Original author: Meg Hewings
Source: Hour Magazine
URL: [link]
Date: November 17, 2005


The real life experience of Montrealer Adil Charkaoui could have come straight out of a Kafka novel.

In fact, his story will be part of an adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, in which unsuspecting protagonist Joseph K. awakes to a fascist nightmare when he is abruptly arrested and held without charge or evidence.

The Teesri Duniya Theatre and the Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui recently collaborated in order to present a Montreal version of Trial, a play written this past summer by social justice advocate Matthew Behrens and staged by theatre director Laurel Smith in Toronto. The play shows the striking parallels between the novel's exploration of the nature of bureaucratic power and the current effects of Canada's anti-terror legislation on five immigrants, Charkaoui and four others. All remain detained by security certificates - except Charkaoui who was recently released - a measure allowing authorities to hold non-citizens for indefinite periods without fair trial, under threat of deportation.

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