September 25^th, 2024

The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, P.C, M.P.

Prime Minister of Canada

80 Wellington Street Ottawa,

Ontario K1A 0A2 

Dear Prime Minister,

We, Canadian citizens, of Kabyle origins, are constituted as a collective for the release of Kabyle detainees, and we are cornered to call on you by initiating a long walk from Montreal (International Amnesty Office) to Ottawa (Parliament Hill) by covering a 180 km journey.

In Kabylia a grim milestone has been reached in terms of the most basic human rights. Currently, more than 500 Kabyle prisoners are incarcerated in Algerian prisons for exercising a universal right: freedom of expression. They’re suffering torture, humiliation, and mistreatment daily. The most shocking fact is that some suffer sexual violence, others, they poison them in their diet with small doses to kill them slowly. In addition, 38 death inmates are on death row, tried following an expeditious trial in which the right of defense is violated, for a crime orchestrated and perpetrated by the Algerian security forces. The families of detainees who dare to criticize this injustice are under pressure and intimidation from the Algerian criminal state. Thus, they find themselves muzzled, isolated, and even threatened.

Beyond the unjust convictions in Kabylia, the Algerian military dictatorship condemned thousands of Kabyles to a forced exile, primarily for refusing to be silenced, by speaking out against repression of the Kabyles, and by denouncing the systemic racism of the Algerian state against the Kabyles.

The most horrifying fact is that it burns them alive by triggering the scorched earth policy, since the repression of the Kabyles was not enough for it to subdue them. Thus, in the arsons it triggered in 2021, 2023 and 2024, more than 500 people lost their lives, leaving a devastated flora and fauna.

For your information, what was behind and allowed this unprecedented repression was the adoption of Article 87 bis of the Algerian Penal Code by presidential order on June 08, 2021, ” a broad and imprecise article, incriminating terrorism all dissent, any journalist, any human rights defender, or any political activist”. The U.S. Department of State and Amnesty International have already condemned its promulgation and requested its repeal. Similarly, Radio-Canada recently shed light on the aftermath of this article that affected Canadian citizens of Kabyle origins.

Mr. Prime Minister, the Kabyles of Canada are deeply concerned about the abuses of the Algerian State in Kabylia, and we urge you, in the name of the values of freedom, democracy and the protection of human rights which are dear to the Canadian people, to uphold Canada’s international commitments, and to plead for the release of Kabyle detainees, by recalling the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, of the international commitments that Algeria has signed and ratified in terms of respect of freedom of expression, of the press, and respect of human rights.

Sincerely,

Collective of the liberation of Kabylia’s detainees