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OTTAWA — Stymied for months in their attempts to gain access to imprisoned Canadian Bashir Makhtal, diplomats were forced to rely on information from “a trusted intermediary,” newly obtained documents show.

At one point last September, Ottawa looked into whether Makhtal would be freed by Ethiopian authorities as part of the African country’s milliennium celebrations - a notion that quickly fizzled.

Hundreds of pages of records released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act chronicle a trail of frustrated efforts by Foreign Affairs officials to assist the former Toronto man languishing behind bars in Addis Ababa for a year and a half.

A candid departmental assessment of recent upheaval in Ethiopia underscores the challenges: “Post-electoral violence, judicial processes that did not fully respect due process, and regional or ethnic exclusion in the political system have not been good for Ethiopian politics,” say “talking points” prepared for Makhtal’s case.

Consular officials recently met with Makhtal in prison for the first time. He has not been allowed to see a lawyer and there is continuing confusion over why he is being detained.

Makhtal, a Canadian citizen born in Ethiopia, settled in Canada as a refugee and later moved to Kenya, opening a used-clothing business. He was working in Somalia when Ethiopian troops invaded in late 2006. Makhtal fled back to Kenya, but was detained along with several others at the Kenya-Somalia border.

There have been suggestions Makhtal is of interest to the Ethiopian government due to his grandfather’s involvement in a separatist group in the country’s Ogaden region.

New York-based organization Human Rights Watch says Makhtal was among at least 34 people deported to Somalia from Kenya on Jan. 20, 2007, aboard an African Express Airways flight to Mogadishu. He was then shipped to Ethiopia.

Unconfirmed reports have hinted Makhtal was swept up in a rendition-style detention aided by western intelligence.

An internal Foreign Affairs note indicates the department knows why Makhtal is “apparently under investigation” but the reasons have been stripped out of the declassified version released under the Access Act.

Officially, the department says Ethiopia has not advised it of any charges against Makhtal.

“Officials in Ottawa and Addis Ababa continue to press Ethiopian authorities, at senior levels, on the issue of consular access, due process, and respect for rights in the case of Bashir Makhtal,” says a department briefing note drafted late last November.

“Through a trusted intermediary, we have been able to verify Mr. Makhtal’s well-being on several occasions. Due to the Privacy Act, we cannot release any further information.”

MP Paul Dewar, the NDP foreign affairs critic, received similar assurances in letter from Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson dated July 17, the day before Canadian officials were finally allowed to see Makhtal.

Dewar said it was disturbing that Canada’s diplomats had to rely for months on an intermediary to gauge the welfare of a detained Canadian citizen, adding the Conservative government should improve on its “pathetic” attempts to help Makhtal.

“The bureaucrats and the public servants have been doing their job. They’re trying to figure out a way to gain access to him,” Dewar said.

“The solution here is the government needs to step in an show some leadership, and they haven’t.”

Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, expressed Canadian concern over the case during a March visit to Ethiopia.

Both Dewar and Lorne Waldman, Makhtal’s Toronto lawyer, say that’s not enough.

“The last intervention of a foreign minister was over a year ago,” Waldman said in a recent interview. “Sending a parliamentary secretary to the foreign minister is not the same as having the foreign minister get directly involved.”

“We know that he’s not going to get a fair trial in Ethiopia given everything that even (the Foreign Affairs department’s) own documents say in terms of lack of due process.”

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