e-2944 (Foreign affairs)

Petition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs

• The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), created in 1992 by the Nigerian government has abused its anonymity to encroach upon the liberties of Nigerian individuals;
• SARS targets Nigerian youth on a plethora of arbitrary grounds, including clothing and hairstyle;
• Between January 2017 and May 2020, Amnesty International has recorded 82 cases of abuse and extrajudicial killings at the hands of SARS;
• On October 20, 2020, at the Lekki Toll Gate, #EndSARS protestors were shot by Nigerian soldiers;
• The death toll continues to rise;
• Canada is involved in the training of Nigerian security forces, through its Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Program;
• The Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act and the Special Economic Measures Act condemn "violation[s] of the principles of fundamental justice and the rule of law";
• The rule of law calls for certainty, predictability, and lack of arbitrariness of the law; and
• Canada has the opportunity to reassert these principles, and Nigerian-Canadian citizens and residents pleading for them to take advantage of it.