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Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian citizen trapped in Sudan, should get himself off a UN terrorist blacklist if he wants to come home, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon says, adding a new stipulation to his repatriation and thwarting the efforts of more than 160 Canadians who have purchased a ticket home for him.

Mr. Abdelrazik is on "the 1267 UN list, and it would seem to me that he would, first and foremost, have to be able to get himself off that list," Mr. Cannon said when asked if the Harper government would honour its written pledge to issue the Montreal man a temporary passport if he could secure a flight home.

"It's up to him, its incumbent on him to make sure he gets off that list," Mr. Cannon said, although his predecessor wrote to the UN Security Council 1267 Committee in December, 2007, unsuccessfully seeking the delisting of Mr. Abdelrazik after both the RCMP and CSIS cleared him of any involvement in terrorism or crime.

That government-backed delisting request was vetoed, apparently by the United States, which added Mr. Abdelrazik to the UN blacklist in 2006, as well as to its own "no-fly" list.

The UN 1267 terrorist blacklist imposes a travel ban, but has an explicit exception allowing citizens to return home. Briefing notes prepared for the Harper cabinet in January of 2008, after Mr. Abdelrazik's delisting was rejected, confirm his right to return.

Mr. Cannon's imposition of a new and seemingly insurmountable hurdle before Mr. Abdelrazik, 46, can return home is only the latest in a series of increasingly difficult conditions set by the Harper government.

Last summer, it said Mr. Abdelrazik would be given a temporary passport if he could get a reservation on an airline. When he did, the government said that wasn't sufficient, that a fully-paid ticket was required.

"In order to facilitate Mr. Abdelrazik's return to Canada, Passport Canada will issue an emergency passport to Mr. Abdelrazik upon his submission of a confirmed and paid travel itinerary," Lu Fernandes, director general of the agency's security bureau promised in a December 23, 2008 letter.

After The Globe reported on the new hurdle, more than 160 Canadians, including former UN envoy Stephen Lewis and former solicitor-general Warren Almand, raised money to buy a ticket for Mr. Abdelrazik, who has been living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, for more than 10 months.

That ticket is for a flight leaving this Friday, but without travel documents Mr. Abdelrazik will remain marooned.

"The government had been hiding behind the excuse that they can't provide a travel document without a ticket. Now that a ticket has been purchased, the government's excuse is no longer valid," said Paul Dewar, the Ottawa Centre New Democratic Party MP. "The government has nowhere to hide."

Mr. Cannon's staff would not confirm that the minister was aware of the previous - and failed - government-backed effort to have Mr. Abdelrazik delisted or the three-month-old promise to issue travel documents if he produced a paid-for ticket.

"We will not provide further comment as this matter is currently under litigation," said Foreign Affairs spokesman Daniel Barbarie.

Lawyers for Mr. Abdelrazik, have filed a federal court suit seeking to force the government to bring him home.

"The fact he finds himself on this list doesn't mean that Canada can't bring him back," Yavar Hameed, the lawyer acting pro bono for Mr. Abdelrazik said.

Government documents, originally marked secret and now in the possession of The Globe and Mail, implicated Canadian security agencies in the original arrest of Mr. Abdelrazik, who went to Sudan in 2003 to visit his ailing mother. They show Canadian agents interrogated him in Sudanese prisons. Mr. Abdelrazik says he was beaten and tortured.

Sudan released him, saying they could no longer hold an innocent man at the behest of foreign governments. Canada originally promised the Khartoum government it would bring him home but has delayed for years.