Nearly a dozen families filed a case in Federal Court Monday accusing the Trudeau Liberals of not reuniting them with members who joined ISIS abroad. About 30 Canadians are detained in camps across Syria.
The families, who were not identified by name in the court application, alleged Ottawa failed "to take all reasonable steps" to repatriate Canadian detainees captured by US-backed Kurdish forces.
They also alleged, "all applicant family members are detained arbitrarily and unlawfully."
Global Affairs Canada declined to comment, reported Global News.
Fourteen children, eight women and four men, are held at the Al Hol and Roj camps, including prisons in Hasakah, Qamishli and Derik.
Most of the children are between the ages of two and 14, with the younger children born in Syria to a Canadian parent but never been to Canada.
Though the adult detainees also remained unnamed, their ages matched Canadians captured in Syria, notably Kimberly Polman, Mohamed Ali and Mohamed Khalifa.
Khalifa is a former Toronto IT worker who narrated ISIS execution videos, while Ali acknowledged he was part of an ISIS sniper team. Polman, a BC resident, married an ISIS fighter.
"The detained applicant’s family members are suffering a deprivation of liberty, and furthermore, this deprivation is unlawful," alleged the court application. "They have not been charged with any offences, have had no trial dates set, and are simply being detained indeterminately."
They said the Trudeau Liberals could end the unlawful detention and secure the release of detained Canadians "overcrowded and unsanitary" detention facilities. The families also said the Canadians held there were at a heightened risk of COVID.
Only a five-year-old girl orphaned by an airstrike has been handed to the Canadian authorities, while a second Canadian girl and her mother were released but remained in Iraq.
Internal documents released under the Access to Information Act showed Canadian officials knew about five-year-old Amira in April 2019. They located her in December, and in February 2020, were invited by US-backed Kurdish authorities to get her.
However, Canadian officials spent months exchanging memos over what to do while claiming unsafe travel in northeast Syria.
While Kurdish authorities expressed a desire to hand over 26 Canadians willingly, the Trudeau Liberals maintained travel to the region remained "too risky."
But the court case said over 20 countries, including allies in the US, France and Germany, already repatriated their citizens without incident.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement it was "deeply troubling that these detainees and their families in Canada would have to resort to taking their government to court to end this paralysis."
Farida Deif, Canada Director at Human Rights Watch, said Polman was on a hunger strike despite suffering from serious medical problems, including hepatitis.
"Her life and the lives of more than forty other Canadians are on the line," she said. "Prime Minister Trudeau has the power to bring these Canadians home. He just needs to find the moral courage to do so."
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