QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs
Request for Extradition of Hassan Diab
October 9, 2024
In 2014, Canadian citizen Dr. Hassan Diab was accused of terrorism, extradited to France and imprisoned there for over three years until he was exonerated by French courts for lack of credible evidence. In 2023, he was retried in absentia by France on the same discredited evidence and sentenced to life in prison.
Back here in Canada, he now may be facing a second extradition request. Outraged by this appalling treatment of Dr. Diab, some 4,000 Canadians recently signed a petition calling upon our government to deny any future extradition requests and protect Dr. Diab’s rights. In its official response, the federal government refused to confirm that Dr. Diab will be protected under Canadian law and shielded from any future extradition requests.
I remind you that Prime Minister Trudeau stated in 2011 that what happened to Dr. Diab never should have happened. How can the government justify this position?
Well, thank you for raising this question, Senator McPhedran, and I will certainly raise it with the minister. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I really wish you had had the opportunity to ask Minister Miller the question when he was here earlier this week. He would have been in a far better position to answer than I am, but I certainly will raise it.
Thank you, Senator Gold, but as you know, as an unaffiliated senator, I am excluded from that opportunity.
The French and Canadian abuses in this shameful case have been well-documented by legal scholars, the Department of Justice review and the House of Commons Justice Committee. All have identified an unjust lack of transparency and disclosure in the current Extradition Act. Ignoring Canadian law in Dr. Diab’s case, exculpatory evidence long known to French and Canadian authorities was not disclosed. How can the government now commit to protecting Dr. Diab?
Again, thank you, and I will raise it with the minister. I repeat what I said earlier, I regret that you were not able. I was not blaming you. I know we have many non-affiliated senators with us in our chamber, and I’m hoping that the groups will find ways to accommodate them, as you have in many other ways, to an even greater extent.
