\n<\/p>\n
Montreal, Canada \u2013 <\/strong>A former\u00a0United Nations special rapporteur who investigated Israeli abuses against Palestinians says he was interrogated by Canadian authorities on \u201cnational security\u201d grounds as he travelled to Canada this week to attend a Gaza-related event.<\/p>\n Richard Falk, an international law expert from the United States, told Al Jazeera that he was questioned at Toronto Pearson international airport on Thursday alongside his wife, fellow legal scholar Hilal Elver.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cA security person came and said, \u2018We\u2019ve detained you both because we\u2019re concerned that you pose a national security threat to Canada,’\u201d Falk, 95, said on Saturday in an interview from Ottawa, the Canadian capital. \u201cIt was my first experience of this sort \u2013 ever \u2013 in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Falk and Elver \u2013 both US citizens \u2013 were travelling to Ottawa to take part in the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility when they were held for questioning.<\/p>\n The tribunal brought together international human rights and legal experts on Friday and Saturday to examine the Canadian government\u2019s role in Israel\u2019s two-year bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which a UN inquiry and numerous rights groups have described as a genocide.<\/p>\n Falk said he and his wife were held for questioning for more than four hours and asked about their work on Israel and Gaza, and on issues of genocide in general. \u201c[There was] nothing particularly aggressive about his questioning,\u201d he said. \u201cIt felt sort of random and disorganised.\u201d<\/p>\n But Falk said he believes the interrogation is part of a global push to \u201cpunish those who endeavour to tell the truth about what is happening\u201d in the world, including in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cIt suggests a climate of governmental insecurity, I think, to try to clamp down on dissident voices,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Asked about Falk\u2019s experience, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which manages the country\u2019s border crossings, told Al Jazeera that it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy regulations.<\/p>\n The CBSA\u2019s role \u201cis to assess the security risk and admissibility of persons coming to Canada\u201d, spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in an email.\u00a0\u201cThis process may include primary interviews and secondary examinations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means that all travellers, foreign nationals and those who enter Canada by right, may be referred for secondary inspection \u2013 this is a normal part of the cross-border process and should not be viewed as any indication of wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry, did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera\u2019s request for comment on Falk\u2019s allegation that his interrogation is part of a broader, global crackdown on opposition to Israel\u2019s Gaza war.<\/p>\n Canadian Senator Yuen Pau Woo, a supporter of the Palestine Tribunal, said he was \u201cappalled\u201d that two international law and human rights experts were questioned in Canada \u201con the grounds that they might pose a national security threat\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know they were here to attend the Palestine Tribunal. We know they have been outspoken in documenting and publicising the horrors inflicted on Gaza by Israel, and advocating for justice,\u201d Woo told Al Jazeera in an interview on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cIf those are the factums for their detention, then it suggests that the Canadian government considers these acts of seeking justice for Palestine to be national security threats \u2013 and I\u2019d like to know why.\u201d<\/p>\n Like other Western countries, Canada has been under growing pressure to cut off its longstanding support for Israel as the Israeli military assault on Gaza killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and plunged the coastal territory into a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n Ottawa announced in 2024 that it was\u00a0suspending weapons permits to its ally as pressure mounted over the war.<\/p>\n But researchers and human rights advocates say loopholes in Canada\u2019s arms export system have allowed Canadian-made weapons to continue to reach Israel, often\u00a0via the United States.<\/p>\n Rights groups have also called on the Canadian government to do more to support efforts to ensure that Israel is held accountable for abuses against Palestinians in Gaza, including war crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis violence is not in the past tense; the bombs have not stopped falling,\u201d Rachel Small, the Canada organiser for the antiwar group World Beyond War,\u00a0said during the Palestine Tribunal\u2019s closing day on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd none of that violence, none of Israel\u2019s genocide \u2026 [would be] possible without the flow of weapons from the United States, from Europe, and yes, from Canada,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n At least 260 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect last month, according to health authorities in the besieged coastal enclave.<\/p>\n Palestinians also continue to reel from a lack of adequate food, water, medicine and shelter supplies as Israel maintains strict curbs on humanitarian aid deliveries.<\/p>\n Against that backdrop, Falk told Al Jazeera on Saturday that \u201cit\u2019s more important than ever \u2026 to expose the reality of what\u2019s happening\u201d on the ground in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this whole false sense that the genocide is over,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201c[But Israel] is carrying out the genocidal project in a less aggressive way, or a less intense way. It\u2019s what some have called the incremental genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Montreal, Canada \u2013 A former\u00a0United Nations special rapporteur who investigated Israeli abuses against Palestinians says he was interrogated by Canadian authorities on \u201cnational security\u201d grounds as he travelled to Canada this week to attend a Gaza-related event. Richard Falk, an international law expert from the United States, told Al Jazeera that he was questioned at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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