OTTAWA — John Letts says he's on a mission to save his son Jack's life, but also to change the way people think about him.
Letts, who lives in England, is in Ottawa this week to press federal officials to help get Jack, who is Canadian, out of a squalid Kurdish prison in northeastern Syria.
He stresses that Jack, 26, has been held without charge or access to a lawyer, or any form of consular assistance from Canada, for over four years.
Letts believes his son is innocent, and he wants to dispel the notion that his boy joined the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
He says the allegation was sparked by tabloid headlines and there is no evidence that Jack supported a terrorist organization or committed a crime.
"I'm here to try to help save my son's life, even to find out that he's actually still alive. And if he needs medical attention, I want him to get that," Letts said in an interview.
"But in a broader sense, I'm trying to change the narrative about my son, who I think is innocent. So I want to try to communicate that to Canadians and Canadian politicians who are in a position to do something."
Jack Letts is one of several Canadians among the estimated thousands of foreign nationals held in Syrian camps by Kurdish forces that wrested back the war-torn region from ISIL.
Global Affairs Canada says the government's ability to provide consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited given dangerous conditions, adding it cannot discuss individual cases due to privacy restrictions.
John Letts, who also has Canadian citizenship, acknowledges the hazards but doesn't accept the explanation.
"I don't want Canadians to be put in harm's way. But I think our Armed Forces and security personnel are also pretty well trained, and I think they can probably cope with most of those things."
While Jack Letts was born in Oxford, England, John recalls bringing his son to Canada, where he went ice fishing and grew fond of poutine.
Jack became a devoted Muslim as a teen, but his father says he saw no signs of extremism. At 18, the boy went on holiday to Jordan, then studied in Kuwait.
"And the next thing we know is in Syria," his father said. "I would like to grill him about that."
But he adds: "I don't think he was one of those people who did horrible things. I'm convinced of it."
The British government stripped Jack of his citizenship in 2019.
John Letts and wife Sally have long pointed to evidence from a human-rights lawyer who visited their son that potentially incriminating statements from Jack to British television journalists were made under the threat of torture.
They say Jack stood against ISIL and was even put on trial for publicly condemning the group.
"I believe in the rule of law, I think people should be considered innocent till proven guilty. If there's anything that my son Jack has done, I think he should be put on trial for it and punished, I don't have any problem with that," Letts said.
"I have faith in the Canadian judicial system, and I still have faith in Canadian values. I still believe that we don't just lock up people and let them rot in a in a foreign prison cell."
John said he and Sally have not spoken to Jack in almost five years, the last contact being a strange and rather subdued letter from their son about a year ago.
"But to be honest, I don't know if he's still alive."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2021.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
