How Responsible Should Our Government Be?

That is the question of the day.

When Canadian citizens choose to travel back to the countries that they escaped from as refugees, how responsible shall the Canadian government be when they get into trouble or end up in jail? It has the opposition parties in a uproar these days, I mean really, let's send in the big guns to Egypt and China and rescue our poor citizens. Mohamed Essam Ghoneim al-Attar, has been jailed in Egypt for 15 years for being an Israeli spy. He denies it vehemently and claims to being tortured. He probably is being tortured, but what is Canada to do?

He fled Egypt, the land of his birth six years ago as a refugee and made a decision to go back to visit friends and family. Very bad decision.

The other case is of Huseyin Celil, who grew up in China and came to Canada as a refugee in 2001. He had a lot less luck actually, he will be in jail for life in China accused of the two crimes of "separating China and ... organizing, leading and participating in terrorist groups and organizations" according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. His wife and children live in Toronto and claim he is innocent. He only went back to visit family and again in my opinion, a very bad decision.

Now maybe I'm really stupid or something but it seems to me that when you escape from a country and claim refugee status in a new country you would think long and hard before you decided to go back.

After immigrating to Canada my Mom, who had family in the former East Germany didn't go back for many years because she was afraid they wouldn't let her out again. She never saw her parents alive again. Finally, a couple of years before the wall came down she decided to risk it knowing full well that no one would come to her rescue if things went bad. I tried my darndest to talk her out of it but she was pretty adamant. Of course she got out again, but she was just a little fish, wasn't into anything political and they had no real reason to keep her, but I worried the whole time she was gone and it could have turned into a bad decision.

There is currently another Canadian in trouble, this time in Ethopia. Bashir Makhtal is being detained and of course, family and friends say he is innocent....

I am not making a judging as to whether or not these men are guilty or innocent, but a Canadian passport cannot guarantee you unlimited freedom to roam the big bad world at will. There are countries out there who simply don't give a shit what citizenship you have taken, and you go out there at your own peril.