By Sumayya
The national government is speaking up for its plan to begin discussions regarding a criminal-sharing agreement—called an extradition treaty—with the United Arab Emirates. This defense comes as a community rights group sends out a warning about that country’s bad record on human rights.
Canada and the UAE signed a free-trade business deal last week when the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, met with Prime Minister Mark Carney during a trip to Ottawa.
They also shared plans to start official talks on a criminal-sharing treaty and a shared legal help agreement.
Amani Khalfan, a speaker for the social justice group Inter Pares, questioned what kind of message Canada is sending to the world by signing criminal-sharing and military defense agreements with the UAE, which is a nation with a worrying record on human rights.
Khalfan stated that the UAE’s history of unlawful and baseline locking up of people is “shocking.”
She pointed to the situation of a Sudanese activist named Mohammed Farouk Salman Mahmoud, who she stated was kept in a UAE jail for more than a year and a half without any official charges.
Government heads stated he was being checked for insulting the top leader of the UAE. The group Amnesty International stated he was let out of jail on August 22.
The UAE has gained more importance in world politics and has received praise for its work to stop wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
However, the nation has also been blamed for helping a fighter group in Sudan that is accused of mass killings—a claim that the government in Abu Dhabi denies.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., walk away after taking part in a signing event with their government ministers on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during a visit on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
“While we see that spreading out our trade and investment is an important goal, it is obvious that the UAE is helping a fighter group that has done mass killings, and keeps doing it,” Khalfan stated.
“In the middle of such killings, putting business partnerships before human rights means that Canada runs the risk of looking for blood money in the UAE.”
Kwame Bonsu, a speaker for the Department of Justice, said that strengthening Canada’s foreign partnerships for checking, taking to court, and stopping serious crime is vital to keeping Canadian people safe.
Bonsu stated that a criminal-sharing treaty would help bring to court individuals blamed or found guilty of serious crimes, like illegal money cleaning, drug selling, or computer crimes.
“The UAE’s growing and successful international partnerships on criminal sharing and shared legal help with nations that handle these problems in a similar way to Canada, like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands, makes this a good moment to look again at the UAE’s invitation to talk with Canada,” Bonsu said.
Bonsu stated that a shared legal help treaty would make it easier to trade evidence and other types of law assistance during criminal checks and court cases.
“This kind of agreement helps authorities in both nations check and punish serious crimes,” Bonsu said.
A criminal-sharing treaty is an agreement between nations that allows one country to ask for the capture and moving by another country of an individual blamed for crimes.
The national government’s website states that there are three main steps to Canada’s criminal-sharing process.
First, the justice minister must give an “authority to proceed” paper. Then, Canadian courts must state if there is enough proof to defend a person’s criminal transfer. The justice minister must also choose whether to order the person’s final surrender to the foreign country.
The person can then ask for a court review of the minister’s order or fight the choice.
“In all situations, the behavior for which the criminal sharing is asked must be thought of as a crime in both the asking country and in Canada,” states the government website.
The Extradition Act states that the minister must refuse to give a transfer order if they believe it would be “unfair or cruel,” or if the request for criminal sharing is made to punish someone because of things like their race, religion, or citizenship.
The law states the minister can also refuse to give a transfer order if they think the behavior for which the request was made can be punished by death under the laws of the country asking for the person.
Ketty Nivyabandi, the top leader of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking group, said in an email that her group is also worried by the talks of a criminal-sharing treaty because of the UAE’s “upsetting” history on human rights.
“Amnesty International has recorded deeply unfair large trials, baseless jailings, and forced disappearances in the UAE, including the disappearance of a poet named Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi following his criminal transfer in 2025,” she stated. “Our global studies have also found that physical abuse matches up with forced disappearances.”
Nivyabandi stated that Canada should not trust political promises from the UAE. She stated such promises cannot safely stop physical abuse or erase Canada’s legal promise never to send a person where they face a true danger of bad treatment.
“If these talks go forward, Canadian officials must move with extreme safety and, in the end, should not enter into an agreement unless and until they have proof and full trust that human rights will be protected,” Nivyabandi stated.
Seventeen community groups signed an open letter earlier this year warning Canada against deeper connections to the UAE and arguing that the country is keeping the war going in Sudan. The letter stated that as Canada tries to spread out its trade, it needs to show support for human rights as a core Canadian value. Carney traveled to the United Arab Emirates last year. At the end of that November trip, the prime minister stated that Ottawa was working on a $1-billion project to grow important mineral processing power in Canada.
The UAE promised to invest around $70 billion in Canada.
The Prime Minister’s Office stated that last week’s trip by the crown prince to Ottawa led to “big progress” on the UAE’s promise to spend money in Canada.
