Original author: Harsha Walia
Source: Georgia Strait (British Columbia)
URL: [link]
Date: September 8, 2005


Hassan Almrei is a 31-year-old Syrian national who has been held in a provincial prison in Ontario for almost four years despite never having been convicted of a crime in Canada. During the Labour Day weekend, he ended a hunger strike after 73 days, a protest during which he demanded the same rights as a federal inmate.

His main demand is to be allowed the right to one hour a day of exercise outside his cell, a right enjoyed by all federal inmates. But both the federal and provincial governments consider Hassan a provincial inmate, so he is only allowed 20 minutes of exercise a day.

Provincial prisons are generally meant to detain prisoners for short periods. So why has Hassan served four years in solitary confinement in one of them? Because to serve time in a federal penitentiary, a person must be convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than two years, and Hassan has not yet been convicted of any crime.

Hassan is one of five men-collectively known as the "Secret Trial Five"-whose lives have been torn apart by accusations that they are not allowed to fight in a fair and independent trial.Three men are imprisoned in Toronto: Mohammad Mahjoub, a refugee from Egypt in prison since June 2000; Mahmoud Jaballah, a refugee from Egypt arrested in August 2001; and Almrei, a refugee who has been facing deportation to Syrian torture since October 2001. Algerian refugee Mohamed Harkat was arrested in Ottawa in December 2002, and Adil Charkaoui, from Morocco, was seized in Montreal in May 2003.

All five men were arrested under "security certificates", an initiative of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that has been described by Amnesty International as "fundamentally flawed and unfair". Most recently, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the United Nations Committee Against Torture have also questioned Canada's use of the procedure.

Security certificates and secret evidence undoubtedly violate principles of due process and reverse the fundamental rule of innocent until proven guilty. Neither the detainee nor his lawyer is informed of the precise allegations against the accused. Additional information can be presented at any time in the absence of the detainee or his lawyer. Normal standards of evidence are explicitly waived. There is no appeal. The detainee can be imprisoned indefinitely without bail, even though they are held without charge. They can be deported, even if there is a substantial risk of torture or death. Unsurprisingly, the process has been referred to as Kafkaesque.

Security certificates are profoundly discriminatory, because they apply only to permanent residents and refugees. How easy it is to be labelled a "terrorist suspect" and face deportation if you happen to have certain origins. Security certificates-a form of legislated racism-are the most recent manifestation of a historic trend of exclusion. The historical parallels are clear: Japanese-Canadians interned and deported during the Second World War and the "red scare" of the McCarthy era. The Secret Trial Five are the tip of a mounting iceberg of victims of the "war on terror", in which racial differences are the markers and boundaries used to subordinate. According to a report published by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, hundreds of Arabs and South Asians have been interrogated without warrants since 9-11. The already vague notion of democracy has been further obscured by racial profiling, aggressive surveillance by the RCMP and CSIS, and by the use of security certificates. Federal Court Judge Andrew Mackay puts it like this: "We have our own Guantánamo Bay."

Mohammad Mahjoub is also on a hunger strike, weak and emaciated after more than 60 days, asking for contact visits with his wife and children. He has only been able to hug his children twice in five years.

In isolated jail cells at the Metro West Detention Centre in Toronto, these two men embarked on a journey of faith and hope. "I can't read because my eyes hurt and I can't walk because it hurts so much," Almrei stated before ending his protest. "But I have to take this risk to bring about change for me and others in my position." He lost more than 50 pounds in two months, and doctors said he was at a high risk for respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. His body, like his life, was rapidly running out of options before last weekend. (Hassan told his lawyers and supporters to fight for a public inquiry if he died during his hunger strike.)

On August 25 of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada announced that it will consider the constitutionality of the security-certificate process. "I am claiming no more than my right as a human being to a fair trial, to life, liberty, and security of the person, to equality as well as to freedom from arbitrary detention, and from cruel and unusual punishment," said Adil Charkaoui, who brought the challenge forward.

While the courts and politicians continue to posture, it might be too late for Mahjoub as he inches closer to death, deprived of ever even knowing why he is incarcerated in the first place.

©2005 Vancouver Free Press