Bulletproof
04-15-2009, 04:01 PM
Nathalie Morin knows she made a terrible mistake moving to Saudi Arabia with her young son in 2005 to live with the boy’s father.
Four years later, the 24-year-old woman now has three children and her mother says she is being held in the Middle East against her will because her partner has refused to allow her to return to Canada with her children.
“I know I put myself in this situation, but I want to come back to Canada as soon as possible with my three children,” a tearful Morin said in a telephone conversation that her mother, Johanne Durocher, recorded this month.
Morin’s partner, Samir Said Ramthi Al Bishi, was in another room when Durocher recorded the phone call. “We are intimidated and scared and I am hit every three or four days,” Morin says on the tape. She says she and her children have been confined to their apartment for about 18 months, except when Al Bishi lets them outside.
“I don’t want to be condemned, I need your support to come back to my country,” Morin sobs, before someone hangs up the phone line.
The recording was played for reporters yesterday at a Montreal news conference. Durocher said lawyer Julius Grey will launch a lawsuit against the federal government unless Ottawa helps her daughter return home.
“We are trying to establish that the government has an obligation to people abroad – where foreign laws are incompatible with our charter,” Grey said yesterday.
Durocher claims Foreign Affairs officials and employees at the Canadian embassy in Riyadh haven’t done enough to help Morin, who cannot use the telephone without Al Bishi’s permission. She also claims someone in the embassy is leaking information to her daughter’s partner.
Before Christmas, Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, met with Morin and her partner to mediate the couple’s dispute. Obhrai said yesterday that no one in the embassy is leaking information and added that embassy staff spends about 20 per cent of its time on Morin’s file.
“We gave her financial assistance (on two occasions) to come back,” Obhrai said, adding that in 2006, while Morin was in Canada, Foreign Affairs officials advised her not to return to Saudi Arabia.
“The children are Saudi citizens ... and there are laws there that apply,” he said.
Under Saudi law, the children’s father has final say over whether the children can leave Saudi Arabia.
Morin met Al Bishi in 2001 when she was 17 through a mutual friend. Their first son was born in Montreal in 2002 before Al Bishi left Canada after receiving a deportation order for being here illegally.
Morin visited Al Bishi twice in Saudi Arabia before moving there in 2005.
Durocher said the relationship soured soon after.
Durocher acknowledged that releasing the audio tape could put her daughter in danger, but she said she had no other choice.
“I have to do this to help my daughter,” she said.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/News/Quebecer+stuck+Saudi+Arabia+says+kids+risk/1495422/story.html
A nice case of pure stupidity. What does she expect seriously? That we send in the JTF2? She live in another country, we must respect their laws, we can't force them to give her back. Too bad she chose Saudi Arabia, a land unfriendly to women. I'm sure suing the gov will help her cause...
Tough luck.
Four years later, the 24-year-old woman now has three children and her mother says she is being held in the Middle East against her will because her partner has refused to allow her to return to Canada with her children.
“I know I put myself in this situation, but I want to come back to Canada as soon as possible with my three children,” a tearful Morin said in a telephone conversation that her mother, Johanne Durocher, recorded this month.
Morin’s partner, Samir Said Ramthi Al Bishi, was in another room when Durocher recorded the phone call. “We are intimidated and scared and I am hit every three or four days,” Morin says on the tape. She says she and her children have been confined to their apartment for about 18 months, except when Al Bishi lets them outside.
“I don’t want to be condemned, I need your support to come back to my country,” Morin sobs, before someone hangs up the phone line.
The recording was played for reporters yesterday at a Montreal news conference. Durocher said lawyer Julius Grey will launch a lawsuit against the federal government unless Ottawa helps her daughter return home.
“We are trying to establish that the government has an obligation to people abroad – where foreign laws are incompatible with our charter,” Grey said yesterday.
Durocher claims Foreign Affairs officials and employees at the Canadian embassy in Riyadh haven’t done enough to help Morin, who cannot use the telephone without Al Bishi’s permission. She also claims someone in the embassy is leaking information to her daughter’s partner.
Before Christmas, Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, met with Morin and her partner to mediate the couple’s dispute. Obhrai said yesterday that no one in the embassy is leaking information and added that embassy staff spends about 20 per cent of its time on Morin’s file.
“We gave her financial assistance (on two occasions) to come back,” Obhrai said, adding that in 2006, while Morin was in Canada, Foreign Affairs officials advised her not to return to Saudi Arabia.
“The children are Saudi citizens ... and there are laws there that apply,” he said.
Under Saudi law, the children’s father has final say over whether the children can leave Saudi Arabia.
Morin met Al Bishi in 2001 when she was 17 through a mutual friend. Their first son was born in Montreal in 2002 before Al Bishi left Canada after receiving a deportation order for being here illegally.
Morin visited Al Bishi twice in Saudi Arabia before moving there in 2005.
Durocher said the relationship soured soon after.
Durocher acknowledged that releasing the audio tape could put her daughter in danger, but she said she had no other choice.
“I have to do this to help my daughter,” she said.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/News/Quebecer+stuck+Saudi+Arabia+says+kids+risk/1495422/story.html
A nice case of pure stupidity. What does she expect seriously? That we send in the JTF2? She live in another country, we must respect their laws, we can't force them to give her back. Too bad she chose Saudi Arabia, a land unfriendly to women. I'm sure suing the gov will help her cause...
Tough luck.