Original author: COMMUNIQUE
Source: Amnesty International Canada
URL: [link]
Date:October, 2005
Canada: Absolute prohibition against torture
The prohibition against torture is a fundamental norm of international law, and as such is absolute. Not only are states expressly forbidden to commit torture, under any circumstances, they are also forbidden to return an individual to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture (Article 3 of the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment). The Canadian government has signed the Convention Against Torture (CAT), but has not fully incorporated this prohibition against return to torture into its domestic legislation, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
In January 2002 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled, in the Suresh case, that Canada "should generally decline to deport refugees where on the evidence there is a substantial risk of torture." This decision, however, left open the possibility that deportation could go ahead in "exceptional circumstances" What is meant by "exceptional circumstances" has yet to be defined.
Previously, in November 2000, the UN Committee against Torture had reminded Canada that the Convention against Torture, ratified by Canada, includes absolute protection against deportation or extradition to a country where an individual faces a serious risk of torture.
Original author: CBC News Staff Source: CBC News URL: [link] Date: October 20, 2005
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the appeal of a Syrian man who has been in a Toronto jail for four years on suspicion of terrorist links.
Hassan Almrei, who faces deportation to his homeland, is challenging the constitutionality of the federal security certificate, under which a detainee can be held indefinitely without a trial.
Almrei has been held in jail since 2001.
Almrei and his lawyers have not been allowed to see much of the evidence used by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to have him arrested, nor has he been charged nor given a trial. The certificate allows the government to keep the evidence a secret against the defendant.
CSIS alleges Almrei is connected to al-Qaeda Leader Osama Bin Laden and is a threat to Canadian security.
Original author: Dave McMurran - davemcmurran at yahoo dot ca
Source: [link]
URL: [link]
Date: October 3, 2005
Measuring Security Measures
A cross-Canada series of events that raise two key questions:
Are recent security laws and policies in Canada undermining civil
liberties?
Has mainstream media in Canada adequately framed and analyzed this issue?
From Halifax to Vancouver, CitizenShift and Ã?berculture with the participation of refugee and immigrant advocacy groups have organized two exciting weeks of film screenings and panel discussions in over ten Canadian cities. These symposiums will be held from October 17-30, 2005, and are meant to provide an open and accessible forum for debate on the issues of immigration, media, law and national security in our country.
Lots more info. Read on...
Original author: Canadian Press (CP) Source: The Brandon Sun URL: [link] Date: September 27th, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - In the years since renegade airliners toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center, debate has raged about whether national security trumps the constitutional rights of a prisoner who is believed to have links to terrorism.
But for the handful of prisoners in Canada who have already spent years in provincial jails that are woefully ill-suited to their indefinite sentences, the larger debate about constitutional rights is taking a back seat to a more pressing issue: where to put them.
"Whatever somebody is accused of, they're human beings with human rights," said lawyer Barbara Jackman, who has represented three of the four men currently detained in provincial remand facilities under security certificates.
Original author: Press Release
Source: CAIR-CAN.CA
URL: [link]
Date: August 25, 2005
For immediate release, 25/08/05
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) welcomes today's decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to hear a challenge to Canada's security certificate process.
"Security certificates violate both the rule of law and the most basic legal protections, such as the right to due process, to a fair trial, and to be free from torture," says Riad Saloojee, CAIR-CAN's executive director.
"In their current form, security certificates make a mockery of justice.
We hope that the Supreme Court will examine this regime with the critical eye it deserves," he added.
Adil Charkaoui, one of five men currently being tried under security certificates, has been granted leave by the Supreme Court to challenge the certificate process as violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and international law.
Under security certificates, the government does not have to disclose the nature of the allegations against a defendant, and evidence can be heard in secret. The process applies only to non-citizens, who can be held indefinitely under the certificates.
Original author: Haroon Siddiqui Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: September 22, 2005
Alexandre Trudeau is passionate in his critique of the subject of his next documentary, the federal security certificates under which five terrorism suspects have been in jail for about the last five years.
Two of them have gone on hunger strikes, evoking media memories of the 1981 prison hunger strike of Irish republican Bobby Sands who died after 66 days.
A more contemporary comparison would be with that of the recent 70-day hunger strike by Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji in Tehran's infamous Evin prison, the same place where Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was killed.
Ganji has been in jail since April 2000 for exposing the murderous activities of the ruling mullahs. In June, he stopped eating in protest against, among other things, his solitary confinement and the refusal of officials to let him see his wife and family. In mid-July he had to be rushed to hospital where, a month later, under circumstances not known to the public, he broke his fast.
Original author: NDP Press Release Source: NDP.CA URL: [link] Date: September 22, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPTEMBER 21, 2005
STATEMENT BY ALEXA McDONOUGH
REGARDING Mohamed Mahjoub's HUNGER STRIKE
Halifax - NDP Peace Advocate and Foreign Affairs Critic Alexa McDonough today issued the following statement:
"I am deeply concerned about the deteriorating health of Mr. Mahjoub, currently on his 76th day of a hunger strike to protest conditions at the Toronto West Detention Centre.
"Mr. Mahjoub's demands are reasonable and justified. The Ontario government's decision to send Mr. Mahjoub to hospital, albeit temporarily, was a welcome first step. It is also an indication of the gravity of his medical situation. I sincerely hope that the Ontario government conducted the liver biopsy to treat Mr. Mahjoub's hepatitis C, contracted in jail, and treated his knee injury prior to returning him to prison.
"Furthermore, the continued refusal to allow Mr. Mahjoub to see his children without a barrier is unnecessarily cruel.
"Security Certificates are a violation of basic human rights. They fly in the face of all that Canada purports to stand for. Canadians want an end to the use of these discriminatory and unjust practices. Thanks to NDP Justice Critic Joe Comartin, Parliament's Sub-Committee on National Security tasked with reviewing Bill C-36 is also reviewing Security Certificates.
"I hope that the Ontario government will do the right thing and ensure that Mr. Mahjoub, facing the risk of kidney damage and cardiac arrhythmia, gets the necessary treatment he is entitled to."
Original author: Press Release
Source: Coalition Justice pour Adil Charkaoui Listserv
Date: September 19, 2005
ATTENTION: NEWS EDITORS
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials
in Canada
PO Box 73620
509 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON
M6C 1C0
(416) 651-5800
[email][link]Day 75 of Hunger Strike of Mohammad Mahjoub: Wife of Secret Trial Detainee Leads Noontime Rally
Monday, Sept. 19, 12 Noon,
Offices of Corrections Minister Monte Kwinter,
25 Grosvenor St. (2 blocks north of Yonge and College)
On Monday, September 19 at 12 Noon, outside the offices of Ontario Corrections Minister Monte Kwinter (25 Grosvenor, two blocks north and west of Yonge and College), Mona Elfouli will lead a rally calling for immediate intervention to save the life of her husband, secret trial detainee Mohammad Mahjoub, now in day 75 of a hunger strike in solitary confinement at Metro West Detention Centre. The group will then march to Queen's Park and demand a meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is ultimately responsible for the life of Mr. Mahjoub.
Original author: Professor Sharryn J. Aiken, Queen's Univ.
Source: Forwarded to NOWAR-PAIX Email List
Date: September 18, 2005
[full letter to Anne McLellan originally written October, 2004 re-printed below]
Please forward and post:
PRESS RELEASE - Statement by Lawyers against the War
Lawyers Against the War deplores the conditions inflicted by the governments of Canada and Ontario that have driven Security Certificate prisoners Hassan Almrei and Mohammad Mahjoub to life-threatening hunger strikes.
The Security Certificate system under which non-citizens are arrested and detained indefinitely on the basis of secret evidence is a violation of Canadian and international human rights law. A letter of October 14, 2004 to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness by more than sixty eminent legal authorities, expressed 'grave and urgent concern about both the arbitrary detention and the removal to torture of non-citizens in Canada pursuant to the Security Certificate procedure'. The full letter is attached to this statement.
We believe that this un-Canadian behaviour is a result of the new American witch-hunt that is the Bush administration's illegal and mendacious 'War on Terror', which has already resulted in the Canada's complicity in the torture of our own citizens.
Source: email from Paul Copeland, lawyer
for Mohamed Harkat
Date: September 15, 2005
Paul Cavalluzzo
Source of Photo: CBC.CA
What follows are extracts from a press conference held by Paul Cavalluzzo, counsel to the Arar Inquiry, September 14, 2005 in Ottawa
Paul Cavalluzzo: Although many of our hearings have been in camera, as is the case in analogous areas of the law like national security certificate cases, there are two fundamental differences with our procedure. First, the government evidence was vigorously tested on two bases. Our objectives were to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the evidence and to ensure that the evidence is the kind of information which should be heard in camera. The second difference is that government witnesses were cross-examined by independent commission counsel who had access to all of the documents and information we demanded from the government.
As a lawyer I believe that the procedure we adopted might be a model for other areas of the law, such as national security cases which many Canadians believe is fundamentally unfair. Our procedure hopefully accomplished two values which underlie our legal system. First, in this kind of case, government evidence should be vigorously tested by independent counsel and not brought forward before a judge on an ex parte basis. Secondly, secret government evidence should be vigorously tested to ensure that it should not be disclosed to the public particularly when it is the government's actions or inaction under review. Transparency and openness should be the general rule.
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.