Jack Letts

A dozen Canadian men and children detained in Syria are complaining to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that Ottawa is discriminating against them by not assisting their return to Canada.

The Canadian government says a federal judge misinterpreted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in directing officials to secure the release of four men from detention in northeastern Syria.

The federal government has been accused of violating its international human rights obligations by refusing to help dozens of Canadian men, women and children detained in squalid camps in Syria because of their suspected links to the Islamic State.

The parents of Jack Letts, a British-Canadian man imprisoned in northern Syria, are chastising Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer for saying he wouldn't lift a finger to help their son.