At least eight security guards at a west-end immigration detention centre are being disciplined for allowing a group of Muslim detainees to pray together, their co-workers say.
One Group 4 Security Services officer has been suspended and others sent disciplinary letters for permitting eight inmates awaiting deportation to worship together during a special prayer service last Friday, workers at the centre said.
The detainees were celebrating Jumu’ah Salah on Dec. 3 at a chapel inside an immigration detention centre, on Rexdale Blvd., according to members of Toronto’s Muslim community.
The guards said they were told they’d be terminated if they allowed the Muslims to worship together again.
The centre is dubbed “Camp Gitmo” by inmates after the U.S. prison in
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where terror detainees are isolated and kept separated from each other.
Centre workers and members of the Muslim community said the prayer ban against Muslims is discriminatory because Christian detainees are allowed to worship with a priest on Thursday and Sunday.
Anna Pape, of the Canada Border Services Agency, said it is against their practice and security protocols to leave groups of detainees in a room unattended for any purpose.
“Safety and security are paramount at our detention facility, and this situation constituted a breach of security,” Pape said Wednesday.
Detainees are free to worship and can congregate for worship as long as established security protocols are followed, she said. They can pray freely in their rooms at any time and prayer mats are made available to them.
But, Khaled Mouammar, national president of the Canadian Arab Federation, called the group prayer ban a blow against Islam.
“If Christians are allowed to worship together then why can’t Muslims?”
Mouammar said. “These people are not being treated fairly and this is wrong.”
Muslims held in GTA prisons routinely face hardship from some guards who try to hinder them from saying their daily prayers, he said.
“Some guards try to irritate or cause problems for Muslims during prayer time,” Mouammar alleged. “They are not being given the same treatment as people of other faiths.”
Taha Ghayyur, of DawaNet, a Muslim help group, said the Islamic detainees at the centre are being targeted and treated unfairly from the rest of the prison population.
“Praying will only help the inmates,” Ghayyur said. “It will be better for the detainees and the centre if they get to pray.”
Officials of Group 4 and the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 333, who represent the guards, refused comment.