Source: Toronto18.com - 9-jun-08

After every hardship comes ease, and after every pain comes relief. Sorrow does not last forever, as after the deepest darkness comes forth the greatest light.

I hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. I received your letter on June 5 (four of them). I was extremely delighted to see three packages arrive at the same time! Especially with the pictures. Needless to say, not much excitement takes place here, so to receive mail is always delightful. I would have wrote sooner, but I'm quite familiar with the mail system here, and anything sent out after Wednesday's tend not to make it to the recipient. Plus, I had to wait for the right officer to work, to ensure that it gets mailed out.Source: Toronto18.com - 9-jun-08

Source: Peter's Blog - 23-jun-08

Some stories are easy to tell. They have a beginning and an end, and you can easily understand what the theme is and how the narrative path leads through action to illuminate meaning. This is not one of those stories. I don't know how it ends, and I fear to think what its meaning may be. But Danish writer Isak Dinesen wrote, "All suffering is bearable if it is seen as part of a story", and as this is about suffering, perhaps it will help to tell it as a story. And I do at least know where it starts.

It starts in February, 1991 in a grade ten advanced English class at Clarkson Secondary School in Mississauga. Fifteen years earlier I had found Clarkson an all white suburban school, but by 1991 over a third of its students had been born outside Canada, and they spoke over ninety different first languages. It was both a more interesting and a more challenging place to teach. Shareef Abdelhaleem, a student I met in that class, epitomized both aspects.

22-jun-08

I have known Shareef and his family for many years. Shareef is a very decent young man and a well brought up individual, from a good family background with great characters and honour. Even since Shareef has left to Canada with his family, I have kept in touch with them, and have always had good reports about him. Shareef was not a street hustler; he was not into drugs, alcohol or crimes.

These facts however have much to do with Shareef's imprisonment.

20-jun-08

Special for captiveincanada.com

As of This morning, Friday June 20, 08, Shareef is officially in a hunger strike, after turning down his third meal, protesting the deliberate delay in dealing with the case by the prosecution and the courts.

It has been over two years since the arrests took place, with no progress whatsoever in moving toward start of the actual trial, after the prosecution has cancelled the Preliminary hearing with no apparent reason except the obvious pathetic case he has built against the accused.

Shareef will be moved to segregation this afternoon, and will be monitored by the prison authorities. This move might bare a bad consequence on his health as he had an open heart surgery weeks before the arrest.

Please, show support to Shareef and take a minute to send him a letter of how you feel about this major injustice in Canada.