Hassan Diab: Nothing Less Than a Public Inquiry Will Do
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1639 ... July 11, 2018
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Hassan Diab: Nothing Less Than a Public Inquiry Will Do
Michelle Weinroth
He has been compared to Alfred Dreyfus, the iconic 19th-century French victim of false accusation and racism. The entire spectrum of the Canadian press has covered his unfolding story since its inception in 2007. His return to Canada from France in January 2018 was breaking news. An Ottawa sociology professor, Dr. Diab is the Canadian citizen who, at the behest of France, was sought for extradition. Subject to allegations of involvement in the bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980, he was pursued and harassed by the RCMP in 2008. Arrested on November 13th of that year, denied bail, and jailed in the disreputable Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre, he was then released in... April 2009, only to be placed under the most draconian house arrest conditions. In 2014, after prolonged and suspect hearings, his extradition to France was sealed.
A decisive moment came on July 28, 2009 when Dr. Diab’s summer teaching appointment at Carleton University became public. The news provoked a most vilifying statement from the B’nai B’rith, which the latter sent post haste to Carleton University: "The safety and security of the community as a whole ... are of great concern to us. ... The last place in the world where this man belongs is in a university classroom, in front of impressionable students." Carleton University yielded to this external pressure and unceremoniously terminated Dr. Diab’s summer contract.
