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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
April 27, 2024 - 27 avril 2024
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Key stakeholders call for withdrawal of controversial AI legislation | |
Parliament can’t fix the Minister’s rushed, confused and flawed Bill; full public consultation needed now. | |
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ICLMG 24/04/2024 - Today, nearly 60 leading civil society organizations, corporations, experts and academics released an open letter to Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, calling for the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) to be withdrawn and given a full public consultation.
AIDA is currently bundled into the government’s proposed privacy legislation, Bill C-27, resulting in what the letter describes as a “hasty, confusing, and rushed” study by the House of Commons Industry and Technology Committee, and a “fundamentally flawed bill which lacks democratic legitimacy.”
The open letter sharply criticizes the government’s introduction of AIDA without the open public consultation process warranted for such highly impactful legislation. Stakeholders were not given any opportunity to hear what the government had in mind and to lay out their concerns and hopes for AI legislation before it was introduced. Furthermore, the government promised a major rewrite of much of AIDA on the first day of committee consideration, catching off guard both stakeholders who were attempting to participate, and committee MPs themselves. Some stakeholders were forced to rework and resubmit their input in response to the revised proposal, while others denied a formal feedback window raised fundamental unanswered questions about AIDA’s current design and objectives.
The letter follows on September and December communications to the Minister raising serious concerns, but significantly increases the signatory count of past letters. The signatories, who reflect a diverse range of civil society groups, think tanks, and businesses, ask the government to:
- Withdraw AIDA from Bill C-27 and initiate a thorough and inclusive public consultation with ample time for submissions from various stakeholders and incorporation of their feedback;
- Reintroduce a revised and improved AIDA that addresses the concerns raised from the start.
Some signatories of today’s letter have also endorsed a March 2024 package of bare minimum recommended changes to AIDA, in the event that the government insists on pushing forward with the current bill.
Today’s letter follows on the government’s budget announcement of a $5.1 million fund for the AI and Data Commissioner proposed in AIDA, just 1/8th of what the Office of the Privacy Commissioner receives. This amount also pales in comparison to the government’s $2 billion budgeted investment for stimulating the AI industry, reflecting the government’s unbalanced priorities for AI.
In the past two years, more than 20,000 signatures and letters were sent to government officials calling for effective legislation to address the impacts of AI and facial recognition. Since November 2021, more than 34,000 signatures have been collected by OpenMedia petitions calling for new privacy laws in Canada, and more than 17,800 messages have been sent to the government calling for enhanced personal privacy protections.
“Ensuring that artificial intelligence tools, especially those that have the potential to impact crucial and sensitive areas of people’s lives, are properly regulated is essential. This is especially true for those used by law enforcement and national security agencies. The government’s lack of public consultation on this bill means these risks are not being properly addressed. AIDA is not up to task, and needs to be withdrawn.” – Tim McSorley, National Coordinator at the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Letter + list of signatories
Version française: Des acteurs clés réclament le retrait de la loi controversée sur l’intelligence artificielle
Federal government use of AI in hundreds of initiatives revealed by new research database
ACTION: Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!
The Silicon Valley/Venture Capital Pentagon
How Loopholes and Opt-Outs Can Tear Apart AI Policy in the United States
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Border agency eyes smartphone facial recognition system amid privacy concerns, feat. ICLMG's Tim McSorley | |
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The Canadian Press 24/04/2024 - Travellers would be able to use facial recognition technology to identify themselves through their smartphones when crossing the border under a planned federal project.
A pilot project is still two to four years away, but an Ottawa-based civil liberties coalition is already flagging concerns about privacy and accountability. [...]
A parliamentary committee heard testimony about the dangers of facial recognition systems, including misidentification of Black and Asian people; indiscriminate and warrantless mass surveillance; and a lack of regulation, transparency and accountability from police and intelligence agencies.
In its October 2022 report, the House of Commons committee on access to information, privacy and ethics urged the government to develop a regulatory framework concerning uses, prohibitions, oversight and privacy of the emerging tool.
There is a concern the border agency's program could one day be broadened to include matching a traveller's photo against other image databases, said Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. "So without more clarity around the project, we'd be worried that this is a first step towards a more expanded use of this kind of facial identification program," he said in an interview.
McSorley pointed out the long-standing calls to modernize the federal privacy law covering agencies such as the CBSA, including measures to address facial recognition and the growing use of biometrics. McSorley also noted that Parliament has yet to pass a federal bill that would create a new watchdog for the border agency. Read more - Lire plus
ACTION: Protect our rights from facial recognition
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Feds don't 'care if they die,' says lawyer helping Canadian children held in Syria | |
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The Canadian Press 22/04/2024 - Five Canadian children are languishing in a squalid detention camp in northeastern Syria after Ottawa denied their mothers permission to come to Canada, says a lawyer fighting in court on behalf of the families.
The development is the latest setback for Canadians among the many foreign nationals in ramshackle centres set up after the war-ravaged region was wrested from militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Lawyer Asiya Hirji said she sought temporary resident permits in February last year for two women with Canadian children in al-Roj camp, and heard last month they had been refused on security grounds.
One of the mothers has a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl. The other mother has a nine-year-old girl and boys aged seven and five. Her oldest boy has a serious eye condition that requires medical treatment. Neither mother is a Canadian citizen. The Canadian fathers of the children are no longer in the families' lives.
Hirji, supervising lawyer at the University of Toronto law faculty's legal clinic, said the women signed confessions under duress in Syria — information Canada should not rely on. She is now pursuing a Federal Court review of Canada's permit denial decision. "In all security cases, they are very careful about what they are disclosing to the applicants," she said. "And so it results in a very protracted process."
A civil society delegation that visited Syrian prison camps last August called on Ottawa to provide immediate consular assistance to Canadian detainees and to swiftly repatriate all citizens wishing to return to Canada. Delegation members, including Sen. Kim Pate and former Amnesty International Canada head Alex Neve, also urged the government to issue temporary permits to ensure that non-Canadian mothers and siblings of Canadian children can travel to Canada. The delegation said Canada is complicit in a serious international human-rights failure through a policy of essentially warehousing thousands of foreign nationals, more than half of them children.
A recent Amnesty International report said men, women and children in the detention facilities endure inhumane conditions, in some cases including beatings, gender-based violence and torture. An estimated 11,500 men, 14,500 women, and 30,000 children are held in at least 27 detention facilities and the al-Roj and al-Hol camps, the report said.
Hirji said she has repeatedly asked Global Affairs Canada to facilitate medical treatment for the five Canadian children she is trying to help, without success. "I do not think that they care if they die," Hirji said. "It's just heartwrenching that we're just letting this happen. Kids don't ask to be born. And so we have a responsibility to do what's in the best interests of children."
Non-Canadian parents of Canadian children may ask that their children be repatriated to Canada without them, and the federal government evaluates these requests on a case-by-case basis, said Global Affairs spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod. [...] Hirji said that for the mothers, sending their children to Canada alone amounts to an impossible choice. Read more - Lire plus
Canada refused to repatriate woman from NE Syria "because she can't be arrested" as the RCMP assessment found nothing untoward: internal memo
A mother's fight to free, and exonerate, her son
UPDATED ACTION: Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!
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Syria: Mass death, torture and other violations against people detained in aftermath of Islamic State defeat | |
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Amnesty International Canada 17/04/2024 - People detained following the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (IS) armed group are facing systematic violations and dying in large numbers due to inhumane conditions in north-east Syria, Amnesty International said in a new report.
Aftermath: Injustice, Torture and Death in Detention in North-East Syria documents how the region’s autonomous authorities are responsible for the large-scale violation of the rights of more than 56,000 people in their custody. This includes an estimated 11,500 men, 14,500 women, and 30,000 children held in at least 27 detention facilities and two detention camps – Al-Hol and Roj. The autonomous authorities are the principal partner of the US government and other coalition members who defeated IS in north-east Syria. The USA is involved in most aspects of the detention system.
More than five years after the territorial defeat of IS, tens of thousands of people remain arbitrarily and indefinitely detained. Many are held in inhumane conditions and have been subjected to torture, including severe beatings, stress positions, electric shocks, and gender-based violence. Thousands more have been forcibly disappeared. Women have been unlawfully separated from their children.
Among those held in the detention system are IS victims. Scores, if not hundreds, of Yezidi victims are among those detained. Many other detained women and girls are victims of forced marriage to IS members, and many detained boys and young men are victims of child recruitment by IS.
“The autonomous authorities have committed the war crimes of torture and cruel treatment, and likely committed the war crime of murder,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Children, women and men held in these detention camps and facilities suffer shocking cruelty and violence. The US government has played a central role in the creation and maintenance of this system in which hundreds have died preventable deaths, and must play a role in changing it.
“This detention system violates the rights of people with perceived IS affiliation, and has also failed to deliver justice and accountability for the victims and survivors of IS crimes.
“While the threat of IS remains real worldwide, the violations ongoing in north-east Syria only entrench further grievances and mean a generation of children have known only systematic injustice. The autonomous authorities, members of the US-led coalition, and the UN must act to remedy these violations and end the cycles of abuse and violence.” Read more - Lire plus
‘Guantanamo on an epic scale’: Life inside ISIS detention camps in Syria (podcast)
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Extradition: The Search for Huseyin Celil (podcast) | |
TVO Today 24/04/2024 - In 2006, Canadian Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur refugee, travelled with his wife and children to Uzebekistan to visit family. What was supposed to be a family reunion ended when he was arrested under false pretenses and eventually delivered to China where he was sent to prison. 17-years later, his fate remains unknown and his family desperate for answers.
‘Extradition: The Search for Huseyin Celil,’ a six-part investigative series from TVO Today, reopens the diplomatic cold case. With China implementing harsher crackdowns on its Uyghur population, Huseyin was cut off from communicating from his family. No one knows how he’s doing or where he is.
In the wake of the release of the Two Michaels in 2021, the series re-examines why Canada couldn’t do the same for Huseyin. It investigates whether the Canadian government has done all it can to release him, and takes matters into its own hands to get more information on Huseyin’s whereabouts today. Hosted by Yusuf Zine. Listen - Écouter
NEW ACTION: Free Huseyin Celil!
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Canada To Host Tests Of Israeli Arms Tech Used On Palestinians | |
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The Maple 25/04/2024 - Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) will host trial sessions for Israeli arms technology used to kill Palestinians and maintain apartheid and occupation during a three-week “sandbox” event in Alberta next month.
From May 27 to June 21, DND is giving a select group of military suppliers the chance to test products that are designed to counter aerial drones, with direct assistance from Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) staff and experts. Among those selected is a company called “Twenty20 Insight Inc.,” which is testing the “Smash Hopper counter-drone weapon station.”
The “Smash Hopper” is a remote control weapon system developed and manufactured by Israeli arms company “Smart Shooter,” whose technology is deployed by the Israeli military in fortifications that are used to suppress Palestinian dissent in the occupied West Bank, as well as in military hardware currently being used in Israel’s assault on Gaza. As reported by AP News in November 2022, Smart Shooter developed remote control turrets deployed by Israel that fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets at Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank.
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, told AP: “This system will only [...] further grave Israeli human rights abuse and further the Israeli army’s abuses and the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.” [...]
Mount Royal University sociologist Muhannad Ayyash, a Palestinian originally from Jerusalem, told The Maple that the kind of technology developed by Smart Shooter and other companies is used to control Palestinian lives “24 hours a day, seven days a week, from birth to death.” “This is not an exaggeration or hyperbole,” he said. “Countless numbers of Palestinians have never known freedom. They were born under Israeli occupation, and many of them have already died, often at the hands of the Israeli forces, without knowing life outside of this constant, continuous surveillance and control over every little aspect of their lives.” “Any country that is either selling Israel weapons, or importing weapons from Israel, is complicit in this continuous, constant and total surveillance and control over Palestinian life.” [...]
Smart Shooter’s marketing of its products as battle-tested on Palestinians during the latest war is a typical practice among Israeli arms companies. The December Ynet interview described the war on Gaza as “good” for Smart Shooter, with Mor telling the outlet: “This is the finest hour of the defense industries that provide solutions so that we can live here [...] Our goal is to increase the safety of the soldiers and reduce injury to innocent bystanders.”
Ayyash said the Israeli arms sector’s claimed focus on reducing harm to civilians and taking out terrorists is nothing more than “propaganda.” He noted comments made by Israeli state officials, including President Isaac Herzog, that elided distinctions between Palestinian civilians and alleged combatants. “The dehumanization of Palestinians has been going on for decades,” Ayyash explained. “It is done partly through this discourse of terror, where there’s this idea that Palestinians are always guilty of being terrorists, until proven otherwise, as opposed to it being the other way around.” “The whole label of terrorism is a purely political concept. It does not actually describe the reality on the ground. It’s a concept that can be used by the Israeli state in such a way where it’s so malleable, they can call anybody who they kill a terrorist.”
Ayyash noted that this frequently happens after such killings of unarmed civilians occur as a way of concealing Israel’s responsibility. According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least two-thirds of those killed by Israel since last October were women and children, despite Israel branding the operation as being intended to “eliminate Hamas.”
In addition to being used by the Israeli military, Smart Shooter’s technology has also been purchased by the United States, India, the Netherlands and Germany. Besides rifle optics and remote control turrets, Smart Shooter also reportedly makes technology for the “David” armoured vehicle, from which an Israeli soldier deliberately shot and killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022. The U.S. supplied new David vehicles to Israel in the early stages of its latest Gaza campaign. Read more - Lire plus
NEW EVENT: Ottawa protest: Hands Off Rafah, Sat April 27th, 2PM, Human Rights Monument
NEW AMNESTY ACTION: Stop All Arms Sales to Israel
NEW PARLIAMENTARY PETITION: Act to allow Gazan relatives of Palestinian-Canadians to enter Canada now!
NEW ACTION: Tell Premier Ford: Reverse the keffiyeh ban in the Ontario Legislature
Israël détient plus de 10 000 Palestiniens en captivité. Cette Journée des prisonniers palestiniens vise à #FreeThemAll
Haaretz Editorial | Close Israel's 'Guantanamo Bay'
Canada contacts Israel after aid agency says water truck bombed in 'targeted' attack
Israel has yet to provide evidence of UNRWA staff terrorist links, Colonna report says
Surveillance as a Service: The Global Impact of Israeli “Defense” Technologies on Privacy and Human Rights
Ottawa Police Service receives $50 million in federal budget, intends to create a “permanent Special Events Team”
Montreal police pursue criminal charges against journalist for covering Gaza protest
Desmond Cole - and two other activists - arrested and criminally charged this morning for taking part in a pro-Palestine demonstration in January
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‘Secret’ drone installation to be built at Uplands, federal records reveal | |
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Ottawa Citizen 23/04/2024 - Uplands will be the site for a new $65-million military facility to control the Royal Canadian Air Force’s drone fleet.
The Ottawa installation, to be ready by 2028, will be around 6,000 square metres in size. It will be home to almost 200 military personnel whose job will be to operate and control a new fleet of drones flying from military bases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
The Canadian Forces and National Defence originally claimed in an April 8 statement to this newspaper that the location in Ottawa for the new building was secret for security reasons. But that information was false. National Defence outlined details about the Uplands location in publicly available documents that are online. The department also held public consultations on the Uplands location as part of its environmental assessment for the site, government documents show. The publicly available records outline the construction of the building as well as a parking lot for employees who will work at the Uplands site.
The documents indicate that the proposed size of the facility has increased. It was originally envisioned as a 4,000-square-metre building, according to the records, but will now be around 6,000 square metres.
After the publication of an article quoting defence officials claiming the location of the drone installation was secret, military personnel contacted this newspaper with details and links to the publicly available documents. They alleged the Canadian Forces and National Defence were deliberately trying to provide false information to the newspaper. [...]
The new building will house six stations to control the drones and two simulators to support operations. It will accommodate 198 personnel. The Liberal government announced on Dec. 19 that Canada would buy 11 of the remotely piloted aircraft from a U.S. company for $2.5 billion. The new drones will be stationed at 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., and 19 Wing Comox, B.C. [...]
Critics have pointed out the military and National Defence are sliding towards more secrecy even as the federal government frees up billions of dollars in additional spending. The secrecy problem has become so bad that the House of Commons Committee on National Defence has launched hearings into the lack of openness and transparency. So far it has heard that National Defence violates federal law in almost 40 per cent of the requests it receives to produce records under the Access to Information Act. The committee has also heard the department continues to withhold a wide range of records, including documents on shipbuilding and fighter jets requested by a Conservative MP in 2017 and 2018 as well as files needed by military sexual assault survivors for legal purposes.
In addition, some former soldiers have complained they face uphill battles to get the military to release documents needed for medical-benefits claims. In January, this newspaper reported National Defence brought in a new and unprecedented shroud of secrecy around a controversial warship project estimated to cost taxpayers more than $80 billion. The department withheld records about the Canadian Surface Combatant for almost three years; when they were released under the access law, all cost figures were censored from the documents. Read more - Lire plus
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One Year on From French Court INJUSTICE, Hassan Diab Remains Unprotected and in Limbo | |
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Justice for Hassan Diab 22/04/2024 - One year ago, on 21 April 2023, the Special Court of Assize in Paris unjustly declared Canadian citizen Hassan Diab guilty, based on unfounded allegations and flawed intelligence that is not allowed in a Canadian court. He was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for a crime he did not commit: the 1980 bombing outside a Paris synagogue.
Driven by political pressure to scapegoat an innocent man, the Special Court of Assize trial ignored exonerating evidence and the alibi firmly establishing Dr. Diab’s presence in Beirut, Lebanon, at the time of the tragic 1980 attack. The prosecutors were allowed to vilify the accused, filibuster, and steal the defense’s speaking time. The court had no transcripts or other recording of the event. In a mind-boggling irony, the Court of Assize in 2023 relied on the intelligence that France had withdrawn from the Canadian extradition hearing in 2011 to declare him guilty, AND discarded the handwriting analysis that was used to commit him to extradition in 2014 due to its unreliability.
In short, the intelligence which was withdrawn from the extradition proceedings more than a decade ago became France’s basis for sentencing Hassan Diab to life in prison in 2023. Meanwhile, the handwriting analysis that was used to extradite him was discarded by the Special Court of Assize. In essence, France and Canada cancelled each other’s grounds for inculpating Hassan Diab. Dr. Hassan Diab continues to be subjected to a prolonged and unjust ordeal created by Canada and France. The French court’s declaration of guilt one year ago prolongs the suffering of Hassan and his family. The Canadian government must say NO to a second extradition request from France (whether already submitted or to be submitted). Read more - Lire plus
UPDATED ACTION: Canada must end the injustice against Dr Hassan Diab now!
NEW PARLIAMENTARY PETITION: Call upon the Government of Canada to formally declare that Canada will neither accept nor agree to any second request from the French Government for the extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab
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UN Special Rapporteur comments on the “repression and persecution” faced by Indigenous water protectors in Canada | |
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PBI Canada 19/04/2024 - Pedro Arrojo Agudo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, has concluded his official visit to Canada. In a media statement released today, he noted “there are challenges to be addressed” in Canada, including “the criminalization of water defenders”.
While in Canada, Arrojo Agudo visited several Indigenous territories, including the Wet’suwet’en and Secwepemc nations. That media statement further noted: “He also expressed grave concern about the criminalisation, repression and persecution faced by Indigenous Peoples opposing large infrastructure projects.”
Arrojo Agudo says: “These actions violate their rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. Canada must uphold the principle of free prior and informed consent while respecting dynamics of consultation and consent established by Indigenous Peoples themselves.”
At the media conference in Ottawa this morning, Arrojo Agudo noted he had “mixed feelings” including “frustration and indignation” about Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, and that he is “sadly surprised by the criminalization of Indigenous river defenders that damages Canada’s international reputation.” He further shared that he “couldn’t help but cry with them” when he heard the stories from frontline communities.
In response to a question from PBI-Canada about the three militarized RCMP C-IRG raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, Agudo Arrojo said that the repression of Indigenous water protectors was a “shocking reaction, so violent”. He further highlighted Canada “needs to avoid this kind of repressive action”.
Arrojo Agudo stressed that the actions of the Indigenous water protectors were non-violent, but that the treatment of them has been violent. He added concern about the “judicial treatment, criminalization” of the water defenders. The Special Rapporteur will present the report on his visit to Canada to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in September 2024. Source
Delegates at UN take aim at Canadian government and mining companies
Panama: Criminalization of Damaris Sánchez in response to protests against Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals
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Montreal Chinese community centres serve RCMP with $5M defamation suit over 'police station' allegations | |
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CTV News 06/03/2024 - Two Chinese community organizations are suing the RCMP for defamation after the national police force alleged they were operating as "police stations" for the Chinese government. The Chinese Family Services of Greater Montreal and the Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive Sud in the South Shore suburb of Brossard, as well as the two centres' executive director, Xixi Li, are seeking more than $4.9 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court.
The community centres say they are "still in the dark" about specific allegations of any wrongdoing nearly a year after the RCMP made the allegations. They have denied the allegations, which have not yet resulted in charges. According to human rights group Safeguard Defenders, so-called Chinese police stations are used to monitor and threaten Chinese citizens living abroad, sometimes forcing them to return to China for persecution.
The accusations damaged the "dignity and reputation" of Li, who is also a Brossard city councillor, according to a news release issued Wednesday. "I hope that this lawsuit will permit an efficient dialogue between my clients and RCMP so that their reputation and the damages they suffered can be quickly repaired. My clients hope that the matter can be resolved amicably, but they are also ready to go to trial if needed. They will do what is required to repair their reputation," the groups' lawyer, Maryse Lapointe, said in the release.
With the support of two Canadian senators — Independent Sen. Yuen Pau Woo and Conservative Sen. Victor Oh — the two groups had threatened to sue the RCMP during a press conference last December.
The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Cpl. Kim Chamberland said in a statement last May that the RCMP's "national response has disrupted illegal activity." "It is important to note that some of the activity the RCMP is investigating was occurring at locations where other legitimate services to the Chinese Canadian community were, or are being, offered," said Chamberland in an email at the time.
The two groups once again denied the allegations in their court filing and accused the RCMP of failing to carry out a thorough investigation before making their accusations public. "The plaintiffs argue that not only are the allegations against them unfounded, but that the RCMP failed to provide them with evidence to support its claims, or at least to explain the general nature of its evidence, when they requested it on August 10, 2023," the lawsuit alleged.
Most of the damages stem from lost government funding and grants that they allege were cancelled because of the RCMP's actions. The lawsuit pointed to several examples, including the loss of $378,120 from Quebec's labour ministry to help newcomers find employment and a $44,532 funding cut for French-language training services from the immigration ministry to help newcomers integrate in Quebec.
"The applicant organizations saw their reputations completely destroyed, not only in Quebec but nationwide," the lawsuit alleged.
"Overnight, these organizations went from being reputable community organizations, supported by both levels of government, to entities identified by the RCMP as carrying out illegal activities and presumed to be underground Chinese "police stations." Li is seeking $350,000 in moral damages and $200,000 in punitive damages. Source
ICYMI: Impacts de l’enquête menée sur deux organismes communautaires de la communauté chinoise de Montréal - La Ligue des droits et libertés
CSIS to get more than $650-million to fight "foreign interference"
Chinese students in US tell of ‘chilling’ interrogations and deportations
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US-trained Burkina Faso military executed 220 civilians | |
The Intercept 25/04/2024 - Burkina Faso's military summarily executed more than 220 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages in late February, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
“We saw the bloody corpses riddled with bullets. We were able to save a 2-year-old child whose mother was killed shielding him with her body,” a 19-year-old witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Intercept. “The attackers were soldiers from our own army. They arrived on motorbikes and in vehicles, and they were armed with Kalashnikovs and heavy weapons.”
The mass killings came as the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in the West African Sahel crumbled, with U.S.-trained military officers launching a long string of coups, including in Burkina Faso itself. Despite the coups and massacres, the U.S. has not cut ties with Burkina Faso, and a contingent of U.S. personnel remain in-country to “engage” with the armed forces serving the ruling junta.
Burkinabè soldiers killed 44 people, including 20 children, in Nondin village, and 179 people, including 36 children and four pregnant women, in nearby Soro village in the north of the country on February 25, according to HRW. The mass killings are part of a long-running counterterrorism campaign aimed at civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist militants.
“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “The repeated failure of the Burkinabè authorities to prevent and investigate such atrocities underlines why international assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity.” Read more - Lire plus
| Iraq: At least 13 people executed amid alarming lack of transparency | |
Amnesty International 24/04/2024 - The Iraqi authorities must immediately halt all executions, said Amnesty International today, after at least 13 men were put to death on 22 April in Nasiriyah Central Prison, in the southern governorate of Thi Qar, following their conviction on overly broad and vague terrorism charges.
Amnesty International is concerned that many more people may have been executed in secret amid a disturbing lack of transparency regarding executions in Iraq in recent months. Security sources had previously confirmed to the media the execution of 13 men on 25 December 2023 – the first recorded mass execution since November 2020. But activists and lawyers who represent prisoners on death row told Amnesty International that scores more have been executed since 10 April adding that the authorities did not give advance notice to the prisoners or their families and lawyers.
“Iraq’s recent executions are alarming and disheartening. For years, a legacy of human rights violations and abuses have plagued Iraq’s justice system, landing thousands on death row after grossly unfair trials,” said Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq Researcher. “Executions carried out after trials that don’t meet international human rights standards may amount to arbitrary deprivation of life. The Iraqi government must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions and work towards abolishing the death penalty entirely.”
Out of the men executed on 22 April, 11 were convicted on the basis of their affiliation to the so-called Islamic State armed group. The lawyer of the other two men executed on 22 April told Amnesty International that they were convicted of terrorism-related offences under the Penal Code after a grossly unfair trial and had been detained since 2008. The lawyer and relatives of the two men said they were tortured and then forced to sign documents that they were not allowed to read. The lawyer said a judge later informed them that the documents were confessions and sentenced them to death. The men had applied for a re-trial due to their allegations that their confessions were obtained under torture. Amnesty International looked into documents issued in 2020 by the judicial committee in charge of reviewing these requests, which stated that a review of the cases could not be carried out as per the law because the casefiles had been lost.
“The fact that two of those executed may have been denied the opportunity of a fair trial and did not have their cases reviewed because their casefiles were lost is utterly callous and outrageous. The use of the death penalty is appalling in all circumstances, but carrying out executions after blatantly unfair trials underscores the cruelty of this injustice,” said Razaw Salihy. “They were tortured to ‘confess’ and the authorities want to brand them as terrorists. They [authorities] lost their files and executed them like they do not matter,” their lawyer told Amnesty International.
Two lawyers told Amnesty International that as many as 150 individuals are at imminent risk of execution after President Abdul Latif Rashid reportedly ratified their death sentences. According to official court documents reviewed by Amnesty International, on 22 October 2023, the Federal Appeals Court sought the ratification of the death sentences of 51 individuals from the office of the Presidency. Over 8,000 prisoners are believed to be on death row in Iraq. Read more - Lire plus
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Spencer Ackerman: Now The Students Are "Terrorists" | |
Politicians and administrators are playing the 9/11 Era hits against students protesting a genocide—and want so badly to kill them | |
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FOREVER WARS 25/04/2024 - "This isn't about politics, it’s about recognizing and condemning terrorism and violence,” said Republican State Senator Brandon Creighton from Conroe, Texas, on the subject of peaceful protests at the University of Texas-Austin, like others across the U.S., against the genocide Israel is conducting against the people of Palestine. I love the sound of free speech in the morning.
Creighton, who chairs the Texas legislature's education committee, posted that as Texas police and state troopers, some on horseback and others wearing plate carriers—against unarmed students—threw students to the ground, ziptied and arrested them. The violent ones were not the students disgusted by U.S.-assisted genocide.
From Columbia University in Manhattan to the University of Southern California, police repression of student occupations of campus isn't stopping those demonstrations. By most accounts I've read this week, they're making students realize the desperation of the administrators they're trying to influence, to say nothing of the desperation of the broader political structure in the U.S. that's supporting the Israeli devastation of Gaza.
And so those authorities are turning to a language they understand, and have grown comfortable using over the past 20-plus years of normalization: the language of terrorism and counterterrorism.
"There is an appropriate time for the National Guard," said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at a Columbia press conference on Wednesday. Students were so unintimated by the dweebish accidental speaker that they heckled him and his colleagues, who were left sputtering that Hamas supports them and they should be ashamed. But they are not ashamed. They dismiss the claims to moral leadership of those who would provide weapons and apologies for a genocide. So they must be called the handmaidens of terrorists, and treated as such.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page is playing the 9/11 Era hits. The students are really Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. It's also reaching deeper to play the Civil Rights Era hits, updated for the MAGA Era. The students are outside agitators, funded by Rockefeller and Soros Money—the latter being the respectable way to say Jew Money, and also the way that right-wing Jews like op-ed writer Ira Stoll seek acceptance from the white nationalists.
Sen. Tom Cotton, last seen demanding U.S. infantry mow down Black Lives Matter protesters, calls for drivers inconvenienced by pro-Palestine demonstrations to "take matters into their own hands." Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of a genocide in progress, compares nonviolent students to Nazis and declares that "more has to be done" to silence them. Meanwhile, mass graves are being discovered on the grounds of the Shifa and Nasser hospitals in Gaza that the Israel Defense Forces sacked.
Not a single one of these frauds care for an instant about the safety of Jews, their supposed motivation. Jews are among the protesters. Jewish students protesting at Columbia held shabbos services, even as some of them were locked off campus as threats to the safety of… themselves. "This hits home the absurdity of current discourse," Rabbi Abby Stein posted from the service. To read that absurdity as a text, it is a text that distinguishes Real Jews from Fake Jews through their allegiance to Zionism, in keeping with how similar 19th century European nationalisms distinguish Real Citizens from Conditional Citizens, with the Conditional Citizens' lives being far cheaper, if not forfeit. But the Zionists do not speak for us Jews, and the louder we anti-Zionist Jews become, the greater their fear, their hatred, and their absurdity.
Johnson, Creighton, Cotton and their fellows want so badly for the National Guard to kill these kids. Yet the supposed threat from the protesting students at Columbia is so clearly nonexistent that even the NYPD Chief of Patrol, John Chell, said that the students "that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner." For people like Johnson, any time is an appropriate time to send men with guns after those who speak truths about U.S.-sponsored (or -committed) oppression.
All those violent desires were licensed and turned respectable by the War on Terror, though the War on Terror was far from the first time, and normalized through its generation-long persistence. (I can recommend a book about how that happened.) The recently expanded mass surveillance Johnson helped pass and President Biden signed this week can easily be a tool to persecute people and organizations, on campus and off, who reject the atrocities that Israel commits. It is the latest reminder, if any were needed, of the urgent need to abolish the authorities, institutions and operations of the War on Terror before they kill again. Source
Hundreds Arrested: Students Across U.S. Protest for Palestine as Campus Crackdown Intensifies
The New McCarthyism: Congress Grills Columbia Univ. President Amid Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Speech
‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat
Ben Gvir forms police team targeting left-wing activists in the West Bank – report
As Jordan Cracks Down on Palestine Protests, Arrests Soar
France: Ne laissons pas condamner Jean-Paul Delescaut!
L'Allemagne a annoncé la révocation du statut de réfugié de Mohamed Khatib, une des figures de l’organisation Samidoun
Germany bans Greece ex-finance minister from speaking at events over pro-Palestinian views
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US trial unveils horrors of Abu Ghraib scandal, decades later | |
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MEMO 16/04/2024 - A historic trial began on Monday in the US State of Virginia, marking the first time that survivors of the early 2000s Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal have brought their claims of torture to a US jury, now 20 years on, Anadolu Agency reports.
Three Iraqi detainees filed a lawsuit against military contractor, CACI, marking a significant step forward in justice two decades after the prison’s torture and abuse scandals during the Iraq War, according to CNN.
In a civil trial unfolding in Alexandria, northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, the plaintiffs confronted their alleged tormentors, seeking accountability for the atrocities endured in the notorious facility located in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad. Salah Al-Ejaili, a former Iraqi journalist and one of the three plaintiffs, took the stand on Monday and recounted the “fear and terror” he endured during his 40 days of captivity in Abu Ghraib, saying: “I wished to die.”
Al-Ejaili, now living in Sweden after seeking asylum there, described the relentless torture tactics employed at the facility, run by the US military along with CACI, including beatings, sleep deprivation and forced nudity. “We would hear the screams of the detainees,” he said. His harrowing details, from the blinding lights to the agonising pain, painted a vivid picture of his ordeal at the hands of his captors, shedding light on the grim reality within Abu Ghraib.
Al-Ejaili’s chilling account offers a glimpse into the deep trauma inflicted upon those held captive.
CACI, the defence contractor charged with overseeing interrogations at Abu Ghraib, denied any wrongdoing. John O’Connor, the contractor’s lawyer, sought to deflect blame onto a few “bad apples” within the US military, absolving the company of responsibility. “There’s no question that abuse happened,” O’Connor said, placing the blame on a few rogue military police officers who had already faced court-martial. O’Connor also argued that the company acted within its mandate and provided crucial interrogator support during a time of wartime manpower shortage.
In contrast, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Baher Azmy, underscored CACI’s complicity in the systemic abuse, urging the jury to confront the enduring stain of Abu Ghraib. He countered that CACI interrogators not only witnessed but actively participated in the abuse. As the trial progresses over an expected two weeks, the courtroom drama is set to include video testimonies from other Iraqi plaintiffs and potentially even convicted US military personnel. This pivotal case holds immense importance, not only for the victims seeking justice but also for global observers, according to human rights defenders. The verdict will define the level of accountability for the US involvement in the Abu Ghraib scandal, emphasising the crucial need to prioritise human rights even in times of war.
Twenty years have passed since the media reported that US forces and the CIA tortured Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons, according to Sarah Sanbar, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch investigating human rights abuses in Iraq. Despite the lack of justice in the decades since, “several of these men told me they hold out hope that the US government will apologise and give them the redress they deserve,” said Sanbar.
A federal court in Virginia began to hear the case of Al Shimari et al. v. CACI on Monday, a lawsuit brought by the Centre for Constitutional Rights on behalf of three Iraqi torture victims. Despite 20 attempts to dismiss the case since 2008, it moved forward, shedding light on the challenges faced by torture victims seeking redress. Three Iraqi men alleged torture and abuse at the hands of US contractor CACI while detained at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The lawsuit claims CACI employees participated in the abuse, which came to light in 2004 and sparked international outrage. The men are seeking compensation for the physical and emotional trauma they endured. The US government has not created any official compensation program or avenues for redress.
“The US government should do the right thing: take responsibility for their abuses, offer an apology and open an avenue to redress that has been denied them for too many years,” Sanbar said. Source
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“Enormous Expansion of the Law”: James Bamford on FISA Extension, U.S.-Israel Data Sharing | |
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DemocracyNow! 22/04/2024 - President Biden has signed legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act despite years of protest from rights groups and privacy experts who say the law is routinely used to conduct warrantless surveillance on millions of American citizens. The Senate approved the FISA bill on Friday in a 60-34 vote, and critics say it not only reauthorizes domestic spying but also dramatically expands its scope. “It’s an enormous amount of data that they’re collecting and very few rules” limiting its collection, says investigative journalist James Bamford. He warns that personal information collected by U.S. intelligence is also shared with Israel, which uses the data to target people in Gaza. “The U.S. has got to stop supplying all this data and the targeting materials,” he says. Bamford’s new article for The Nation is headlined “The NSA Wants Carte Blanche for Warrantless Surveillance.
Critics included Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who described the bill as, quote, “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”
SEN. RON WYDEN: If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy. That means anybody with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone or a computer. … If this provision is enacted, the government can deputize any of these people against their will and force them, in effect, to become what amounts to an agent for Big Brother. [...]
Well, it’s an enormous expansion of the law. It started out fairly modestly, and now it’s expanded enormously. Few people understand how much data really is collected. The NSA has this enormous facility out in Utah, a data center. It’s five times the size of the U.S. Capitol. And it holds up to a zettabyte or a yottabyte. That’s the highest numbers there are in terms of storage of data, enormous amounts of data. And that’s what is going to happen now, is the expansion of the law, the expansion of the collection of data. And a lot of that data will be American, Americans who have no idea they’re being eavesdropped on, because they’re going to become repositories in that data center.
The way the law works right now is that if you want to eavesdrop on an American in the United States, then you need a warrant. However, if you’re calling somebody outside of the United States, another person outside the United States who’s not an American citizen, then you have really no rights. They can eavesdrop on that conversation as much as possible. They can collect all those conversations and store them in the Utah data center. And then the FBI will then have the opportunity to go in there and search for whatever they want without a warrant. So, they could get your email address or your name on Facebook or whatever they — whatever identifying information they can, and then search that database to see what communications you have had outside the United States. So, it’s an enormous amount of data that they’re collecting and very few rules in terms of warrant requirements to obtain that data. Read more - Lire plus
James Bamford on FISA & How U.S. Intel and Palantir Feed Israel’s Killing Machine in Gaza
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Prosecutor Says Sept. 11 Suspects Can Be Held Past War Crimes Sentence | |
The New York Times 24/04/2024 - Regardless of the outcome of their someday trial, the men accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, can be held forever as prisoners in the war against terrorism in a form of preventive detention, a military prosecutor told the presiding judge on Wednesday.
Defense lawyers were asking the judge to rule that, if convicted, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of the suspects in plotting the attack, would have any sentence to a term of confinement reduced by the number of days he was held by the United States before trial. He has been held since 2003.
The argument, in a pretrial hearing in the decade-old Sept. 11 case, was the latest installment over a long-running, unresolved question of whether a prisoner, once he completes a war crimes sentence, is entitled to release from military detention. Col. Joshua S. Bearden, an Army prosecutor, said the answer was no. He urged the judge to reject the request as both premature, because the government is seeking the death penalty in the case, and beyond the scope of his authority.
No date has been set for the start of the trial of the four men accused of conspiring in the commercial airliner hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Hawsawi has been held for the past 20 years but not as punishment or exclusively for trial, Colonel Bearden said. The prosecutor said the charges against Mr. Hawsawi were separate from the detention that keeps him “off the battlefield” in the U.S. war with Al Qaeda.
Mr. Hawsawi is accused of helping some of the hijackers with finances and travel arrangements from the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot. The two men were captured together on March 1, 2003, in a raid on a house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
“Make no mistake about it,” Colonel Bearden said. “The conflict is still going on. Hostilities still exist.”
Sean M. Gleason, a lawyer for Mr. Hawsawi, a Saudi national, argued that his client was in pretrial detention from the moment of his capture because the United States had already issued an arrest warrant for him and prepared a secret indictment against him. By that measure, he said, the prisoner was so far entitled to 253 months of sentencing credit.
Mr. Hawsawi’s lawyers wrote in their brief that even though “the death penalty lurks as a potential sentence,” that should not prevent the judge from granting relief “that would open the door to a different sentence.” His lawyers have separately asked the judge to dismiss the case because of Mr. Hawsawi’s torture in U.S. custody. Defense lawyers for the suspects raised the issue as a pretrial matter, arguing that military commissions defendants should be entitled to sentencing credit just like other U.S. military or criminal defendants.
In 2010, the Pentagon added a rule to the Manual for Military Commissions specifically stripping war crimes judges of the right to award such credit. But Mr. Gleason argued that Congress never included that provision in the various laws that created military commissions, and so his right to credit was essentially retroactive. The judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall, did not ask questions on Wednesday about the overarching preventive detention doctrine. But he asked why one “criminal process” should not be “run like any other criminal process.”
“They are law of war detainees forever, until the hostilities have ceased,” Colonel Bearden replied.
James G. Connell III, representing another defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi, has similarly sought sentencing credit. Mr. Connell argued that a defendant, especially when he considers whether to plead guilty to a crime, should know how much credit he would receive for time served.
Mr. Connell also disputed the prosecutor’s characterization of Mr. Baluchi as a “law of war detainee” in his first years in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prison network, known as black sites. Prisoners held under the law of war are entitled to visits from delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said. The Sept. 11 suspects were captured in 2002 and 2003 but were not allowed to meet Red Cross representatives until October 2006, a month after their transfer to Guantánamo Bay.
Of the 30 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, 11 have been charged or convicted; 16 have been approved for transfer to other countries, with security arrangements; and three are indefinite detainees without charge or trial being held under that doctrine as prisoners of the forever war against terrorism. Source
Karen J Greenberg: I’ve been covering the detention center since 2002, and I’ll continue to do so until it is eradicated—because I refuse to let this injustice be relegated to the past
Guantánamo Bay Opens an Extra Courtroom
'Serial' Reveals Surprising Details Inside Guantanamo Bay
New movie: "I am Gitmo"
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Exporting Prevent: The UK government’s complicity in rights-violating counter-extremism programmes in Indonesia | |
Rights & Security International 23/04/2024 - The UK is helping Indonesia violate the freedom of religion and risks complicity in other abuses such as torture and disappearances by exporting its ‘Prevent’ counter-extremism strategy to the country, Rights & Security International concludes in a new report released today. Recent controversies about how the UK defines ‘extremism’ add to concerns about what the country may be secretly doing abroad, the organisation said.
The report shows that the UK supports harmful counter-extremism practices in Indonesia – the world’s largest majority-Muslim country – even though the Indonesian government has official policies of repressing non-approved faiths. The UK is also training police and military officers from departments and units that have allegedly gone on to commit serious crimes.
‘The UK government is actively collaborating with Indonesia on so-called “extremism” even as Indonesia uses that label to shut down minority religions, force people to adopt government-imposed religious views, and target critics,’ said Jacob Smith, RSI’s UK Accountability Team Leader. ‘The UK must be aware of the religious oppression and allegations of deadly violence, as well as “counter-extremism” apps that tell people to spy on their neighbours – yet, it apparently remains an enthusiastic partner.’
RSI’s research indicates that the UK government advised its Indonesian counterparts to adopt a Prevent-style counter-extremism approach, culminating in the creation of Indonesia’s National Action Plan on Countering Violent Extremism (RAN) in 2021. During the RAN’s drafting process, UK representatives trained members of the drafting team on Prevent, and the Indonesian government also told the drafters to introduce aspects of Prevent into the RAN.
The report suggests that the UK has been promoting Prevent-style counter-extremism in Indonesia as a political and financial sweetener, while paying little or no regard to oppression on the ground. For instance, the Indonesian government targets people who do not hold one of six officially recognised religious beliefs as ‘extremists’ and tries to change their beliefs. Those who speak out risk being arrested and prosecuted under ‘blasphemy’ laws. People who belong to minority Muslim groups face similar dangers.
In West Papua, the UK government is or should be aware of the repressive manner in which its Indonesian counterparts operate, yet has chosen to ignore how it may be contributing to this situation, the report concludes. Researchers and journalists have documented widespread allegations of unlawful killings, torture and enforced disappearances against the Indonesian security services operating in the region.
Under international law, governments are prohibited from assisting other governments in breaching their international obligations – including those under human rights laws. ‘Prevent’ is the counter-extremism strategy that authorities use within the UK, and it creates a legal duty on doctors, teachers, social workers and others to report people they suspect of having ‘extremist’ beliefs. Over the past decade, RSI and other organisations have documented numerous human rights problems with Prevent, including Islamophobia, harms to children’s education and free speech on campus, and failures to protect personal data. Read more - Lire plus
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What happens when activists are branded ‘terrorists’ in the Philippines? | |
AlJazeera 24/04/2024 - Inside an unlit bathroom, Windel Bolinget gently tips a pail of water over his head, careful to minimise the sound of splashing on the tiled floor.
A well-known activist leader in the mountainous Cordillera region in the northern Philippines, the 49-year-old spends most of his days between several undisclosed refuges.
Bolinget tries to stay invisible indoors, not leaving unless absolutely necessary and avoiding making any noise that might draw attention. “I have normal routines with some extraordinary effort,” he said.
On the rare occasions that he spends with his family in their own home, he follows the same protocol.
At night, whether Bolinget is there or not, his wife and four children wake up whenever any of their six dogs bark. They monitor security cameras and step into the street, worried that armed men might have come for him. Nearby households do the same, knowing that the man they’ve called a friend for decades has been branded a “terrorist” by the Philippine government, which wants him behind bars. “We need to be able to smell danger, have the emergency contacts at the ready, and be able to tell if we’re being tailed in a public place,” he said.
Bolinget is chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), an activist coalition of Indigenous people’s groups. He and three other CPA leaders Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa, Steve Tauli, and Sarah Abellon-Alikes were designated “terrorists” by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) on July 10, 2023. Citing “probable cause” of engagement in “organised violence,” the ATC, led by executive officials, claims the CPA and the four individuals are part of the country’s long-running Communist armed rebellion.
Under the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) of 2020, the authorities can arrest people identified as “terrorists” without a warrant, restrict travel, freeze assets, conduct surveillance and issue new court decisions to restrict their movements without explaining why. Some individuals who have previously been labelled “terrorists”, communists or enemies of the state have later been found dead. Some 89 extrajudicial killings of activists have taken place since June 2022 when Ferdinand Marcos Jr became president.
According to the human rights group Karapatan, 51 people are currently designated as “terrorists”.
The designation marks a step up from the more common red-tagging, where activists are linked to the armed rebellion in a bid to justify a crackdown. In the past, all four CPA leaders have been slapped with cases relating to their alleged involvement with rebels. All of which, including a “shoot to kill” order on Bolinget, have been dismissed in court.
Critics have described the ATL as the second coming of martial law in the Philippines. For the last nine months, the CPA leaders have lived in relative seclusion apart from court hearings to contest the ATC decision. “We want to prove the facts and question the basis of the designation,” said Baguio City Councilor Jose Molintas, lawyer to the four alleged “terrorists”. Karapatan’s Cristina Palabay said the law “institutionalises the ATC’s mandate to act as judge and jury in implementing its draconian crackdown. It not only threatens and harasses activists, but also puts their lives at risk.” Read more - Lire plus
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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC | |
Canada Must Oppose Genocide in Gaza and Defend Free Expression at Home | |
The UN Genocide Convention – which Canada has ratified – stipulates that “states that have the capacity to influence others have a duty to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide.” Canada therefore has the obligation to not only call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, but to immediately halt any arm sales, transfers and military aid to Israel.
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Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27! | |
Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task. Please join us in denouncing the dangerous national security related exemptions in the bill. | |
Canada: Do not purchase armed drones | |
The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign | |
In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. | |
CSIS isn't above the law! | |
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In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.
Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | |
Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! | |
On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable.
Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.
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20 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | |
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
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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | 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. | |
July to December 2023 - Juillet à décembre 2023 | |
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Thanks to your support, in the second half of 2023, we were able to work on the following issues or with the following entities:
- Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
- Bill C-26, An Act respecting cybersecurity and amending the Telecommunications Act
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
- Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
- Security certificates & inadmissibility
- Combatting Islamophobia
- National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA)
- Prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
- Federal anti-terrorist financing consultation
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Canada’s 4th Universal Periodic Review
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- UN Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Canada assessment
- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global study on counter-terrorism and civic space
For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.
What we have planned for 2024!
Your support, will allow us to continue our work on these issues and much more in the next year:
- Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices
- Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for good privacy law reform
- Addressing the lack of regulation on the use of AI in national security, including proposed exemptions for national security agencies
- Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
- Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
- The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
- The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
- 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
- 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
- Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
- 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. | |
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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 $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ 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!
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