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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

September 27, 2024 - 27 septembre 2024

20 Years of Defending Civil Liberties: Publication launch & online panel!

ICLMG 11/09/2024 - Thank you to everyone who were able to join us for the launch of Defending Civil Liberties in an Age of National Security and Counter-terrorism, a new publication from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group featuring 27 pieces from leading experts, activists and ICLMG members reflecting on the past twenty years and the challenges that lie ahead.


Read the publication online or get a printed copy here


The launch featured a panel with four of our contributors:

  • Dr. Brenda McPhail does research and advocacy at the junction of privacy and technology, and is the Director of Executive Education for the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University.
  • Dr. Monia Mazigh is an academic, award-winning author and human rights activist. She was the ICLMG National Coordinator in 2015 and 2016.
  • Dr. Pamela Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, professor, and human rights expert from Eel River Bar First Nation.
  • Tim McSorley is the National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. Source

FIPA Podcast: The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group at 20 w/ Tim McSorley

20 ans de défense des libertés civiles: Lancement & panel francophone montréalais

CSILC 19/09/2024 - Merci d'avoir assisté à notre lancement francophone montréalais de la publication 20e anniversaire de la Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles (CSILC) – Défendre les libertés civiles à l’ère de la sécurité nationale et de la guerre au terrorisme – présentant son travail depuis 2002 et les défis qui s’annoncent.


Lisez la publication en ligne ou commandez une copie papier ici


Panélistes:

  • Dominique Peschard, co-président de CSILC depuis 2012, militant à la LDL et président de la LDL de 2007 à 2015, a parlé du travail de la CSILC concernant la Loi antiterroriste de 2001, l’affaire Maher Arar, la liste d’interdiction de vol, les détenu.es canadien.nes en Syrie, la surveillance des populations, et la répression de la dissidence autochtone et écologiste.
  • Tim McSorley, coordonnateur de la Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles (CSILC) depuis 2016, a parlé de l’utilisation et le renformcement de pouvoirs et d’outils antiterroristes problématiques pour soi-disant combattre le racisme et l’ingérence étrangère (avec la nouvelle loi C-70), qui se retourneront très certainement contre les populations marginalisées.
  • May Chiu, avocate et coordonnatrice de la Table ronde du quartier chinois de Montréal depuis 2022, a parlé des allégations sans preuves et dommageables d’ingérence étrangère de la GRC contre le Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal.

À l’animation:


Martine Éloy | Militante à la CSILC depuis sa fondation, militante à la LDL et membre du conseil d’administration de la LDL de 2002 à 2022. Source

What To Do About Foreign Interference: Nick Robinson in conversation with Tim McSorley

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CFE 2024 - Canada’s hastily adopted Bill C-70: Countering Foreign Interference Act raises serious civil liberties’ concerns in its plans for a foreign influence registry, new powers for CSIS, and significant changes to our Criminal Code and Security of Information Act. Join Nick Robinson, Senior Legal Advisor for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law and author of a new report on foreign influence registry laws globally in a conversation with Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group about effectively addressing foreign interference while protecting fundamental rights. 


October 1, 2024

7pm - 8:30pm ET

Online


Co-sponsored by BC Civil Liberties Association, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, PEN Canada Source

Abdul Nakua: Bill C-70 could further erode minority rights

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Policy Options 17/09/2024 - With MPs back in Ottawa for the fall session of the Parliament and with election rumours flying, Bill C-70 is a distant memory to many of them, but its impact will last a long time. Passed in the dying days of the last session, an Act Respecting Countering Foreign Interference is a massive security bill that received royal assent in June. 


The controversial legislation creates new criminal offences, grants more power to CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and establishes a mandatory foreign-influence registry despite concerns from civil liberties groups and some politicians about its potential overreach. In total, it introduces amendments to 32 laws. 


This bill was the result of a long, politically charged debate about foreign interference in federal elections. The story dominated the headlines via a well-orchestrated campaign of leaks and sensational stories often based on unsubstantiated claims or misconstrued events. 


More than 70 stories were published by various media outlets, chiefly the Globe and Mail and Global News, reaching a crescendo when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established a public inquiry under Quebec Justice Marie-Josée Hogue. In a report prior to the Hogue inquiry, former governor general David Johnston was extremely critical of these leaks and did not rule out malice. [...]


Ottawa needs to act on three fronts 


Ramming C-70 through Parliament without adequate debate or proper cross-examination has contributed to apprehensions about this bill. This unease was further exacerbated by the media coverage of foreign interference, which created a climate of suspicion directed at minority groups in Canada and multiculturalism in general. Bill C-70 will only make that worse, coming on the heels of increased security measures, particularly since 9/11, that affect minorities. 


This places a greater responsibility on the federal government to reduce, if not prevent, the harm that can result from Bill C-70’s passage. Ottawa needs to address three key areas: increased oversight over security agencies; systemic discrimination and racism; and a recommitment to, and modernization of, Canada’s approach to multiculturalism. 


While the legislation passed without much challenge in Parliament and without much public awareness, it is an extremely consequential law because it aims to restructure Canada’s national security systems. Many civil liberty groups raised fears the bill will negatively impact rights protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms


coalition of civil liberties groups warned against the risk of increased surveillance, diminished privacy, limits on freedom of expression and freedom of association, undermining due process in the courts through the use of secret evidence, and racial, religious and political profiling. 


The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, a coalition of Canadian civil society organizations established after the adoption of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, expressed alarm about broadening CSIS’s mandate to collect, analyze and disclose sensitive information to third parties. It said this is particularly alarming for diverse groups and minority rights. The Centre for Free Expression objected to the bill’s vague language and its potential use “to profile people on political, racial, religious, or nationality grounds.” 


Balancing national security with democratic rights has been a challenge for successive Canadian governments. More than 40 years ago, the McDonald Commission examined the excesses of the RCMP during the turmoil of the 1970s in Quebec in the aftermath of the FLQ crisis. After four years of deliberations, the commission recommended anchoring Canada’s security arrangements around the “preservation of our democratic system” – i.e., the principle that police and security forces must at all times operate within the ambit of clearly delineated common law or statutory authority. 


It is an open question if security agencies ever operated within this maxim, especially after 9/11. The anti-terrorism laws, such as Bill C-36 (2001) and Bill C-51 (2015), enabled a massive expansion of state power without adequate oversight or safeguards by making significant amendments to several pieces of legislation. This over-securitization led to many undesirable consequences, such as the undermining of fundamental rights and the erosion of freedoms and political rights. 


Arbitrary arrests, no-fly listssecurity certificates, citizenship revocations, delisting of charitable organizations, increased surveillance and a deterioration of personal privacy are part of the dark legacy of these laws. More notably, these accesses disproportionately impact Muslims and Muslim organizations. The Arar-10 conference traced the lingering human cost endured by those impacted by the actions of national-security agencies. 


It can serve as a reminder that security measures that facilitate human-rights violations, coupled with irresponsible media reporting, can have an indelible impact on individuals, families and the wider community. The dog-whistle politics of the “barbaric cultural practices” snitch line is another example that can serve as a cautionary note about the social costs of these exclusionary practices within an increasingly hyper-partisan political discourse. 


Many Chinese-Canadians are uneasy about the amplification of current narratives around China that favour those who articulate strong opposition to that country’s government while erasing other perspectives within the diverse and large Chinese Canadian diaspora. They fear the media’s focus on allegations of election interference from Beijing will lead to the marginalization of a large segment of the Chinese-Canadian community. 


Senator Yuen Pau Woo, in his remarks commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, warned against a misconceived litmus test of disloyalty that could lead to more insidious legislation that can normalize exclusionary practices. Justice Hogue drew attention in her preliminary report to the disproportionate impact on members of diaspora communities. 


Her report said they are likely to experience some of the most harmful impacts such as being discouraged from getting involved in their communities, engaging freely in public discourse, or even discouraging diaspora members from entering politics. She promised to reflect more deeply on this in her final report. Laws such as Bill C-70 provide enormous discretionary power to government agencies, particularly law enforcement, which are often exercised in secrecy and are potentially arbitrary. Read more - Lire plus

Two Canadians with ties to Ottawa killed in Lebanon

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CTV News 25/09/2024 - Global Affairs Canada (GAC) confirmed late Tuesday evening that two Canadians were among those killed in southern Lebanon in a recent airstrike.


GAC has not confirmed their identities due to privacy reasons, but family members told CTV News the two Canadians killed were Hussein and Daad Tabaja, who had previously lived in Ottawa before moving back to Lebanon to be closer to family.


"It's devastating for the family," the couple's son, Kamal Tabaja, told CTV National News. "I don't know what you want to call it, it's like a dark dream." "I believe they are in a good place. They will be watching over us." Tabaja says his parents were trying to flee southern Lebanon but were stuck in traffic for hours. That's when they were among those killed in an airstrike. He says family members spent hours trying to reach them before their burnt-out BMW was found in a ditch.


Tabaja says their bodies were badly burned but his mother's watch was found in the wreckage. While the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had given people living in Lebanon's south warning to leave ahead of ramped up airstrikes, Tabaja said people like his parents were not given enough time. "They bombarded the roads," he said of the IDF. "Bombarded people who have nothing to do with this conflict." Read more - Lire plus


NEW Tell Trudeau: Stop arming Israel’s attacks on Lebanon!


NEW Ottawa protest: Hands off Palestine! Hands off Lebanon! Sun Sept 29 at 2pm


NEW Ottawa protest: One year of genocide, one year of resistance, Sat Oct 5 at 2pm


Intended to Fail: Systemic Anti-Palestinian Racism and Canada’s Gaza Temporary Resident Visa Program


NEW Tell Miller and Joly: Save Families from Gaza Now!


NEW Webinar: Organizing to Reunite Palestinians from Gaza with their Families in Canada, Oct 2 at 7PM ET


BCCLA: Legal groups file complaints against VPD for excessive use of force and surveillance of Palestine movement


Calgary Coalition for Palestine's statement on Sept 15 rally, where the police used excessive force, unjustly arrested 3 and ticketed 12


Montréal a retiré des affiches électorales dénonçant le génocide à Gaza


Collectif Échec à la guerre: Pour la paix, pour Gaza, pour notre humanité

Report from Beirut: Israel Is “Targeting Everyone” in Bombing Campaign, Killing 700+ in Just Days

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DemocracyNow! 27/09/2024 - We get an update from Lebanon, where the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has risen to over 700 since Monday, following a series of explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies in Beirut and southern Lebanon last week. The Israeli military reiterated its troops were preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon if tensions continue to escalate. Multiple Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have appeared across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.


As the Biden administration claims it’s working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel is set to receive a new military aid package from the United States totaling some $8.7 billion. “People are really scared,” says Mona Fawaz, professor of urban planning at the American University of Beirut. “Israel does these so-called targeted assassinations, which, sadly, much of the Western press has been celebrating, and they talk about Israelis’ ingenuity. In fact, it’s targeting everyone.” Fawaz discusses the context for Lebanon’s crisis, organizing to shelter and survive the bombing, and the Israeli messaging about evacuation orders and Hezbollah. Read more - Lire plus


Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts


NEW Tell World Governments to Use the United Nations to End the War on Gaza


Four Palestine Action activists walk free from court after jury refuses to convict them


How India Crimininalised Pro-Palestinian Protests & Posts, Including Using The Anti-Terrorism Law Against Protestors


Israeli forces raid and shut down Al Jazeera bureau in occupied West Bank


«Guerre Israël/Hamas » : une expression pour manipuler les esprits

Report launch: Challenges and Consequences: The Impact of Bill C-41 on Aid Delivery in Afghanistan

CCMW 17/09/2024 - Online webinar to launch the report, "Challenges and Consequences: The Impact of Bill C-41 on Aid Delivery in Afghanistan." This report critically examines the effects of Canada’s Bill C-41 on the delivery of aid in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the challenges of delivering aid in Afghanistan, the implications of Bill C-41, and the necessary steps to ensure that humanitarian efforts are not hindered by legal and bureaucratic barriers.


Report: Challenges and Consequences: The Impact of Bill C-41 on Aid Delivery in Afghanistan

Q and A with Paul Champ on the Abdelrazik case

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WWNSIN 16/09/2024 - Paul Champ is the Ottawa-based lawyer representing Abousfian Abdelrazik in his legal case for damages arising from his claims that his charter rights were violated by the Crown and the then-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon. The case is finally coming to trial next month, having been instigated 15 years ago. [...]


4. What is known about Mr. Abdelrazik’s detention in Sudan between September 2003 and his eventual return to Canada in 2009?


Mr Abdelrazik was arrested in September 2003 by Sudanese intelligence. He was detained for almost three years, spending time in some of Sudan’s most notorious prisons. He was never charged with any crime and never saw a judge. For prolonged periods, he was denied access to any kind of visits or access to legal counsel. He was tortured in three different prisons.


Mr Abdelrazik was interrogated by Sudanese intelligence about his activities and associations in Canada. CSIS officers travelled to Khartoum and interrogated him in Sudanese custody. At times when the Sudanese considered releasing Mr Abdelrazik, CSIS would return to Khartoum and speak to Sudanese intelligence and his detention would continue.


Sudanese officials repeatedly told Canadian diplomats that Mr Abdelrazik was detained at the request of CSIS and that they viewed him as an innocent man. This included Sudanese intelligence, Sudan’s State Attorney, and Sudan’s Ambassador to Canada. CSIS has maintained that they did not request Mr Abdelrazik’s detention.


Once Mr Abdelrazik was released unconditionally by the Sudanese in July 2006, he remained trapped in that country because he had been placed on the United Nations 1267 “no fly” list. Canadian officials told him they could not give him an emergency passport unless he could provide a paid itinerary from an airline willing to carry him.


Mr Abdelrazik continued his efforts to return to Canada, regularly visiting the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, speaking to human rights groups and eventually giving an interview to the Globe and Mail. After his interview with the Globe, the Sudanese intelligence threatened him with re-arrest. Fearful of being detained again, he entered the Canadian embassy in April 2008, claiming safe haven and diplomaticprotection. Canadian diplomats assessed that he was at risk of detention and torture, so he was allowed to stay and live in the embassy. He remained there until June 2009 when the Federal Court ruled that Canada had violated his rights and ordered Canada to repatriate him. (1) He returned to Montreal and was finally reunited with his children in July 2009, nearly six years after he left. [...]


7. What is the nature of the current case before the Federal Court? Why has it taken so long to come to trial? Why is Lawrence Cannon, a former Conservative Minister of Foreign Affairs, a defendant in the action brought by Mr. Abdelrazik?


The current case is a claim for damages against the Crown and Mr Cannon for the breach of Mr Abdelrazik’s Charter rights. The claim alleges that Canada was directly or indirectly responsible for Mr Abdelrazik’s arbitrary detention in Sudan, which included prolonged periods of solitary confinement and torture. Canada also violated his rights to return to Canada by sharing information with the United States which led in part to him being placed on the 1267 List and by refusing to provide him with an emergency passport.


Mr Cannon is being sued personally because he deliberately violated Mr Abdelrazik’s right to an emergency passport in April 2008, despite knowing Mr Abdelrazik had been promised the passport repeatedly if he received a paid itinerary. Canadian officials from different departments all advised Mr Cannon that he had to issue Mr Abdelrazik the emergency passport, but he nevertheless decided against it. (Before making that decision, Mr Cannon asked Citizenship and Immigration to review Mr Abdelrazik’s refugee and citizenship files from many years previous to see if there were grounds to revoke his citizenship. The Department reported back that there were no signs of misrepresentation or other grounds to revoke Mr Abdelrazik’s citizenship.) [...]


9. What witnesses do you expect to appear at the trial?


In addition to Mr Abdelrazik and one of his daughters, the Court will hear from Canadian officials from CSIS, RCMP, Foreign Affairs, Privy Council, Transport Canada and Passport Canada. This will include retired CSIS Director David Vigneault, retired National Security Advisor Margaret Bloodworth, and former Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister and current Senator Peter Harder. There will also be former politicians, including Maxime Bernier, Lawrence Cannon and Senator Mobina Jaffer. The parties are also calling a number of experts.


10. Why is this case significant?


Mr Abdelrazik’s case alleges the most serious and extreme violations of rights and freedoms perpetrated by the Canadian government against a citizen to ever go to trial. Mr Abdelrazik was the victim of a series of gross injustices attributable directly or indirectly to Canadian state actors, including arbitrary and illegal detention, prolonged solitary confinement, torture, and forced exile and separation from his home and young children. These breaches of Mr Abdelrazik’s fundamental human rights were flagrant, extreme and continuous over a period of six years. He is demanding $27-million in damages, which would be the highest award of damages ever ordered for the violation of the rights of an individual. (4)


Wrongful imprisonment has long been regarded in Canada as the most serious harm that the state can perpetrate on a citizen. But Mr Abdelrazik’s case is not simply about wrongful imprisonment. It involves complicity in serious violations of fundamental human rights, including the right to be free from torture and prolongedarbitrary detention. His case falls within an unfortunate new category in Canada: terrorism suspects becoming victims of illegal detention and torture abroad with thedirect or indirect complicity of Canadian state actors. These exceptional cases are widely known: Arar, Khadr, Almalki, El-Maati, and Nurredin. Mr Abdelrazik’s case will be the first one to go to trial. Read more - Lire plus


Judge rejects Crown's attempt to have CSIS, RCMP testify behind closed doors in lawsuit

Iraq hangs 21 mostly on 'terror' charges: security sources

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AFP 25/09/2024 - Iraqi authorities have hanged at least 21 people, including a woman, most of them convicted over "terrorism" charges, three security sources said on Wednesday.


It was reportedly the highest number of executions reported in one day in years in Iraq, which has previously come under fire over its trial processes and the use of capital punishment on a mass scale.


"Twenty-one convicts including a woman were executed" on charges including "terrorism" and being part of the Islamic State jihadist group, an Iraqi security official told AFP. "The woman was part of a group who killed a person" in 2019 as anti-government protesters demonstrated elsewhere in Baghdad, the source said. A young man accused of firing shots was killed and his body hanged from a pole.


The same security source said they were executed in Al-Hut prison in the southeastern city of Nassiriya. Two other sources said they were all Iraqi nationals. A medical source in Dhi Qar province, of which Nassiriya is the capital, said the forensic department had received the bodies of the executed convicts from the prison authority. It was not immediately possible to confirm when the executions took place, with some sources saying Tuesday and others Wednesday.


Courts have handed down hundreds of death and life sentences in recent years to Iraqis convicted of "terrorism", in trials rights groups have denounced as hasty. In July, authorities hanged 10 "terror" convicts in Nassiriya, prompting a rights group to call for an end to the death penalty. And in May, eight people were executed after being convicted on similar charges, while another 11 people were hanged earlier that month. In late January, UN experts looking into the issue expressed "deep concern at reports that Iraq has begun mass executions in its prison system".


The independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on its behalf, mentioned in their statement executions carried out late last year in the Nassiriya prison. The statement said that "13 male Iraqi prisoners -- previously sentenced to death –- were executed on 25 December 2023", calling it "the largest number of convicted prisoners reportedly executed by the Iraqi authorities in one day" since November 16, 2020, when 20 were executed.


At the end of July, Iraq's Justice Minister Khaled Shuani dismissed the UN experts' analysis as "not based on documented evidence", the official Iraqi News Agency reported. Source

They protested a military base expansion. So the FBI investigated them as terrorism suspects.

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The Intercept 13/09/2024 - The protest did not go off as planned. In February 2023, government recruiters came to the student union at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, stacking National Security Agency-branded plastic cups and splaying out pamphlets about Navy fringe benefits.


The activists had come to protest the expansion of Camp Grayling, already the largest National Guard training facility in the country. The opposition had arisen a year earlier, when the military had proposed leasing more than 150,000 acres of forest land managed by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, doubling the size of the training installation.


The National Guard, though, did not make an appearance at the University of Michigan career fair. The activists proceeded with their plan anyway. “Want blood on your hands?” read the flyers activists distributed on recruiting tables. “Sign up for a government job.” When the recruiters returned from lunch, two protesters rushed in, dousing the NSA recruiting table and two Navy personnel with fake blood sprayed out of a ketchup container. (The NSA did not respond to a request for comment.) The “Stop Camp Grayling” protesters were subdued, booked, and charged.


Everything about the protest had been relatively routine, right down to the arrests, but the local and federal authorities saw something more sinister. According to public records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the local sheriff’s office in Oakland County, Michigan, documented the incident in a case report as a hate crime against law enforcement. (The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment.) The FBI recorded the incident as part of a terrorism investigation.


“We’ve seen over the years,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, “that the FBI opens very aggressive investigations based on a very low criminal predicate in cases against protest groups.”


Over the following months, according to the documents obtained by The Intercept and Defending Rights & Dissent, the FBI’s counterterrorism investigation unlocked additional federal resources, deepened coordination with military intelligence, generated sustained counterterrorism attention on minor acts of vandalism, and ultimately culminated in a six-person boots-on-the-ground operation conducting physical surveillance of the Stop Camp Grayling Week of Action.


“The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) does not participate in civilian law enforcement investigations or surveillance of any group,” said Michigan National Guard public affairs officer David Kennedy, when asked about state police sharing intelligence with the military. “We do occasionally receive law enforcement notification of individuals or groups who are expressing intent to take action or threaten the safety of military members, training events or facilities.”


Green Scare


Treating the Stop Camp Grayling protesters as terrorists is the latest episode in a worldwide trend of governments smearing climate and environmental activists as terrorists — an ongoing Green Scare. Misapplication of the terrorism label frequently serves as pretext for invasive surveillance and sustained scrutiny.


The FBI has a long history of fixating on environmental protest movements as terrorism suspects. The focus escalated in the 1990s. Most of the movements are engaged in routine First Amendment-protected activity; a few use minor property damage as a protest tactic. The FBI maintains federal domestic terrorism categories that include “anti-government violent extremism” and “animal rights/environmental violent extremism.” Under pressure to generate investigations, the FBI has launched probes against environmental groups based on thin evidence of criminal activity — or sometimes no evidence at all. “Since the FBI created ideological categories, they’re incentivized to open cases in those categories,” German said.


Because the counterterrorism division does not collect incident data, he said, there is little accountability for the FBI investigations. “If you can’t see how the FBI divides up its domestic terrorism resources between ideological categories where there are a number of homicides and bombings, versus low-level vandalism and other regular protest activities, then you can’t determine whether the FBI is actually investigating true terrorism versus just targeting groups for investigation because they don’t like their political beliefs,” said German.


According to the FBI’s own definition, domestic terrorism comprises acts dangerous to human life or “intended to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion.” Yet few of the investigated environmental groups have threatened human life in any meaningful way; not a single homicide can be attributed to the environmental movement. (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.)



Stop Camp Grayling — like most other movements organized around environmental activism — is not engaged in any type of systematic criminal activity. Movement adherents have never endangered human life. Much of their protest activity involved banner drops, teach-ins, and graffiti on billboards. Yet the FBI saw fit to share an activist zine with military intelligence, drag in other alphabet agencies, and justify physical surveillance operations — all underpinned by the designation of the movement as worthy of a domestic terrorism investigation. Read more - Lire plus

UK Using Terrorism Law To Silence Journalists, Protestors Who Commit ‘Speech Crimes’

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The Dissenter 17/09/2024 - The Weaponization Of U.K. Terrorism Laws



Since October 7, British authorities have increasingly weaponized sections of the country’s terrorism laws. In addition to increased use of section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000, there has also been an uptick in arrests and charges against individuals for allegedly violating section 13 of the same law, and section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006.


Section 13 criminalizes the wearing of “an item of clothing” or carrying or displaying an article, “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.” This dystopian provision was further expanded in 2019. The publication of “an image” of “an item of clothing, or any other article,” which could “arouse reasonable suspicion” that they are a member of a banned group, is now also a crime.


Four suicide bombers killed 55 people (and injured 700) on a London transport during rush hour on July 7, 2005. The attacks occurred two years and four months after the illegal invasion of Iraq (led by the U.K. and the U.S. governments). In response, the Terrorism Act 2006 was passed. The law had a significant impact on the freedom of expression and the dissemination of views, beliefs, and ideas. As Prime Minister Tony Blair declared shortly after the attacks, “The rules of the game have changed.” The Terrorism Act 2006 expanded the concept of direct as well as indirect encouragement of terrorism, including the criminalization of speech that “glorifies” terrorist acts or individuals.


Hundreds of arrests have also been made for alleged violations of various “public order” legislation.  Richard Barnard, co-founder of the direct action network Palestine Action, faces three charges in relation to two speeches he gave last October. One charge is under the speech crime provision and two other charges fall under section 44 of the Serious Crime Act, namely for encouraging “criminal damage.” Barnard was arrested on the same day as Wilkinson. Palestine Action has engaged in direct action against weapons firms based in the U.K. which manufacture armaments and other equipment for the apartheid state. Their primary focus has been on Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer. 


On December 20 at 7 a.m., Tony Greenstein, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist and founding member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was woken up by two police officers ringing his doorbell. He, too, was arrested on suspicion of committing an offense under the speech crime provision. When Greenstein answered the door, he was told that he was arrested in relation to a single tweet that he posted in November. His tweet stated, “I support the Palestinians that is enough and I support Hamas against the Israeli army.”


“These renewed efforts to criminalise pro-Palestinian activism and speech have not in any way been subtle,” Greenstein wrote in an op-ed for Al Jazeera English. The police imposed strict bail conditions against Greenstein, although not as onerous as the conditions that they imposed on Wilkinson. Greenstein was required to “live and sleep” at his home address and seek permission from the officer in charge if he wished to sleep elsewhere; required to notify police of “any new telephone number and any “device details include IMEI and SIM number within 24 hours” of purchase; and prohibited from posting anything on the platform formerly known as Twitter that had to with the “ongoing conflict in Gaza or the prescribed [sic] organisation Hamas.”


After he challenged these police bail conditions at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, they were substantially modified. He now must continue to live at his home address, but he is no longer required to sleep there every evening. The second condition was quashed altogether, and the third was “watered down.” Instead of being completely barred from posting about the war in Gaza, Greenstein told The Dissenter that he is now simply prohibited from mentioning Hamas by name.


Greenstein further declared, “[What we are seeing in the U.K.] is a complete abuse of anti-terror laws, which are meant to deal with genuinely terrorist organizations and not crack down on the right to protest and freedom of speech.” Although Greenstein was supposed to be informed about whether he would be charged in March, he has since been told that he may not know whether he will be charged until December 21—a year and a day since his arrest.


In July, a 55-year-old man was charged with four counts of violating the same speech crime provision and three counts of violating the Public Order Act, all in relation to social media posts.  A 38-year-old was also charged in March with two counts of violating the speech crime provision. The charges against him came after a member of the public referred his social media posts to the police, in October of last year. His trial is scheduled for December.


Repressing Dissent Is A Feature


As The Dissenter reported in 2023, hundreds of thousands of people have been interrogated under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. People subjected to schedule 7 stops do not have a right to a lawyer, the right to refuse to answer questions or the right to refuse to handover their electronic devices, PINs and passwords. British authorities do not need to charge someone or present reasonable suspicion that the individual is engaged in any crime in order to make use of the powers. 


Former U.K. ambassador turned journalist and blogger Craig Murray was stopped and interrogated under schedule 7 last year, as was British journalist Matt Broomfield. French journalist Ernesto Moret was arrested after he refused to give up his “phone and passcodes” during a schedule 7 stop. 


Jonathan Hall, the U.K.’s government-appointed independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, concluded in a special report that the Metropolitan Police abused its powers when it targeted Moret. “I have reached the clear conclusion that this examination should not have happened, and that additional safeguards are needed to ensure it is not repeated,” Hall wrote in his report on the incident. The police have since said that they have closed their case against Moret and referred themselves to the Independent Office of Police Conduct, a body that oversees complaints against officers in England and Wales.


Research has shown that a disproportionate amount of the individuals stopped are Muslim. As more and more journalists find themselves subjected to schedule 7 stops—or their newly created equivalent under schedule 3 of the 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act, these laws are getting more media scrutiny. 


“The Terrorism Act 2000 kicked off two decades of counter-terrorism legislation,” the UK-based Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) noted in its 2021 report, “20 Years of Terrorism Acts: 20 Years of Injustice.” “It made permanent anti-terrorism powers which had been temporary since 1974 through the Northern Ireland conflict. It was a landmark primary legislation which underpinned all the successive anti-terrorism laws. It also served as a model for other countries to adopt in succeeding years.”


Counter-terrorism laws and programs have “deep historical roots in the [United Kingdom’s] colonial history,” CAMPACC explained. “The methods and principles used to govern the British Empire over a century have produced a body of knowledge and expertise of repression, dissent-management and suppression of the aspirations for freedom and self-determination around the world.” 

“[When] South Asian soldiers were fighting Britain’s wars around the world, the British colonial government introduced the Defence of India Ordinance 1914 which first formalised many features of antiterrorism laws and suppression of dissent and struggles for self-determination that we see today,” the CAMPACC report further asserted.


According to CAMPACC the repression of dissent is a feature of the U.K.’s counter-terrorism regime rather than a bug. “Britain’s violence abroad and at home cannot be understood without the role of modern counter-terrorism, as well as anti-immigration powers.” “Together these powers have had a central role in expanding, militarising and legitimising mass policing and surveillance. Special anti-terror powers label resistance abroad as ‘terrorism’ and likewise stigmatise mere verbal support at home as threats to national security.” 


CAMPACC concluded, “The counter-terror framework serves to legitimise oppressive regimes allied with the UK and its own global military interventions, in pursuit of global plunder and domination. By blurring any distinction between liberation movements and terrorism, and likewise between civil resistance and violence, the UK impedes a political route to conflict resolution abroad, while persecuting those who oppose oppressive regimes.” Read more - Lire plus

Teens Jailed In Venezuela Post-election Crackdown Plead For Freedom

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Barron's 26/09/2024 - Parents of minors detained in Venezuela in a sweeping post-election crackdown on dissent read out a letter at a rally Thursday, with the teens pleading for their release from "hell."



More than 2,400 people were arrested during the protests that followed President Nicolas Maduro's disputed claim to have won a third six-year term in the country's July 28 election.


Twenty-seven people were killed in the unrest and about 200 others were injured. At least 114 minors were among those caught up in the wave of repression, according to the Foro Penal rights group, and about 30 are still being held on terrorism or treason charges.


Eight of the children signed a handwritten letter which was read out by Theany Urbina, mother of 16-year-old Miguel, at a demonstration Thursday outside the prosecutor's office in Caracas. "We can't take it a day longer," Miguel, Yenderson, Daiber, Hector, Bleider, Angel, Diomer and Alexander, wrote. "We have been robbed of our freedom, locked up as if we were criminals or a danger to society but we are innocent of all the charges," they added.


"Please, help us get out of this horrible place... We are just young people who have nothing to do with what is happening in the country. We are not terrorists." Urbina's voice faltered as she read over parts of the letter. "One day I will leave this ugly place," the letter reads, "this hell that no one belongs in." Miguel, an apprentice carpenter, was arrested on August 2 while eating candy outside his home. "Two officials came and took him away," his mother, a 32-year-old manicurist, said. "My son is not a criminal, he is not a terrorist," she said, denying he had taken part in anti-Maduro demonstrations.


Nerida Ruiz said her 16-year-old son Angel was "kidnapped" from his home while he was looking after his baby brother and accused of "aggravated theft, incitement to hatred, terrorism and resisting arrest."

Angel was "due to start school next week. That's his biggest worry," said Nerida, who works as a cashier in a furniture store. Some of the families said the teens were tortured before being locked up. They said some had been given electric shocks or had bags placed over their heads, with their interrogators threatening to release tear gas inside.


The Venezuelan opposition accuses Maduro of stealing the election, saying its tally of results from polling stations shows its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the clear winner. Maduro, a former bus driver who was handpicked by Venezuela's late revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez to succeed him on his death from cancer in 2013, has stepped up his crackdown on dissenters in recent years. More than seven million Venezuelans -- nearly one-quarter of the population -- have fled economic ruin and repression under his tenure. Source


ACTION: Venezuela: Mass arrests of vulnerable groups

India: FATF raps government on the risk to abuse that non-profits face

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Amnesty International 19/09/2024 - The ‘Financial Action Task Force’ (FATF) in its Mutual Evaluation Report pulls up the Indian government on the risk to abuse that the non-profit sector faces in India, said Amnesty International today. It also flags the delay in prosecutions in India under its money laundering and anti-terrorism laws.


The report published today, based on the fourth round of India’s evaluation on its measures to tackle illicit financing, highlights the ‘critical’ need to ‘taking a risk-based and educative approach with non-profit organisations.’


“The global financial watchdog significantly calls for ‘priority actions’, one of which is to ensure India’s civil society is not unnecessarily harassed and intimidated under the pretext of money-laundering or terrorism-financing. While the Indian Government may harp only on the positives in the FATF’s report on India, they can’t conveniently downplay how they have been rapped for their partial compliance with measures to protect the legitimate activities of the non-profit sector,” said Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India.


The report shows that India is only ‘partially compliant’ against FATF recommendation 8 which requires that laws and regulations to combat money laundering and terrorism financing target only those non-profit organisations that are identified – through a careful, targeted “risk-based” analysis – as vulnerable to terrorism financing abuse.


Three points of importance flagged in the report by FATF include the inability of India’s Income Tax department to demonstrate that its monitoring and outreach prioritised the 7500 non-profit organizations identified to be at-risk of terrorism financing abuse.


Secondly, the FATF also notes that the burdensome registration and audit requirements that non-profits in India have to undergo are not “always risk-based or implemented based on consultations with [them] to avoid negatively impacting their work”.


Thirdly, the FATF acknowledges that the 2020 amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) were implemented without adequate consultation with non-profits. Thereby, “impacting their activity or operating models”. The Indian government has shut down foreign funding for thousands of civil society groups using FCRA with over 20,600 non-governmental organizations losing their licenses to receive foreign funding in the past decade, many of them groups that have long promoted human rights in the country.  


In addition, the report also highlights the delay in prosecutions under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were “resulting in a high number of pending cases and accused persons in judicial custody waiting for cases to be tried and concluded”. Such delays illustrate the possibility that these laws are being misused to clamp down on human rights defenders by ensuring that the criminal proceedings characterized by stringent bail provisions, prolonged detention, and lengthy investigation act as punishment.


Among the proposed ‘Priority Actions’ the watchdog recommends India should ensure a risk-based approach, including by conducting a more focused, coordinated outreach to non-profit organizations on their Terrorism Financing risks. FATF also recommends India to address the delays in concluding prosecutions under UAPA and PMLA considering high rate of arrests and low rate of conviction under these laws.    


Previously, Amnesty International’s research documented how the FATF’s recommendations have been abused by the Indian authorities including by bringing in draconian laws in a coordinated campaign to stifle the non-profit sector. These laws are in turn used to bring terrorism-related charges and, amongst other things, to prevent organizations and activists from accessing essential funds. 


“Amnesty International has consistently flagged how these laws have been weaponized by authorities to target, intimidate, harass and silence critics. In consultation with the non-profit sector, the government needs to put in place measures that are focused, proportionate and not overbroad by bringing laws like FCRA and UAPA in line with international human rights standards. The Indian Government must take seriously the priority actions recommended by the FATF report and calibrate its actions with a risk-based approach to stop the witch-hunt under India’s anti-terror and money-laundering laws of non-profit organizations, human rights defenders and activists who dare to dissent,” said Aakar Patel. Source

Hong Kong: T-shirt sedition sentencing shows malice of new national security legislation

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Amnesty International 19/09/2024 - Responding to the 14-month prison sentence handed to Hong Kong man Chu Kai-pong for wearing a “seditious” T-shirt and mask, Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said:


“Just when you thought the human rights situation in Hong Kong couldn’t get any bleaker, a man is condemned to more than a year in prison just because of the clothing he chose to wear. This is a blatant attack on the right to freedom of expression. “The conviction and sentencing of Chu Kai-pong over his choice of clothing also highlights the sheer malice of Hong Kong’s new Article 23 law, which expands the government’s powers to punish so-called ‘seditious’ acts.


“Chu Kai-pong is the first person convicted under this legislation, but its vague wording, vast scope and repressive nature leaves Hong Kongers fearing that he will not be the last. We once again urge the Hong Kong authorities to repeal this law. “The government must also end its use of ‘sedition’ laws to crack down on dissent under the pretext of protecting ‘national security’. Chu Kai-pong has committed no internationally recognized crime and he must be released immediately.”


Background


Chu Kai-pong was today sentenced to one year and two months in jail for “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention” under section 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO), the new national security legislation enacted in March 2024 based on Article 23 of the city’s Basic Law.


He is the first person charged, convicted and sentenced under the SNSO. He was arrested on 12 June 2024, the anniversary of the 2019 anti-extradition protests, for wearing a T-shirt bearing the 2019 protest slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times”, and a yellow mask printed with the letters “FDNOL”, the abbreviation of another protest slogan, “Five Demands, Not One Less”. He has already been detained for more than 3 months and denied bail.


He was also charged with two other offences – loitering and failure to produce proof of identity for inspection – but these were dropped after he pleaded guilty to the sedition charge. According to section 24 of the SNSO, a person convicted of sedition can be imprisoned for seven years. If the sedition is conducted in collusion with an “external force”, the maximum sentence rises to 10 years. The offence was previously punishable by up to two years.


Hong Kong’s Legislative Council voted unanimously on 19 March 2024 to pass the SNSO under Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution. The SNSO increases penalties for acts relating to sedition and contains many troubling provisions, such as the vague and broadly worded crime of “external interference”. According to Amnesty International’s records, 12 people have been arrested for sedition – and three charged – under the SNSO since its enactment. Source


HRW: “We Can’t Write the Truth Anymore” Academic Freedom in Hong Kong Under the National Security Law


Hong Kong journalists face harassment amid national security law crackdown

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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Anti-terror & national security legislation

Législation antiterroriste et de sécurité nationale


Italy's new security decree could make life harder for migrants and more, if passed

Artificial intelligence

Intelligence artificielle


Why human rights must be at the core of AI governance


AI’s Use in Federal Courts Isn’t ‘Potential.’ It’s Happening


ETC Group: Corporate Capture of the UN Summit of the Future: A recipe for a dystopian digitalized tomorrow

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence


Why We Say No: Ecuadorian Indigenous women and rights defenders bring message of concern to Canada amid high-stakes trade negotiations

Criminalization of the opposition

Criminalisation de l'opposition


Ghannouchi defence team insists on innocence in foreign funding case


Pakistan Court Grants Bail To 10 Of Ex-PM Imran Khan's Deputies


Pak anti-terrorism court acquits workers from Imran Khan's party in May 9 riots case

Encryption

Chiffrement


UN Special Rapporteur urges Turkey to order retrial in all ByLock cases

Guantanamo


9/11 Defendant Suffered Brain Trauma from CIA, Expert Testifies, With Disputed Plea Deals on Hold


Did Lloyd Austin illegally rescind plea deals with 3 men charged in 9/11 attacks?

Islamophobia

Islamophobie


Open Letter of Support to Amira Elghawaby Against Smear Campaign

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et réfugié.es


Fighting immigration decisions for people in Canada with precarious status is going to be harder, advocates say. Here’s why


ACLU and IRAP Sue U.S. Government for Information Regarding Secretive Practice of Refugee Detention at Guantánamo Bay


“Borderland: The Line Within”: New Film on Who Profits from Deportations & Border-Industrial Complex


Surveilling Europe’s edges: when digitalisation means dehumanisation


German police recommend “intensive” social media investigations into visa applicants

Police


Two Weeks, Six Dead: Police Violence, Indigenous Dehumanization & Canadian Indifference


Vigile pour six personnes autochtones tuées par des policiers en onze jours


'Atrocious' comments by RCMP officers alleged in internal probe


Le respect de la liberté de presse ne fait pas partie de la formation policière

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance


Actions speak louder than words: U.S. slaps strong new sanctions on spyware company and executives


UK - These Human Rights Defenders Were Hacked by Pegasus. Now They Want Police to Charge the Spyware Maker.


Colombia prosecutors open investigation into Pegasus spy software purchase

Terror lists

Listes terroristes


Hundreds of parliamentarians from 73 countries say "take Cuba off the list"

Transparency

Transparence


Even the National Intelligence Director Admits Government Secrecy Is a Problem

Miscellaneous

Divers


Canada should invest in diplomacy, instead of spending more on defence


The Organizations Behind Canada’s Most Quoted Military Experts


Inter Pares: Open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on Myanmar/Burma


Inter Pares: Marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation


U.S.' Military Future in Iraq 'Is Not A Withdrawal,' Officials Declare


Military Empires: A Visual Guide to Foreign Bases


Hundreds of groups call on EU to uphold civic space, rights and democracy

ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC

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Uphold rights and liberties at protests and encampments across Canada!

Please join us in calling for the following:

  • Officials must stop equating Charter-protected expression and dissent with “support for terrorism,” and refrain from calling for law enforcement to forcibly end or prevent protest activities.
  • Law enforcement agencies must refrain from acting against protesters exercising their Charter-protected rights, including at encampments.
  • The Ontario legislature must immediately reverse the keffiyeh ban.
  • Canada must call for a permanent ceasefire and to halt all arms sales, transfers and military aid to Israel.
ACTION
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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.

ACTION
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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.

ACTION
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CSIS isn't above the law!

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.

ACTION

Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

Send an email using ICLMG’s one-click tool and share widely!

Letter in English + Lettre en français


Sign and share the LeadNow petitions to protect Hassan from further injustice

Petition in EnglishPétition en français


For more information on the case of Hassan Diab, read our webcomic, watch our animated version of the comic, or visit justiceforhassandiab.org.

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.

ACTION

Please share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

21 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now!

December 10, 2023 - ironically Human Rights Day - marked the 21st "anniversary" of the arrest of Mohamed Harkat under Canada's rights-violating security certificate regime. For Mr. Harkat, it's been two decades of fighting deportation to torture, 16 years of harassment and intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, secret trials, PTSD: enough is enough! We call for justice for Moe Harkat now! Watch - Visionnez


TAKE ACTION: Stop Moe Harkat's deportation to torture!


ACTION: Arrêtez la déportation vers la torture de Mohamed Harkat!

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Reform Canada's extradition law now!

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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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.

ACTION

December to June 2024 - Décembre à juin 2024

Thanks to the support of our members and donors, so far in 2024 we have been able to work on the following:


  • Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act - which would FINALLY create an independent watchdog for CBSA
  • Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 - which includes the very problematic Artificial Intelligence and Data Act
  • Advocating for the protection of international assistance from anti-terrorism laws after the adoption of Bill C-41
  • Bill C-63: The very concerning Online Harms Act
  • Bill C-70: The new and highly controversial Foreign Interference legislation
  • Parliamentary study on Transparency of the Department of National Defence
  • Biometrics guidance & other privacy issues with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  • Palestine and the right to dissent
  • Combatting Racism & Islamophobia
  • Repatriation of all Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
  • Justice for Dr Hassan Diab
  • Mohamed Harkat & Security certificates
  • Canada’s 4th Universal Periodic Review
  • Work with the international Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
  • The UN Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Canada assessment
  • The UN Cybersecurity Treaty & the EU AI Convention


What we have planned for the rest of 2024!


  • Pressuring lawmakers and officials to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security as well as opposing the discourse of “countering terrorism” to repress dissent, such as protests and encampments in support of Palestinian rights and lives.
  • Opposing the weaponization of concerns around foreign interference to unnecessarily increase national security powers, which will greatly affect rights and liberties of Canadians, and will most likely lead to more harassment and xenophobia
  • 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
  • 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! Read more - Lire plus


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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!


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!