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Perils of Dual Citizenship

Arar and Kazami were Canadian citizens, true.  But they chose to continue to also be citizens of their native countries: Syria and Iran respectively.  They were dual citizens.  At no point did these two individuals renounce their Syrian or Iranian citizenship and chose to remain dual citizens for perhaps personal reasons or for the sake of privileges which might come with holding multiple citizenships.  However, they ended being good examples of the pitfalls of holding dual citizenships.

Maher Arar was a dual citizen of both Canada and Syria.  On a business trip to the United States, he was detained on suspicion of having links with terrorist networks.  To be fair to the United States the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service had similar suspicions concerning Arar.  The United States indicated that they would be willing to deport Arar to Canada on condition that he be detained here.  Canada rightly refused to accept Mr. Arar under this condition, whereupon he was handed over to Syria as he was a Syrian citizen.  This is not to mean that the United States violated any international protocol either, after all Arar was a Syrian citizen.  There is no reason to disbelieve Arar’s claim that while in Syrian custody he bwas rutalized and tortured.

Zahra Kazami’s case is far more horrifying and serves as proof of the Iranian mullahs’ brutality towards their own people.  Ms. Kazami was a dual citizen both of Iran and Canada.  She worked in Iran as a photo journalist and covered anti-government demonstrations.  Unfortunately, Iran’s mullahs do not like any negative attention especially from women.  Ms. Kazami was detained and interrogated in typical Iranian fashion.  She was tortured and brutalized in a most inhumane and demeaning manner at the hands of her interrogators and eventually died in an Iranian hospital.  Saddening as this case may be, there was very little that the Canadian government could do to intervene on her behalf.

Persons visiting a country do so at the sole discretion of that country.  Individual rights are never violated if you are deported back to a country of your citizenship regardless of which passport that is carried.  No Canadian, nor any citizen of another country for that matter, can lay a claim of unhindered travel in another sovereign nation.  Such a claim would infringe on the sovereignty of that nation. 

I may wish to visit New York, Los Angeles or any other city in the United States but I have neither a human right nor any inherent right as a Canadian to do so.  I do not have a right to be provided an explanation as to the reason why they would not wish me to enter other than the obvious reason that I am not an U.S. citizen.  Apart from such actions, I should not be treated inhumanely nor should my rights as a human being be violated without reason.  At no point could I claim that while in the U.S. I should be afforded similar rights American citizens enjoy over and above those which are considered basic human rights.  If I am detained I would expect the U.S. to notify the Canadian embassy of my current predicament as dictated by international treaties.  Since I am not a dual citizen, the U.S. cannot contact some despotic third rate nation to inquire if they would take me in.

A dual Canadian citizen visiting a country, in which he or she is a citizen, looses the right to have the Canadian embassy informed in case of detainment, arrest, imprisonment, or death.  Neither Syria nor Iran would be subject to any need to inform the Canadian embassy of the whereabouts of Arar or Kazami.  They are after all just as much Syrian or Iranian citizens as Canadians despite the fact they might or might not have traveled on a Canadian passport.

No Canadian would wish to see another Canadian’s rights violated by another country.  One might be proud of or have some fond childhood memories while living in a country and wish to acknowledge such sentiment by being a citizen of that country.  Holding a dual citizenship in countries such as the U.S. or the U.K. and Canada are not too problematic.  We hardly complain if a Canadian is arrested in the U.S. or the U.K.  The Canadian embassy in most circumstances will be notified.  Those Canadians convicted of crimes in the U.S. can apply to serve their time in Canada instead.  Holding dual citizenship in a third rate despotic gulag is however a problem, as Maher Arar and if she was still alive, Zahra Kazami can attest.  To Syrian and Iranian credit these cases remain internal matters, since both victims were citizens of Syria and Iran. 

Blaming the Canadian government or holding an inquiry into these cases will not solve any issue save perhaps standardize some set of responses that could be undertaken should such instances arise.  If anything, it should serve as a warning to those who wish to hold dual citizenships of the inherent perils of continuing to be a dual citizen.

Canada can never legally claim that these countries have no jurisdiction over their fellow countrymen.  But the Canadian government can and must take issue with the treatment of dissidents, the abuse of human rights, the corrupt legal system and systematic brutal torture used by these countries.  Any relationship Canada has with such nations must be tied directly with their treatment of their own people. 

Of course, if Canada had some international clout we would have done better in securing the release of these individual in a timely manner.  With a dysfunctional foreign affairs department that talks too softly and with no big stick, no one would be surprised at the outcome.  Soft power is really no power at all.

The Canadian public and relatives of these victims have faulted the Canadian government for not intervening vigorously on behalf of these two individuals.  However, few blame these two individuals for their poor choices.  Neither Mr. Arar nor Ms. Kazami chose to renounce their native citizenships.  They were on all accounts proud of their heritage and held their citizenship of their native lands as proof of their pride.  Each unfortunately in the end was a victim of their own making.

Peter Gnanapragasam
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