Members of VIPIRG's No One Is Illegal campaign, dressed as Canada's political prisoners, presented CSIS representatives with a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the UVic job fair last week in a call to end secret trials in Canada. Five muslim men have been detained a collective 184 months on secret evidence that neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see. Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harket, Adil Charkaoui, and Hassan Almrei are currently detained indefinitely under Security Certificates, a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that Amnesty International has condemned as "fundamentally flawed and unfair."A noticeable security presence met the demonstrators, including Saanich police, UVic security, and an unidentified man with an earpiece. Police watched as the protestors, dressed in orange prison shirts with the names of Canada's Security Certificate Five on their chests, sang and walked through the Student Union Building during the lunch hour on Wednesday holding cardboard prison bars, a banner, and placards reading "end the use of Security Certificates," "Canada's Guantanamo Bay," and "Who Ã?s next?"

Under the Security Certificates, neither the detainees nor their lawyers are informed of the precise allegations or given the right to cross-examination. The court is not given the power to decide on the truth of the allegations, but only on whether they are "reasonable." If a judge upholds the certificate, there is no appeal. "If there is, in fact, any evidence against these men, they should be charged and tried. If there is no evidence, they need to be returned to their friends and family in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal," said participant Annie Banks.

Many prominent Canadian individuals and groups, including the NDP, Denys Arcand, Buzz Hargrove, Deborah Bourque, the KAIROS network, Bruce Cockburn, Jack Layton, Flora McDonald and hundreds of others, have called for an end to the use of secret evidence in Canada.

"This kind of thing isnÃ?t supposed to happen in Canada," said Banks. "As people start to learn about the detentions, more Canadians are becoming concerned about ending secret trials," she added.

The next action will take place on Saturday March 5 from noon to one pm in front of the Citizenship and Immigration building in downtown Victoria, when the "prisoners" will collect and mail hundreds of signed postcards calling for an end to the use of secret evidence in Canada. For more information about the campaign to end secret trials contact VIPIRG's No One Is Illegal at [email] or visit the national website at [link]

Thanks to everyone who helped and came out to make the event a success!

Naava Smolash, No One Is Illegal - Victoria