Who is Jack Letts?

Why was Jack imprisoned?

Jack has been held without charge or access to a lawyer, or any form of consular assistance from Canada, for 7 years. Like far too many people targeted in the “Global War on Terror” , Jack Letts is a victim of monstering. It’s a demonization process by which he’s been personified as irredeemably evil, not deserving of human rights, and left to rot in one of the prisons and detention camps in NE Syria described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.” In hundreds of messages to his parents over 4 years, Jack never once espoused allegiance to ISIS or any other armed group. In fact, he condemned ISIS for their distortion of Islam and their cruelty, and was imprisoned by them three times as a result. He was captured while fleeing ISIS.

Has Jack been tried?

Jack has been held without charge, trial, or access to legal representation or any form of consular assistance since 2017. We believe he is being held by Kurdish forces in Qamishli detention facility. In his last contact with his parents, Jack revealed he was terrified, having been tortured and held for extended periods in solitary confinement. The squalid conditions in the prison where he is being held are not only inhumane but also illegal. The way Jack is being held is a form of arbitrary detention which goes against international law. Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, has previously asserted: "One day, when Jack is allowed a fair trial, I suspect that the world will learn that he is not and never has been a terrorist.”

Why should Jack be returned to Canada?

Jack is a Canadian citizen and has the right to be repatriated, guaranteed by Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As the Federal Court concluded in a 2009 repatriation case, “Charter rights are not dependent on the wisdom of the choices Canadians make, nor their moral character or political beliefs. Foolish persons have no lesser rights under the Charter than those who have made wise choices or are considered to be morally and politically upstanding.”

The government should provide Jack the “assistance and protection as may be necessary” which he is entitled to, by facilitating his return to Canada. He is being held in dangerously inhumane conditions in a Kurdish prison.

What has the Canadian government done so far?

Despite showing that they have the ability to repatriate Canadians from the region, as shown by the repatriation of a child in October 2020, the Canadian government has been reluctant to do this for anyone else. They have provided consular assistance including emergency travel documents to a mother and daughter who separately made it out of Syria and into Iraq. However, the mother and daughter were not assisted by the Canadian government to leave Syria. In June 2021, the Canadian House of Commons released a report which issued several recommendations including that “the Government of Canada pursue all options possible to repatriate the Canadian children detained in al-Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria.” They also recommended that “the Government of Canada make every effort to provide consular services to all Canadians detained in northeast Syria” and that Ottawa should use diplomacy to “advocate for unhindered humanitarian access in all situations where children are affected by armed conflict and displacement, including in Syria.”

How has Britain failed Jack?

Britain has abandoned its citizens who are being held in NE Syria in detention facilities and refugee camps. Jack was arrested whilst fleeing ISIS in 2017, well before the collapse of ISIS rule. Kurdish authorities told him in May 2017 that they wanted to hand him over to the British, but the UK government blocked further communication with his parents and told them they could not help because they did not have a consular presence in the area. 

The British government then stripped him of his British citizenship in 2019.

The British government is helping to fund these illegal Kurdish detention centres, and the building of a new prison in Kurdish Rojava (NE Syria). It appears that the UK’s strategy for dealing with this humanitarian catastrophe is to support a Guantanamo-like prison in the region, where people will be held indefinitely or until death, without charge or trial. It is a flagrant breach of international human rights laws and norms.

What happened with John and Sally’s court case?

Jack’s parents, John and Sally, did what any parent in such a desperate situation would do – they tried to save their son’s life. They were charged in 2016 with ‘funding terrorism’ after they tried to send Jack money to pay a people smuggler to help him escape from ISIS territory. Even though the British police had given John and Sally written permission to send these funds, they were still prosecuted. In the end, the jury accepted they had been given permission to send this money, and that they had tried to send it only to save Jack’s life. They were found not guilty of these two charges – but they were found guilty of a third charge of having sent £223 ($378 Can) to a refugee family in Lebanon in 2015. The police argued that there had been ‘reasonable cause’ for them to suspect that this small sum might have fallen into the wrong hands. They served an 18 month suspended sentence after waiting over 3 years for a trial. In court, the presiding judge made it very clear that John and Sally were not terrorists, had never supported terrorism and had acted only to save their son’s life.

What is the UN Complaint?

In May 2021, the families’ lawyer, Tayab Ali, submitted a complaint against both the UK and Canadian Governments to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions. The complaint describes both the action and inaction of the British and Canadian Governments which amounts to a violation of Jack’s right to life. In addition, it is believed that the Canadian Government is now acting in ‘bad faith’ in their refusal and failure to productively engage with Jack’s family and work towards returning a detained Canadian citizen from abroad. Click the link below to learn more: