Supreme Court won’t revisit request from four Canadian men held in Syria

By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press on November 4, 2024.

OTTAWA – Canada’s top court will not reconsider pleas from four Canadian men detained in Syria for a hearing that could open a path to their freedom.

Last year the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the men’s challenge of a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that said Ottawa is not obligated under the law to repatriate them.

In a fresh notice filed with the court in March, lawyers for the men said exceedingly rare circumstances warranted another look at the application for leave to appeal.

A letter to the lawyers, dated last Friday, says the motion for reconsideration cannot be accepted for filing, leaving no further remedies in the top court.

The detained Canadians are among the many foreign nationals in ramshackle detention centres run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-ravaged region from militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Jack Letts, one of the Canadian men, became a devoted Muslim as a teenager, went on holiday to Jordan, then studied in Kuwait before winding up in Syria.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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