The country's top court is slated to decide today whether it will hear the case of four Canadian men held in Syria who argue Ottawa has a legal duty to help them return home. The Supreme Court of Canada is seen, Friday, June 16, 2023 in Ottawa.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
OTTAWA – The country’s top court will not hear the case of four Canadian men held in Syria who argue Ottawa has a legal duty to help them return home.
The detained Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in ramshackle detention centres run by Kurdish forces that wrested the war-ravaged region from militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The men asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear a challenge of a Federal Court of Appeal ruling, handed down in May, that said Ottawa is not obligated under the law to repatriate them.
Among the men is Jack Letts, who became a devoted Muslim as a teenager, went on holiday to Jordan, then studied in Kuwait before winding up in Syria.
The identities of the other three are not publicly known.
In an application to the top court, lawyers for the men said Ottawa is “picking and choosing” which Canadians to help out of a hellish situation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2023.
