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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

May 21, 2022 - 21 mai 2022

Report "Beyond Big Data Surveillance: Freedom and Fairness" sheds light on big data surveillance in Canada

ICLMG has been a partner in the Big Data Surveillance project since its beginnings

Surveillance Studies Centre 17/05/2022 - Today, Queen’s University released a new report entitled “Beyond Big Data Surveillance: Freedom and Fairness,” the first of its kind in Canada to note the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on data surveillance. Authored by David Lyon, Professor Emeritus and Former Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre, the report – based on research from 2016-2021 – identifies key challenges and areas of opportunity in data surveillance, including the need for more transparency in data collection and analysis, and calls for new digital rights and data justice for Canadians. The report examines the rapid growth of surveillance worldwide, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. An example of this noted in Canada is the use of smartphone data for public health analysis. It argues that regulations have not updated quickly enough to keep up with the ever-changing technology.


The report also finds that as big data and monitoring have evolved and been augmented by artificial intelligence and machine learning, Canadians have little idea of what personal data is being collected. Furthermore, some populations—like women, Black people, and Indigenous groups—are more exposed to surveillance than others. “To imagine that surveillance problems reside mainly in cameras on the street or in the building you enter is to live in the past. You carry the primary surveillance technology in your pocket—your phone,” said Dr. Lyon. “Surveillance is now a major public issue that demands attention on many levels, requiring not only data rights but data justice as a goal.”


Recommendations from the report include the need to:

- Move beyond privacy protection to data rights and data justice as big data proliferates and personal data is extrapolated and sorted at a mass level.

- Increase collaboration between researchers – in social and computing sciences – regulators, and civil society.

- Enable public and popular awareness of how Canadians are being impacted daily by data monitoring.


Read the report - Le rapport est aussi disponible en français

Tim McSorley's response to news article: No, modernization of the CSIS Act is not "long overdue"

Twitter 16/05/2022 - Six years ago, the Liberal government and MPs undertook TWO comprehensive reviews of Canada's national security laws - including CSIS powers.


New legislation received assent less than 3 years ago, including major updates to the CSIS Act. Security agencies will always want more. Source

Double Standard: Canada's terrorist list, the IDF, Palestinians and the case of Khaled Barakat

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute 14/05/2022 - Listen to a discussion about the National Post and Israel lobby’s recent attacks against Palestinian Canadian activist Khaled Barakat and the Samidoun Palestinian prisoner solidarity network. The event will explore how Canada criminalizes Palestinian political life through its terrorist list while supporting the violent Israeli military. More than 10 per cent of the groups on Canada’s terrorist list are from a long-occupied land with one tenth of one per cent of the world’s population. Organized by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and Just Peace Advocates. Media sponsor: Canadian Dimension


Speakers:


Miko Peled is an Israeli-American activist, author and international speaker. He is author of the books The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.


Yavar Hameed practices as a lawyer in Ontario with a focus on racial profiling, lawful expression, equality rights, prisoner rights and migrant protection. He routinely represents individuals in respect of harassment complaints involving CSIS as well as state surveillance within Canada’s Muslim and Arab communities. He has acted as counsel in several national security cases in the Federal Courts, including as a lawyer for IRFAN-Canada with respect to the revocation of its charitable status. He also teaches a course at Carleton University entitled "State, Security and Dissent."


Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian-Canadian writer and activist. His writing has been widely published in Arabic and English, in venues such as Al-Adab, Al-Akhbar and Electronic Intifada. He is a co-founder of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. Watch - Visionner


Israel lobby tries again to disrupt Canadian Palestinian solidarity


79 Canadian and international organizations have endorsed the statement: Stop the smear campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy!


ACTION: Write Letter: Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy

Liberals revive bill to create watchdog for Canada Border Services Agency

The Canadian Press 19/05/2022 - The federal Liberals are poised to rekindle a plan to allow travellers, immigration detainees and others who feel they have been mistreated by Canada's border agency to complain to an independent body. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino introduced legislation Thursday to give the RCMP watchdog the additional responsibility of handling public complaints about the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The bill to create the Public Complaints and Review Commission comes after previous versions died on the order paper. Border officers can stop travellers for questioning, take blood and breath samples and search, detain and arrest people without warrants. An internal agency unit handles complaints from the public, while other bodies, including the courts, the federal privacy commissioner and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, examine various concerns. But the border agency is not overseen by a dedicated, independent complaints and review body, prompting civil liberties advocates, refugee lawyers and parliamentary committees to call for stronger monitoring.


The government proposes spending $112 million over five years, and more than $19 million a year ongoing, to establish the new body, which would replace the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP. Michelaine Lahaie, chairperson of the existing RCMP complaints commission, told a news conference she was pleased to see many of her key recommendations had been included in the bill. The new commission would require both the RCMP and the border agency to respond to interim reports from the new watchdog within six months — addressing a long-standing sore point. The RCMP commissioner was taken to court over chronic foot-dragging in providing feedback on interim reports from the current complaints commission. The problem has led to lengthy delays in the public release of final reports and recommendations. "Codifying the timelines is a way to ensure that we remain vigilant going forward," Mendicino said. The RCMP and border agency also would have to report annually to the public safety minister on progress in implementing commission recommendations.


In addition, there would be race-based data collection and publication to increase knowledge of systemic racism in law enforcement and guide responses.

The new Public Complaints and Review Commission would carry out reviews of any non-national-security activities of the RCMP and border services agency, either on the commission's own initiative or at the request of the minister. It also would conduct complaint-related investigations concerning both agencies, which would include: receiving complaints from the public about conduct and level of service; launching reviews when complainants are not satisfied with the RCMP or border agency's handling of their concerns; and initiating complaints and investigations into conduct when it is in the public interest to do so. Source


Read Bill C-20: The Public Complaints and Review Commission Act


Senator Paula Simons Speaks Out Against Bill S-7 on device searches at the Canadian border

Ottawa's Mom's 5-Hour Vigil Seeks Meeting to Free Son Jack Letts and 43 other Canadian Men, Women and Kids

Homes Not Bombs 19/05/22 - Sally Lane, who has not seen her son Jack Letts in 8 years, took her campaign to repatriate him and 43 other Canadian detainees to the doorstep of the Prime Minister’s office on Thursday, May 19 with an 11 am press conference and 5-hour vigil, each hour representing a year her son has been held arbitrarily by Canada’s Kurdish allies in the NE Syrian area called Rojava. For four of those years, Lane and her family have faced nothing but Canadian government stonewalling and obstacles in their efforts to reunite with their son.


“It’s really very simple: charter a plane, send some Canadian representatives into Rojava to meet with their Kurdish allies, and act on their allies’ request to take these 44 Canadians off their hands,” Lane concludes. “Does my son have to be brought back to Canada in a body bag before the Canadian government takes responsibility and recognizes that his life is in imminent danger? Jack’s life – and the lives of the other detainees – is worth so much more than the scant attention that’s been paid to him so far.”


Also speaking: Monia Mazigh, who 2 decades ago was fighting to return her husband Maher Arar from rendition to torture in Syria; Nadia Abu-Zahra, Joint Chair in Women’s Studies at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Watch - Visionner


Talking Radical Radio: Challenging government abandonment of citizens detained abroad


Human Rights Watch's Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Canada is failing to take adequate steps to assist and repatriate two dozen Canadian children unlawfully detained in northeast Syria


ACTION: What if He Were Your Son? Sign to Free Jack Letts & 43 Canadian Kids, Women & Men in Syria

Algeria: Lift Arbitrary Travel Bans on Algerian-Canadian Activists

Amnesty International 06/05/22 - Algerian authorities have imposed arbitrary travel bans on at least three activists from the Algerian diaspora, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. Although one of the three was finally permitted to leave on May 5, 2022, after being blocked for three months, the authorities should immediately lift the bans on the other two. Between January and April 2022, the authorities have prevented at least three Algerian-Canadian citizens, only one of whom has been charged, from returning to their homes in Canada and interrogated them about their links to the Hirak, a mass protest movement calling for political change. Lazhar Zouaimia, Hadjira Belkacem, and a third person who asked not to be named for security reasons, said that they had not been notified of any legal basis for the travel restrictions, making them difficult to challenge in court. The travel bans are the latest tactic in a crackdown on Algerians suspected of criticizing the government or participating in protests.


“It is appalling that the Algerian authorities are preventing activists from going back to their country of residence, without even providing a legal basis for this refusal or a written justification,” said Amna Guellali, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International. “All arbitrary travel bans should immediately be lifted.” On February 19 and again on April 9, border police prevented Lazhar Zouaimia, 56, a member of Amnesty International in Canada who works as a technician at a public electricity utility in Quebec, from boarding a plane to Montreal. In his April attempt at Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, Zouaimia was accompanied by two representatives from the Canadian embassy and his lawyer. An Algerian law enforcement officer took Zouaimia aside and kept him in an office at the airport for hours, then released him. The authorities also blocked Zouaimia from boarding another flight the same day to Barcelona.


After Zouamia’s earlier attempt to leave Algeria in February, a court initially charged him with terrorism and later changed the charge to “harming the integrity of the national territory,” a vague accusation that authorities have used extensively to punish peaceful Hirak activists. He spent five weeks in detention before a court provisionally released him pending his trial. [...] When Zouaimia tried to leave in February, law enforcement officers in civilian clothes detained him at Constantine airport. An officer from the judicial police at the airport told Zouaimia to hand over his phone, without showing him an order from the prosecutor. Zouaimia gave the officer his phone, which was not password protected. Police then transferred Zouaimia to the military barracks in Constantine. They questioned him about his participation in Montreal in the Hirak protest movement and his alleged connections with the Movement for the Self-determination of Kabylie (MAK) and Rachad, an opposition political movement. The authorities have used broadly worded terrorism-related charges to criminalize the activities of these two political organizations by designating them “terrorists.” Read more - Lire plus


#NotACrime: 38 organizations call on Algerian authorities to stop their assault on civic space and fundamental freedoms

Michelle Weinroth: Unfinished Business: The Hassan Diab Affair Continues

The Bullet 11/05/22 - If one cannot argue that such inaccuracies and acts of mendacity were part of a master plan, one can nonetheless say that they reflect a tacit consensus: i.e., that the solution to the mystery bombing had to be found at any price, and French authorities had invested too much in their fictional terrorist – in their one suspect – to relinquish the job and admit gross failure. With this intransigence, they would run roughshod over facts and callously abuse the rights of an innocent Canadian.


Instances of negligence, erroneous reports, and deceit by French authorities also speak to France’s contempt towards Canada. The French prosecutors put forward a request with insufficient evidence, unfit for trial, assuming they could pull the wool over Canadian eyes. Meanwhile, it mattered not to Canadian authorities that Diab, a Canadian citizen, would be sacrificed on false grounds for the benefit of France. Remarks by former Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson made this clear when he described the defence’s serious concerns about Diab’s fate in France as overly technical and “finicky” (1:12:09 – 1:12:17). In correspondence, Nicholson also told Diab’s lawyer, Don Bayne, that “the guilt or innocence of the person sought is not a relevant consideration” in the context of Canada’s extradition law (April 4, 2012). Exculpatory evidence could thus be suppressed with impunity. Such is the cold and cruel inhumanity of this law, and when applied to a Canadian of Lebanese extraction, we might call such cruelty racist.


Over the past fourteen years, the role that racism has played in the Diab Affair has been given short shrift. While there have been occasional references to the anti-terror, anti-Arab climate in France and Stephen Harper’s Canada, the main focus has been on the convoluted Diab saga, and on the flaws of an extradition law that desperately needs reforming. But racism has, in fact, permeated the court system, seeped into the action of police authorities, and stained certain remarks uttered in court. The Ontario Court of Appeal, for example, claimed that Diab was not a Canadian citizen in 1980 (1:37:37 -1:37:50), implying that he was not worthy of Canada’s full protection. Racism may be palpable to the victim, but it is not easily proven by singular empirical facts or occasional utterances. That said, the disparaging treatment of Hassan Diab and his wife, Rania Tfaily, (18:00 – 19:49) by the RCMP, CSIS, prosecutors, and prison guards between 2008 and 2014 (29:00 – 46:04) can be readily chalked up to anti-Arab bigotry. The contemptuous conduct displayed towards the couple has been consistent and persistent, shaping the direction of the saga henceforward. Even when facts spoke in Diab’s favour, every level of court failed him. French authorities had planned on his extradition and incarceration, and they would brook no contradiction in judicial proceedings. It was as if Diab’s fate had been pre-ordained and his liberty excluded from a master design.


But Diab’s release by French investigative judges Herbaut and Foltzer was not part of a scheme. That dismissal, being a precedent-setting decision in the history of French terrorist cases, constituted an unforeseen setback in the prosecutors’ efforts to condemn Diab. French authorities had perhaps not expected that their investigative judges would affirm Diab’s innocence given the country’s anti-terror crackdown. They had perhaps not anticipated that Diab would receive the defence of a stellar lawyer such as Don Bayne, who exposed the French Court of Appeal’s embarrassingly shoddy report. Could they have ever imagined that Diab, so reviled initially by the mainstream press, would see his supporters grow in numbers over the years from a trickle to a torrent of advocates?


In her book, Justice for Some, Noura Erakat describes the law as the sail of a boat.

“Like the sail of a boat, the law guarantees motion but not direction. Legal work together with political mobilization, by individuals, organizations, and states, is the wind that determines direction. The law is not loyal to any outcome or player, despite its bias towards the most powerful states. The only promise it makes is to change and serve the interests of the most effective actors.”

If the courts have failed Diab, repeatedly steering his boat in the wrong direction, it will be up to Canadians of conscience to be those “effective actors.” Through public pressure, such persons will need to redirect the course of events. Like the winds that move the boat’s sail in the direction of justice, these “effective actors” will need to outdo the winds from France by vigorously exhorting the Trudeau government to save Diab from a second extradition, and from the consequences of a trial, now set for April 2023. The imperative effort to save Hassan Diab is the task of all Canadians who care about human rights. We are all imperilled by extradition laws and by the states that deploy them. Diab’s ordeal incarnates a shared vulnerability, and his salvation is the liberty of all citizens. Only a powerful collective voice from Canadians at large will guarantee his freedom and the justice that underpins it. Read more - Lire plus


ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab


ACTION: Reform the Extradition Act

UN committee calls for investigation of RCMP on Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en territories

APTN 13/05/22 - Weeks after the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a letter urging Canada to stop construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and Coastal GasLink pipeline over concerns about Indigenous rights and abuses committed by police, Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en leaders issued their own decree.


Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, the spokesperson of the Gidimt’en Access Point, says the RCMP arrests in Wet’suwet’en territory are a violation of their rights. “When I read the third letter from CERD, I felt overwhelmed by the recognition that our experiences are a violation of international human rights and Indigenous rights, the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project and the RCMP treatment of me and other land defenders is a violation of our humanity as Indigenous people,” she said. The letter chastises Canada and British Columbia for what it calls the “criminalization of land defenders and peaceful protesters” on these territories.


“According to the information before the Committee, the Governments of Canada and of the Province of British Columbia have escalated their use of force, surveillance, and criminalization of land defenders and peaceful protesters to intimidate, remove and forcibly evict Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en Nations from their traditional lands, in particular by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Community-Industry Response Group (CIRG), and private security firms,” says a letter from Verene Shepherd, chair of CERD.


“The information received specifies in particular that the Tiny House Warriors, a group of Secwepemc women, have been the target of surveillance and intimidation, and that numerous Secwepemc and We’suwet’en peaceful land defenders have been victims of violent evictions and arbitrary detentions by the RCMP, the CIRG and private security personnel in several occasions since the Committee’s letter to the State party, dated 24 November 2020.”


The committee is also making several demands including a halt to further construction and the launch of an investigation to, “Prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms,” says the letter. Read more - Lire plus


Indigenous land defender sentenced to jail time over Trans Mountain pipeline protest


Gidimt'en Checkpoint: "RCMP entered our village site during ceremony"


ACTION: Stop the violence against Wet’suwet’en land defenders: RCMP off the land

Emails reveal how the RCMP changed its story about arresting journalists in Wet’suwet’en raid

The Narwhal 09/05/22 - An RCMP commander told Commissioner Brenda Lucki there was evidence some journalists had assisted opponents of TC Energy's Coastal GasLink pipeline. Then the RCMP's story changed. [...]

Sworn affidavits signed on the same day as the emails from Brewer and Stubbs by another RCMP officer, Constable Benjamin Laurie, did not offer any claims or evidence that either Bracken or Toledano were assisting or advocating for protesters, nor did they mention any of the “background activities” of the journalists alleged by Brewer.


The affidavits instead suggested the journalists should face charges since they had not identified themselves or left when RCMP first knocked on the door of the tiny house to inform people inside they were allegedly breaching the Coastal GasLink injunction.

“I think it is a telling detail that the supposed ‘package’ that was being prepared for the court proceedings on Monday was, to the best of my knowledge, never tabled,” Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, told The Narwhal. “This fact should compel the public to think critically about all the facts presented in any case and urge the public to consider the source of any reports and any potential agendas they are attempting to advance.”


The affidavits also appeared to suggest the RCMP was well aware that Bracken and Toledano were covering unfolding events, noting police officers had tracked interactions in the region with both journalists over the years in an active criminal investigations database — PRIME-BC — even though neither journalist had committed any crime. Read more - Lire plus


RCMP were planning raids while in talks with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs about meeting


Letters reveal what energy companies told RCMP before Wet’suwet’en raid

MP accuses RCMP officials of delivering 'dodgy' testimony on facial recognition technology

CBC News 10/05/22 - An attempt by members of Parliament to find out more about the RCMP's use of controversial facial recognition software hit a wall Monday as one MP accused police officials of being "intentionally evasive." The standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics met this morning to continue its study of the use of the emerging technology in Canada. Their efforts come a year after federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien stated that the RCMP's use of facial recognition software created by the U.S.-based Clearview AI amounted to a serious violation of Canada's privacy laws. That software allows users to match photos against a database of more than three billion images.


In a heated line of questioning Monday, NDP MP Matthew Green pressed Gordon Sage, director general of sensitive and specialized investigative services for the RCMP, to state who licensed the software for the RCMP's use back in 2018 and who oversaw the process.

"Can you please name your predecessor?" he asked. After a back-and-forth exchange, Sage eventually said that the official in question has since retired and he didn't think he had the right to name them. "It is my perspective that you afforded your predecessor more consideration in their rights to be named in a situation, that is really public information in the public forum, than the billions of people who have had their images compiled and analyzed by this A.I. technology," said Green. "What we have, what I have — I'll speak for myself — is a significant trust issue."


Later, Conservative MP James Bezan described the replies MPs on the committee received from the three RCMP officials called as witnesses as "intentionally evasive" — and reminded them they could be found in contempt of Parliament if they don't cooperate.

"Some of the answers that we were receiving today have been very much limited and I would suggest that witnesses should exercise their responsibilities to this committee, that those of us around the table have parliamentary privilege and do expect fulsome answers," he said. "And one-word answers and being dodgy is not fulfilling our work as committee members."[...]


Following a backlash over its use of Clearview AI's tech, the RCMP announced plans to be more transparent about how it approves and uses new technology and investigative tools involving the collection and use of personal information. The RCMP is promising to release that new policy by the end of June. Monday's committee wrapped with the members agreeing to ask RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to attend. "[The RCMP] has not, in my view, demonstrated the ability to have the kind of candour and frankness with civilian oversight bodies, such as the House of Commons, to provide basic information for Canadians who are concerned about their civil liberties," said Green during his questioning. Read more - Lire plus


Face-scanner Clearview agrees to limits in court settlement


The Movement to Ban Government Use of Face Recognition


EU: MEPs called upon to ban biometric mass surveillance


ACTION: Ban use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement

International women call on UN to stop Turkey’s attacks on Kurds

Medya News 17/05/22 - A group of women’s organisations and individuals, feminists, union representatives, journalists and academics have called on the United Nations to take steps to stop Turkey’s attacks against Kurds in north Syria, east Syria, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar. A meeting, organised by Kurdish women in Syria’s Kurdish city of Kobane on Monday concluded with a statement making a joint call on the UN.


The statement, signed by 75 organisations and individuals from across the world, reads as follows:

“To the UN Secretary-General,

To UN Women,

Turkey’s aggression against the Kurds reached a new stage in 2017 when it started its airstrikes against North East Syria, the Yazidi homeland Sinjar, and Camp Makhmour in North Iraq, where more than 11,000 Kurdish refugees live. Since then, Turkey has occupied the mainly Kurdish populated cities of Afrin (March 2018) and Serêkaniyê / Ra’s al-‘Ain (October 2019). Turkish armed drones permanently fly over North East Syria, Sinjar, and Makhmour, creating an atmosphere of fear and deep insecurity. Civilian infrastructure, cars, and houses are attacked without warning. People flee their land because they fear further Turkish attacks and occupation.


Turkey justifies its extrajudicial killings, drone attacks and military occupation operations as ‘self-defence’ in terms of Article 51 of the UN Charter. (…) Suborganisations of the UN themselves regularly produce reports on the security situation in Syria as well as in Iraq. Neither North East Syria, the Yazidi people of Sinjar nor the Makhmour Refugee Camp pose a security threat to Turkey. (…) We the undersigned do not accept the UN backing of Turkish aggression against Kurdish people in North East Syria and Northern Iraq. We reject Turkey’s claim of self-defence and stress that the Turkish state is the attacker. We call on the UN to condemn Turkish aggression against the Kurds and mobilise its mechanisms to stop Turkey’s cross-border attacks on North East Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq / Northern Iraq." Read more - Lire plus

Everything you need to know about the UK’s connection to torture in Xinjiang

Freedom from Torture 05/22 - Freedom from Torture has launched a new report, ‘Dangerous Liaisons: UK partnerships with Chinese policing institutions linked to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’, detailing a UK government funded partnership with police training insitutions in China. The report exposes how Boris Johnson’s government funded a partnership, supported by the UK police service, between a UK company and police universities in China, at least one of which has links to training police in Xinjiang.


In recent years the Chinese government have been carrying out brutal and systematic persecution of the Uyghur and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. There's been widespread global condemnation about the atrocities taking place in Xinjiang, and the UK government has been very vocal about the human rights violations. But at the same time, the UK government is shaking hands with the government responsible for the torturing. A private British company, the London Policing College, which receives UK taxpayer money for some of its work, has been partnering with police trainers across China. In our new report, ‘Dangerous Liaisons: UK partnerships with Chinese policing institutions linked to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang’ we found that this company and its taxpayer funded project, which is supported by the UK police service, has been doing business with at least one Chinese police college that has links to training police in Xinjiang. We are therefore extremely concerned that, having funded these partnerships, the UK government is at risk of complicity in the very abuses it publicly condemns.


The police in Xinjiang have been at the forefront of the Chinese government's campaign of violence, against the Uyghur and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in the region. This involved mass internment, systematic torture, forced labour and forced strerilisation, amounting to crimes against humanity. However the Chinese government propaganda likes to frame Uyghur persecution in Xinjiang as counter-terrorism rather than repression. The UK government has been very vocal about the human rights violations happening in Xinjiang. They even issued specific guidance to British companies to help them avoid being complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang. These UK policing partnerships are like a rubber stamp of approval on China’s brutal repression in Xinjiang.


While condemning the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang,  the UK government has been using taxpayer money to fund partnerships with police trainers in China, at least one of which is linked to the region. Our investigation found that UK taxpayer money has been given to London Policing College, a private company, with close ties to the UK police service, which has provided police training for China. We’ve also found that China's top policing university, which trains and supplies police to Xinjiang, boasts of the counter-terrorism training it received in the UK from the London Policing College. There is no evidence that London Policing College conducts human rights checks on its work in China- even though the world knows torture is happening in Xinjiang. We are concerned that the UK partnership is being used in China to fuel propaganda that paints a false picture of horrific abuses carried out in Xinjiang as “counter-terrorism” and that the UK should not be allowing this to happen. Read more - Lire plus


ACTION: Tell Boris Johnson: Stop supporting torture in China

Documentary: Austria’s Operation Luxor: Anti-terrorism or Islamophobia?

Al Jazeera 18/05/2022 - Raids on Muslim homes and organisations in Austria in 2020 – an ‘anti-terrorist’ measure or a sign of Islamophobia? Dawn police raids on nearly 70 private homes and organisations across Austria in November 2020 shocked waking Muslim communities. The authorities claimed they were part of an important “anti-terrorist” operation but many believed Operation Luxor was indicative of a growing Islamophobic culture in Austria and across Europe.


This film goes to Austria to examine what happened on November 9, 2020. The raids may have been a response to a lone attacker who had killed four people the week before. But there is evidence that the raids had been planned for months, so some suggest they were part of an intelligence sting targeting the Muslim Brotherhood and other leading Islamic figures, potentially at the request of foreigh states. Source

US House passes domestic terrorism bill in mostly party-line vote

The Hill 18/05/2022 - The House passed a bill mostly along party lines on Wednesday that seeks to create domestic terrorism offices throughout the U.S. government, just days after a gunman fatally shot 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., in an incident that President Biden called “domestic terrorism.” The bill, dubbed the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, passed in an 222-203 vote, with one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), bucking party leadership recommendation and voting for the legislation. Four Republicans did not vote.


The legislation specifically calls for the formation of domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI that would be tasked with monitoring and scrutinizing potential terror activity. A vote on the bill was scheduled after Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), the sponsor of the legislation, called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the legislation to the floor. He pointed to the Saturday shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, where 13 people were shot, 11 of whom were Black. The legislation was initially slated to be passed through a fast-track process late last month, but Democratic leaders pulled it from the calendar after some progressive lawmakers voiced opposition to the bill.


The bill calls for establishing a Domestic Terrorism Unit in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the DHS, which would be tasked with observing and examining domestic terrorism activity, in addition to a Domestic Terrorism Office in the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the DOJ, which would look into and prosecute domestic terrorism incidents and communicate with the Civil Right Division about occurrences that may be considered hate crimes. The bill also encourages the establishment of a Domestic Terrorism Section of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, which would probe activity tied to domestic terrorism. Source


ICYMI: ACLU: Biden’s Domestic Terrorism Strategy Entrenches Bias and Harmful Law Enforcement Power

Paul Jay on 9/11

The Analysis News/Law and Disorder 11/05/2022 - Transcript: Paul Jay has been following the 9/11 story for 20 years. He’s read the documents. He’s interviewed the key players in it. He tells a story that I think the listeners will be extremely interested in hearing. The events of 9/11 were a crushing blow to democracy and the rule of law in our country. The attacks paved the way for two illegal wars. First, the American war against Afghanistan and then Iraq. It opened the way for the national security states to develop expansively and implement a vast surveillance program on American citizens. The attack on the World Trade Center and then on the Pentagon happened 20 years ago, and in retrospect, was a turning point in American and world history. 


Law and Disorder radio was launched three years after 9/11. Our mission was to defend both democracy and the rule of law. The 9/11 attacks were a crime against humanity, but instead of treating them as a crime, it was turned into an occasion to launch aggressive and illegal wars. The Nuremberg trials against the Nazis who started World War II defined aggressive war as the ultimate crime because it held within it all lesser crimes. In our show today, we examine the new evidence on who is responsible for the attacks on 9/11. The new evidence is a six-year-old FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] report released on President [Joe] Biden’s order last month. Biden was told by the families of the victims of 9/11 that unless this report was released, he would not be welcomed at any of the memorial services. 


The FBI report demonstrates the complicity of the government of Saudi Arabia in the attacks. It was two Saudi Arabian government officials that helped the first two hijackers when they came to America. They were given money and help to get into flight school. Then they hijacked an American airline plane and flew it into the Pentagon. Senator Bob Graham was the Head of the Intelligence Committee that investigated 9/11. Whistleblower, Thomas Drake, was a top official at the National Security Agency [NSA]. Lawrence Wilkerson was the Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell. We speak today in a special one-hour show with journalist Paul Jay who interviewed all three of them. Paul Jay is a journalist and a filmmaker. He’s the founder and host of the Analysis.news, a video and audio current affairs interview and commentary show and website. Jay was the founder of the Real News Network and is currently working on a documentary series with Daniel Ellsberg based on Ellsberg’s book, The Doomsday Machine. Paul Jay, welcome to Law and Disorder.


Paul Jay: Thanks for inviting me.


Marjorie Cohn: We want to talk to you today about the continuing unravelling of the cover-up of the Saudi Arabian government’s involvement with the attacks of 9/11. President Biden was told by the families of the victims of 9/11 that he would be unwelcome at ceremonies honouring the 20th anniversary unless he released a six-year-old FBI investigative report. He did so. What did the report reveal?


Paul Jay: Well, first of all, let me sort of congratulate both of you because most journalists and other people in the media don’t want to even look into what really happened on 9/11. Maybe we can talk about why that is. It’s a topic worth discussing in itself. Let me just add one more thing for sort of context here about why all this matters. Why are we revisiting the Saudi role, and why, 20 years later, is 9/11 significant? The answer is probably obvious, but let me state it anyway. I don’t know if there’s been an American war that didn’t begin with a bunch of big lies or to establish pretext, for what were almost always, or perhaps always, wars of aggression. You can even go back to the beginnings of the Cold War. The lies that there was a missile gap and the Soviet Union was planning to attack the United States, which was all a fraud. The Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam, and it goes on from there. More recently and obviously, the lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. American wars begin based on lies. Read more - Lire plus


Declassified FBI memo 'confirms' direct connection between Saudi government and 9/11


Newly released video shows 9/11 hijackers with alleged Saudi intelligence operative

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ACTIONS & EVENTS

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NEW Ottawa: All Out to Protest North America's Biggest Weapons Show

Wednesday June 1 2022. Starting at 7:00am ET. Outside the EY Centre (4899 Uplands Drive by the airport) in Ottawa.


CANSEC is North America’s largest arms show and “defense industry” event.


The presenters and exhibitors list doubles as a Rolodex of the world’s worst corporate criminals. All of the companies and individuals who profit most from war and bloodshed will be there.


The world is run (and ravaged) by people who wake up early. On June 1st we need to wake up earlier than them to beat them to their fair. Join us at the convention bright and early as it begins to ensure everyone showing up knows they are NOT welcome in Ottawaor to continue their deadly business as usual.

DETAILS

NOUVEAU Atelier sur le droit de manifester au Québec

Mercredi 1er juin, de 18h à 20h HE

En ligne. Inscription obligatoire


Sujets abordés durant l’atelier :


✦ Quelle est l’importance historique et de mobilisation du droit de manifester?


✦ Quelle est l’étendue et l’ampleur de la protection constitutionnelle de ce droit? Est-ce que ce droit peut être limité, encadré?


✦ Quels sont les règlements municipaux problématiques qui restreignent et limitent le droit de manifester à travers le Québec?


✦ Quelles stratégies pour se réapproprier le droit de manifester et surmonter les entraves règlementaires?

DETAILS
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Free Jack Letts and all Canadian Detainees in NE Syria

Canada must immediately act to free four dozen Canadian men, women and children left to rot in one of a series of notorious Northeastern Syrian prisons and detention camps described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.” 

The longest held detainee is Jack Letts, 26, who has been imprisoned for almost 5 years without charge under conditions the United Nations has described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”


Send an email and call!


Mother’s Day to Father’s Day Chain Fast to Free the Canadian Captives

ACTION

NEW Write a Letter: Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy

Recently, we have witnessed an intensified campaign by the pro-Israel lobby in Canada to smear Palestinian activists and their supporters. Last week, the National Post (NP) ran an online article about Palestinian-Canadian writer Khaled Barakat and the advocacy organization Samidoun. On April 30, the same article was splashed across their front page of their paper and has since been referenced in the Canadian Senate and the Jerusalem Post.


Send your letter to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to tell them that you join with the 80 organizations that have called to “Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy”.

ACTION
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Urgent Action to Stop the Deportation of Mohamed Ibrahim and his Family

Mohamed Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, alongside his wife, Shaimaa, and 5 children - the youngest of whom a toddler who was born in Canada - have been given a removal order by the CBSA and are facing deportation back to Egypt where Mohamed will be facing a high risk of human rights abuses by the current Egyptian regime as a result of his peaceful political activism in Egypt. Mohamed and his family arrived in Canada in 2017 and applied for asylum. However, his claim was rejected due to a legal error of his lawyer.


We call on the Minister of Immigration to give Mohammed Ibrahim and his family protection on humanitarian and compassionate grounds pursuant to section 25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

ACTION

Tell Trudeau: Stop Arming Apartheid!

As revealed in CJPME's "Arming Apartheid" analysis, Canada is selling almost $20 million in arms to Israel each year – its highest level in 30 years! At the same time, Israeli forces continue to violently raid Al-Aqsa and across occupied Palestine, and human rights organizations – including Amnesty International – have all recently concluded that Israel imposes an apartheid regime against Palestinians!



There is no excuse for Canada to continue exporting arms to a country practicing apartheid and other abuses. Help us push the Canadian government to suspend arms exports to Israel, and investigate whether Canadian-made weapons have been used against Palestinian civilians! Canada must end its complicity now!

ACTION

Canada must protect encryption!

Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.



Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!


Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir

ACTION
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Reform Canada's extradition law + Justice for Hassan Diab!

Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.



Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!


Version française: Le Canada doit réformer la loi sur l'extradition! + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram


Phone PM Justin Trudeau


TAKE ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab!


Just Peace Advocates' action: Write a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Say “No" to a second extradition of Hassan Diab

ACTION
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Email your MP – No more weapons to Saudi Arabia

Canada has blood on its hands. Now approaching its seventh year, the war in Yemen has killed over a quarter of a million people. Over 4 million people have been displaced because of the war, and 70% of the population, including 11.3 million children, are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. Send a letter now calling on the Canadian government to stop sending weapons to Saudi Arabia and stop arming the horrific war in Yemen.


+ Write letter: Canada’s silence on Saudi mass executions deeply troubling

ACTION

Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement

The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States puts refugees at risk. Under the STCA, refugees who arrive at official ports of entry to seek protection in Canada are sent back to the US, where some have suffered serious rights violations in detention. This encourages refugee claimants to cross the border into Canada between ports of entry, sometimes in perilous conditions.

Despite the constitutionality of the STCA being in question, reports suggest that the government is attempting to expand this agreement. 



Take Action now and send a message to Minister Fraser to respect refugee rights by rescinding the Safe Third Country Agreement.

ACTION
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Tell President Biden: Close Guantanamo

Now, with growing support in Congress, President Biden has an opportunity to end these ongoing abuses by closing the detention center. Help us close Guantánamo and ensure the transfer of all cleared detainees to countries where their human rights will be respected. 


Act Now to tell President Biden to shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility!

ACTION
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Canada: Condemn Israeli Silencing of Palestinian Groups

Send an email urging Canada to:

1) Condemn Israel’s wrongful designation of these human rights groups, and

2) Demand Israel rescind such labels over the Palestinian organizations


Protect Human Rights Defenders in Palestine!

ACTION
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Free Cihan Erdal

Cihan Erdal is a Canadian permanent resident, queer youth activist, doctoral student, and coordinator of the Centre for Urban Youth Research at Carleton University in Ottawa. He was unjustly detained in Turkey on unfounded charges in September 2020, after being swept up in a mass arrest of politicians, activists, and academics in Istanbul. Send a message to Canadian officials now the Canadian government can take to help bring Cihan safely home.

ACTION
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How to Help Afghans in Afghanistan and Canada

Muslim Link - The people of Afghanistan are in dire need of humanitarian aid and Canada has committed to accepting 20,000 Afghan refugees.


How can you help? Click below for a list of ways you can support the people of Afghanistan at home and abroad.


Demand action from Canada in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

ACTION
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Protect our rights from facial recognition!

ICLMG - Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place.

Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now.

Take action to ban biometric recognition technologies

ACTION
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Trudeau: Ensure justice for Abousfian Abdelrazik

In September 2003, Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan, while he was back in the country visiting his ailing mother. Over the next three years he was imprisoned for nearly 20 months and was held under house arrest for 12 months. 


He was denied a lawyer, and was never charged or brought before a judge. During that time he was badly tortured in three different prisons. Not only did Canada fail to take steps to protect him, CSIS officials frequently obstructed efforts to secure his release.

ACTION
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Stop Mohamed Harkat's Deportation to Torture

No one should be deported to torture. Ever. For nearly 19 years, Mohamed Harkat has faced the ordeal of being place under a kafkaesque security certificate based on secret evidence and accusations he cannot challenge, and facing deportation to torture in Algeria.

Please join us and send the letter below to Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino, urging them to stop the deportation to torture of Mr. Harkat.



  • Your letter will also go to your Member of Parliament, along with the ministers of Justice & of Immigration.
  • And don't hesitate to also sign and share this petition!
ACTION
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China: Free Canadian Huseyin Celil

The Chinese authorities accused Huseyin of offences related to his activities in support of Uighur rights. They held Huseyin in a secret place. They gave him no access to a lawyer, to his family, or to Canadian officials. They threatened him and forced him to sign a confession. They refused to recognize Huseyin’s status as a Canadian citizen, and they did not allow Canadian officials to attend his trial. It was not conducted fairly, and resulted in a sentence of life in prison in China. His life sentence was reduced to 20 years in February 2016. Huseyin has spent much of his time in solitary confinement. He lacks healthy food and is in poor health. Kamila needs her husband, and the boys need their father back

+ Urge China to stop targeting Uyghurs in China and abroad

ACTION

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Accountability

Reddition de comptes


Christopher Parsons' initial analysis of the Intelligence Commissioner Office 2021 Annual Report


Bill Robinson's first thoughts on the Intelligence Commissioner Office 2021 Annual Report

Attacks on dissent

Attaques sur la dissidence


State repression in the Philippines: Free the Angat 2!


Hong Kong police arrest and question 90-year-old Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen


Hong Kong police file complaints to lawyer groups over national security case


UK: Protecting Protest: Ground-breaking findings on police treatment of Legal Observers

Forever wars

Guerres indéfinies


Biden’s New Counterterrorism Policy in Somalia: Cautions and Unknowns


Afghans Urge Court Not to Give Frozen Central Bank Assets to Sept. 11 Families


Podcast: The U.S. is stealing Afghanistan's money and starving its people

Freedom of expression and the press

Liberté d'expression et de la presse


The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh


Germany bans vigil in memory of journalist killed by Israel


Independent probe points to Israeli fire in journalist death


Israel admits it might have killed journalist. Attack her funeral.


Rashid Khalidi: Israel Systematically Targets Palestinian Journalists to Hide Reality of Occupation


Israel will not hold criminal inquiry into killing of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh


U.S. reiterates call for 'thorough and transparent' investigation into killing of Palestinian-American journalist


ACTION: Canada: Tell Israel to stop killing journalists


ACTION: Write letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: End Canadian Support for Israeli military


UK: NUJ condemns sweeping attack on journalists and media freedom


Israel-Palestine: Anti-boycott bill threatens British democracy

Guantanamo


Human Rights Watch: The high cost of Guantanamo’s ‘forever prisoners’


Mansoor Adayfi: Serbia is my Guantanamo 2.0

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et des réfugié.es


Canada’s use of criminal jails for immigration detainees violates Charter, lawsuit alleges


"This is America motherfucker": Witnesses describe border patrol killing of Mexican migrant


The US border patrol is systemically failing to count migrant deaths


ICE uses data brokers to bypass surveillance restrictions, report finds


It is not enough to change the Director, Frontex must be abolished!


A clear and present danger: Missing safeguards on migration and asylum in the EU’s AI Act

Online harms

Contenu préjudiciable en ligne


Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression: Regulate the System, Not the Speech


Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression | Harms Reduction: A Six-Step Program to Protect Democratic Expression Online

Police


Woman’s advocacy group, FAFIA, requests external review to halt RCMP’s ‘shocking’ misogynistic violence


FAFIA's report: “The Toxic Culture of the RCMP: Misogyny, Racism, and Violence against Women in Canada’s National Police Force”


Ottawa police disproportionately used force against Black and Middle Eastern people in 2020, data shows


Community groups call on OCDSB to oppose trustee motion to renew police presence in schools

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance


Europol gears up to collect big data on European citizens after MEPs vote to expand policing power


EU: Council to push for “on the spot” biometric ID checks, inserting “all available data” in Schengen Information System


EU: Agencies propose a "European System for Traveller Screening" that "could include AI technology"


MI5 asked police to spy on political activities of children, inquiry hears

Whistleblowers

Lanceur.ses d'alertes


The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights calls on UK government not to extradite Julian Assange

Miscellaneous

Divers


TNI & statewatch: At what cost? Funding the EU’s security, defence, and border policies, 2021–2027: A guide for civil society on how EU budgets work

From July to Dec - De juillet à décembre 2021

Check out our biannual summary of activities: What We've Been Up To from July to December 2021.


In 2022, we plan to continue our work on the following issues:


- The Canadian government's concerning "online harms" legislative proposal, including its approach on "terrorist content," mandatory reporting to law enforcement and new powers for CSIS;


- Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for privacy law reform;


- Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, addressing problems in security inadmissibility and establishing a long overdue independent review and complaint body for the CBSA;


- Justice for Hassan Diab and launching a video on extradition law reform;


- Greater transparency and accountability for CSIS;


- The return of the 40+ Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including 26 children;


- The end to the CRA's prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities, revealed in our June 2021 report;


- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism;


- Monitoring the implementation of the National Security Act, 2017 (Bill C-59);


- Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada for flights that do not land in or fly over the US;


- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the "war on terror", as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest;


- And much more!


Read more - Lire plus and share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

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Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG.

THANK YOU

to our amazing supporters!


We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!


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Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!



Merci!