EI is urging its member organisations to press the Egyptian authorities to immediately release two Canadian professors who have been detained without charges by the Egyptian police since 17 August.
At the request of its affiliate, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), EI is supporting a LabourStart petition calling for the unconditional release of Dr. Tarek Loubani and Professor John Greyson. EI’s affiliate in Egypt, ISTT, is also following the case in cooperation with EI’s regional office.
Working in collaboration
Dr. Loubani is an emergency room medical doctor at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada, and one of the architects of the Canada-Gaza academic collaboration, a project that has brought doctors from the university to Gaza to train physicians.
Professor Greyson is a professor at the Department of Film at York University and an award-winning film-maker.
They were en route to the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza strip, where they are working on an academic and medical collaboration between the Canadian University and the main hospital in Gaza.
The Egyptian border was closed, and roadblocks prevented their passage to a hotel. They stopped at a police station to ask for assistance. They took pictures of the Yazbakiya police station which was being attacked and were arrested and thrown in prison.