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CSIS visits can be chilling
by Sikander Hashmi
The Montreal Gazette
URL: [link]
August 18, 2007
Dorchester Square is where many workers catch some fresh air at lunch or after work.
But it's at this downtown "oasis of greenery," as Tourism Montreal calls it, that Big Brother met up with accountant "Latif Ihram" after work one day.
Actually, make that Big Sister.
The park is where the 27-year-old was questioned by a CSIS agent who goes by the name Christie Hamilton, after she called asking for an appointment.
Ihram (whose name has been changed to protect his privacy) said Hamilton was interested in knowing who ran halaqahs (religious study circles) on the South Shore and in the West Island, and wanted names of others who might be of interest to CSIS - information he wasn't prepared to offer.
But Ihram says it was Hamilton who spoke more than he did, justifying the meeting and stating "she wasn't discriminating against Muslims." Hamilton, who Ihram commends for being polite and not accusing him of anything, even told him her parents and grandparents were Irish and that they, too, felt targeted in the 1970s, when the IRA was active.
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