Testimonies

“Yes. Thank you.

First of all, I’m raising four kids, four boys. They became teenagers. I was pregnant when they arrested my husband. I was three months pregnant, a mother. Can you imagine for a moment?

It’s been 14 years, and now my son is going to be 14 in August. I can’t see….

It’s been so many long years. Months, weeks and years passed. Even if you had a communication, a little bit of information, like emails or calls through his family, that kind of information…. A little piece of information would be a relief to us, a little bit of keeping in touch with their father. He’s still alive, but he’s in prison. They are trying to bring him back where he belongs.

In this 21st century, with so much technology, we have nothing . We have no calls, no information, no mail, no letters, nothing.

But I’m very thankful for the Canadian government. I’m lucky I’m living in Canada. I’m growing my four boys [Inaudible—Editor] four boys in Canada. I’m giving all my best to give them a good education, the best education in Canada, but I always tell them they have to be very proud of their dad. He has spent 14 years away. I don’t want to say how long he’s going be there. I don’t even want to think about one year or two years in this pandemic world with what’s going on in China right now, because in Canada how we are living right now, in the pandemic….

To the Canadian government, first of all, I want to say thank you. They raised every opportunity. The Conservative board mandated all its best, but China is a different country. China was rejecting my husband’s Canadian citizenship, and then not giving consular access. They tried, but it was not enough. At that time it was not enough. When they helped the first year, they had to act quickly, immediately, but they were late to act.

Now it’s been 14 years. My husband is in prison. I don’t know what kind of conditions he may be in. I cannot even…. We don’t know if he’s alive or not, since 2015. Maybe they have been brainwashing him with Communist laws, making him study Communist laws and join the Communist Party, that kind of thing. It might happen in China.

My last word is to the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP. They all need to be together in that case. I don’t want them to push that case away from the table. There’s the two Michaels case, I know, and I want to raise the case every time, to bring that to the table in the House of Commons. I want to raise that case. Members of Parliament, what’s going on with that [Inaudible—Editor] case? What’s going on? What are we going to do? They have to see it on the table and make the decision to send…I agree with Chris MacLeod to send a special envoy to China.

In 2006 Huseyin, Kamila and their three boys decide now that they are Canadian citizens to travel on Canadian passports to Uzbekistan, with temporary travel permits obtained from Uzbekistan, to visit Kamila’s family. While there one of their boys falls ill. Huseyin decides, in accordance with proper regulations, to renew that travel visa. When he goes to the appropriate authorities in Uzbekistan to renew that on his Canadian passport he’s red-flagged because Uzbekistan and China, unknown to Huseyin at the time, have a treaty. They’re part of the Shanghai besh, seven countries that share information on political dissidents.

Huseyin, on March 27, is detained in Uzbekistan. There’s a period of about 90 days when he’s in Uzbekistan, and people in Canada and on the ground are trying to determine what to do. The Uyghur community in Canada is loud and clear, as are we to the Canadian government, that this is the moment to get Huseyin out. It’s China that wishes to obtain him. Ultimately, Uzbekistan transfers Huseyin to China in or around July 2006. He faces a trial. He is sentenced to death, and ultimately through the interventions of the minister of foreign affairs at the time, Peter MacKay, that death sentence is commuted to a life sentence.

The Canadian government has never had consular access to Huseyin Celil. Kamila and the family had updates from Huseyin’s family in northwestern China up until 2016 when all went dark. We haven’t had any word from Huseyin’s family there. We’ve never had direct communication with him. This is really a long-standing Canadian tragedy where we have a Canadian citizen detained in China, who didn’t travel to China on a Canadian passport, or at all. He went to neighbouring Uzbekistan as a Canadian citizen to visit his in-laws. There, and this is where we have a case of rendition, Huseyin was ultimately transported by the Uzbeks to China, or the Chinese came into Uzbekistan and picked him up and transported him there.

The trial was had. At the time, then prime minister Harper ordered the embassy staff out of Beijing to go to the courtroom and wait every day to find out when there would be a trial and try to gain access. They ultimately were never allowed in to hear the trial. An appeal was taken.

That’s been the long and unnecessary saga of Huseyin’s case.

We’ve always asked, and I’m going to ask again, for two things. One is that the Prime Minister appoint a special envoy specifically tasked with seeking the release and return of Huseyin Celil. We want a special envoy, as opposed to the embassy and the ambassador, because the single task of the envoy will be to seek the release and return of Mr. Celil, figure out what needs to be done to make that happen. It’s been 14 long years.

As for Kamila, I’m not sure if we have her in the room at the moment, but we’ll now go into additional details about the challenges she’s faced with her four young children. The four boys, Hussein’s children, Kamila’s children, haven’t seen their father in 14 years. One, Zubeyir, was actually born after his father’s detention. This is a Canadian tragedy. It’s been long languishing. When the crackdown on the Uyghur community in northwestern China commenced, we already had no consular access. We’ve now had absolutely zero information since 2016 on his state and his situation.

Number one, a special envoy should be appointed by the Prime Minister seeking Huseyin Celil’s release and return. The second would be that we have all-party co-operation in this regard. I recall when the Conservatives were in power, Minister MacKay commuted the sentence from death to a life sentence. Member of Parliament Sweet and member of Parliament Kenney were two active Conservatives at the time. Member of Parliament Gould has also been active, but we haven’t had non-partisan action where all members of the House in unanimity are all rowing in the same direction.”

Following that—which I agree that it was disappointing that the ambassador had not been properly briefed—is that at the early stages in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and onwards, you’ll recall that there was very deep engagement. Prime Minister Harper was pushing hard, with Minister MacKay, Minister Kenney, Mr. Sweet and many others, so it was disappointing to hear that the ambassador hadn’t been fully briefed.

However, I know, and Kamila I think would speak to this if we can get her on today—to give at least a couple of minutes, I think it would be warranted—that the ambassador did call her and spoke to her directly and personally about that slip and clarified the record. He acknowledged, of course, that Huseyin is a Canadian citizen, which is why I wanted to take at least two minutes when I commenced my remarks to the committee to remind everyone that Huseyin has only flown on a Canadian passport. Most troubling is that some of the issues, and the reason he was detained, may well have arisen again because of his activities in Canada, speaking about religious freedom and religious freedom of expression.

Thank you for raising that right now. It’s one of the reasons we’ve also always called for a special envoy. An ambassador has multi-faceted roles in any embassy, particularly in China where the relationship is so multilateral and so multi-faceted. A special envoy who would report directly to the Prime Minister, or perhaps to the committee, to say what we need to do to obtain the release and return of a Canadian citizen languishing in prison in China—