Canadian children need rescue from Syria
While some parents face accusations of being terrorists, kids suffer in war zone
OTTAWA — Canadian infants and children being held in Syria deserve the federal government’s help to get them out before winter comes, says a group here representing them.
The Canadians detained by Kurdish authorities in Syrian territory include nine families and more than 10 children, including some who were taken to Syria at young ages and others who were born there, said Dr. Alexandra Bain, the director of Families Against Violent Extremism.
Bain said the children are facing the outbreak of disease and a harsh winter and the Canadian government has a duty to protect its citizens. She said they live on a diet of rice and pasta and there are no diapers or milk for the infants.
Bain said her group and another volunteer organization want to foot the cost of getting these Canadians out of a war zone, and are willing to do the necessary work on the ground, but that the government has to help them.
All those imprisoned in Syria should be vetted by Canadian authorities and it is possible some should face charges for their activities abroad, added Bain.
“They were all captured and detained in a war zone, and they must be thoroughly investigated by Canada’s security services, and some will undoubtedly face justice,” said Bain.
Global News has reported that at least 13 Canadians — three alleged terrorists, their wives and children — are currently being detained in Syria.
The group includes Jack Letts, the British-raised son of a Canadian father and British mother, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the U.K. media. His father, John, joined Bains on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, calling for the release of the Canadians. He branded as “fake news” the reports of his son’s being a terrorist, and laid the blame at the foot of a British journalist, whose use of the moniker stuck.
John Letts told the Hill news conference that he thinks his son is innocent and that he needs treatment for various illnesses contracted while in prison. He says his son was never involved in the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or Daesh.
“I want everyone here to know what we know: that Jack worked with others in the religious opposition to ISIS in Raqqa (the city the Islamic State claimed as its capital), that he condemned ISIS on social media, and that he wants to spend the rest of his life living peacefully and bearing witness against ISIS,” Letts said.
In a previous letter to Canadian MPs, Letts wrote that his son is a “naive young person who went to Syria hoping to help create a peaceful, utopian Muslim state’’ and who wound up trapped when Islamic terrorists took control of exit points.
Letts says that by saying that publicly he is violating British court orders that could get him thrown in jail when he returns to the country.
He and his wife, Sally Lane, were charged by British police in 2016 with funding terrorism after they tried to send their son money.
In his letter, Letts wrote that the money was to pay “people smugglers,” who they believed had the only way to get their son out of Syria.
Letts said in his letter that his son’s Kurdish jailers have stated publicly that they’re willing to hand his son over to Canadian authorities.
He also maintains Global Affairs Canada told the family for months that it was working to get their son released, but that the department recently decided it’s too dangerous.
“It obviously has something to do with the upcoming election,” Letts said Tuesday.
“We have fairly good evidence of the British having cracked the whip and said you have to toe the line — no one breaks the line of letting people back — and I think Canada is responding to that.”
Earlier this month, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Letts, whom Scheer described as a “known jihadi fighter.”
Letts calls Scheer’s assertions about his son a lie.