The federal government needs to answer for the human rights violations associated with Benemar Benatta, an Algerian seeking asylum in Canada after a lengthy detainment.
In a Sept. 10 letter, the Hospital Employees’ Union is urging Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to “call for a public review of his case.”
Canada illegally turned over Benatta to the United States on Sept. 12, 2001, according to CUPE’s health care division in British Columbia. He was tortured while in detention and remained in jail even though the FBI had cleared him in November 2001.
“After all of his hardship, Mr. Benatta returned to Canada and has resumed his claim for asylum,” the letter signed by HEU president Fred Muzin said. Benatta’s claim is pending and “he lives in a state of limbo, unable to get on with his life, and haunted by some serious questions that have yet to be answered.”
Muzin wants federal officials to be made accountable for their actions and he calls on Day to ensure that “such human rights abuses must never occur again.”