OTTAWA–A Montreal man stuck inside a Canadian embassy in Sudan for almost a year was devastated to learn he had been refused the emergency passport that would have allowed him to fly home yesterday, his lawyer said.

In a move that enraged the supporters who had fundraised to pay for Abousfian Abdelrazik's flights, the Department of Justice faxed Ottawa lawyer Yavar Hameed a short note yesterday to say the passport had been denied on grounds of national security.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs has decided to refuse your client's request for an emergency passport," the department wrote yesterday.

It cited a section of the Canadian Passport Order that allows the foreign affairs minister to "refuse or revoke a passport if the Minister is of the opinion that such action is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country."

Abdelrazik, 47, was ready to step outside the lobby of the embassy in Khartoum, where he has been granted asylum for nearly a year, and board a flight to Abu Dhabi, the first leg of a journey to Montreal yesterday afternoon, Hameed said.

Abdelrazik figured something was wrong when no one came to deliver the passport that the Canadian government said last December it would give him, so long as he could pay his own way back home.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had little to add when reporters asked him about Abdelrazik at the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France yesterday.

"I denied Mr. Abdelrazik an emergency passport on the basis of national security," Cannon said.

"So, therefore, as this file unfolds, and it will certainly be unfolding under a judicial cover, I don't want to go any further in terms of my comments on this issue."

New Democrat MP and foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar angrily accused Cannon of denying entry to Abdelrazik based on the colour of his skin.

"What else do you say? Yes!" Dewar replied to reporters when asked if he was alleging racism after he pointed out the government had paid to fly Canadian woman Brenda Martin home from Mexico, where she spent more than two years behind bars.

"He has not given this gentleman, who happens to be a different colour of skin than other citizens who have gotten help from this government, a travel document," said Dewar (Ottawa Centre.)

Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen born in Sudan, alleges Sudanese authorities tortured him after he was arrested in 2003 when he returned to visit his ill mother.

The Sudanese government has released him.

Both the RCMP and CSIS have said they have no current and substantive information linking Abdelrazik to criminal activity.

Abdelrazik's passport has expired. He is on a no-fly list under a UN Security Council resolution that imposes sanctions on individuals associated with terrorist groups and the Taliban. Another resolution says this does not prevent countries from allowing their own nationals on the list to come home.

Cannon announced last week Abdelrazik would have to be removed from the list before he could return to Canada, even though the government had originally said he just needed to be able to pay his own way.

Supporters who chipped in to pay for Abdelrazik's ticket did so despite the threat of prosecution under federal anti-terror laws.

Hameed said Abdelrazik was "beside himself" yesterday when the lawyer reached him at the embassy and told him the government said he was a threat to national security.

"He's been living there for 11 months, so he's really perplexed by that," Hameed said.

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"He can't really fathom that decision because it's never been the formal position that he is a national security risk or national security threat. It's really just been about this UN no-fly list."

Abdelrazik's lawyers are to challenge the decision in Federal Court on the grounds that it violates his Charter rights.

Hameed accused the government of acting in bad faith because officials waited until the day Abdelrazik was expected to fly home even though he requested the passport March 15.

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