Rights and Freedoms?

Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen. According to both the RCMP and CSIS he has no links to terrorists, and has committed no crimes. Under Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as a citizen, he has a right to enter Canada. Yet he is stuck in Sudan, camping out in the lobby of the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum, where he has been for the past year after going to the country to visit his mother.

The issue, says the government, is that Abdelrazik is on the "no-fly" list. This list - which requires no proof of any wrong-doing - apparently supersedes his rights as a Canadian.

Ottawa has denied him an emergency passport, citing a section of the Canada Passport Order that allows them to "refuse or revoke a passport if the minister is of the opinion that such action is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country."

Remember, no one claims this man has committed any crime.

International rules, even ones which require no supporting evidence whatsoever, would appear to be more important to the government of Canada than the rights of Canadian citizens. Gee, it sure is nice to know that your country will be there to stand by you when you need them.

Abdelrazik has a team of lawyers, who are currently working on having him returned home. I suspect they will succeed. That isn't the issue.

The Conservative government has also refused any help to Ronald Allen Smith, an Albertan held in an American prison and awaiting the death penalty, until they were literally forced by a court order on March 4 to continue the clemency appeal started by a previous government.

The government is supposed to work for the people in a democracy, not the other way around. But since Stephen Harper's Tories have been in power, it would appear that being a Canadian only guarantees you the rights that they see fit to allow you.

That is not what I want for my country and its citizens. This is just one more reason to get rid of the Conservatives - before they get rid of us.