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.

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