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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

August 20, 2022 - 20 août 2022

Against Islamophobia: Islam, Beauty, and Justice - A Conversation with Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Khaled Abou El Fadl

Against Islamophobia: Islam, Beauty, and Justice

Noor Cultural Centre 10/08/2022 - Watch this great conversation with two luminaries – Guantanamo survivor Mohamedou Ould Slahi and law professor Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl – discussing Slahi’s ongoing case seeking compensation for torture, and the role of Islam as a spiritual, ethical, and intellectual resource in struggles for justice, beauty, and non-violence.


Mohamedou Ould Slahi is the author of Guantanamo Diary, the internationally bestselling account of his rendition to torture at Guantanamo Bay, and the basis for the 2021 film The Mauritanian. He is currently suing the Canadian government for involvement in his torture.

Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl is one of the world’s leading authorities on Shari’ah, Islamic law and Islam, and a prominent scholar in the field of human rights. He is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. Opening remarks from Goldblatt Partners LLP, representing Mohamedou Slahi in his compensation case. Moderated by Azeezah Kanji (JD, LLM), Director of Programming, Noor Cultural Centre


Co-Sponsored By:

Amnesty International; Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council; International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group; Islamic Information & Dawah Centre; Islamic Social Services Association; North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative; Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy; The Usuli Institute & World Beyond War

Aid to Afghanistan can't wait: Demand Prime Minister Trudeau act to remove barriers to vital humanitarian assistance

ICLMG 10/08/2022 - Leading Canadian aid organizations have jointly launched Aid for Afghanistan, a national campaign that is calling on the Government of Canada to immediately act to remove barriers that have blocked and deterred the provision of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for the past year. Conflict, extreme drought, and the COVID-19 pandemic have converged on the people of Afghanistan, with close to 23 million people in need of humanitarian support. Since the Taliban takeover a year ago, Canadian aid organizations have faced barriers in sending aid to Afghanistan due to Canadian sanctions and a restrictive interpretation of the Canadian Criminal Code’s Anti-Terrorism provisions.


While Canadian allies – including the United States, the UK, the EU, and Australia – have already taken steps to clarify the non-applicability of sanctions and anti-terrorism laws to the provision of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, Canada continues to block humanitarian agencies from providing critical support in Afghanistan free from the fear of facing criminal prosecution. For the past year, Canadian aid organizations have been pleading with the Government of Canada to remove barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance. With the support of UN Security Council resolutions 2615 and 2626, we ask the Government of Canada to ensure that sanctions and counter-terror finance and criminal law restrictions do not impede the provision of lifesaving humanitarian aid.


The Aid for Afghanistan campaign seeks to garner support from Canadians from coast to coast to demand immediate action in allowing Canadian organizations to help Afghan families in extremely vulnerable situations. Canada’s Aid for Afghanistan campaign’s hope is to demonstrate the widespread support among Canadians for the provision of aid and to mount additional public pressure on elected officials for the government to finally act in accordance with international law and our allies in supporting Afghan people in desperate need. It also hopes to address a long-standing issue of ensuring that anti-terrorism laws and sanctions do not interfere with humanitarian assistance. Read more


Version française: L’aide à l’Afghanistan ne peut attendre : Exigez que le Premier Ministre Trudeau lève les obstacles à l'envoi d'aide humanitaire vitale


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CBC News: Aid shipment to Afghanistan cancelled due to Canadian anti-terrorist law


The Toronto Star editorial: Ottawa should allow Afghan aid


The Globe and Mail: Humanitarian groups urge Ottawa to exempt their work in Afghanistan from anti-terror law


Hill Times: Canada must decriminalize aid to Afghanistan to save lives


Canadian Bar Association responds to parliament report on Canada's response to Afghan refugee crisis


As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets


A year on, Afghans hide out fearing death by data

Yves Engler: Canada’s terrorist list actually enables terrorism

Yves Engler's blog 08/08/2022 - On Friday Israel launched its latest outburst of violence against Gaza. Over 72 hours at least 44 Palestinians, including 16 children, were killed. More than 300 Palestinians were injured while many more lost their homes, businesses or other property. Children in Gaza have also been psychologically scarred by the bombings and, in another form of collective punishment, Israel closed the 360 km² strip of land to the outside world. According to the New York Times, “Israel said its strikes were a pre-emptive effort to prevent an imminent attack on Israeli civilians.” In plain language, Israel decided to use violence “in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause with the intention of intimidating the public”, which is Canada’s official definition of terror. In response to Israel’s latest terror campaign, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) tweeted, “over the past 24 hours, Israelis have been bombarded with missile attacks launched from Gaza. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Canadian designated terrorist entity, has put Israelis — and Palestinians — in harms way.” [...]


Canada’s apartheid lobby is arguing that Israel can terrorize 2.2 million Palestinians living in an open-air prison because some organization with limited means is listed as a terrorist group in Canada. It’s sick, but effective, propaganda. During previous Israeli terror campaigns in Gaza the apartheid lobby justified Israel’s actions on the grounds that Hamas is a listed terrorist organization in Canada. Over 10 percent of Canada’s terrorist list is made up of organizations headquartered in a long-occupied land representing one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population. Representing much of Palestinian political life, eight of the oppressed nation’s organizations are listed, ranging from the left secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the elected Hamas ‘government’ in Gaza. A dozen years after the terror list was established the first ever Canadian-based group was added. In 2014 the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN) was designated a terrorist organization for engaging in the ghastly act of supporting orphans and a hospital in the Gaza Strip through official (Hamas-controlled) channels.


While Palestinian groups are criminalized, Canada has close ties to the main terrorist organization in historic Palestine. Canada sells weapons to the Israeli military and the two countries’ armed forces work together on various fronts. Additionally, Canadian officials turn a blind eye to illegal recruitment for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while the Canada Revenue Agency takes a soft approach to registered charities that defy its rules by financially assisting the IDF. Measured by the number maimed or killed, the Israeli army is responsible for far more violence than any Palestinian group (and they are doing so on behalf of a European colonial project). Yet the IDF is not a listed terrorist organization. Canada’s terrorist list highlights the stark double standard in Ottawa’s treatment of the colonized and colonizer. It enables Israel to terrorize Palestinians in Gaza. Read more - Lire plus


“Horrifying”: Israel Assault on Gaza Kills 44 Palestinians, 15 Children


Jewish Groups Across the Globe Condemn Israel’s Unprovoked Bombardment of Gaza


Condemn latest Israeli attack on Gaza, Canadian complicity


Americans rarely see the true face of Israel's bombing of Gaza

Jewish group calls on Canadian government to condemn Israeli raids on Palestinian civil society

IJV Canada 18/08/2022 - Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) is calling on the Canadian government to condemn Israeli government raids on the offices of seven civil society organizations in Palestine last night. The raids come ten months after Israel designated six of these organizations terrorist groups, although it has failed to provide any substantial evidence to support its claims. 


Now, Israel has broken into, welded shut, and in many cases seized documents and other materials from the offices of UN-affiliated human rights group Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, the Palestine branch of Geneva-based Defense for Children International (DCIP), the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committee. They also raided the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), who were not included in the original six groups designated as terrorist organizations. 


The raids also came several hours after a 20 year old Palestinian man, Waseem Nasr Khalifa, was killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. “Israel’s crackdown on these organizations is a blatant anti-democratic attempt to delegitimize and ultimately silence Palestinian civil society,” said IJV Communications and Media Lead Rowan Gaudet. “This motive is made especially clear by the attack on Defense for Children International–Palestine which is investigating the killings of some 37 Palestinian children this year alone.” In July, the foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden jointly investigated Israel’s designation of these organizations as terrorist groups and came to the conclusion that the charges were unsubstantiated. The decision has also been protested by more than twenty Israeli human rights groups and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, among others. 


In December 2021, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said she was in contact with Yair Lapid (then foreign minister), who she claimed to have asked for “clarity” on the situation.

“The government has had ample time to seek clarity” continued Gaudet. “It’s time for Canada to take action. We call on the government to immediately condemn Israel’s attempted shut down of Palestinian groups who are exposing and opposing its well-documented system of apartheid.” “Just this past June, Justin Trudeau reiterated that Canada and Israel ‘are close friends bound together by shared democratic values’,” said Gaudet. “Does this mean we can expect Canada to shutter the offices of Canadian human rights and Indigenous groups and seize documents they’re using to investigate our government? Or will Canada finally condemn these actions and join with its European allies in rejecting Israel’s claims?” Read more - Lire plus


Palestinian NGOs Speak Out After Israeli Forces Raid Offices & Declare Them to Be “Terrorist” Groups

Zachary Al-Khatib's comments on the constitutionality of Canada's No Fly List

Twitter 12/08/2022 - The Secure Air Travel Act, or SATA (colloquially called the “No-fly list legislation”) has been upheld as constitutional. I plan to write in more detail about Justice Noël’s decision in the coming days. For now, it’s worth just stepping back and considering how perverse this regime is from a bird’s eye view level… Essentially, the legislation allows for *serious* rights deprivations without the government having to show that someone will even attempt a criminal offence beyond a reasonable doubt. What that means is that a person on the list is unable to fly across the country on the basis of suspicion that they may commit an offence, but they’re not charged (necessarily). So they can drive around without any issue. They can take a boat across the ocean. 


Noël J found that the legislation infringed Canadians’ mobility rights, but that those infringements were justified: “As long as a person is suspected of posing a threat to Canadian air travel, the decision to prevent them from travelling domestically by air can be justified.” Let that sink in. As long as a person is *suspected*, they can be restricted from an essential service (see Para 229). Consider what suffices to ground suspicion with the authorities. And who usually find themselves the subjects of that suspicion. 

Noël J held that this entire regime is reasonable and justified because there is a review mechanism in place, “despite the fact that national security intelligence prevented [a listed person] from seeing the entire record and from attending all hearings in person.” 


Noël J’s solution was to expand the role of Amicus in these cases to be more of an advocate for the listed person than an impartial counsel. Their role is to be a friend of the Court (inter alia) by representing the interests of the accused in the ex parte hearings. 

Providing that clarity Re amicus’ role is helpful, but these appeals can still take *years*. And in the meantime Canadians who are safe enough to live, work, etc can’t do other basic things like travel for work, visit spouses, parents, or children abroad, and so on. 

I’m disappointed in the decision but hopeful that further appeals will come to a different conclusion about the constitutionality of this regime. Kudos to Rebecca McConchie. Keep up the good fight. Source


Canada's no-fly list for suspected terrorists survives constitutional challenge by two men trying to get off it

Iranian-Canadians feel like '2nd-class citizens' as many continue to be stopped while travelling to the U.S.

CBC News 08/08/2022 - Amir Abolhassani sold his house in Saskatoon when his U.S.-based employer asked him to relocate to North Carolina. But at the Calgary airport this January, his family was not allowed to cross the border. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer told Abolhassani, who is a Canadian citizen, that it was because of time he spent as a conscript in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) more than a decade ago. The family was subjected to a secondary screening involving a long interview and an extensive search of their belongings, cellphones and social media. "It's like we are not Canadians and our lives, our suffering is not important to anyone," Abolhassani said. "Am I not Canadian enough? The stress to be linked to a terrorist organization is the worst thing."


The Trump administration labelled the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2019. Abolhassani said all men in Iran above the age of 18 have to do mandatory service with one of the arms of the military.  "One in every three Iranians will be assigned to IRGC because it is one of the biggest branches of the military." Abolhassani said refusing conscription would prevent a man from getting a passport or accessing civic amenities, and can sometimes lead to further punishment. "I know around 500 cases, almost 150 are Iranian-Canadians and others are Iranians that are facing the same situation." CBC News spoke with 15 Iranian-Canadians, all of them Canadian citizens, who continue to be stopped and detained while crossing into other countries due to their names being flagged as people who have helped a terrorist organization. All say they feel they are treated as second-class citizens. "The officer said my wife can't go to the U.S. either because she may have received military training from me. It's disastrous," Abolhassani said. "In two months of training, I held a weapon for three days. I have just fired four bullets in my life. A typical American teenager may have fired more."


Worried about losing his job, the 41-year-old applied for a visa to the U.S., but he is worried because he knows some people have been waiting for U.S. visas since 2019.

"We're not real Canadians yet. Once you are flagged at the U.S. border, your name enters a list that when you are travelling to or from Canada and any other ally of the U.S., you will be flagged," he said. Maryam Ghasemi, a research assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, was supposed to begin a new research position at Augusta University in Georgia on Aug. 1. When Ghasemi went to the Rainbow Bridge border office in Niagara Falls, Ont., in May to apply for a TN Visa, she was denied. Ghasemi said officers from Homeland Security searched through her family's social media then escorted them to their car without giving any reasons. 


"A CBP officer told me having a passport of the country doesn't give me the nationality. She said my background is something else and that I'm not Canadian. That was really rude," she said. The family was given a letter of inadmissibility to the U.S. with no further explanation and was asked to consult the consulate in Toronto to get approved. An officer later told her it was because her husband had served in the IRGC. "The university has decided to postpone my position until next semester. But if the visa process doesn't work out, I will lose the position. The future is not clear to us." Ghasemi, like many others, contacted members of Parliament and the Prime Minister's Office, only to be told that it is not Canada's responsibility. Read more - Lire plus

One in four border officers witnessed discrimination by colleagues: internal report

The Canadian Press 16/08/2022 - One-quarter of front line employees surveyed at Canada's border agency said they had directly witnessed a colleague discriminate against a traveller in the previous two years.Of these respondents, 71 per cent suggested the discrimination was based, in full or in part, on the travellers' race, and just over three-quarters cited their national or ethnic origin. The figures are drawn from a survey conducted as part of an internal Canada Border Services Agency evaluation that looked at how the agency processed travellers, using a lens of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability, and the interaction between these factors.


The agency recently posted the results of the evaluation, which focused primarily on people flying into Canada, on its website. As part of the research, 922 border services officers and superintendents were surveyed from March 2 to 22, 2020. Of those who said they saw a colleague engage in discrimination, just over two in five did not report what they observed. Some mentioned fear of reprisal or simply feeling uncomfortable. Sixteen per cent of those who witnessed discrimination reported what they saw. However, some of these respondents indicated that they faced challenges in doing so or that their reports were not taken seriously or acted on, the evaluation report says. Read more - Lire plus

Canada’s former privacy watchdog ‘surprised’ by RCMP spyware program

Global News 09/08/2022 - Canada’s former privacy commissioner says he was “surprised” to learn the RCMP had for years used “intrusive” spyware technology to monitor suspects’ encrypted devices. And Daniel Therrien, who served as privacy commissioner from 2014 to 2022, confirmed that his office was not told about the secretive RCMP program, which hacked into 49 individual devices since 2017 while pursuing targets suspected of serious crimes like terrorism and murder.


“I was surprised by the tool itself and how intrusive it was, it is, and that it was used for so long,” Therrien told the House of Commons Ethics committee Tuesday. “Certainly there have been many discussions over the years … on the ‘lawful access’ issue. And both in my term as commissioner and when I was at the Department of Justice, I was following and part of these discussions. But the use of this particular tool to go around encryption? Yes, it was a surprise.” The RCMP revealed to Parliament in June that it used what it called “on-device investigative tools” or ODITs — spyware that gives the force a range of surveillance techniques such as remotely listening in on device microphones or activating cameras, along with collecting data like text messages or emails. The force said this type of electronic monitoring happened 10 times between 2017 and 2018. In a letter to the committee released Monday, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki revised that number up to 32 cases between 2017 and 2022, with 49 individual devices monitored.


Lucki said the force only used the investigative technique in the most serious cases, and “only if approved by a judge who explicitly authorizes the use of ODITs on a specific suspect’s device.” Of the 32 instances detailed by the RCMP to the committee, eight of them involved terrorism, six related to trafficking and five were murder investigations.

But civil society groups and privacy advocates argue that Canada should not be engaging in the “mercenary spyware” market that has targeted activists, political dissidents, political figures and journalists across the world. Ron Deibert, the director of The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and an expert in surveillance technology, said comparing this type of spyware to traditional wiretaps is like comparing nuclear weapons to traditional armaments.


“For example, NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware provides unfettered access to a target’s entire pattern of life. The spyware’s capabilities include access to all the targeted phone’s contents, including encrypted apps (e.g. passwords, contact lists, calendar events, text messages, etc.), the ability to download files, the ability to listen to phone calls, track location, and remotely turn on/off the camera and microphone,” Deibert said in a written submission to the committee. While the RCMP have denied they use Pegasus — only the most infamous and well-known version of spyware on the market — their ODIT program includes many of the same capabilities. The RCMP has declined to say what company or companies they purchase their spyware from. “In order for their activities to be legitimate and lawful, law enforcement agencies in Canada need to explain what investigative techniques they are using and under what authority,” Deibert wrote.


“The secretive adoption and use of invasive surveillance technology erodes public confidence in law enforcement and more generally threatens democracy and rule of law. Despite the nuclear-level capabilities of such spyware, it is remarkable that there has been zero public debate in Canada prior to the RCMP’s … use of this type of technology.” [...] Police and intelligence agencies have long argued that encryption also allows criminals to hide their plans and activities — essentially scrambling their communications and making it more difficult to collect evidence. But Mark Flynn, the RCMP assistant commissioner responsible for national security and protective policing, told the ethics committee that the RCMP has had tools since at least 2002 to circumvent encryption. Read more - Lire plus


Canadians not keen on trading privacy for intelligence sharing: polling data

Face Recognition Technology for the Protection of Canada’s Parliament Hill? Potential Risks and Considerations

Toronto Metropolitan University Leadership Lab 04/2022 - Key findings:

  • This report was prepared at the request of the Parliamentary Protective Service. It examines the human rights and legal considerations for the hypothetical use of face recognition technology (FRT) in the context of ensuring physical security within Canada’s parliamentary precinct and on Parliament Hill. This report demonstrates that there are substantial legal, privacy, and human rights risks associated with the use of FRT.
  • Faces are a type of biometric information unique to each person and can reveal highly personal or intimate information about our lives such as our relationships, political or personal preferences, and travel patterns, particularly when our faces are examined over time. Face recognition technology determines the probability of facial similarity in images through computational analyses.
  • There are currently no clear legal limits nor required safeguards regarding the collection and processing of biometric information such as facial images through automated means. This is a major gap in Canada’s privacy and human rights legal framework.
  • It is possible that the potential use of FRT in the parliamentary context — especially for the unique identification of people through one-to-many searches — could be found unlawful. The use of FRT at Parliament Hill and for the parliamentary precinct may also affect the public’s trust and confidence that their privacy and other rights are being adequately protected and prioritized by their democratic institutions.
  • FRT poses significant risks to privacy, freedom of expression and association, and equality rights. The technology can surveil, track, identify, misidentify, and may lead to decisions that result in parliamentarians and visitors being stopped, questioned, detained and/or prevented from entry to the parliamentary precinct and Parliament Hill at significant scale and speed and in ways that are discreet as well as potentially discriminatory and arbitrary.
  • If there is a decision to use FRT despite these risks, some key considerations include: applying core human rights principles, the usefulness of impact assessments, purpose limitations, public consultation and notice, minimizing information collection and retention, identifying resources needed, and ensuring the role of human intervention in the decision-making process. Read more - Lire plus

SFU prof targeted by China for groundbreaking Uyghur research

Vancouver Sun 11/08/2022 - SFU professor Darren Byler has been frequently attacked by China’s state media, which accuses him of being an agent of the U.S. government. Something he denies. During four groundbreaking expeditions into China, the latest in 2018, Byler has witnessed many colleagues and research subjects disappear into the mass “re-education” camps and forced labour factories endured by more than 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims. The author of In the Camps: Life in China’s High-Tech Penal Colony, was interviewed during a downtown Vancouver conference about the clampdown in Xinjiang. It was attended by 60 people, including Uyghur Canadians, international students from China, Muslim academics and activists. Participants at the Simon Fraser University event required Postmedia’s commitment to protect their identities, so their families would not be harassed or threatened by police in China. There are about 400 ethnic Uyghurs in Metro Vancouver, the largest group of any Canadian city.


Byler has been with Uyghur people on the streets of China when police have stopped them, taken their mobile phones and demanded, “What is the password for your phone?” A specialist in high-tech surveillance, he says China uses 9,000 police surveillance hubs to routinely search personal data for evidence of resistance and what they consider a dangerous commitment to Islam. Facial recognition technology is widely used in Xinjiang. Byler has first-hand knowledge of Uyghur students who have studied in North America being detained in China after omnipresent cameras found them walking outside their confinement. Families are often broken up when a Uyghur whom authorities deem suspicious is sent to a work camp, many of which produce textile goods for the West. The U.S. and Canada have laws banning such goods, but many argue they’re ineffective. A prolific author and widely cited scholar, Byler, 40, is among the Western researchers who argue that China’s Han ethnic majority has in the past decade been escalating a colonialistic internal effort to smear the Uyghur people and systematically erase their Indigenous culture and faith. Chinese authorities often label the Uyghurs as “separatists” and “terrorists,” as well as lazy and slow. [...]


The Global Times and China’s diplomats are making a clear attempt to claim, “You in the West have no right to criticize us, because look what you did to Indigenous people,” Byler said. “They’re kind of saying, ‘You did it. So we are doing it, too.’” [...] Even though most attendees at the SFU conference demanded anonymity, Byler introduced one local Uyghur who was willing to be interviewed because he has already gone public as an activist. Now a high-school science teacher in Surrey, Kabir Qurban came to Canada with his family from Afghanistan as a refugee. Since he has become a high-profile activist in Canada, including with his own websites, Qurban said that sometimes he has attended Uyghur events, such as weddings, where attendees have asked that he not sit at the same table with them. In this era of facial recognition technology, the Uyghur Canadians fear Chinese authorities could catch them together in a photo with the staunch critic of China. That could easily lead to a brother, sister, mother or father back in Xinjiang getting harassed by police. Or worse. “It’s unfortunate,” Qurban said, “but I have to respect their stance.” Read more - Lire plus

Canadian Muslim News: Proposed bill to enshrine a "duty of candour" for CSIS

PROPOSED BILL TO ENSHRINE A "DUTY OF CANDOUR" FOR CSIS | CANADIAN MUSLIM NEWS

Gidimt'en Civil Suit

Yintah Access 13/07/2022 - Every day and still today, the government, industry, and police are invading our yintah. Since February 2022 alone, the RCMP’s Community Industry Response Group (C-IRG), accompanied by Forsythe (Coastal GasLink’s private security contractor), have continually harassed, followed, surveilled, and intimidated Gidimt’en clan members. They have targeted us in our homesites, including at our Gidimt’en Checkpoint village site and the Tsel Kiy Kwa (Lamprey Creek) village site that are important sites of Wet’suwet’en cultural resurgence. 


Since late February 2022, individual RCMP and C-IRG officers, many armed with semi-automatic weapons, have entered Gidimt’en territory hundreds of times, with near constant patrols at Gidimt’en Checkpoint and Tsel Kiy Kwa. RCMP and C-IRG officers attended our village sites 94 times in March, 97 times in April, and 78 times in May. This whole police campaign of intimidation affects our rights to hunt, trap, fish, gather, and conduct ceremonies on our Yintah. Many elders are so terrified and scared of this harassment that they no longer engage in some land-based activities, which further harms our intergenerational knowledge transfer. This is why we are suing the RCMP and C-IRG, Minister of Justice for B.C., Coastal Gaslink Pipeline LTD., and private security contractor Forsythe for loss and damages. 


We will not let the RCMP and C-IRG, B.C, Coastal Gaslink, and Forsythe go unchallenged in their attempts to clear the lands for this pipeline project and their capitalist, colonial extraction. We will never abandon our territory where we have lived since time immemorial. We will not sit idly by while the RCMP and C-IRG enter our village sites multiples times a day, harass and intimidate our people and our guests, disrupt our cultural practices and ceremonies, shine high beams and spotlights into our residential buildings, awaken sleeping residents, illegally demand our identification, unlawfully and arbitrarily threaten and arrest us, seize and destroy our Gidimt’en property, commit assault and battery, and prohibit and block our movement on our own lands. 


The police tactics used on Gidimt’en territory have had no lawful purpose or basis. They have been unreasonable and excessive, discriminatory on the basis of race, malicious and an abuse of police powers. They represent an effort to suppress lawful activity and the assertion of Indigenous rights and title. The very creation and mandate of C-IRG in this province is to protect corporate resource and energy sectors by quashing and criminalizing lawful Indigenous advocacy. A recent APTN investigation describes C-IRG enforcement across the province as “Exclusion zones, psychological manipulation, siege tactics and arbitrary detention. Theft of property, pain compliance and withholding the necessities of life. Unorthodox methods, excessive force and broken bones.” Read more - Lire plus

The Similarities Between Red and Yellow: A global map details danger to press freedom. What are Canada’s true colours?

The Tyee 08/08/2022 - “We were detained for days in cold cells. They took most of our clothes, denied us soap and toothbrushes, and only allowed us to speak to our lawyers.”


On its website, Reporters Without Borders has a brightly coloured interactive map of the world illustrating the results of its World Press Freedom Index, which identifies nations deemed to adequately uphold press freedoms within their borders. Green indicates countries with a “good situation,” yellow means “satisfactory,” light orange is “problematic,” dark orange is “difficult,” and red is “very serious.” The Arab region, including Egypt, where I have roots, is largely and unambiguously demarcated by red, while Canada is yellow.


And yet the opening quote was not uttered by a journalist from the red or orange nations. These are the words of photojournalist Amber Bracken, detailing her treatment at the hands of the RCMP in Canada last year. And they are hauntingly similar to words we have read and heard frequently from journalists working under seemingly impossible circumstances in countries relegated to the inglorious lower levels of the press freedom rankings. If the red areas on the world map represent an information gap, dark red cracks have gradually been tarnishing Canada’s bright yellow reputation. On Nov. 19, 2021, two journalists, including Bracken, and several protesters, including Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, a wing Chief of the Gidimt’en clan, and Jocey Alec, daughter of Hereditary Chief Woos, were arrested on the Coastal GasLink drill site near the Wedzin Kwa (Morice) River in British Columbia.


As well, since a May 2021 injunction against the Fairy Creek blockade, more than 1,100 protesters have been arrested on southern Vancouver Island as they fought to protect what remains of our old-growth forests and First Nations territories. During the blockade, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the media was shackled behind a vast exclusion zone, with the RCMP initially prohibiting all journalists from entering the area. On the day of the Coastal GasLink arrests, I felt the need to rub my eyes when I read a headline calling into question Canada’s press freedom. Was I reading this right? Surely there must be a mix-up. And when I read of the attempt to block the collection and dissemination of information on the Fairy Creek protest, I thought of the media blackout in Egypt during the early days of the 2011 Revolution. With tens of thousands of people on the street demanding their basic rights, the state-controlled broadcaster continued to present its regular programming, completely denying the reality unfolding on its streets. What was that if not a clear example of democratic failure? Read more - Lire plus

Mike Pompeo & CIA Sued for Spying on Americans Who Visited Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy in U.K.

Democracy Now! 16/08/2022 - Lawyers and journalists sued the CIA and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo Monday for spying on them while they met Julian Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum. The lawsuit is being filed as Britain prepares to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the lead attorney in the case, Richard Roth, who details how a private security company stationed at the London Embassy sent images from Assange’s visitors’ cellphones and laptops as well as streamed video from inside meetings to American intelligence. He says the offenses breach a range of client privileges and could sway a U.S. judge to dismiss the case if Assange is successfully extradited. Read more - Lire plus

Turkey attacked Northern and Eastern Syria 3,761 times in past 8 months, killing 33 and wounding 124

ANF News 13/08/2022 - On 1 June 2022, the Turkish state threatened another invasion of Northern and Eastern Syria. Although it is said that the operation has not received sufficient authorization from the major powers, a different picture emerges when looking at the attacks on the region. In a two-and-a-half-month period, there were 1,420 attacks, killing 23 people and injuring another 57. Since January 2022, the Turkish state has carried out at least 3763 attacks on Rojava. 33 people were killed and 124 people injured. [...]


August: Over 600 attacks, 15 dead, 20 wounded. The Turkish occupying forces and their mercenaries have carried out more than 600 attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria as of 13 August. These attacks with drones, artillery and howitzers killed 15 people and injured more than 20 people. Read more - Lire plus


Turkish Forces Continue Escalation In NE Syria Causing Casualties, Displacement


Child Lost Life, 8 Civilians Injured In Turkish Shelling Of Syria’s Northeast


Turkish Shell Hits House Of Child Affected By Previous Shelling Of Syria’s Kobani


Turkish Attack Kills 2 Fighters, 1 Civilian In Syria’s Qamishli – SDF


Person Wounded In Turkish Strike North Of Syria’s Hasakah


ACTION: Biden: Stop Turkey's invasion

“There Are Good Reasons to Defund the FBI. They Have Nothing to Do with Trump”: Professor Alex Vitale

Democracy Now 16/08/2022 - “Defund the FBI” is the growing call by Republicans after the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. We get response from Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” who lays out reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump. Vitale reviews the history of the FBI, which he says has “always been a tool of repression of left-wing movements,” and calls the FBI investigation into Trump a “shortsighted” attempt to shut down some of the most extreme parts of the right wing. He uplifts efforts to “reduce the power and scope of the FBI in ways that limit their ability to demonize and criminalize those on the left.” Read more - Lire plus


“Bogus Charge”: FBI Raids African People’s Socialist Party; Group Dismisses Russian Influence Claims

In U.S. v. Al-Nashiri the Government Is Rewarding Torture and Incentivizing Torturers

Lawfare 10/08/2022 - There has been no serious dispute for years that the Guantanamo military commissions have failed. At the heart of their failure, longtime chief defense counsel Gen. John Baker told the Senate Judiciary Committee last December, is the government’s “original sin, torture.” It “impacts and undermines every aspect of these prosecutions,” he explained. Baker specifically took aim at the government’s reliance on evidence obtained by torture: “The foundations of any guilty verdicts and capital sentences obtained in the current military commissions are thus being built on quicksand.”


To its credit—at least with respect to several of the commission cases—the Biden administration has recognized that legitimate commission trials (and likely trials at all) are a mirage. Hoping to salvage a modicum of justice, the administration is smartly pursuing plea deals. But not in U.S. v. Al-Nashiri. There, prosecutors are recklessly forging ahead, openly embracing evidence tainted by torture in violation of federal and international law, as well as U.S. policy. Over the past 18 months alone, prosecutors have advanced baseless arguments to use against Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri both his own torture-obtained statements and those of a third-party witness. At times their lawyering is reminiscent of that which authorized the CIA to torture Nashiri in the first place. Prosecutors’ positions on these issues—taken on behalf of the U.S. government—tacitly approve torture itself. What is happening in Al-Nashiri has not gotten the attention it deserves. This post is a modest effort to shine light on the prosecutors’ actions, discuss their implications, and propose a durable solution. [...]


The arguments that prosecutors are advancing in Al-Nashiri undermine both the rule of law and the United States’ moral legitimacy. They also damage President Biden’s credibility: Twice since taking office, the president has publicly affirmed the United States’ “unequivocal” commitment to the prohibition of torture. Last year, he “pledge[d] the full efforts of the United States to eradicate torture in all its forms.” Because the torture-evidence issue is playing out in often technical litigation, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. Sens. Durbin and Leahy’s reaction to the administration’s wait-and-see approach on derivative evidence, drafted against the backdrop of all that has happened in Al-Nashiri, properly cuts to the chase: “This is not a difficult question: Are we going to stand on principle and repudiate unequivocally the use of torture, or are we going to tie ourselves in legal knots to justify the use of evidence derived from the torture of human beings? It’s clear what the answer should be.”


Both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Attorney General Merrick Garland should issue department-wide guidance making clear that where there are credible allegations of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) arising out of post-9/11 U.S. counterterrorism operations, their department’s personnel cannot use evidence tainted by such torture or CIDT in any judicial or administrative proceeding. The policy should explicitly prohibit using:

1) any statements made by a person in U.S. or foreign government custody or control in connection with the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation program; 
2) any other statements credibly alleged to have been obtained by torture or CIDT —regardless of which government agency was responsible—including those made while the victim was suffering physical or psychological effects of such torture or CIDT; and 
3) any evidence derived from statements covered by the first two categories. 

The policy should not turn on, or even consider, whether military commission rules or military commission judges might be more tolerant of torture and the information it produced. Bush administration officials were deliberate, painstaking, and comprehensive in authorizing and perpetrating post-9/11 torture. Biden administration officials need to be equally deliberate, painstaking, and comprehensive in rejecting evidence that torture taints, and in upholding the prohibition on torture more broadly. Read more - Lire plus


U.S. Responds to Guantanamo Detainee Majid Khan’s Request for Habeas Relief


US urgently seeking country to take in Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan

Biden’s Assassination of al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri Was Illegal

Truthout 06/08/2022 - President Joe Biden’s assassination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan was illegal under both U.S. and international law. After the CIA drone strike killed Zawahiri on August 2, Biden declared, “People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer.” What we should fear instead is the dangerous precedent set by Biden’s unlawful extrajudicial execution.


In addition to being illegal, the killing of Zawahiri also occurred in a moment when the United Nations had already determined that people in the U.S. had little to fear from him. As a United Nations report released in July concluded, “Al Qaeda is not viewed as posing an immediate international threat from its safe haven in Afghanistan because it lacks an external operational capability and does not currently wish to cause the Taliban international difficulty or embarrassment.”


Just as former president Barack Obama stated that “Justice has been done” after he assassinated Osama bin Laden, Biden said, “Now justice has been delivered” when he announced the assassination of Zawahiri. Retaliation, however, does not constitute justice.

Targeted, or political, assassinations are extrajudicial executions. They are deliberate and unlawful killings meted out by order of, or with acquiescence of, a government. Extrajudicial executions are implemented outside a judicial framework. The fact that Zawahiri did not pose an imminent threat is precisely why his assassination was illegal. Read more - Lire plus


Biden Appeared to Overstate the Role of al-Qaida's Leader


Murtaza Hussain: Why No One Cared That Al Qaeda Honcho Zawahiri Got Droned

Filipino nuns accused of 'financing terrorism’

UCA News 16/08/2022 - A criminal case has been filed against 16 people, including several nuns, for allegedly financing terrorists and violating the Philippines' anti-terrorism law. It was filed by the Justice Department on Aug. 15 with a trial court in Iligan City in Mindanao, accusing them of financing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), which is branded a terrorist organization by the Philippine government. The charges against the nuns, whose number and identities remain undisclosed, and the others, come days after the state-run Commission on the Filipino Language banned five textbooks for allegedly encouraging terrorism.


"The anti-terrorism law defines and penalizes terrorism financing as giving financial aid such as donations, which also include the transfer of any property or funds, or financial services and other related services, to an individual or group designated as a terrorist by the government,” Justice Department lawyer Mico Clavano told reporters on Aug. 15. Clavano said that if the court agrees with the Justice Department, it can issue an arrest warrant against the accused, including the nuns. “The charge is terror financing, and the law provides that the offense is a nonbailable crime, they would go to jail while the trial is ongoing… It is what the law says,” Clavano added. If found guilty, the sisters would face up to 40 years in prison and a fine of between 500,000 to 1 million pesos (US$10,000-20,000).


The Justice Department said that the charges were based on the testimonies of witnesses, namely two former members of the New People’s Army. “According to the witnesses, the sisters ... prepare a proposal to be presented to foreign funders. These foreign funders donate and give money to finance projects of terrorist groups,” the Justice Department claimed. Human rights groups, however, said the Justice Department railroaded the filing of the case in secrecy before the accused could defend themselves. “Some cases take months or even years but the case against the sisters took only weeks. They were not given an opportunity to defend themselves because authorities knew they were not involved in any crime,” said Samahang Layko ng Pilipinas, a Catholic lay group in the Philippines. [...]


Members of the Church have often been accused by the government of helping communist rebels through their mission work. The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines is a Church-based national organization, comprising priests and lay persons. The group empowers farmers, fisher-folk and indigenous peoples, and educates them on their rights. Because of their advocacy, they have been "red-tagged" by the Philippine government. Red-tagging, also known as red-baiting, is the malicious labeling of individuals or groups as “terrorists” or “communists” for criticizing the government. This malpractice has been used by successive governments in the Philippines to crack down on the NPA since 1969.

The government defends red-tagging as part of counter-insurgency measures. Activists, journalists, politicians, and various organizations have also been subjected to the same treatment for allegedly supporting the NPA. Read more - Lire plus


Filipino Activist Walden Bello Speaks Out After Arrest Just Weeks After Marcos Jr. Inauguration

KWF urged to review policy banning books it decided are 'subversive'

Phil Star 14/08/2022 - Groups are urging the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (the governmental Commission on the Filipino Language) to review its board's decision to pull out books it has decided are "subversive" for supposedly being "anti-government" as the rights commission cautioned against government overreach.


The KWF has issued a memo denouncing several titles, which it also described as "anti-Marcos" and "anti-Duterte". The KWF board also distanced itself from the titles, saying these were commissioned without authority. [...] "We encourage the KWF to study this policy through consultations with relevant stakeholders, as well as to go into a further inquiry on the contents of the said publications," Commission on Human Rights Executive Director Jacqueline Ann de Guia said in a statement.


KWF warned that the five books it identified may violate Section 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for supposedly encouraging terrorism, but the CHR points out that interpreting provisions of that law should be done with caution "especially if it may be overreaching, and results in possible violation of rights rather than protecting them." Opposition lawmakers recently filed a bill to repeal the ATA, citing that it was prone to abuse. Right before leaving his post, former national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. had websites of news organizations blocked even if he failed to cite articles of the ATA he claims they violated. Read more - Lire plus

FOI reveals over 12,000 people profiled by flawed Durham police predictive AI tool

Fair Trials 15/08/2022 - Fair Trials has learned that Durham police used an AI profiling tool, the Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART), to assess more than 12,000 people between 2016 and 2021. Previous analysis and studies on HART showed the system has many serious flaws, including the deliberate over-estimation of people’s likelihood of re-offending, and the use of racist data profiles. However, until now the extent of its use had not been made public. Fair Trials has called for a ban on predictive policing tools such as HART.


The machine-learning algorithm, was used by Durham police to classify people arrested on suspicion of an offence as high, medium or low risk of committing a crime in future, deciding whether they were charged or diverted onto a rehabilitation programme, called Checkpoint. Individuals who were assessed as ‘medium’ risk were eligible to undertake the Checkpoint rehabilitation program, and if they successfully completed this, they avoided being charged and prosecuted. Individuals who were assessed as ‘high’ risk were not eligible to diversion from prosecution. The figures show that 12,200 people were assessed by HART 22,265 times between 2016 and 2021. The majority of assessments assessed people as ‘moderate’ risk (12,262) and ‘low’ risk (7,111) of reoffending. However, 3,292 people were assessed as ‘high’ risk of re-offending. As a result, they are likely to have been charged and prosecuted rather than offered the opportunity for rehabilitation. These figures provide context and detail to previously published investigations and studies on HART, and is especially worrying alongside the statistics on the ‘accuracy’ rate of the predictive tool, which according to their study released earlier this year was 53.8% – no better than a guess, or flipping a coin.


Griff Ferris, Senior Legal and Policy Officer at Fair Trials, said: “We now know that thousands of people have been profiled by this flawed police AI system, using racist stereotypes and historic data to predict whether people would commit crime in future. “But it’s not clear whether people were ever told that the criminal charges they subsequently faced were influenced or even decided by an algorithm, let alone whether they were able to appeal against the decision. We’re calling for Durham police to immediately release details of how many people were charged and prosecuted as a result of these predictions. “The data these predictive policing systems use always results in historic discrimination being hardwired into policing and criminal justice decisions, exacerbating and reinforcing racism and inequality in the criminal legal system. Seeking to predict people’s future behaviour and punish them for it is completely incompatible with the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. These systems must be banned.” Read more - Lire plus

New UK Cabinet Office rules ban speakers who have criticised government policy

The Guardian 15/08/22 - Guest speakers at the Cabinet Office will have their social media accounts vetted to check whether they have ever criticised government policy before they can take part in events, according to new rules.


The Cabinet Office policy applies to outsiders coming into the department to take part in “learning and development” events. Managers are being urged to carefully check the backgrounds of such guests, including by trawling through up to five years of posts, according to an article in the Financial Times.

The report quoted allies of the Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg as saying the due diligence policy, which took effect this week, was “very sensible” and should be implemented straight away, since “there have been far too many examples recently where essentially extremist speakers have been invited to speak to civil servants and staff networks”.


The checks include trawling through between three and five years of posts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to search for “potentially problematic or controversial material that may contravene civil service values”, including criticism of government officials or policy, strong political views and “behaviour that might bring the civil service into disrepute”. [...] Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, criticised the rules for providing “a draconian excuse to block critics of government policy from even setting foot in Whitehall buildings”. She added: “Instead of seeking to silence entirely legitimate criticism of their litany of failures, ministers could do with listening to experts a little more and burying their heads in the sand a little less. By listening they might learn something about addressing the dysfunction that has set in at the heart of this Conservative government.” Read more - Lire plus

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ACTIONS & EVENTS

Since the Taliban takeover of a year ago, Canadian aid organizations have faced barriers in sending aid to Afghanistan due to Canadian sanctions and a restrictive interpretation of the Canadian Criminal Code’s anti-terrorism provisions. This is despite the US, the UK, the EU countries and even the UN taking action to ensure sanctions do not interfere with crucial humanitarian assistance.


ICLMG has teamed up with other Canadian organizations to call on Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to act immediately to remove barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance. This includes ensuring that sanctions and counter-terror finance and criminal law restrictions do not impede the provision of lifesaving humanitarian aid. This issue isn’t limited to Afghanistan, either, which is why we are also asking the government to address the long-standing issue of ensuring that anti-terrorism laws and sanctions do not interfere with humanitarian assistance. Version française

ACTION

NEW Stop Danilo's deportation!

Danilo de Leon, the Chairperson of Migrante Canada, will be deported to the Philippines on August 29, 2022. Due to unfortunate circumstances, his application to extend his open work permit was refused in 2017. With no status, he faces deportation from Canada.


As a Filipino national, he could face political persecution if he is forced to return to the Philippines because of his beliefs and advocacy for migrant and human rights. The Philippines’ Anti-Terrorism Act, signed into law in June 2020 has been strongly criticized by local and international human rights groups, could be applied to Danilo’s migrants rights’ advocacy.

ACTION

NEW Protecting water is not terrorism: Free Jessica Reznicek

In 2016, Jessica Reznicek took action to stop the construction of Dakota Access Pipeline by dismantling construction equipment and pipeline valves. In 2021 she was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a domestic terrorism enhancement. In 2022 an appeals court upheld her conviction writing that even if the terrorism enhancement was an error it was "harmless". 


Under normal conditions Jess would have been sentenced to 37 months, but the terrorism enhancement resulted in a sentence of 96 months. 


This is the criminalization of environmental protection!

ACTION

Tell Trudeau: Condemn Israel's attacks on Gaza!

Israel has launched yet another aggressive war against the people of Gaza, deploying airstrikes against residential buildings in civilian neighbourhoods. Many people have already been killed, including a five-year-old girl. Shockingly, Israel continues to commit these war crimes with impunity. Not only has Canada failed to condemn Israeli aggression, but Canadian military exports to Israel continue to increase every year. Canada must condemn Israel's attacks on the people of Gaza, and suspend military trade with Israel!


Send an email to Trudeau, to the Foreign Affairs Minister, our diplomats at the UN, other political leaders, and your own MP! ISRAELI VIOLENCE MUST END NOW!

ACTION

Protect the memory of the Tiananmen Square crackdown

On June 4, 1989, hundreds if not thousands of peaceful protesters were killed by Chinese troops in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Thousands were imprisoned. In the 33 years since public remembrances have been criminalized in mainland China.

This has made the annual commemoration in Hong Kong crucial.


Chow Hang-tung, a human rights lawyer, is serving 22 months in jail for “unlawful assembly” for peacefully commemorating the crackdown. She is also awaiting trial for “inciting subversion” under the Hong Kong National Security Law which could result in up to 10 years jail.


Sign the petition and call on the Hong Kong authorities to release Chow Hang-tung and other activists being punished for peacefully commemorating the victims of the 1989 crackdown now.

ACTION

Stop Mohamed Harkat's deportation to torture

For 20 years, Moe and Sophie Harkat have fought against illegal detention, secret hearings, the surveillance state invading their home, and deportation to torture. Enough is enough. For the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Torture, please send a message to end this nightmare (all it takes is two clicks!)

ACTION

LeadNow petition: Protect Hassan Diab from further injustice. Say NO to any future request for Hassan's extradition!

Petition organized by the Hassan Diab Support Committee - Following the return of Dr. Diab to Canada in 2018, PM Trudeau said: “I think for Hassan Diab we have to recognise first of all that what happened to him never should have happened […] and make sure it never happens again.”


Mr. Trudeau must honor his own words and protect Hassan. The unfair political trial of an innocent Canadian citizen cannot be tolerated. PM Trudeau and the Canadian government must:

(a) Put an end to this continuing miscarriage of justice, and

(b) Refuse any future request for Hassan Diab’s extradition.

ACTION

Please share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram


NOUVELLE pétition de LeadNow: Protégez Hassan Diab de toute nouvelle injustice. Dites NON à toute future demande d'extradition!

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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

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

RCMP off the land

This is unconscionable. The RCMP are violently harassing Wet’suwet’en land defenders again for fighting against the sovereignty-violating Coastal Gaslink pipeline. We’ve heard reports directly from land defenders that drilling for CGL is imminent — and the RCMP's specialized unit CIRG (Community-Industry Response Group), is ramping up their enforcement. They have a history of using excessive force and violence against Indigenous people — all in the name of profit.


We know that the BC government and high ranking RCMP officials have the power to deploy — and remove the RCMP. If enough of us fill their inboxes with emails demanding they respect Indigenous sovereignty and call off the RCMP, it could be enough to force them to act and halt all construction. Send a message directly to key decision makers asking them to stop the violence.


+ Wanna do more? Join a group

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
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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

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
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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

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Accountability

Reddition de comptes


Rouleau Inquiry welcome, but OPC focuses on healing and justice for local community


Homeland Security watchdog Cuffari faces rebukes from lawmakers in missing texts case

Criminalization of dissent

Criminalisation de la dissidence


Non-jury trial ordered for Hong Kong’s 47 democrats national security case


Myanmar court jails Aung San Suu Kyi for six more years on corruption charges

Freedom of expression and of the press

Liberté d'expression et de la presse


Hong Kong court lifts reporting restriction on national security case


Journalists and critics continue to be targeted despite political transition in Pakistan


Saudi Spying Inside Twitter Led to Torture & Jailing of Saudi Man Who Ran Anonymous Satirical Account


Donald Trump has his own history with the Espionage Act


Abusive lawsuits against journalists amid political tension in Greece


ICYMI: Russian Teenager Gets Five Years In Prison In Minecraft 'Terrorism' Case

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et réfugié.es


Ontario tribunal rules OPP discriminated against migrant workers in 2013


The Officer of the Future: Facial Recognition and the Border-Industrial Complex


“No Tech for ICE”: Data Broker LexisNexis Sued for Helping ICE Target Immigrant Communities


Secret aerial surveillance: What does an hour’s flight with a Frontex drone cost?


Facial recognition smartwatches to be used to monitor foreign offenders in UK

Police


Police apologies are meaningless when they actively invest in surveillance of Black people


Police abuse stop and search powers to target protesters, suggests data

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance


Meta Just Happens to Expand Messenger’s End-to-End Encryption


iOS Privacy: Announcing InAppBrowser.com - Tik Tok tracks in-app browsing, word search and passwords

Miscellaneous

Divers


Australia pulls out of ASEAN counter-terrorism meeting co-chaired by Myanmar military and Russia


Trump wanted US military leaders to be loyal, just like Nazi generals, new book says


Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada's Foreign Policy (videos)


Yves Engler: Canada no peacekeeper and never has been


Canadian Foreign Policy Institute: Understanding Canadian Peacekeeping (webinar)

Check out our biannual summary of activities: What We've Been Up To from January to June 2022. Lisez la version française ici.


Here are the issues we plan to work on for the rest of 2022:


  • Monitoring the evolution of Bill S-7 – the electronic device border search bill – as it passes through the Senate and House of Commons;
  • Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices online;
  • Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for privacy law reform (including monitoring the new Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act);
  • Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility;
  • Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming the extradition law;
  • Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS);
  • The return of the 44 Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including 26 children;
  • The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities;
  • Pushing for Canadian government action on behalf of Iranian Canadians negatively and unjustly impacted by the US terror listing of the IRGC
  • Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism. This includes evaluating and advocating for improvements to the proposed Public Review and Complaints Commission Act  (Bill C-20);
  • Monitoring the review 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!


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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!


Bill Ewanick

Mary Ann Higgs

Kevin Malseed

Brian Murphy

Colin Stuart

Bob Thomson

James Turk

John & Rosemary Williams

Jo Wood

The late Bob Stevenson


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!