
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Ottawa has reacted incredulously to the couple’s treatment, which has sparked outrage.
According to Corey Balsam, national coordinator for the organization that supports Palestinian rights, “we need answers from the highest levels of government.”
Canadian authorities haven’t addressed the incident in public despite the outcry. However, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) minister of public safety, Gary Anandasangaree, has acknowledged the incident in a statement to Al Jazeera, saying he is looking for more details.
National security measures are a key component of our immigration and border-management framework, and we can’t comment on specific cases, but Anandasangaree’s spokesperson Simon Lafortune stated in an email that the organization is “committed to ensuring that our border screening processes respect international obligations.”
Minister Anandasangaree has requested more specific details about how this particular incident occurred in order to accomplish this.
Falk and Elver were questioned about their work on Israel, Gaza, and the genocide, as well as their participation in an event in Ottawa that examined Canada’s role in the Israeli-led conflict against Gaza, which a UN inquiry and numerous human rights organizations have called a genocide, according to Falk and Elver.
After being interrogated for more than four hours, the two Americans were permitted to enter Canada and participate in the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility.
“Patently ridiculous!”
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East’s senior director of strategy and parliamentary affairs, Alex Paterson, criticized the government’s handling of the couple.
According to Paterson, “I think it just makes the reality that they wanted to impede the tribunal’s work and try to keep Canada’s involvement in the genocide in the shadows,” Paterson said on Monday.
He continued, “The Canadian government has been trying to avoid questions of its complicity in arming the genocide, and that’s reason enough.”
Canadian human rights organizations have been pressing the government to put pressure on Israel, a long-standing ally, to put an end to its attacks on the Palestinian enclave since Israel’s war broke out in October 2023.
As Israel’s military assault and aid restrictions have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, those calls for action from Canada have grown.
In response to the atrocities in the area, the Canadian government announced last year that it would suspend some export permits for weapons to Israel.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March, also voiced opposition to Israel’s blockade on aid to Gaza and a surge in Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, along with several allies, Carney’s government recognised an independent Palestinian state in September.
But researchers and human rights advocates said loopholes in Canada’s arms export system have allowed Canadian-made weapons to continue to reach Israel, often via the United States.
They have also urged Canada to do more to stem continued Israeli attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and to support efforts to hold Israel accountable for serious abuses, including at the International Criminal Court.
‘ Climate of governmental insecurity ‘
In his interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Falk, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory from 2008 to 2014, said he believed his interrogation was part of a wider push to silence those who speak the truth about what is happening in Gaza.
“It suggests a climate of governmental insecurity, I think, to try to clamp down on dissident voices”, he said.
Al Jazeera has contacted multiple relevant Canadian government agencies to ask whether Ottawa views the 95 year old as a threat to national security – and if so, why.
A CBSA spokesperson said in an email on Monday that the agency could not comment on specific cases, but stressed that “secondary inspections are part of the cross-border process”.
“It is important to note that travellers referred to secondary inspection are not being ‘ detained, ‘” spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said.
“Foreign nationals seeking entry into Canada can be subjected to a secondary inspection by an officer to determine admissibility to Canada. In some instances, the inspection may take longer due to information being gathered through questioning”.
Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry, has not yet responded to a request for comment from Al Jazeera sent on Saturday.
Balsam of Independent Jewish Voices-Canada said treating someone like Falk as a security threat sends a message that “actually none of us are safe from the suppression of dissent and crackdown on voices that are critical of the Israeli regime”.
