Canadians held in Egyptian prison
Pair arrested while on way to Gaza for humanitarian work ‘are OK’
Filmmaker, physician awaiting help from home government,
Two Canadian men — a filmmaker and a physician — are in an Egyptian prison awaiting help from the Canadian government, according to friends in Canada.
John Greyson, 53, a Toronto-based filmmaker and a professor at York University, and Tarek Loubani, 32, an emergency room doctor from London, Ont., were arrested for unknown reasons Friday as they tried to make their way from Cairo to Gaza.
A friend of both men in Toronto who has been keeping their loved ones updated through his blog said Sunday afternoon that Loubani and Greyson have been able to send messages to their families through Canadian consular services.
“They are OK,” says Justin Podur’s blog post at www. podur.org. Podur was asking the Canadian public to contact the Egyptian embassy to pressure for his friends’ release. “As far as we’re concerned, they’re still being held without any legitimate charge or any reason. We definitely need a very strong message to the Egyptian authorities that they’ve got to be released.”
A Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Caitlin Workman, said Canada’s embassy in the Egyptian capital is in contact with local authorities and stands ready to provide consular assistance; however, privacy concerns prevented her from releasing any details.
Podur writes the two were arrested en route to the Gaza Strip, “where they are working on an academic and medical collaboration between the University of Western Ontario and the main hospital in the Gaza Strip, the al-Shifa hospital.”
Loubani, a humanitarian, goes to Gaza or Palestine a few times a year to do triage work and raise awareness about that part of the world. He often brings observers to witness the conditions, which is why Greyson was along for the trip, planned months ago.
The two arrived in Cairo on Aug. 15 amid escalating protests by supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi that have seen hundreds of people killed and injured.
“Tarek is an emergency physician with a long history of international work — do we not need physicians to be there where people are getting hurt? I don’t really understand this idea that people should stay away,” Podur said, responding to questions about why Loubani and Greyson would travel to Cairo in the current atmosphere.
“John Greyson’s not a journalist, his film work is more artistic, but he’s certainly someone who does work on social and political and international issues: those are exactly the kind of people who should be in those places,” he said.
In a phone call on Thursday on the way from the airport to the hotel, Greyson told a friend that the streets were full of armed men and checkpoints. There was a curfew on the city and the two had to walk two kilometres to their hotel through “chaos” after the driver of their taxi was unable to pass through one of the checkpoints.
Podur said Greyson and Loubani had intended to travel immediately to Gaza but had to delay because the border to Gaza was closed due to the volatile situation.
Loubani telephoned Podur in Toronto on Friday afternoon while he and Greyson were in the midst of being arrested by Egyptian police, but said little else.
“It was a very abrupt ending. I was hoping to get a little more but I didn’t even really think to ask too many questions; I just asked what he wanted me to do.”
Podur then contacted the Canadian government.
Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird has not commented publicly on the arrests but last week he issued a statement saying Canada is “deeply concerned” by reports of violence in Egypt.
“We urge all parties to refrain from violence and engage in a meaningful political dialogue for the good of all Egyptians,” said the statement. “Our thoughts go out to the families and friends of those killed by today’s violence, and we wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he continued.
Podur said consular services was expected to be seeing Loubani and Greyson on Monday.