A Canadian man who says he has been physically and psychologically tortured in Kurdish-run prisons in northeastern Syria is asking the Federal Court to compel three ministers to decide on his repatriation request.
The repatriation request has been in process since November 2024.
The man identified as SS in a Notice of Application submitted by his lawyer Nicholas Pope says that “he has been beaten, and prison officials have killed other prisoners in front of him and left their corpses in his room for days.”
The respondents for the notice are the ministers of foreign affairs, public safety, and immigration.
According to the notice, “SS has not been charged or convicted of any criminal offence, and he has not been given any legal process to challenge his detention.”
Pope said in an interview with OMNI News that his client is not asking to be automatically repatriated.
“There’s a decision that the government needs to render, and they’re not rendering the decision. And SS is not asking for a yes. SS is just asking for a decision, either a yes or a no. The government can refuse to repatriate him, but just say you’re refusing. Don’t sit here on your hands for 14 months.”
Pope added that he does not understand why other applications took 2 months, while his client has been waiting for more than seven times longer.
“We know that the people who were repatriated in the past were women and children. And those were the people that were assessed fairly quickly and then allowed to come to Canada,” explained Pope.
“All of the men who are presently being assessed are having these same delays as SS. So, it seems quite unavoidable, this conclusion that there’s differential treatment based on sex”.
In January 2021, the Canadian government created a policy to govern decisions about whether to repatriate Canadians detained in northeastern Syria. This policy is entitled the Government of Canada Policy Framework to Evaluate the Provision of Extraordinary Assistance: Consular Cases in North-Eastern Syria.
The policy framework sets out a multi-step process, two of which SS has met the threshold for. A final step demands the government to decide and then plan reparation.
Pope says that the government has given no explanation for the delay.
Alex Neve is a professor of international human rights law at the University of Ottawa. He was a member of a Canadian civil delegation that visited Kurdish-run detention camps for women and children, and male-occupied prisons in northeastern Syria in August 2023, to speak to confined Canadians and document their conditions.
Neve told OMNI News that the government has always said that it is not prepared for repatriation of Canadians detained in northeastern Syria.
“When we came back from our mission, we had many meetings with officials in the foreign affairs minister’s office, with MPs, with departmental officials, and that has continued since, and the line remains the same. Canada is not prepared to take steps to facilitate the return to Canada of these individuals.”
Neve added that “the effect of that is essentially abandoning them to a situation of lawlessness and extensive human rights violations.”
Neve recounts sitting with two detained Canadian men during the visit, describing them as intimidated and in poor shape.
“I asked generically whether he had any health concerns, and he said he did. And I said, ‘Could you tell me more?’ And he looked at me and quietly said, ‘Not here and not now,’ which just leaves you with a sense that there is something very difficult that is happening that he’s not able to speak about because it wasn’t a private meeting.”
“They looked very drawn. They looked pale. They certainly looked very thin. Their body posture was hunched and there was a sadness in their eyes. It really, to me, spoke of individuals who are experiencing some very, very difficult conditions.”
After a new agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that sees Damascus gaining control of all Kurish-held regions, detainees in the northeast of the country are now being transferred to Iraq.
The SDF is a Kurdish faction established in 2015 with heavy U.S. backing and held control of northeastern Syria up until January 30, 2026, the date of the agreement.
Pope told OMNI that SS is still in Syria to the best of his knowledge but added that this transfer is unwelcome news.
“Iraq has a pretty bad history with regards to its prisoners. There have been reports, including from Amnesty International, of very poor conditions, mass executions. So, it’s not looking good if they’re moved to Iraq.”
When asked what SS was doing in Syria in the first place, Pope declined to comment.
In a statement to OMNI News, Global Affairs Canada said they are aware of the developments.
“Canada is aware of the transfer of detainees from Syria to Iraq and is monitoring very closely, in coordination with our allies. Canadian consular officials remain actively engaged with international partners in the region.”
The statement adds that the safety and security of Canadians always remain the utmost priority for the government of Canada while meeting necessary legal obligations.
Global Affairs declined to comment further, citing “privacy and security reasons”.
