# The Toronto transit detention

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Toronto transit detention," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-toronto-transit-detention/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of being seized at the aircraft door in Toronto by two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, told 'you are not welcome in Canada,' and walked by both arms through the airport onto his connecting flight, while transiting home from a trip on which the Greek government had hired him to help write a whistleblower protection law.*

- **Where:** Toronto, in transit
- **By whom:** Two officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- **Said to him:** "You are not welcome in Canada"
- **Routing:** Washington–JFK–Athens outbound; Athens–Toronto–Washington return
- **Parting instruction:** "Don't come back to Canada"

**The Toronto transit detention** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of being physically escorted through Toronto Pearson airport by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police while changing planes on his way home from Athens. He tells it as a short personal story, and treats the humiliation as the point of the exercise.

## The trip

Kiriakou dates the episode to shortly after his release from prison in 2015, having served 23 months for blowing the whistle on the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) torture programme, *"Something I would do again today if I had the opportunity."*[1] The Greek government had hired him to help write a new whistleblower protection law and flew him to Athens to meet the Minister of Justice, the Minister of State for Anti-Corruption and half a dozen parliamentarians.[1]

The routing is part of the story: *"they did it on the cheap. And the cheapest way to get me out to Athens was to fly out through JFK and to fly back to Washington through Toronto. Toronto is in Canada."*[1]

## The stop

Two Mounted Police officers intercepted him at the door of the aircraft as he was getting off, *"and grabbed me by both of my arms. I said, 'Hey, what's up?' One of them turned to me and said, 'You are not welcome in Canada.'"*[2]

Kiriakou says he pointed out that he was not entering the country: *"I'm not entering Canada. I'm walking from one plane to another so I can go home to Washington."* Nothing further was said to him. *"They didn't say anything else to me the whole time, but they physically pulled me by the arms through the airport with people taking pictures and video. It was all very embarrassing and humiliating, which I think was probably the point."*[3]

They then walked him onto the connecting flight. As he sat down and put his seatbelt on, they said: *"Don't come back to Canada."* He records it as his last experience of the Canadians.[4]

Kiriakou told the story as the preamble to an interview with Richard Falk, the former United Nations special rapporteur, who had himself been held for questioning by Canadian border security on his 95th birthday and asked whether he constituted a security threat, a coincidence Kiriakou drew out deliberately.[4]

## See also

- [Kiriakou Greek whistleblower law](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-greek-whistleblower-law)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)

## Sources

1. Complicity In Gaza's Genocide w/ Richard Falk (2025-11-25), at 01:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9bYpFCKnk&t=67s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-25-the-deep-focus-show-complicity-in-gaza-s-genocide-w-richard-falk/
2. Complicity In Gaza's Genocide w/ Richard Falk (2025-11-25), at 01:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9bYpFCKnk&t=98s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-25-the-deep-focus-show-complicity-in-gaza-s-genocide-w-richard-falk/
3. Complicity In Gaza's Genocide w/ Richard Falk (2025-11-25), at 02:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9bYpFCKnk&t=130s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-25-the-deep-focus-show-complicity-in-gaza-s-genocide-w-richard-falk/
4. Complicity In Gaza's Genocide w/ Richard Falk (2025-11-25), at 02:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h9bYpFCKnk&t=163s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-25-the-deep-focus-show-complicity-in-gaza-s-genocide-w-richard-falk/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-toronto-transit-detention/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt