By Zidane Mohamed
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| Mohamed Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian, remains in prison |
On June 23rd, the Egyptian high court sentenced three reporters
for Al-Jazeera to 7 years in prison, advancing the ongoing campaign of
censorship of journalists and activists by the current military dictatorship,
which has the support of the United States and Israel. One of them is a
Canadian-Egyptian journalist, Mohamed Fahmy, who was arrested in December in
Cairo as he was covering the aftermath of the army's removal of Mohamed Morsi
from the presidency in July 2013.
The Canadian government, which prides itself as a champion of human rights, should do its best to intervene in aiding its citizens from the crimes of military dictatorships. But after the Omar Khadr fiasco, and a decade of “war on terror” jingoism, they passed a pernicious bill that would legally absolve the Canadian government of any responsibility to intervene. Bill C-24 reiterates the Harper government’s commitment in continuing institutionalized racism, which discriminates against migrant peoples, who are often racialized. Bill C-24 gives the immigration minister expanded powers over citizenship rights, which include revoking the citizenship of dual-citizens who have “engaged in certain actions contrary to the national interest of Canada”.
The Canadian government, which prides itself as a champion of human rights, should do its best to intervene in aiding its citizens from the crimes of military dictatorships. But after the Omar Khadr fiasco, and a decade of “war on terror” jingoism, they passed a pernicious bill that would legally absolve the Canadian government of any responsibility to intervene. Bill C-24 reiterates the Harper government’s commitment in continuing institutionalized racism, which discriminates against migrant peoples, who are often racialized. Bill C-24 gives the immigration minister expanded powers over citizenship rights, which include revoking the citizenship of dual-citizens who have “engaged in certain actions contrary to the national interest of Canada”.
Enabled by the new C-24 bill, it is now within the powers of
the immigration minister to simply revoke the citizenship of Mohamed Fahmy. He
was charged with ‘terrorism’, a charge often used to silence political dissent,
and further fuel Islamophobia. This gives the immigration minister grounds to
revoke his citizenship as per amendment J in the security and fraud provisions
in this bill which states that it is “providing for the revocation of
citizenship of dual citizens who, while they were Canadian citizens, engaged in
certain actions contrary to the national interest of Canada, and permanently
barring these individuals from reacquiring citizenship”.
The YCL-LJC of Canada has demanded the repeal of this criminal
law. Repatriating Mohamed Fahmy should be a top priority of the government of
Canada. The government can’t be allowed to attach citizenship rights and
whether or not it decides to protect its citizens to its imperialist agenda
around the world.
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| Zidane Mohamed (author) speaks at an anti-Bill C24 rally in Vancouver |
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