Project Thread

The following events took place in and around Toronto, Ontario in 2003 and 2004. Dubbed "Project Thread" by the RCMP, this comic describes a bungled and illegitimate sting operation against 24 Pakistani men and 1 Indian man. These people were falsely accused as terrorists although legal charges against them were based on racial profiling, faulty or fabricated evidence, and media sensationalism.

While charges against the men were quietly dropped early on in the case, the Canadian government, caught up in the racist backlash of post-9/11 paranoia, decided to deport the men regardless of their innocence. Canada has never publicly acknowledged its wrong-doing or apologized to these men or their families.

While the case has been "officially" closed for years now, its effects are still felt in the migrant communities of Toronto and in the lives of the deported detainees. Meanwhile, the blatant problems in the Canadian justice system and the racist assumptions that allowed Project Thread to occur are still very much in place.

In April 2006, supporters of the Project Thread deportees had a chance to tell another side of the story at the People's Commission on Immigration and Security Measures, a grassroots public forum held in Montreal.

This story is based on what they, and the detainees themselves, had to say.

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