Canada: Human rights advocates discuss upcoming trip to Syrian detention camps – June 22, 2023

Senator Kim Pate and human rights advocates speak with reporters about a delegation's plan to travel to northeastern Syria this summer to visit camps and detention centres in the region. The delegation hopes to receive access to Canadians currently detained in the camps and will also meet with local officials. Parliamentarians, former diplomats, human rights experts, and lawyers will be part of the delegation. Joining Senator Pate at the news conference in Ottawa are Sally Lane (mother of detainee Jack Letts), Alex Neve (senior fellow at the University of Ottawa and former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada) and Matthew Behrens (Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture). Four Canadian women and ten Canadian children were repatriated from northeastern Syria in April 2023. In May 2023, the federal government won its appeal of a federal court justice's ruling that ordered the repatriation of four Canadian men detained in Syrian prisons.