Two Canadians who were jailed in Egypt have been released.
However, they are being delayed from coming back home to Canada by “red tape.” (In this case, “red tape” means that some paperwork still needs to be processed.)
John Greyson, a filmmaker, and Tarek Loubani, a doctor, have been in an Egyptian jail for more than seven weeks.
In mid-August, the two Canadians witnessed a violent anti-government protest in Egypt.
Loubani came to the aid of some of the wounded people and Greyson filmed the incident.
The two men were later arrested by Egyptian authorities and thrown in jail.
More than 600 others, mostly Egyptians, were also arrested.
Greyson and Loubani were never charged. In other words, the Egyptians never said why they were thrown in jail.
In the jail, the conditions were very bad and the two were treated badly.
Canadian government representatives, as well as friends and family members fought hard to have Egyptian authorities let the two men out of jail.
On Sunday morning, they were successful.
Greyson and Loubani were let go from jail and taken to the Canadian embassy in Cairo.
They booked a flight to Frankfurt, Germany but they were not allowed to board the plane.
The Egyptian government said they could not leave the country until their paperwork is finalized, which may take a few weeks.
The men are in a safe location in Cairo and have been spending much of their time combing through their emails and contacting friends back home.
The two Canadians say they are in good health. It may take several weeks before they can travel home to Canada.
Note: This is a breaking story; more facts will emerge as this situation develops.
Related links
Read TKN’s previous article about Loubani and Greyson.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The article explains that Greyson and Loubani were able to get out of jail because “Canadian government representatives, as well as friends and family members fought hard to have Egyptian authorities let the two men out of jail.”
What arguments do you think the government, friends and families made? Why do you think authorities in Egypt agreed to let them go?
Reading Prompt: Demonstrating Understanding
This is quite a complicated story. Read the previous story TKN wrote about Greyson and Loubani (using the link above) and read this article carefully. Then write a summary of the situation in a short paragraph. Make sure your paragraph has three main parts: 1. a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph, 2. details that support your main idea, 3. a summary sentence.
Junior
Demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing and explaining important ideas and citing relevant supporting details (OME, Reading: 1.4).
Intermediate
Demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing important ideas and citing a variety of details that support the main idea (OME, Reading: 1.4).
Grammar Feature: Pronoun
A pronoun is a word such as he, she, it, they that takes the place of one or more nouns in the subject of a sentence. For example, the pronoun they is used in the following sentence to replace Greyson and Loubani’s friends and family members as well as the Canadian government representatives: “On Sunday morning, they were successful.”
Rewrite the article using pronouns. How does it change the article? Does it make it easier or more difficult to read?
