posted on August 05, 2005 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink
Original author: Bill Curry
Source: The Globe and Mail
URL: [link]
Date: August 4, 2005
Spy agency rebuked for denying post to consul-general, citing national security
Ottawa - Canada's spy agency received a rebuke yesterday from its civilian watchdog, which concluded that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was wrong to block a diplomatic appointment to India over national security concerns.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee confirmed yesterday that it had issued its report into the matter after a closed-door investigation that heard from the CSIS agents involved in the decision and former cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal, who had lobbied for his friend Bhupinder Liddar to get the newly created position of consul-general to Chandigarh, India, in the fall of 2003.
Mr. Dhaliwal, who has seen the report, said SIRC has delivered a "devastating" critique of the spy agency that should raise serious concerns about how Canadians can wrongly be listed as security threats without their knowledge. "This report is devastating to CSIS," he said. "It's extremely critical of the way they've conducted themselves, the way they did the evaluation, the conclusions they came to. "If I was in government now, I would have some very serious questions for CSIS and the way they operate. I think that it's really unbelievable if people knew the whole story about the conduct of CSIS."
Original author: Michelle Shephard
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link] (subscribers only)
Date: Jul 27, 2005
Agency denies claims of harassment Makes rare effort to reach out to public
Canada's spy service is waging a rare public battle against an outspoken Scarborough imam who claims agents who are supposed to fight terrorism are instead terrorizing Canadian Muslims.
A flyer entitled "Community Safety" and circulated to Toronto mosques by Imam Aly Hindy alleges Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents forced their way into the house of a Muslim woman and abused and humiliated her while inquiring about her husband's activities.
"These are becoming common occurrences in our community, and we believe CSIS should stop terrorizing us," the flyer states, providing names and numbers for four Toronto lawyers.
Original author: from the diary of Benyam Mohammed
Source: The Guardian (UK)
URL: [link]
Date: August 2, 2005
Benyam Mohammed travelled from London to Afghanistan in July 2001, but after September 11 he fled to Pakistan. He was arrested at Karachi airport on April 10 2002, and describes being flown by a US government plane to a prison in Morocco. These are extracts from his diary.
They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel. I was naked. I tried to put on a brave face. But maybe I was going to be raped. Maybe they'd electrocute me. Maybe castrate me.
They took the scalpel to my right chest. It was only a small cut. Maybe an inch. At first I just screamed ... I was just shocked, I wasn't expecting ... Then they cut my left chest. This time I didn't want to scream because I knew it was coming.
One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make cuts. He did it once, and they stood still for maybe a minute, watching my reaction. I was in agony. They must have done this 20 to 30 times, in maybe two hours. There was blood all over. "I told you I was going to teach you who's the man," [one] eventually said.
They cut all over my private parts. One of them said it would be better just to cut it off, as I would only breed terrorists. I asked for a doctor.
Original author: Mattew Behrens , tasc at web dot ca
Source: TASC Email List
Date: August 1, 2005
40 Days Gone: Hassan Almrei On Day 40 of Hunger Strike
from Toronto Solitary Confinement Cell;
Mohammad Mahjoub Also Hunger Striking for Over Three Weeks
AUGUST 1, 2005 - Do you remember the last ten days of June, or perhaps the long hot days of July? Do you remember anything specific about what you have done during that time? Taken a nice long walk, perhaps? Bought a new CD and sat back listening to great music? Maybe enjoyed the goodness of summer fruits and vegetables, had a good post-dinner read sitting under a tree? Embraced someone you care about?
These things seem, to many of us, so easy, so much so that they fade into memory because they are so common to our daily lives that they are almost unremarkable. Imagine, though, that everything you have just remembered of the past 40 days did not happen. That there was no food, no music, no books, no leisurely strolls, no real access to fresh air, no hugs or handshakes. And you have spent that time in a space no larger than the average bathroom, with an open toilet.
Welcome to the world of Hassan Almrei, Syrian refugee, secret trial detainee, who has spent almost four full years in a 9 X 12 concrete solitary confinement cell in Toronto. Faced daily with the possibility that the Canadian government will deport him to torture in Syria -- even after its own internal documents acknowledge the government does not even have enough scraps of so-called evidence to lay a criminal charge against Hassan -- he is also trying to deal with problems much closer to home.
Original author: Linda Leibowitz of
Campaign To Stop Secret Trials and Deportations - Edmonton
Source: Ecawar.org
Date: July 30, 2005
Please read the article following this one, by Matthew Behrens of Toronto's Homes Not Bombs, in order to grasp what went on in court during the few days of the bail hearing of Hassan Almrie. It is a fascinating read of the hearing and I could not have written a more accurate article. What follows is my account of my stay in Ottawa and Toronto for members of ecawar as I feel that I merely represented this group and that of the Edmonton campaign to stop secret trials and deportations. We are well versed in the goals of this sub committee.
Thank you kindly my friends
Linda Leibovitz
--
Start of my visit. The March for "No One is Illegal":
I will start now with the beginning of my 11 days spent in the east. Day one found me in good company with Mrs. Sophie Harkat marching for a day with people from all parts of the country who marched for 7 days at 7 hrs per day from Montreal to Ottawa.
Canada day 2005, after 11 very trying and difficult days spent seeing the reprehensible and deplorable behavior of our government regarding deportations, detentions, and the awful conditions caused by security certificates. The pain and suffering felt by the deported and those they leave behind; the grief and sorrow of the imprisoned men, their family and friends caused by the hard hearted and tainted justice system of Canada has to be seen to be believed. Canada day in Ottawa was a cathartic day of clarity when I truly experienced the dichotomy that is Canada. The happy and jubilant crowd of approx. 300,000 people of all colours and creeds were celebratory and obviously thankful to be living in this beautiful country. So many were new immigrants and loved Canada like a new child loves it's mother. Yes Canada is this living, nurturing, mother to those it chooses to accept as immigrants but I had spent all my time in Ottawa and Toronto seeing the dark underbelly of foulness which security certificates and deportations have caused.
Peter Mansbridge recently wrote an opinion piece in Macleans in which he makes a strange and insensitive comparison between his interview with Moe and his potential future interview with serial rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo.
Below are some reader's responses that have been forwarded to me by email:
==================
July 28, 2005
Peter Mansbridge is right about one thing. Few - if any - of us have enough sympathy for Paul Bernardo to want him granted a television interview. But a growing number of people understand the injustice of racial profiling and terrorism-driven fear mongering that has led to the incarceration of Mohammad Harkat and the other "Secret Trial Five" Muslim men, without trial and without charge for a total of over 211 months (as of July 2005). For Mansbridge to compare Bernardo and Harkat is misleading and inaccurate - one is a proven sexual predator - the other is a man fighting for his life against horrific allegations that have destroyed him and his family without ever having being proven in a court of law. That one of Canada's most acclaimed journalists cannot differentiate between the two is an unfortunate but rather telling comment on the state of media bias in this country. Stories like Harkat's must continue to be told for the sake of truth and human rights, not to mention journalistic integrity.
Ayesha Adhami
Toronto, Ontario
===================
July 28, 2005
Sent to Maclean's and posted on my website:
"Prime-time killers - How much can you believe when you interview vicious criminals on the air?"
How much can one believe of what Mansbridge says in his newscasts? I've heard him state a number of things as fact that were - too late to change the public perception - proven false.
But what point is Mansbridge attempting to make in his rather sulky article? That it's not worth the trouble to interview high profile jail inmates? I doubt it, since I'm sure he is well paid for doing so, and it attracts viewers who might not otherwise tune in.
I'm glad to see him admit that he was aggressive with Harkat - he should interview CSIS that aggressively - but the reason he learned nothing new was because there wasn't anything to learn. It was vital, however, that the public have a chance to see that Harkat was a human being, not just a secret CSIS file or some kind of monster. Paul Bernardo is a different kettle of fish altogether, and it was crass of Mansbridge to imply otherwise.
Corinne Allan
http:/www.yayacanada.com
=============
July 27, 2005
The article was rather decent of Mansbridge, that Mansbridge mentioned that people were unhappy with his "aggressive" coverage of Harkat, and that Bernardo would not generate the negative response against mansbridge's comments, since being aggressive towards a murderer doesn't generate the same kind of sympathy.
The article could have been worse, like his interview with Harkat for instance. Being "aggressive" in a human rights situation especially violation of international law is not particularly an intelligent way of doing interviews.
In Solidarity,
Maria Al-Masani
===========
"All I Know is My Four Walls", Hassan Almrei Seeks Bail
Original author: Matthew Behrens, tasc at web dot ca Source: TASC Email List Sate: July 27, 2005
Below is a link to the full report from the second part of the bail hearing for secret trial detainee Hassan Almrei, held almost four years in solitary confinement, without charge, on secret evidence neither he nor his lawyers are allowed to see, at Metro West Detention Centre in Toronto. The report covers everything from the CSIS officer who needed help with his geography to the countless national security objections which were raied by government lawyers in response to fairly innocuous questions.
If you have trouble accessing the link, please let us know and we will cut and paste the report into an email for you. Feel free to forward either the link or the whole story to other email lists.
In related secret trial news, Hassan is now in day 35 of a hunger strike, with no end in sight. Mohammad Mahjoub, also in solitary confinement, is in day 20 of a hunger strike. Mahmoud Jaballah is making an application for bail this August that is being contested by the federal government, despite the fact Jaballah has been held four years without charge. All men, along with Mohamed Harkat in Ottawa and Adil Charkaoui in Montreal, continue to fight efforts by the federal government to deport them to torture.
Original author: Maha Zimmo Source: MediaMonitors.net URL: [link] Date: July 21, 2005
"As of September 6th 2005, Sophie will have spent one thousand and one nights living under the shadow of destruction that began when her husband Mohamed was arrested via the auspices of the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) Certificate, accused of having ties to terrorists. Within moments, anyone associated with a man detained behind the secret evidence of the Security Certificate has a new descriptive. In the case of Sophie, she has gone from being the wife of Mohamed or “Moe” as she calls him, to being the wife of a “terrorist” as he is being called."
On one of the hottest and most humid evenings Ottawa has experienced this summer, I sit across a patio table from Sophie Harkat, watching her wipe her brow and fan herself as students chatter around us. She is irritated and tired after a long day and warns me that I "don't want to catch [her] in a bad mood on a hot day". I take this as my cue to not engage in an interview just yet, and instead listen to her recount some wildly funny moments about a day that included two documentary film makers, a lawyer, a motorcycle and an interesting bus ride.
Original author: unsigned editorial Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: June 30, 2005
Canada has had to detain few people as terror suspects since the 9/11 attacks. We have four Arab men in custody. They arrived here, were deemed inadmissible as terror suspects, and are being held on "national security certificates" as they fight deportation. A fifth is free until his case can be decided, but is tightly monitored. That is a small group.
Even so, Canadians are increasingly troubled by this controversial business of holding people for years without putting them on trial.
And rightly so, because it is an affront to human rights.
As Alexandre Trudeau noted this week, "it's in the interest of Canada to not be detaining people who haven't been charged" with a crime.
Trudeau made his statement at a Federal Court bail hearing for Hassan Almrei, a Syrian who has been held at the Metro West Detention Centre for 3 1/2 years. Trudeau and other prominent figures have offered to post bail.
Original author: Thomas Walkom
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: July 2, 2005
Celebrities take up cases of five held in indefinite detention
There is some good news. After four years of running scared, people are beginning to realize that, hey, maybe it's not a good idea to eliminate civil liberties entirely in the name of fighting terror.
The cheering news this week was the decision of Alexandre Trudeau, the late prime minister's son, to testify on behalf of Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei, who has been held without charge in a Toronto jail for almost four years.
Almrei and the other four Muslims held under the provisions of so-called security certificates haven't aroused a wave of sympathy in Canada. The government wants to deport them because it says it has evidence that they are connected to terrorism. But it won't say what that evidence is.
It has admitted that it does not have enough to charge them in criminal court with terrorism.
This puts the five in the unenviable position of trying to fight shadows. In most cases, they don't know where Canada's security forces obtained the information being used against them. Even when they do, they cannot cross-examine the source.
What if he got his facts wrong? What if he provided information under torture? What if he is lying? What exactly did he say? The accused can never know.
In a normal world, there would have been an outcry long ago. But like Americans, Canadians were frightened by 9/11. They feared the CN Tower would be blown up by Al Qaeda. They secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, mistrusted swarthy men with moustaches.
So there was not much sympathy. And, in the media - with a few notable exceptions - there was not much coverage.
Click on the photo of Mohamed to see all items related to him. JUNE 2017: Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional.
This fight is not over. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee will re-double its efforts to see that justice is done for Mohamed Harkat and that the odious security certificate system of injustice is abolished once and for all.
