Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadians the following rights and freedoms:
- freedom of conscience and religion;
- freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
- freedom of peaceful assembly; and
- freedom of association.
Since January 15, early February, members of CFI Ottawa have been exercising their rights in front of the Saudi Arabia embassy in Ottawa by protesting against jailing & flogging of Raif Badawi:
They continue to protest every Thursday despite Saudi Arabia’s own protests to Sweden and Quebec:
Minor correction: CFI Ottawa first joined the protest on January 15. On January 9 Raif Badawi received the first 50 lashes of his 1000 lash sentence. There have been worldwide weekly demonstrations condemning Raif’s detention and torture and demanding his immediate release. I’m hopeful that the attention that all these protests have drawn to the Saudi government’s execrable behaviour have had some influence on the Saudis’ decision each subsequent week to postpone the flogging. I’m also hopeful that they will soon release Badawi, if only to stop all the “annoying” attention.