Toronto Star

Canada must seek justice for Hassan Diab

- BERNIE M. FARBER AND MIRA SUCHAROV

With the welcome news of the $10.5-million apology for the travesties committed against Omar Khadr, a decade after the Canadian government apologized and awarded a similar sum to Maher Arar for his tragic ordeal, we know that Canada doesn’t always get it right. Now is the time for Canada to seek justice in the case of Hassan Diab.

Both of us were involved in the Canadian and Ottawa Jewish community in 2008 when French authoritie­s accused Diab of having been involved in a 1980 terrorist attack on a Paris synagogue, a heinous act that killed four and injured scores more.

As Diab’s ordeal hit public consciousn­ess, one of us (Mira Sucharov) was a columnist for Ottawa’s Jewish newspaper and later wrote for the Canadian Jewish News, and was (and remains) a professor at Carleton University where Diab taught. The other (Bernie Farber) was CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

At the time, neither of us questioned Canada’s decision to extradite Diab to France. In fact, a spokespers­on for Farber’s organizati­on had said that CJC was “very pleased” that law enforcemen­t authoritie­s were “never giving up in the fight against terrorism,” noting that the decision “brings comfort to the victims of terrorism as well.”

Nine years later, we realize we were wrong in not speaking out.

Casting a Canadian citizen out of the country to languish, without trial, in a foreign prison may help Canada adhere to the Extraditio­n Act. And it may bring comfort to some, as the CJC spokespers­on suggested. But we suggest that this comfort is misplaced. Most importantl­y, such a decision brings justice to no one.

The evidence against Diab is shaky at best. It appeared to rest on handwritin­g analyses that experts had discredite­d. The French authoritie­s had tried to include “secret intelligen­ce” from unidentifi­ed sources — evidence that Canadian authoritie­s threw out. There is evidence that Diab was in Lebanon, not Paris, on the day of the attack. Fingerprin­ts at the scene of the crime don’t seem to match those of Diab.

Robert Maranger, the Ontario Superior Court judge who agreed to the extraditio­n, even admitted that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely.”

Nine years later, with absolutely no movement in sight, it is clear that Hassan Diab is not receiving justice by Canadian standards. This must change.

It is time for Canadian authoritie­s to insist that France take proper judicial action or send him home.

By forcing Diab into legal purgatory, Canada is seriously underminin­g its commitment to due process — one of the bedrock responsibi­lities of a democratic society to its citizens.

Some of you may be reading about this case for the first time. Others may have received requests to sign petitions. Some of you may have signed them; others may have deleted the email, feeling burdened by the details of an extraditio­n case surroundin­g a citizen’s alleged involvemen­t in a crime that occurred decades ago.

Neither of us is a trained lawyer. One of us is a social worker and community relations organizer; the other is a political scientist. But it doesn’t take an expert in criminal law to know when a government is falling down on its contract to its citizens. Both of us well understand the impact of false accusation­s on communitie­s in any multicultu­ral society, something all Canadians can intuitivel­y grasp.

In the case of Hassan Diab, we have now concluded that it was all too easy to unquestion­ingly accept the decision to leave it in the hands of France, a fellow democracy. But a decade later, justice has not been served. Now we must get this right.

Doing so will help ensure that our country avoids living by the ugly rules of innuendo, unproven assumption­s and discredite­d evidence — and instead protects the core values of democracy, including a robust adherence to the principles of justice.

 ??  ?? Bernie M. Farber is a long-time human rights advocate and executive director of the Mosaic Institute.
Bernie M. Farber is a long-time human rights advocate and executive director of the Mosaic Institute.
 ??  ?? Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa.

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