Osgoode Digital Commons

This is an archive of court documents in litigation involving Mr. Abousfian Abdelrazik. Questions about the archive should be directed to Professor Sean Rehaag.

Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen who spent more than a year living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Sudan. He could not leave the embassy because he faced a risk of arbitrary detention and torture in Sudan. He could not return to Canada because the Canadian government refused to issue him travel documents due to national security concerns. This refusal came despite his never having been charged with a criminal offence, and notwithstanding that both CSIS and the RCMP indicated that they had no evidence that he posed a security threat.

On 4 June 2009, the Federal Court held that the government breached Mr. Abdelrazik’s constitutional right to enter and remain in the country, and ordered that he be repatriated within 30 days. In the Court’s words, Mr. Abdelrazik “is as much a victim of international terrorism as the innocent persons whose lives have been taken by recent barbaric acts of terrorists.”

On 27 June 2009, the government repatriated Abdelrazik in compliance with the Federal Court order. However, Abdelrazik has not received compensation for the violation of his constitutional rights. He also remains subject to various national security restrictions.