— Michael Brailovsky is embarked on a vigorous campaign to mobilize support from the Canadian government and opposition parties in Parliament, the legal, academic and scientific communities and the media to help secure freedom for his brother, Soviet-Jewish scientist and dissident Viktor Brailovsky who is incarcerated in Moscow’s Butyrka prison.
Brailovsky, who lives in Haifa, Israel, said his brother was imprisoned on false charges of “circulation and fabrication of information defaming Soviet public and State order” and has been held incommunicado since November 13, 1980. He said Viktor, 45, suffers from a chronic liver ailment.
Public figures Brailovsky met with last week included Minister of Trade and Commerce Herb Gray; Solicitor General Robert Kaplan; Edward Broadbent, leader of the New Democratic Party in the House of Commons; former Secretary of State for External Affairs Flora MacDonald; and top officials of the Ministry of External Affairs.
“We shall ask the Canadian government to protest the continuous detention of my innocent brother, to call for his immediate release and permit him, his wife and children to immigrate and be reunited with the rest of his family in Israel,” Brailovsky said.
Irwin Cotler, McGill University law professor and counsel to Viktor Brailovsky, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “We will ask the Canadian Parliament to pass a standing order 33 which is a unanimous resolution of the House on behalf of Viktor Brailovsky.” The Canadian government also will be asked to lodge a protest with the Soviet Ambassador in Ottawa.
CANADA TO PURSUE SHCHARANSKY CASE
In another development relating to the fate of imprisoned Soviet Jewish dissident Anatoly Shcharansky, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau has promised to “raise the case of Shcharansky again” with the Soviet authorities. Replying to a letter from Broadbent inquiring about Shcharansky, Trudeau noted that “Canadian representations were made on last November 14 on instructions of (Secretary of State for External Affairs Marc) McGuinan directly to the Soviet delegation” at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Madrid.
“It would be unwise to suggest that we have moved the Soviet authorities on this case,” Trudeau wrote, “but I can say that our representations were received in a serious manner by the Soviet representatives in Madrid.” He added that “after the Madrid conference, there will be fewer opportunities to raise cases of violations of human rights” but “we intend to raise humanitarian or family reunification cases on a bilateral basis and will raise the case of Shcharansky again if it appears that we can help him in any way.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
