Ex-minister cites ‘threat to security’ for denying emergency passport to Abdelrazik

By Canadian Press

Dec 10, 2024 | 12:58 PM

OTTAWA — Former foreign minister Lawrence Cannon says he denied an emergency passport to Abousfian Abdelrazik in 2009 because he considered the Montreal man a possible threat to national security.

Cannon told a Federal Court hearing today he did not want Abdelrazik to return to Canada from Sudan and “put any Canadians in jeopardy.”

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik settled in Montreal as a refugee and became a Canadian citizen in 1995.

During a 2003 visit to his native country to see his ailing mother, he was arrested, imprisoned and questioned about suspected extremist connections.