I am filled with enormous gratitude to the many people who helped me with the cultural and legal details in Borderline.
Within the Muslim community, I am particularly indebted to members of the Noor Cultural Centre in Toronto, especially executive committee member Faizal Kayum and his wife, Laila Baksh, and their son, Azeem Kayum; and to the former Noor Chair at York University, Professor Timothy Gianotti. I am also grateful to Yassir Hakim, science teacher at Collège français, Toronto, and to journalist and documentary producer Sadia Zaman.
On legal matters, I consulted New York attorney Stephen Watt of the American Civil Liberties Union; Stephen M. Perlitsch, an attorney engaged in American immigration law; and Paul Copeland, who argued the law on detention certificates before the Canadian Supreme Court.
I am also grateful for the time and assistance of Barry Rosen, press attaché to the American embassy in Tehran during the 1979–1981 hostage crisis; Margaret McPhedran Axford, regional manager with Canadian Border Services; former private investigator Stephen Dow; TASC’s Michael Behrens; American educators Frances Shoonmaker and Liesl Bolin; Reverend Gene Bolin; and the Toronto Star’s editor emeritus Haroon Siddiqui, international affairs columnist Thomas Walkom, and national security reporter Michelle Shephard.
Last, but not least, my deepest thanks to my editors, Lynne Missen, Susan Rich, Sarah Howden, Beate Schaefer, and Catherine Onder; and to my reading circle: Daniel Legault, Louise Baldacchino, Christine Baldacchino, and Vickie Stewart.