Law must protect dual-citizens
“A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.” These words from the mouth of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau summarize his tenure built on diversity, inclusion and the rule of law guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Trudeau said those powerful words when he was referring to the potential changes in Canada’s Citizenship Act after Bill C-6 was finally passed by the Senate with amendments that could become a law — reversing parts of the draconian Bill-C24 ratified by the former Conservative government.
Understandably, most Canadians busy with their careers and families may not be so engaged with the details of Bill-C24, especially since it relates to dual citizens.
Revisiting controversial clauses of this bill is not only essential but also a fulfilment of yet another promise made by the Liberals during the electoral race.
I was in Egypt in June 2015 unfairly being re-tried for allegedly belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood group designated as terrorists when the controversial provision of Bill C-24 came into effect, permitting the government to revoke Canadian citizenships from dual citizens who are convicted of terrorism.
Prime Minister Harper’s passage of this bill immediately encompassed the true meaning of a second-class citizen.
I was the perfect candidate after the Egyptian judge trying me and my former Al Jazeera colleagues unfairly sentenced us to seven years in a maximum-security prison.
Moreover, Egyptian security officers had requested me to renounce my Egyptian citizenship during the ordeal after the Egyptian president ratified a new law that allows convicted or tried foreigners to be deported to their country, to either serve the remaining sentence or face trial.
This new questionable deportation law was unchartered waters to most government officials and to my prominent lawyers, at the time Amal Clooney and Lorne Waldman, who were fighting to extract me from the Middle East’s ongoing tug-of-war between nations, which can’t agree on who the terrorists are and who to imprison first.
Bill-C24 basically allows a minister to strip a Canadian off his citizenship without a hearing if the dual citizen is convict- ed of spying, treason, or terrorism.
In other words, goodbye to due process and even worse, a conviction by a foreign court may do the job — a definite forfeiture of our sovereignty.
It does not take much reading between the lines to know how developing countries use their courts as tools of oppression — a reality many of the 1,000 Canadians detained abroad know very well.
I weighed my options, tearful at times, while refusing to be cornered by governments on both sides of the world — leaders who place their interests above logic and human rights in this new age of terrorism and Trumpism.
Nationality versus Freedom: A tough call for a journalist, anyone unjustly imprisoned among terrorists — one that reverted to escapism in the cell by imagining Canada’s picturesque nature living among its diverse and cosmopolitan people.
I remember renouncing my Egyptian citizenship and watching the Egyptian media label me as a traitor.
Fortunately, I was saved by another law stating that Canadian citizenship cannot be revoked if it leads to an individual becoming stateless, in accord with the UN’s 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
Our responsibility today as concerned citizens is to raise awareness before the House of Commons reviews the bill ahead of the MP’s definitive decisions to reject, modify, or accept the Senate’s amendments. Let us at least support the amendment that would give Canadians the right to a court hearing before their citizenship is stripped, because nationality is not a just a piece of paper.
The beliefs I hold about Egypt come not from the stories I have covered as a journalist or the 438 days of unjust incarceration, but from my father and my grandfather, men who believed in justice, discipline and the civil liberties that make countries like Canada great.
My Canadian identity is a proud one, too, one that is rooted in the realization that my adopted country embodies values that my Egyptian forefathers dreamt of attaining and that current citizens of countries across the Middle East, still fight for and one day hope to achieve.
Today, I am no longer a journalist seeking a byline. I have regained my Egyptian citizenship yet remain on the Egyptian no-fly and watchlist, a reality I deal with each time I return to visit Egypt — an ongoing minor distraction the Canadian ambassador is helping me resolve.
I remember renouncing my Egyptian citizenship and watching the Egyptian media label me as a traitor