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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

July 22, 2022 - 22 juillet 2022

Federal suspension lifted, but Muslim charity presses ahead with case in top court

The Canadian Press 14/07/2022 - A Muslim international relief charity is telling the Supreme Court of Canada the federal government should not be allowed to “shoot first and hold a hearing later” when it comes to levying administrative penalties. Ottawa-based Human Concern International can resume issuing tax receipts to donors now that a government-imposed suspension has expired. But HCI is asking the top court to review the Federal Court of Appeal’s March dismissal of its request for a freeze of the suspension while a challenge of the penalty played out. The Canada Revenue Agency levied the one-year suspension in July 2021 following an audit by the revenue agency’s charities directorate that flagged concerns about six initiatives.


Although the suspension has now ended, HCI is still pursuing the legal matter of a right to a freeze on the basis it has significant repercussions for the charitable sector as a whole. In its application seeking a hearing in the Supreme Court, HCI says the rule of law in Canada will be “significantly diminished” if the court does not step in. The charity argues federal agencies will be empowered to impose penalties before an airing of the issues — and prior to a determination of guilt. “Justice will be denied to innocent parties, as government agencies will be free to extract punishments from citizens, even where the punishment cannot be reversed in the event bureaucratic error is identified at trial.” Any other charities going through a revenue agency audit “will live in this fear of suspension,” HCI executive director Mahmuda Khan said in an interview. “And they’ll also feel like, OK, we have nowhere to go, or there’s no way to hold CRA accountable. And that’s not the position we want to have for charities in Canada.” [...]


In its application to the Supreme Court, HCI says it lost an estimated $4 million in donations as a result of the suspension. The charity has also incurred “significant legal fees,” Khan said. HCI says while the revenue agency plays an important public function in regulating the special status of charities, that public interest can still be served by imposition of a suspension once internal appeals at the agency have been exhausted. Federal lawyers have yet to file arguments in response. The Supreme Court is expected to decide in coming weeks whether to hear the case. The federal revenue agency confirmed to The Canadian Press that HCI’s receipting privileges are now restored.


In a statement Thursday marking the end of the one-year suspension, HCI said tax receipts will be issued for all eligible donations going forward. “HCI is grateful that many of our donors stood by us during these challenging times while the CRA one-year suspension was in effect. The support for our humanitarian programs despite our inability to issue tax receipts is evidence of HCI’s 40-year achievement in continuing our bond with our donors and beneficiaries,” the statement said. “HCI worked tirelessly to minimize the impact of the suspension on our beneficiaries, including supporting tens of thousands of orphans, empowering vulnerable women, providing water aid, rebuilding Gaza, or responding to emergencies in Afghanistan and Yemen.” Read more - Lire plus


For more details on Canada Revenue Agency's prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities, check out ICLMG's report

2-year Uighur Resettlement Plan Must Include Releasing Prisoners of Conscience

Justice for All Canada 23/06/2022 - This week, Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi introduced a critical motion urging entry for 10,000 Uighur Muslims as refugees into Canada. Parliament will vote on tabled motion M-62 later this year. MP Zuberi, Chair of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, argued that Uighurs who flee conditions in China and East Turkestan “face pressure and intimidation to return.” Justice For All Canada supports the proposed refugee resettlement plan, which seeks to protect displaced Uighurs from “serious risk of mass arbitrary detention, mass arbitrary separation of children from parents, forced sterilization, forced labour, torture and other atrocities.” Canadian human rights activists appreciate MP Zuberi’s leadership in initiating refuge for Uighurs in need.


Justice For All Canada has previously advocated for Uighur refugees and asylum seekers to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In April 2022, the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Immigration called on the government to allow displaced Uighurs to seek refuge in Canada without UNHCR determination prerequisites. In the same month, newly released immigration measures were unclear whether the same considerations for Ukrainian, Rohingya, Yemeni and Afghan refugees would be extended to Uighurs. Since the late 90s, China’s government has targeted Uighurs across 28 countries in an unprecedented example of transnational repression. Chinese authorities use harassment, extradition and deportation to control, repress, and intimidate Uighurs who flee persecution. According to Oxus Society and the Uyghur Human Rights Project:

  • 89 Uighurs in 9 South and Central Asian countries were detained or sent to China from 1997-2007
  • 130 Uighurs from 15 countries faced transnational repression from 2008-2013
  • 1,327 Uighurs were detained or rendered from 20 countries from 2014 to 2021


“We see Canadian leadership initiating a new stream for Uighur refugees to Canada. We’re hoping for concrete outcomes of this motion. But whether this makes a real difference for detained Huseyin Celil is a question still neglected by the Canadian government,” said Taha Ghayyur, Executive Director. Host countries with political and economic ties to China are often complicit in this repression and deportation system concerning Uighurs. Huseyin Celil, an Uighur Canadian citizen, was detained and deported to China while visiting family in Uzbekistan. Celil was an Imam and human rights activist already recognized as a refugee by Canada and the UN. Despite his Canadian status, Chinese authorities still imprisoned Celil. The Canadian government has not prioritized his release. Read more - Lire plus


TAKE ACTION: Free Huseyin Celil

Dominique Peschard: Forces policières et capitalisme de surveillance

Revue de la Ligue des droits et libertés 08/07/2022 - Dans les mois suivant les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, le Pentagone, à travers son agence de recherche Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), mettait sur pied le projet Total Information Awareness (TIA). Dirigé par l’Amiral à la retraite John Poindexter, le projet visait, ni plus ni moins, qu’à compiler toutes les informations disponibles sur chaque individu : achats, transactions financières, lectures, sites Web fréquentés, appels téléphoniques, réseau d’ami-e-s, activités, voyages, prescriptions médicales, etc. En reliant toutes ces informations, Poindexter prétendait pouvoir identifier le prochain terroriste et l’arrêter avant qu’il ne prenne l’avion.


Le tollé qui a suivi la révélation et la dénonciation de ce programme par le New York Times a entrainé l’abolition du projet par le Congrès en 2002. Le projet n’était pas mort pour autant – il allait simplement être poursuivi secrètement par la National Security Agency (NSA). Et le développement du capitalisme de surveillance dans les deux décennies suivantes allait fournir aux agences les masses de données sur les populations dont rêvait Pointdexter. En 2013, Edward Snowden dévoilait l’étendue de l’appareillage d’espionnage de la NSA et l’existence d’outils, comme XKeyscore qui permet à la NSA d’avoir accès à presque tout ce qu’un-e internaute fait sur Internet, et PRISM qui donne accès aux données de Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.


Rappelons que la NSA est le chef de file d’un consortium de partage de renseignements, les Five Eyes, formé des agences d’espionnage des États-Unis, de la Grande-Bretagne, de l’Australie, de la Nouvelle-Zélande et du Canada (le Centre de la sécurité des télécommunications). Depuis l’adoption du PL C-59 en 2017, le Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité (SCRS) peut légalement recueillir des ensembles de données sur les Canadien-ne-s. Il suffit que le SCRS juge ces renseignements « utiles » et qu’il ait « des motifs raisonnables de croire » qu’ils sont « accessibles au public ». Un pouvoir défini de manière aussi vague ouvre la voie à la constitution de banques de données sur l’ensemble de la population. Et ce, alors que les services policiers et de renseignements ne cessent de prétendre que les informations personnelles perdent leur caractère privé à partir du moment où elles sont accessibles dans l’espace virtuel.


La mise sur pied de centres de surveillance ne se limite pas aux agences de renseignements et de sécurité nationale. Les forces policières se dotent de plus en plus de centres d’opération numérique qui analysent en temps réel toutes les informations disponibles pour diriger les interventions des policiers sur le terrain1. Ces centres s’inspirent des fusion centres mis en place par le Homeland Security aux États-Unis après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001. Les informations traitées proviennent autant des banques de données des services de police, que d’images de caméras de surveillance publiques et privées, et d’informations extraites des réseaux sociaux par des logiciels conçus à cette fin. Notons que les banques de données des forces policières contiennent des données sur des citoyen-ne-s qui n’ont jamais été condamné-e-s pour un quelconque crime, y compris des données issues d’interpellations fondées sur le profilage racial, social ou politique. [...]


La masse de données que le capitalisme de surveillance a engendrée à des fins lucratives constitue une mine d’or pour les services de police et de sécurité nationale qui fonctionnent de plus en plus selon une logique de surveillance généralisée des populations et de maintien de l’ordre prédictif. Ces pratiques vont à l’encontre du principe de présomption d’innocence selon lequel une personne ne peut faire l’objet de surveillance policière sans motifs. Elles contournent également l’exigence d’un mandat judiciaire pour les formes de surveillance intrusives. En ciblant les quartiers et les populations jugés à risque, elles renforcent les différentes formes de profilage policier discriminatoire. Il n’est pas suffisant de savoir si les forces policières utilisent tel ou tel système de décision automatisé et à quelles fins. Les algorithmes doivent aussi être publics et soumis à un examen règlementaire indépendant permettant d’en repérer les failles et les biais. L’argument du secret commercial n’est pas recevable alors que l’utilisation de ces algorithmes soulève des enjeux de droits humains.


Les tribunaux et les organismes de protection de la vie privée ont statué à maintes reprises que la protection de la vie privée ne disparait pas du moment qu’une personne se trouve dans l’espace public, qu’il soit physique ou virtuel. Il faut cependant beaucoup plus que des décisions à la pièce, comme celle du Commissaire à la vie privée du Canada dans l’affaire Clearview AI, pour encadrer le travail policier dans ce nouvel environnement. Le cadre légal qui gouverne la police doit être mis à jour pour protéger la population contre une surveillance à grande échelle. La surveillance de masse doit être proscrite et des techniques particulièrement menaçantes, comme la reconnaissance faciale, doivent être interdites tant qu’il n’y aura pas eu de débat public sur leur utilisation. Lire plus - Read more


Amazon admits giving ring camera footage to police without a warrant or consent


A year on from the Pegasus project, governments still have access to surveillance technology


CitizenLab: GeckoSpy: Pegasus Spyware Used Against Thailand’s Pro-Democracy Movement


Pegasus inquiry: MEPs finish fact-finding visit to Israel: The EU needs much tighter regulation of the sale, purchase and use of such spyware


NSO Group’s Reportedly Throwing Cash at Lobbyists to Get Off Biden’s Blacklist


Defense Firm Said U.S. Spies Backed Its Bid for Pegasus Spyware Maker


Keyword warrants: When police ask Google to provide info on anyone who searched for a specific keyword

Homeland Security records show 'shocking' use of phone data, ACLU says

Politico 18/07/2022 - The Trump administration’s immigration enforcers used mobile location data to track people’s movements on a larger scale than previously known, according to documents that raise new questions about federal agencies’ efforts to get around restrictions on warrantless searches. The data, harvested from apps on hundreds of millions of phones, allowed the Department of Homeland Security to obtain data on more than 336,000 location data points across North America, the documents show. Those data points may reference only a small portion of the information that CBP has obtained.


These data points came from all over the continent, including in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver, Toronto and Mexico City. This location data use continued into the Biden administration, as Customs and Border Protection renewed a contract for $20,000 that ended in September 2021. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the records from DHS through a lawsuit it filed in 2020. It provided the documents to POLITICO and separately released them to the public on Monday.


The documents highlight conversations and contracts between federal agencies and the surveillance companies Babel Street and Venntel. Venntel alone boasts that its database includes location information from more than 250 million devices. The documents also show agency staff having internal conversations about privacy concerns on using phone location data.


In just three days in 2018, the documents show that the CBP collected data from more than 113,000 locations from phones in the Southwestern United States — equivalent to more than 26 data points per minute — without obtaining a warrant. The documents highlight the massive scale of location data that government agencies including CBP and ICE received, and how the agencies sought to take advantage of the mobile advertising industry’s treasure trove of data. Read more - Lire plus


FCC chair tries to find out how carriers use phone geolocation data Inquiry launched as Congress debates bill that could gut FCC's privacy authority

'Follow colonial laws or go to jail': Wet’suwet’en people criminalized for standing firm on their own territory

Ricochet 15/07/2022 - Taking a deep breath, Wickham opens up about the criminal charges she is facing for protecting her homelands.

“I feel like I’ve already sacrificed so much. That’s part of the work. I’ve sacrificed time with them (my children). But they understand what I’m doing to uphold our laws and do what I feel is my responsibility. Not only as a mother but also as a Wet’suwet’en woman.”

Last November, Wickham was arrested at gunpoint at a Wet’suwet’en resistance camp called Coyote, perched in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed near the sacred Wedzin Kwa River. She’s been leading opposition to the pipeline, taking direction from hereditary chiefs, and is often portrayed in media reports as a tenacious, unlawful warrior.


Wickham and a dozen other land and water defenders were strategically spread out across the territory, protecting the river from Coastal GasLink, which is poised to drill underneath it. Dozens of RCMP officers dressed in army fatigues, wielding AK-47 rifles and supported by snipers and attack dogs, ultimately used an axe to smash their way into a tiny house where Wickham was barricaded. After spending nearly a week in jail, hundreds of kilometres from home, Wickham was released and barred from entering the area where the Coyote camp had been. On July 7, Crown prosecutors decided to pursue a criminal contempt charge against Wickham and 18 other land defenders for blockading the construction of the pipeline. Wickham has been arrested before. She was pregnant with Winïh when she was arrested in 2019 after Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters blocked roadways to stop Coastal GasLink from accessing their territory. But this is the first time she has faced criminal charges.


“I feel really angry that they (the Crown) could be taking more time away from me and my children.… It’s hard for me to think about.” She pauses again, tears rimming her blue eyes. “I spent 56 days away from my baby (Winïh) at Coyote camp … and that nearly killed me. She was 18 months old, and I was nursing her and that’s how I weaned her.… That’s how I had to wean her! Oh, my God… And I couldn't think about it at the time because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do it. Like, I just had to be in that mode. It was like going to war.” Pensively wiping her tears, she gazes at Winïh, admiring her children’s laughter while they play. Then a wave of outrage engulfs her, her demeanour shifting sharply. “You know, these charges are gonna show them (my children) that they can’t be Wet’suwet’en, that they can’t uphold their laws. “And that’s what the whole purpose of criminalizing us is — to show other Indigenous people that you can’t do this. To try to break me down so that I don’t do it and that I don’t try to tell other people to do it. That I don’t teach my kids to be who they are and to uphold their laws, but to only follow colonial laws or else you’re gonna go to jail.” [...]


The RCMP continue to patrol the roadways on the territory to scout for impeding land defenders. But for now they have stopped the daily harassment of those living at the Gidimt’en camp along the 44-kilometre mark of the industry road that Ricochet reported on in May. Wickham believes the RCMP have scaled back their tactics due to a civil suit that members of the Wet’suwet’en filed in June against the RCMP and Coastal GasLink. The lawsuit states Sleydo’ and Wet’suwet’en Elders Janet Willams and her husband, Lawrence Basil, have been subject to a “relentless campaign of harassment and intimidation” on their unceded territory. But Coastal GasLink employs a private security company that sits in parked trucks on both sides of the road outside of the Gidimt’en camp, continuously monitoring activity. “They’re there 24/7. And they’re filming our children,” says Wickham. “They park where they can see in camp. And all the kids are running around and we have multiple times asked them not to do that, to move away. And (Coastal GasLink security) has actually gotten more aggressive since we filed our lawsuit. They’re coming closer, filming more. And they’re following anybody. If people have left camp and go up towards my house, they’ve been followed.” Despite being surrounded by the occupying forces of the RCMP and Coastal GasLink, Wickham insists it will not deter the Wet’suwet’en from continuing to stake out a life on the lands of their ancestors. “We are here and we will always be here." Read more - Lire plus

Detained Australian Teenager Dies in Northeast Syria

The Guardian 17/07/2022 - Family members reported that an Australian teenager, wrongfully detained in northeast Syria after being forced as a child to live under the Islamic State (ISIS), has died, Human Rights Watch said today. For several years, the family had begged the Australian government to repatriate Yusuf Zahab, who was last heard from when he sent desperate pleas for help during an ISIS siege of Al-Sina’a prison in al-Hasakah city in January 2022. 


A family representative told Human Rights Watch that an Australian government official had informed relatives on July 17 that Zahab, who would have turned 18 in April, had died from uncertain causes. The family said it had learned in January 2021 that Zahab had caught tuberculosis in a severely overcrowded, makeshift prison run by a Kurdish-led armed group holding Syrian and foreign ISIS suspects and that his treatment had stopped. In January 2022, Zahab was wounded in the head and arm during the battle by the Kurdish-led group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, and the US-led, anti-ISIS coalition to recapture the prison from ISIS. 


“Tragically, the reported death of teenage Yusuf Zahab should be no surprise to Australia and other governments that have outsourced responsibility for their nationals held in horrific conditions in northeast Syria,” said Letta Tayler, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “His death should prompt these countries to urgently bring their detained citizens home.” Read more - Lire plus


TAKE ACTION: Canada's Guantanamo Bay: Sign to Free Jack Letts & 43 Canadian Kids, Women & Men in Syria

Turkish Shelling In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Kills 9, Injures 23

The Washington Post 20/07/2022 - Nine people were killed and 23 others injured on Wednesday in a Turkish shelling that targeted a resort in Duhok Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).


The resort area of Barakh in the Zakho District in Duhok was subjected at exactly 01:50 pm to fierce artillery shelling, according to a statement published by the Iraqi Security Media Cell (SMC).


Eight people were killed and 23 others injured, all of them civilian tourists, the statement said. Later, the Iraqi News Agency reported that the number of those died in the attack rose to nine. The Iraqi Government condemned the assault, calling it “a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and a clear threat to the safety of civilians.” The Iraqi government stressed its categorical rejection of these violations, noting that they “violate international law.”


Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi dispatched a delegation to the area headed by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, the media cell added. “The highest levels of diplomatic response will be taken, starting with resorting to the UN Security Council, as well as adopting all other measures decided in this regard,” the Iraqi government said. Source


Turkish Military Column Enters Northern Syria’s Aleppo



Turkish troops extrajudicially killed nearly 2,000 "terrorists" in 2022, defense minister says


Webinar: Turkey's NATO-backed War on the Kurdish people and Other Minorities

When Protesting ISIS is a Terror Offense: The Kobani Trial

Kurdish Peace Institute 19/07/2022 - The HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) has been a target of ongoing state repression since establishing itself as the primary representative of Kurdish interests in Turkey in 2015. The party has managed to mobilize Kurds, other ethnic and religious minorities, and other pro-democracy forces in the country behind a political platform demanding widespread democratization and a peaceful end to the armed conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).


One element of the government’s strategy of repression is the elimination of the HDP’s democratically elected representation. This process began on May 16, 2016, when the Turkish parliament passed legislation to lift the parliamentary immunity of HDP MPs. Legal proceedings then started against many HDP officials, including party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag—both of whom have been in prison for nearly six years.

In September 2016, several mayors from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the HDP’s sister party, were removed from office and replaced by government-appointed trustees. By March 2017, the government had taken over more than 80 Kurdish-led municipalities.


In the March 2019 local elections, the HDP managed to win back 65 municipalities, including many that it had lost to trustees in the previous term. In response, the government pursued the same strategy, seizing control of the vast majority of these municipalities. Many mayors elected in 2019 are currently in detention. The most common legal pretexts behind this systematic anti-democratic policy are accusations of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.” Yet virtually all of the evidence presented against HDP officials accused of these and other anti-state offenses relates to speeches, statements, and other non-violent political activity.

Rights organizations and international legal bodies have found these prosecutions to be politically motivated and illegitimate. Yet the Turkish government continues to escalate its use of these tactics. One notable ongoing case casts the HDP’s opposition to government policies towards Syria as support for terrorism in order to jail dozens of politicians for life—and, potentially, to force the party out of politics for good. [...]


In October 2014, protests broke out across Kurdish regions of Turkey in response to perceived government inaction against ISIS. When the jihadist group besieged the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani in the fall of that year, the HDP demanded that the Turkish government open a humanitarian corridor in the region. When the government refused, the HDP called for demonstrations. These were quickly met with Islamist counter-protests and violence by security forces. The resulting unrest led to violent incidents in which 37 people lost their lives and 761 were injured, according to government figures. In late 2014, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the HDP’s Central Executive Committee regarding the protests. During the subsequent months, many senior officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) began to blame the HDP for the violence that occured. After HDP MPs lost their immunity in 2016, many of the terror offenses they faced were related to the 2014 demonstrations. On December 30, 2020, a Turkish prosecutor’s office prepared an indictment against 108 senior HDP officials, accusing them of organizing the widespread protests and holding them exclusively responsible for the ensuing violence. This case quickly became known as the “Kobani case.” [...]


A verdict in the ‘Kobani trial’ is expected in the coming months. The government is likely to use a conviction in the case to argue that the legal conditions for closing down the HDP have been fulfilled, and that the party has become a ‘focal point’ for terrorist activities.

The indictment calling for the closure of the HDP was submitted to Turkey’s Constitutional Court in June 2021. It accuses the HDP of being ‘the focus of terrorist acts aimed at disrupting and eliminating the indivisible unity of the state’. The HDP submitted its final defense to the court on April 19, 2022. The court is examining the file. A two-thirds majority, or ten votes, is required for the Constitutional Court to close the party. Many observers believe that the closure is likely to immediately precede upcoming parliamentary elections in order to prevent the HDP from gaining any national representation. Read more - Lire plus


Turkey: End Abuse of Criminal Proceedings Against Selahattin Demirtaş


TAKE ACTION: Bring Canadian permanent resident Cihan Erdal home!

As Biden shrinks Guantanamo’s population, GOP balks at closure

MSNBC 06/07/22 - The news didn’t generate a lot of headlines, but the Biden administration announced two weeks ago that it had transferred another prisoner from the Guantanamo Bay prison, shrinking the total number of detainees at the facility to 36. It was against this backdrop that The Hill reported on renewed Democratic efforts to shutter the prison, which face long odds.

In the past month, House Democrats have advanced legislation seeking to close the facility in Cuba as part of a larger annual defense spending bill leaders are expected to bring to a vote in the full chamber, where the party holds narrow control, in the coming weeks. But in the Senate, where Democrats will need GOP support to pass the defense funding bill, the move faces a wall of opposition from Republicans.

“I’m sure it’s not going to happen,” Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Hill. Rep. Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, used nearly identical phrasing while making the same prediction. Rep. Kay Granger, top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, added, “These detainees are the worst of the worst, and we need assurance that they will never be moved to the United States.”


To the extent that reality has meaning, Granger’s argument badly misses the point: Detainees weren’t sent to Guantanamo because they’re the “worst of the worst”; they were sent there because the Bush/Cheney administration wanted to hold the suspects without trial outside of the American judicial system. [...] Even if congressional Republicans are inclined to ignore every other consideration, the hope has long been that GOP lawmakers would at least care about wasteful spending: It costs American taxpayers about $13 million per prisoner, per year. Read more - Lire plus


Guantanamo detainee cleared for release after 20 years of detention without trial


The Guards Who Became Muslim After Guantanamo (video)

New Defense Bill Bars Pentagon from Assisting Afghanistan in Any Way

The Intercept 13/07/22 - Ahead of a contentious final vote on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., introduced an eleventh-hour amendment seeking to prevent a collapse of U.S. humanitarian aid to millions of Afghans. The amendment came in response to language in the military spending bill that prohibits Defense Department funds from being used to “transport currency or other items of value to the Taliban, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, or any subsidiary, agent, or instrumentality of either the Taliban or the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” effectively halting American aid to the Taliban-controlled country. While the bill’s language places emphasis on banning the transport of currency, it will also block Defense Department planes from transporting nearly every conceivable good — including food and lifesaving medical supplies — to Afghanistan, where tens of millions of people currently face starvation and medicine shortages. A major earthquake last month brought in a flurry of international assistance, including humanitarian aid from the U.S. military — help that would be barred by the new legislation.


The Defense Department is often called in to provide security and logistics support for aid flights but also in the transportation of currency. If the U.S. does ever make good on releasing Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves, the new law would complicate the process of delivering it securely. Omar’s amendment would have granted President Joe Biden the ability to waive the prohibition on using Defense Department funding to transport aid if he recognized a pressing humanitarian need or if doing so would further the national interests of the U.S. The fact that humanitarian waivers are commonplace for sanctioned countries, including Iran and Venezuela, highlights the draconian nature of the bill’s final language. With more Afghans set to die from starvation in 2022 than from the longest military campaign in U.S. history, this week’s NDAA vote will have grave and outsize consequences for millions of civilians. [...]


Thanks to the help of Republican-allied Democrats, the amendment failed to pass the House, undermining the Afghan government’s ability to pay for basic civil services and Afghan civilians’ ability to buy food. With Omar’s amendment ruled out of order, the United States has eliminated one of the last lines of support to Afghanistan, where decades of war, a pillaged central bank, and last month’s catastrophic earthquake have reduced food centers, water infrastructure, and health resources to rubble. Read more - Lire plus


US Congress Approves Record $840 Billion Annual Defense Budget

America's $1.4 Trillion So-Called "National Security" Budget Makes Us Less Safe—Not More

TomDispatch 07/07/22 - This March, when the Biden administration presented a staggering $813 billion proposal for “national defense,” it was hard to imagine a budget that could go significantly higher or be more generous to the denizens of the military-industrial complex. After all, that request represented far more than peak spending in the Korean or Vietnam War years, and well over $100 billion more than at the height of the Cold War. It was, in fact, an astonishing figure by any measure — more than two-and-a-half times what China spends; more, in fact, than (and hold your hats for this one!) the national security budgets of the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined. And yet the weapons industry and hawks in Congress are now demanding that even more be spent. 


In recent National Defense Authorization Act proposals, which always set a marker for what Congress is willing to fork over to the Pentagon, the Senate and House Armed Services Committees both voted to increase the 2023 budget yet again — by $45 billion in the case of the Senate and $37 billion for the House. The final figure won’t be determined until later this year, but Congress is likely to add tens of billions of dollars more than even the Biden administration wanted to what will most likely be a record for the Pentagon’s already bloated budget.


This lust for yet more weapons spending is especially misguided at a time when a never-ending pandemic, growing heat waves and other depredations of climate change, and racial and economic injustice are devastating the lives of millions of Americans. Make no mistake about it: the greatest risks to our safety and our future are non-military in nature, with the exception, of course, of the threat of nuclear war, which could increase if the current budget goes through as planned.


But as TomDispatch readers know, the Pentagon is just one element in an ever more costly American national security state. Adding other military, intelligence, and internal-security expenditures to the Pentagon’s budget brings the total upcoming “national security” budget to a mind-boggling $1.4 trillion. And note that, in June 2021, the last time my colleague Mandy Smithberger and I added up such costs to the taxpayer, that figure was almost $1.3 trillion, so the trend is obvious. [...]


In all, the Pentagon consumes nearly half of the discretionary budget of the whole federal government, a figure that’s come down slightly in recent years thanks to the Biden administration’s increased investment in civilian activities. That still means, however, that almost anything the government wants to do other than preparing for or waging war involves a scramble for funding, while the Department of Defense gets virtually unlimited financial support.


And keep in mind that the proposed Biden increase in Pentagon spending comes despite the ending of 20 years of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, a move that should have meant significant reductions in the department’s budget. Perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn, however, that, in the wake of the Afghan disaster, the military establishment and hawks in Congress quickly shifted gears to touting — and exaggerating — challenges posed by ChinaRussia, and inflation as reasons for absorbing the potential savings from the Afghan War and pressing the Pentagon budget ever higher.


It’s worth looking at what America stands to receive for its $773 billion — or about $2,000 per taxpayer, according to an analysis by the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. More than half of that amount goes to giant weapons contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, along with thousands of smaller arms-making firms. The most concerning part of the new budget proposal, however, may be the administration’s support for a three-decades long, $1.7-trillion plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles (as well, of course, as new warheads to go with them), bombers, and submarines. Read more - Lire plus

Has the Secret Service become a national security threat?

MSNBC 20/07/22 - On Tuesday, we learned the Secret Service deleted text messages sent around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and is unlikely to recover them, according to multiple reports. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general notified the House Jan. 6 committee that the Secret Service erased text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, as part of a "device-replacement program." A source told NBC News on Tuesday that the Secret Service had no new texts to hand over to the committee.


"We are conducting forensic examinations on cell phones and while it’s unlikely that the data could be recovered, we are using every investigative resource to meet the committees request," a Secret Service spokesperson told ABC News. How convenient. Remember: The Secret Service has been at the center of the Jan. 6 committee investigation ever since former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she heard that Trump physically tried to force Secret Service agents to drive him to the Capitol the day of the attack. Neither of the two Trump aides named in that part of Hutchinson's testimony — Robert Engel and Tony Ornato — have publicly commented on her remarks. The Secret Service said both men deny that Trump got physical, though neither of them have gone back to the committee to testify, according to CNN.


And all of this — from the texts controversy to the Secret Service’s seeming indebtedness to Trump — suggests the agency has become a full-on national security threat. That’s true whether or not the Secret Service deliberately deleted texts to protect Trump. At best, the agency tasked with protecting the president committed a clerical error so flagrant it may have jeopardized an investigation into an assault on our democracy. At worst, the Secret Service (up to this very moment) is engaging in a cover-up to protect President Joe Biden's predecessor, who effectively tried to stage a coup. Both scenarios are bad. We’re just waiting for proof of whether this was fireable incompetence or fireable malfeasance. Read more - Lire plus


Secret Service deleted Jan. 6 text messages after oversight officials requested them

Philippines: UN expert slams court decision upholding criminal conviction of Maria Ressa and shutdown of media outlets

OHCHR 14/07/2022 - The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan today condemned the Philippines Court of Appeal decision to uphold the 2020 ‘cyber libel’ conviction of Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa. On 7 July, the Court of Appeal affirmed the libel conviction of Maria Ressa, Rappler co-founder and CEO, and former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr, in relation to an article published on alleged corruption by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the Philippines. The Court also increased the maximum prison sentence by several months, to 6 years, 8 months and 20 days. “The criminalisation of journalists for libel impedes public interest reporting and is incompatible with the right to freedom of expression. Criminal libel law has no place in a democratic country and should be repealed,” Khan said. “I am also concerned that the 2012 Cybercrime Prevention Act is being applied retroactively in this case, as the Rappler article in question was published before this law was enacted. This is yet another example of the relentless attack against Maria Ressa for daring to speak truth to power,” Khan said. [...]


Separately, on 8 June, the Philippine National Telecommunications Commission ordered internet providers to restrict access to local news websites Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly for allegedly violating anti-terrorism laws. Authorities have provided no evidence to justify the blockage. “I am deeply concerned by recent developments in the Philippines to silence independent and investigative journalism in the country. I call on the new Administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to put an end to the criminalisation of libel, withdraw the charges against Maria Ressa, reverse the decisions against Rappler, Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly, and investigate promptly and effectively all attacks and killings of journalists,” Khan said “I urge President Marcos to take this opportunity to bring an end to the crackdown on press freedom in the Philippines,” she said. Read more - Lire plus


Gagged, red-tagged: Journalists push back


Freelance reporter Soe Yarzar Tun faces up to 7 years in prison under anti-terror law

UN Special Rapporteurs Urge Israel to Free Ahmad Manasra - Press Release

UN 14/07/22 - UN human rights experts today urged the Government of Israel to immediately release Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian detained in Israeli prisons since he was 14 years old, while suffering serious mental health conditions. “Ahmad’s imprisonment for almost six years has deprived him of childhood, family environment, protection, and all the rights he should have been guaranteed as a child,” the experts said. “This case is haunting in many respects and his continuous detention, despite his deteriorating mental conditions, is a stain on all of us as part of the international human rights community”.


In 2015, then 13-year-old Ahmad Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin were accused of stabbing two Israelis in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in the occupied West Bank. His cousin was shot dead at the scene, whereas Ahmad was hit by a car and sustained serious head injuries while an Israeli crowd jeered at him. Following his arrest, video footage, widely circulated on media, showed young, distressed Ahmad being harshly treated and severely interrogated without the presence of his parents or legal representative. “The gut-wrenching scenes of a child with broken bones laying on the ground under a barrage of insults and threats shouted by armed adults in a foreign language; of that very same boy being spoon-fed by unfamiliar hands while chained to a hospital bed and then violently interrogated in breach of human rights norms and principles concerning arrest and detention of a child, continue to haunt our conscience,” the experts said. “To Ahmad we say, we regret we failed to protect you”.


After he had turned 14 years old in 2016, Ahmad was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison, although the law at the time when the crime was allegedly committed in 2015 did not permit imprisonment of minors under the age of 14. The sentence was later reduced to nine and a half years. His mental condition has, reportedly, steadily deteriorated, possibly as a result of the harsh conditions of his detention, the recurrent instances of solitary confinement and, more tragically, the solitude, away from his family. “Ahmad’s arrest and detention happened over a span of time which is absolutely critical for the emotional, intellectual and social development of a child. In all actions concerning children, the best interest of the child must be a primary consideration,” the experts said.


“In violation of this fundamental principle, the overriding consideration in this case appeared to be Israel’s focus on containing whoever they label as terrorism threats”, they said. Despite Ahmad’s aggravated mental conditions, Israeli authorities have rejected requests by Ahmad’s lawyers for his early release. Israeli authorities maintain that the offence Ahmad was sentenced for constitutes an act of terror, making him ineligible for early release pursuant to the Counter-Terrorism Law. However, this Law only came into effect in November 2016, and amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Law that barred early release for those convicted of serious crimes involving terrorist acts were introduced in December 2018, long after Ahmad was convicted of attempted murder in May 2016.

“As repeatedly reiterated to Israeli authorities, its ill-defined and overly broad Counter-Terrorism Law has led to far too many instances of arbitrariness and abuse. Ahmad’s case is yet another morally and legally unjustifiable consequence of the Law. Its retroactive application to Ahmad, which resulted in the denial of his early release, is illegal, disproportionate and discriminatory,” the experts said.


Medical reports finding that Ahmad suffers from schizophrenia confirmed the devastating impact of the harsh treatment he was subject to at a young age. “Solitary confinement of a child for such a prolonged period may amount to torture, prohibited in all circumstances under international human rights law,” said the experts. “Ahmad must urgently receive the necessary mental health care and counselling, especially in light of reports he has repeatedly put himself at risk of self-harm.” “Ahmad’s case provides clear evidence of Israel’s deliberate practices of subjecting Palestinians, including children, to arbitrary detention, torture and inhumane treatment, often disguised as a ‘legitimate’ counter-terrorism response,” said the experts. The case also raises serious concerns of possible violations of international fair trial standards applicable to children, including the prohibition of inducing through coercion a child to a confession or self-incriminatory testimony. “These inhumane practices must end: far too many have already borne the brunt of an unacceptable instrumentalisation of legal tools as means to subjugate the protected local population and force them to accept an occupation that remains illegitimate and illegal”.


The experts criticised Ahmad’s very detention in Israeli prisons, in violation of international humanitarian law. “Israel, as the occupying power, is prohibited from detaining protected persons accused of offences in its own territory,” they said. “This practice violates article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and may also amount to forcible transfer, which constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is also recognised as a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” “We appeal to Israel to urgently release Ahmad, allow him to return to his family and seek psychological counselling and support,” the experts said. “It is also about time that the pervasive system of arrest and detention put in place by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, which currently holds 4,700 Palestinians including 170 children and 640 in administrative detention, receives international attention as part and parcel of the systemic and widespread oppressive regime Israel has imposed over the Palestinians during 55 years of military occupation.” The experts have been in contact with the Israeli Government to raise concerns about Ahmad’s case. Read more - Lire plus

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ACTIONS & EVENTS

NEW 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

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
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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


NSIRA Study of the Government of Canada’s Use of Biometrics in the Border Continuum

Criminalization of dissent

Criminalisation de la dissidence


Stricter bail conditions to apply to offenders under Hong Kong’s future national security law, justice minister says


National security: Ex-Hong Kong PolyU student launches bid to appeal 5-year jail term


Resilience and Resistance: A cas study in defiance of the criminalisation of solidarity across Europe

Democracy

Démocratie


Former MP candidate in southern Rakhine charged under anti-terror law for ‘supporting’ armed resistance


Tunisia: Ennahdha party leader free after questioning by anti-terror police

Freedom of expression and the press

Liberté d'expression et de la presse


Ligue des droits et libertés: Les municipalités doivent protéger et faciliter le droit de manifester au Québec!


Not just Shireen: how Israel has attacked journalists and newsrooms in Palestine


Biden to Saudi Arabia and Israel: Sure, Kill Our Journalists


Family of Slain Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to Biden: Hold Israel Accountable


ICE implements policy limiting demands for information from or about journalists, but it still needs work

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance


Teresa Scassa: Statutory MadLibs – Canada’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Act


USA offers foreign states access to 1.1 billion biometric “encounters” in return for reciprocal database access


Facial recognition search engine PimEyes makes sensitive images of children available to anyone with an internet connection


UK urgently needs new laws on use of biometrics, warns review


Exclusive: Myanmar's junta rolls out Chinese camera surveillance systems in more cities


Apple says it expanded industry-leading commitment to protect users from highly targeted mercenary spyware

Whistleblowers

Lanceur.ses d'alertes


TAKE ACTION: Free Assange Now!


German MPs demand release of Julian Assange


Rashida Tlaib Is Trying to Fix the Espionage Act, but Whistleblowers Are Probably Out of Luck

Miscellaneous

Divers


9/11 Families Call on Trump to Cancel Saudi-Backed Golf Event


Experts Blast Meta's First-Ever Human Rights Report as 'Corporate Propaganda'


Trump Wanted to Send COVID-Infected Americans to Guantánamo Bay, Book Says


Former national security adviser John Bolton admits to planning foreign coups


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

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

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Brian Murphy

Colin Stuart

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James Turk

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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!