Original author: Haroon Siddiqui
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: September 22, 2005

Alexandre Trudeau is passionate in his critique of the subject of his next documentary, the federal security certificates under which five terrorism suspects have been in jail for about the last five years.

Two of them have gone on hunger strikes, evoking media memories of the 1981 prison hunger strike of Irish republican Bobby Sands who died after 66 days.

A more contemporary comparison would be with that of the recent 70-day hunger strike by Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji in Tehran's infamous Evin prison, the same place where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was killed.

Ganji has been in jail since April 2000 for exposing the murderous activities of the ruling mullahs. In June, he stopped eating in protest against, among other things, his solitary confinement and the refusal of officials to let him see his wife and family. In mid-July he had to be rushed to hospital where, a month later, under circumstances not known to the public, he broke his fast.

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