Bio
Photo by Alan Dean
Kerry has worked for almost twenty years as a human rights and civil liberties advocate on a wide range of local, regional, national and international issues.
She was born in London, England and was two years old when her family moved to Canada. She grew up in the west end of Ottawa, eventually studying communications at the University of Ottawa, where she became active on on international human rights issues.
For several years Kerry volunteered with the East Timor Alert Network, helping to expose how Canadian trade and relations with Indonesia’s military dictatorship were helping to fuel human rights abuses in illegally-occupied East Timor. Through the mid-nineties she represented ETAN as a spokesperson in the media, at rallies, international conferences, conventions, universities, high schools, union education programs and churches.
Kerry organized national speaking tours for activists from East Timor and Indonesia including Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta and “Team Timor”—a national speaking tour of eleven East Timorese and two Indonesian activists that coincided with Indonesian president Suharto’s participation in APEC meetings in Vancouver.
In August 1999, in the lead-up to East Timor’s referendum on self-determination, she organized and participated in the Canadian Labour Congress-led, multi-sector delegation to East Timor.
After East Timor gained its independence, Kerry continued her social justice work, volunteering and working professionally as a strategist and organizer on a wide range of issues.
In May 2003, eight months into the struggle for the release of her husband, Maher Arar, Monia Mazigh approached Kerry for strategic support. Kerry went on to play a coordinating role in the last five months of the campaign for Maher’s release, working closely with Monia, Amnesty International, the Council on American Islamic Relations and other organizations.
Kerry first met Maher when he was reunited with his family at Dorval Airport on October 6, 2003. She was instantly struck by his charisma and principled determination — characteristics that would eventually win over the Canadian public.
Kerry worked with Alex Neve from Amnesty International to de-brief Maher about his experience, and went on to work with Maher, Monia and human rights and civil liberties organizations in the campaign for a public inquiry.
Once the Arar Inquiry was set up, she coordinated the work of the eighteen national and international human rights, labour, civil liberties organizations with Intervenor status, analyzing documents, listening to testimony and proposing questions for witnesses.
A key focus for these organizations was the pattern behind what had happened to Maher.
To that end, Kerry conducted in-depth interviews with Ahmad El Maati and Abdullah Almalki, and wrote detailed chronological accounts of their experiences in Syria and Egypt.
When the Iacobucci Inquiry was established to examine their cases, Kerry researched and authored an extensive chronology about the men’s cases for the Intervenors, highlighting the questions the Iacobucci Inquiry should answer.
It was around that time that several people, including Alex Neve, the Globe and Mail’s Jeff Sallot and Maher Arar encouraged Kerry to write a book on the cases, and she did. Kerry’s first book, Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, was published by Penguin Canada on August 26, 2008.
Kerry has pledged any profits she makes from sales of this book to Amnesty International Canada.
