{"id":333368,"date":"2025-11-17T16:28:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/?post_type=to4_article_post&#038;p=333368"},"modified":"2025-11-17T16:28:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:28:42","slug":"canada-detains-former-un-human-rights-rapporteurs-traveling-to-palestine-event","status":"publish","type":"to4_article_post","link":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/canada-detains-former-un-human-rights-rapporteurs-traveling-to-palestine-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada Detains Former UN Human Rights Rapporteurs Traveling to Palestine Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"truth-post-content-before\" id=\"truth-1378419990\"><div class=\"popmake-campaign-banners-donate-modal callout callout inline-callout mb-5 callout--text callout--text\" id=\"truth-304025\" data-callout-id=\"304025\" data-callout-theme=\"text\" data-callout-placement=\"Undefined\" data-callout-title=\"BCB 304025 Truthout is an indispensable resource...\"><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/support.truthout.org\/-\/XXQLBDSX\/&amp;utm_source=truthout&amp;utm_medium=bcb&amp;utm_campaign=304025\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quick donation<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Former UN special rapporteurs Richard Falk and Hilal Elver were detained and interrogated by Canadian authorities on Thursday while on their way to an event examining Canada\u2019s role in the genocide in Gaza and continued abuses against Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Falk, who turned 95 on the day he was detained, said that officials deemed he and his wife posed a \u201cnational security threat\u201d to the country upon their arrival at an airport in Toronto. Falk was the UN special rapporteur for Palestinian human rights between 2008 and 2014 and Elver was the UN special rapporteur on the right to food from 2014 to 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA security person came and said, \u2018We\u2019ve detained you both because we\u2019re concerned that you pose a national security threat to Canada,\u2019\u201d Falk told <em>Al Jazeera<\/em> on Sunday, from Ottawa. \u201cIt was my first experience of this sort \u2014 ever \u2014 in my life.\u201d<\/p><div class=\"truth-post-content-high\" id=\"truth-1500316009\"><div class=\"callout inline-callout p-4 mb-5 callout--subscribe callout--light\" id=\"truth-255392\" data-callout-id=\"255392\" data-callout-theme=\"light\" data-callout-placement=\"Post Content - High\" data-callout-title=\"Never miss another story\"><h4>Never miss another story<\/h4>\n<p>Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.<\/p>\n<script>\nvar 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);\n<\/script>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Border agents took Falk and Elver\u2019s passports, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/richard-falk-detained-cbsa-palestine-conference-9.6980514\">he told <em>CBC<\/em><\/a>, and brought them to an interview room. Falk said that authorities held him and Elver for over four hours, grilling them on their work on Israel and Gaza, and interrogating them about the genocide more generally. Eventually, they were released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The questioning was \u201crandom and disorganized,\u201d Falk said, but still an element of a global campaign to \u201cpunish those who endeavour to tell the truth about what is happening\u201d in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s disappointing that Canada \u2014 after having acknowledged Palestinian statehood \u2014 would take such a hostile attitude toward a very forthright conference that really explained to a public, that hasn\u2019t been so well-informed, the nature of the objections to what Israel has been doing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt suggests a climate of governmental insecurity, I think, to try to clamp down on dissident voices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advocates for Palestinian rights have sharply <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/report-slams-canadas-systematic-deception-over-weapons-transfers-to-israel\/\">criticized Canada\u2019s government<\/a> for sending Israel military support, even though officials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/melanie-joly-canada-arms-israel-gaza-1.7319112#:~:text=News-,Joly%20says%20Canada%20bars%20Canadian%2Dmade%20arms%20from%20reaching%20Gaza,%2C%20period%2C%22%20Joly%20said.\">pledged to stop sending<\/a> weapons that could end up in use in Gaza last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Canada\u2019s Border Services Agency told <em>CBC<\/em> that the detention was \u201cnormal\u201d and \u201cshould not be viewed as any indication of wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Falk and Elver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justpeaceadvocates.ca\/press-release-the-palestine-tribunal-on-canadian-responsibility-november-14-and-15-ottawa\/\">were slated<\/a> to participate in the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility, described by organizers as a \u201cpeople\u2019s tribunal on Canada\u2019s complicity in the genocide and dispossession of Palestinians, including over the last two years in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Falk said he suspects they were stopped due to their planned participation in the event. He and his wife are both U.S. citizens, and have taught at prominent American universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chair of the tribunal, Azeezah Kanji, told <em>CBC<\/em> that Falk\u2019s detention was \u201coutrageous.\u201d Canadian Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, who supports the tribunal, said he was contacted by the conference\u2019s organizers about Falk\u2019s detention. He expressed alarm that Canadian officials may have detained them over their participation in the tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\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 <em>Al Jazeera<\/em>. \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 \u2014 and I\u2019d like to know why.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"truth-post-content-after\" id=\"truth-1541596550\"><div class=\"callout inline-callout p-4 mb-5 callout-- callout--white\" id=\"truth-334871\" data-callout-id=\"334871\" data-callout-theme=\"white\" data-callout-placement=\"Post Content - After\" data-callout-title=\"2026-01 Main Campaign (FRU) Trump is silencing political dissent. We appeal for your support.\">\n<div class=\"p-2 text-start\">\n<h5 class=\"pb-2\" style=\"text-transform: uppercase; font-family: var(--bs-font-sans-serif); text-align: center;\">Trump is silencing political dissent. We appeal for your support.<\/h5>\n<p class=\"mb-3\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive nonprofits are the latest target caught in Trump\u2019s crosshairs. With the aim of eliminating political opposition, Trump and his sycophants are working to curb government funding, constrain private foundations, and even cut tax-exempt status from organizations he dislikes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-3\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>We\u2019re concerned, because Truthout is not immune to such bad-faith attacks.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-3\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can only resist Trump\u2019s attacks by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-3\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Truthout has launched a fundraiser to raise $45,000 in the next 8 days. <\/strong>Please take a meaningful action in the fight against authoritarianism: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout. If you have the means, please dig deep.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m-0\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#XEGQPXGY\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Falk, former rapporteur for Palestine, was traveling to an event to examine Canada\u2019s role in the Gaza genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":333372,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[91698],"tags":[864,572,571,1376,11586,1316],"section":[53002],"primary_topic":[24],"series":[],"admin_tag":[],"class_list":["post-333368","to4_article_post","type-to4_article_post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-canada","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-richard-falk","tag-united-nations","section-humanrights","primary_topic-human-rights"],"acf":[],"related_articles":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/to4_article_post\/333368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/to4_article_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/to4_article_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333368"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=333368"},{"taxonomy":"primary_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_topic?post=333368"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=333368"},{"taxonomy":"admin_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/admin_tag?post=333368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}