Original author: Matthew Behrens
of The Campaign To Stop Secret Trials in Canada
Source: TASC Email List
Date: June 15, 2005
The Problem with Torture: No One Will Believe You
A Report Back from 24 Hours Against Torture
In the waning moments of Toronto's 24 Hours Against Torture vigil, a telling incident occurred when an angry constituent went into the office of Deportation Minister Joe Volpe and demanded to know what was going on.
This individual had just read one of our flyers, detailing the cases of the Secret Trial Five, all of whom are at risk of torture or death if deported to Syria, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. The flyer included quotations from documents released by the immigration and border services agencies which came to the conclusion that, despite the likelihood of such cruel and unusual treatment, the men should be deported anyway.
The response to his concerns, this individual said, was rather blunt. "They're making that up," he was reportedly told by office staff in reference to the group that had spent the previous 23 hours camped outside the office.
Perhaps the alleged comment was the result of a staff that has no clue what takes place in the Canadian deportation bureaucracy, which annually deports more than 10,000 people to an uncertain fate, and which plans to mark World Refugee Day, June 20, with a deportation of Nepalese refugee Subas B.K. to torture in Nepal. Perhaps they were unaware that the United Nations Committee on Torture had just called on Canada a few weeks ago to join the ranks of civilized nations and respect the absolute prohibition on deportation to torture.
Source: Montreal Muslim News Net
URL: [link]
Date: June 13, 2005
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MUSLIMS, ARABS CALL FOR REFORM OF ANTI-TERRORISM ACT, SECURITY CERTIFICATES, BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE
Measures "legitimize" targeting of Muslims and Arabs.
(Ottawa, Canada - 13/06/05) - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) and the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) will call for a reform of the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates during their testimony before the Special Senate Committee on the Anti-Terrorism Act today. The committee is also examining the issue of security certificates.
Both CAIR-CAN executive director Riad Saloojee and CAF Chairperson Omar Alghabra will be focusing their testimony on the impact of the Anti-Terrorism Act and security certificates on the Muslim and Arab communities. CAIR-CAN will also be speaking to its recent report, Presumption of Guilt: A National Survey on Security Visitations of Canadian Muslims, which documents some of the alarming tactics national security investigators use during interviews of Canadian Muslims.
Hi all.
Our group though small took three hours to walk only half way to Ms. McLellans office. The magnificent reason for the slow progress was because people truly needed our information, they did not hesitate to take information and then ask us many questions. It was one of the most successful actions we have ever had due to public participation. We garnered very many e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and on Monday we are meeting with an Egyptian man and his friends, who are currently involved in a racial profiling case in Edmonton of which I was unaware until I spoke with him.
The best publicity we could have had happened when guards from a private business ordered us off "their" business. This is a large business conglomerate who owns four or five blocks of business and stores. It would take no Einstein to predict that the guards from the federal government center called the second guards who tried to harass us into the traffic. The people at the bus stop, also on private property came to our rescue yelling "Where has happened to free speech?" or "Let them continue, they are doing no harm" and finally a very, normally sedate business man I would presume said while red in the face from fury that "If we can walk, stand and smoke on your so called private property then why can these ladies not do the same.....and the land which makes up side walk is city property!!"
Then his bus came unfortunately. This kind of attack by private companies was used that day to make them look like idiotic bullies. We the people of the streets won that day.
I am only sorry that we did not have any media cover at that point and very little afterwards but "Taking it to the Streets" was a great success. This method of action will continue in the constituency of Ms. Mclellan until the election.
Sorry the report was late.
In Solidarity.
Linda
posted on June 10, 2005 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink
Original author: Riad Saloojee
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: June 9, 2005
Treatment of Muslims and Arabs by RCMP and CSIS raises troubling questions, says Riad Saloojee
Reports about RCMP and CSIS security visitations in the Canadian Muslim and Arab community have been circulating since Sept. 11, 2001. In many of these instances - some documented, some not - individuals who were visited by security officials complained they had been harassed or intimidated.
Documenting this information has been difficult. People are afraid to identify themselves, they are concerned about reprisal and many hail from countries where reporting on abuse of power is a no-no.
Even in Canada, experts in anti-discrimination advocacy recognize that only a small fraction of such activity is documented.
Imagine then, the reticence about reporting when - whether correct or not - an individual ran the risk of being "linked" to terrorism in the public eye. The stigma of being labelled a terrorist packs a punch akin to being called a pedophile or serial killer. Not everyone has the guts and grit of Maher Arar to defend his or her rights.
Original author: Matt Kieltyka Source: 24 hours URL: N/A Date: June 9, 2005
With a cloaked man locked in a mock jail as a backdrop, human rights groups protested Canadian anti-terrorism laws yesterday in Vancouver.
Amnesty International, B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), No One Is Illegal and the Council of Canadians all joined in a nation-wide fight for the rights of four men locked up unconditionally for being "security threats."
"Innocent men are wasting away in jail cells without even being told what the allegations against them are," said Jason Gratl, president of the BCCLA. "It doesn't take a lot for them to be deported to countries where they'll be tortured."
Gratl said the fate of the "Secret Trial Five" (one of the men was set free earlier this year after 21 months) is much like Maher Arar's.
"Arar was deported for having some sort of contact with someone who was under investigation," said Gratl.
Immigration lawyer Zool Suleman says the fight for human rights isn't against the government. Rallies were also held in four other Canadian cities.
Original author: Brian O'Connor
Source: Harkat Listserv ( mohamedharkat at zerra dot net )
Date: June 9, 2005
photo by YayaCanada
We now have new photos on the Web site of June 8th actions.
They are courtesy of Ron Saba and YayaCanada.
Ottawa, June 8:
[link]
Montreal, June 8:
[link]
Alexandre Trudeau, the late Pierre Trudeau's son, was in attendance in
Ottawa. He is working on a documentary film about Mohamed Harkat!
Thanks to all those who organized and attended these events;
Original author: Tamara Lorincz Source: The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax, NS) URL: [link] (subscribers only) Date: June 8, 2005
Today is the national day of action to demand justice for the five Muslim men who have been detained without charges, and face deportation to torture under the security certificate process. Concerned Canadians are calling on the federal government to abolish security certificates, because they deny refugees and permanent residents who are in Canada their fundamental legal and human rights.
Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, sections 7-11, Canadians are guaranteed "the right to life, liberty and security of the person . . . to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure . . . not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned . . . on arrest or detention to be informed promptly of the reasons . . . to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal."
These same rights are also stipulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, international agreements that Canada claims to endorse. However, these fundamental rights are denied to non-Canadians in Canada under the security certificate process, sections 9, 76-87 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Original author: sans frontieres! sansfrontieres at resist dot ca Source: Coalition Justice pour Adil Charkaoui Listserv Date: Mon, 30 May 2005
[Second announcement; Please post and forward widely; Important updates below.]
The NO ONE IS ILLEGAL MARCH ON OTTAWA will begin in less than three short weeks! The march, organized by Solidarity Across Borders in Montreal, will begin on June 18 and walk from Montreal to Ottawa (over 200 kilometres), arriving on June 25.
The four basic demands of the Solidarity Across Borders network are: the regularization of all non-status people in Canada; an end to deportations; an end to detentions; and the abolition of security certificates. Solidarity Across Borders is a Montreal-area campaign initiated by several groups active in defending the rights of migrants, immigrants and refugees. The majority of groups within Solidarity Across Borders are self-organized committees of persons directed affected by repressive anti-immigrant and "anti-terrorist" laws and regulations.
Below you will find some important updates concerning the march. We need your involvement, your solidarity and your support! Please read and get in touch.
I have added a new document to the Downloads section.
Here:
[link]
It is Amnesty Canada's recent submission to the Special Senate Committee on the Anti-Terrorism Act and House of Commons Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National Security. They are reviewing Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act.
The title of the report is "Security Through Human Rights"
On the subject of security certificates they recommend, as they have in the past:
"The security certificate process should be reformed so as to bring it into line with Canada's international human rights obligations, including by ensuring a substantive review of the reasons for detention and by making all evidence available to the individual detained so that any potentially unfounded allegations can be effectively and meaningfully challenged.
Canadian law should be amended to conform to the important binding international obligation to never deport any individual to a country where there is a serious risk of torture."
Original author: N/A Source: 24 hours news services URL: N/A Date: May 26, 2005
Amnesty International says the U.S.-led war on terror is taking a massive toll on human rights, citing Canada as a cohort country trampling rights in the name of security.
In its annual report released yesterday, Amnesty names Canada for several human rights abuses.
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.
