Detained by Daniel Livermore

Author:Daniel Livermore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MQUP
Published: 2018-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

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Abdullah Almalki

Of the Canadians who found themselves trapped in the early stages of the US war on terror, Abdullah Almalki was considered by the RCMP as the most pivotal figure subject to investigation. Following 9/11, he was a link to Maher Arar, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati, and Ahmed Said Khadr, as well as others in what was suspected to be a small but influential Canadian jihadi community. The RCMP believed that Almalki was part of al Qaeda’s “procurement network,” playing a role in supplying Pakistan and the Taliban (and possibly bin Laden’s group in Afghanistan) with radios and other electronic devices that facilitated their struggle against Western interests. As a result of these allegations, a quick trip to visit family in Damascus ended up as a two-year imprisonment in a Syrian torture chamber. Syrian agencies were formally responsible for his incarceration in 2002 in a country that had become a US partner in the early stages of the war on terror. The RCMP and possibly CSIS played key roles in having him detained and were probably satisfied that he was out of Canada and off the streets. Almalki was one of the three Canadians whose situations were examined by former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci in an inquiry appointed by the Harper government in 2006, which reported in 2008. His lawsuit against the Canadian government was settled in mediation in March 2017, fifteen years after his initial incarceration and almost a decade after the release of the Iacobucci Inquiry’s report. The government of Canada formally apologized to Abdullah Almalki for his ordeal and provided financial compensation, but the settlement ended the possibility of a trial in which the details of his case might have emerged publicly.

Born in Damascus, Syria, in 1971, Abdullah Almalki was raised in a well-educated, distinguished, professional family in which his father was a lawyer and other family members were prominent in business.1 Syria went through a long and difficult period of political problems and economic stagnation, and by the 1970s the family had decided to leave in search of a better life for the children. Accepted as immigrants in both the United States and Canada, Almalki’s parents decided to settle in Canada, arriving in Ottawa in 1987. Abdullah Almalki became a Canadian citizen four years later. He was an exceptional high-school student and studied electrical engineering at Carleton University, where he completed three years of a four-year program prior to taking up an internship in 1992. He was struck by the devastating humanitarian crisis then affecting Afghanistan and talked about the issue with friends and fellow students. He was able to arrange a placement with Human Concern International (HCI), an Ottawa-based, non-governmental organization with humanitarian projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan.2 He left in the fall of 1992 for Peshawar, Pakistan, for what he later recalled was a life-changing experience to work with Afghan refugees exiled in huge numbers in neighbouring Pakistan.3 He returned to university for the winter term, and then went back to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the summer of 1993 to work on a United Nations project in southern Afghanistan, delivered by HCI.

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