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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
December 9, 2023 - 9 décembre 2023
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The News Digest will be back in Jan 2024 - La Revue de l'actualité sera de retour en janvier 2024 | |
Another year of injustice: Stop Moe Harkat's deportation to torture today! | |
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ICLMG & Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture 2023 - December 10, 2023 - ironically Human Rights Day - marks the 21st "anniversary" of the arrest of Mohamed Harkat under Canada's rights-violating security certificate regime.
For Mr. Harkat, it's been more than two decades of fighting deportation to torture, harassment and intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, secret trials, PTSD: enough is enough!
We call for justice for Moe Harkat now! Please send a quick email to Prime Minister Trudeau and the Minister of Public Safety, urging them to stop the deportation to torture of Mr. Harkat.
- Your letter will also go to your Member of Parliament, along with the ministers of Justice & of Immigration.
ACTION: Le Canada doit arrêter les procédures de déportation vers la torture contre Mohamed Harkat!
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ICLMG's new statement & action: Canada Must Oppose Genocide in Gaza and Defend Free Expression at Home | |
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ICLMG 08/12/2023 - As United Nations officials and many legal experts have alarmingly stated: There is a genocide underway in Gaza. A “humanitarian pause” was not enough. As of December 6, Israel has killed more than 21,731 Gazans, including 8,697 children and shows no intention of stopping until Gaza is “erased.”
Genocide is never justified, including in the “fight against terrorism.”
The UN Genocide Convention – which Canada has ratified – stipulates that “states that have the capacity to influence others have a duty to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide.” Therefore, Canada has the obligation to not only call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, but to immediately halt all arm sales, transfers and military aid to Israel.
Furthermore, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) is deeply alarmed by the overwhelming reports of incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism, the fact that people are being investigated, suspended and/or fired by their employer for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and/or calling for a ceasefire, as well as the growing instances of criminalization of dissent.
Support for the human rights and lives of Palestinians must not be conflated with support for hate or terrorism. Already, governments internationally have moved to criminalize or outright ban protests and restrict speech in support of Palestinian lives and against the decades-long Israeli occupation and the ongoing genocide. In Canada, the arrest of eleven people for engaging in a political protest against the head of a charity that supports IDF soldiers raises serious concerns about the policing of political speech.
It is necessary that you publicly, clearly and without delay, reassert the importance of upholding freedom of expression and the right to dissent – in Canada and elsewhere.
These actions and sentiments are disturbingly similar to those we saw in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and in response to the protests against the so-called “War on Terror” that followed. Governments – including the Canadian government – used a climate of fear and division to justify limits on freedom of expression and assembly, to drastically increase surveillance, and to undermine the civil liberties of vast swaths of the population, particularly Muslims and Arabs.
We thus urge Canadian officials to defend the freedom of expression and other human rights of all people in Canada and to support human rights, respect for international law, and justice globally. Source
NEW ACTION: Canada Must Oppose Genocide in Gaza and Defend Free Expression at Home!
Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
United Nations' Definition of Genocide
TODAY DEC 9: Ottawa march for Gaza - Meet at the Human Rights Monument @ 2 PM
Photo essay: Tens of thousands march on Parliament Hill for Gaza
CMPAC Joint Letter to PM to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza - ICLMG is one of the signatories
The Rideau Institute: Canada must join France, Norway, Ireland in championing an enduring ceasefire now
The many ways Canada supports Israel's decades-long apartheid and the current genocide in Gaza
Globe: NDP Calls For Canada to Bring Extended Family of Canadians Safety Out of Gaza
CJPME condemns Israel's expulsion of Canadian UN aid official
Joint Statement of the Coordinators, Special Representatives, Envoy and Ambassadors on Combating Anti-Muslim Hatred and Discrimination
The Violence in Israel/Palestine Hits Home in America
Palestinian American student shot in Vermont paralyzed from the chest down
ACTION: Amnesty International to world leaders: call for an immediate ceasefire
ACTION: Urge Governments to Invoke the Genocide Convention to Stop the War on Gaza
ACTION: Intention to prosecute Canadian officials for aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes
ACTION: Canada needs to take immediate action
ACTION: Email your MP to call for a ceasefire
ACTION: Send a message to demand Canada stop arming Israel and push for an immediate ceasefire
ACTION: Phone and email to Demand a Ceasefire Now
ACTION: Municipal Ceasefire Call
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“Mass Assassination Factory”: Israel Using AI to Generate Targets in Gaza, Increasing Civilian Toll | |
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DemocracyNow! 01/12/2023 - We look at a new report that reveals how Israel is using artificial intelligence to draw up targets in its military assault of Gaza. The report’s author, journalist Yuval Abraham, has found that the IDF’s increasing use of AI is partly a response to previous operations in Gaza when Israel quickly ran out of military targets, causing it to loosen its constraints on attacks that could kill civilians. In other words, the “civilian devastation that is happening right now in Gaza” is the result of a “war policy that has a very loose interpretation of what a military target is.”
This targeting of private homes and residences to kill alleged combatants means that “when a child is killed in Gaza, it’s because somebody made a decision it was worth it.” It has turned the Israeli military into a “mass assassination factory,” with a “total disregard for Palestinian civil life,” continues Abraham, who also notes that, as an Israeli journalist, his reporting is still subject to military censors. We also discuss another recent report revealing that Israel may have received intelligence about Hamas’s planned attack more than a year in advance of October 7, but ignored it. Read more - Lire plus
New details from The Guardian: ‘The Gospel’: how Israel uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza
Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: “Thin” Population “to a Minimum”
Open letter: Journalists in Canada condemn Israel’s continued killing of journalists in Gaza
Gaza: UN Secretary-General António Guterres invokes 'most powerful tool' Article 99, in bid for humanitarian ceasefire
U.S. vetoes ceasefire demand, as UN Secretary-General warns Gaza 'at breaking point'
Jeremy Scahill: Jeremy Scahill: Israel’s “Lethal Lie” About Al-Shifa Hospital as Hamas Base Was Co-Signed by Biden
“Horror Show”: Doctors Without Borders Demands Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza, Medical Aid for Wounded
MSF convoy attacked in Gaza: all elements point to the responsibility of the Israeli army
“Catastrophic”: Gaza Aid Worker on “Horror” of Forced Relocations Amid Israel’s War on Southern Strip
Webinar on Dec 12: 2023 in review with the #nowaytotreatachild campaign co-leaders from Defense for Children International - Palestine and American Friends Service Committee
A Second Nakba: Paving the Way to Genocide
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Canadian Public Servants Angered By Government’s Anti-Palestinian Bias | |
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The Maple 30/11/2023 - Public servants are angry about the Canadian government’s anti-Palestinian bias and say there is an ongoing effort by management to vilify expressions of sympathy for Palestinians among federal employees by falsely conflating such statements with antisemitism. Employees who spoke to The Maple said they are aware that some staff who have publicly expressed sympathy with Palestinians are currently being investigated or disciplined. Others fear backlash if they choose to organize statements of solidarity with Palestine through their unions.
Several employees also pointed to a staff “wellbeing” email sent by the Clerk of the Privy Council, John Hannaford, on October 11, four days after Hamas led a deadly surprise attack against Israel and took approximately 240 people hostage. The email was also published on the Department of National Defence website on October 13. At the time the email was originally sent, Israel had launched a massive bombardment of Gaza that had already killed nearly 1,000 people, including more than 100 children. As well, Israeli officials had engaged in rhetoric that observers said indicated genocidal intent and plans to inflict collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population in Gaza. Hannaford’s email made no mention of the Palestinian casualties or Israel’s bombing campaign, and focused exclusively on those killed in Israel by Palestinian militant groups.
“On Saturday morning, Canadians across the country were horrified to learn of the gruesome terrorist attacks launched by Hamas against Israel, and shocked by the terrible loss of life that occurred,” Hannaford wrote. “I join those around the world in unequivocally condemning these inhumane acts and in supporting Jewish people. I offer my sincere condolences for all of the innocent lives lost.” Hannaford then referred to “disturbing celebrations of violence and acts of antisemitism across the world, including in Canada,” echoing language used by Canadian politicians at all levels of government to describe protests that were held in solidarity with Palestine. He added: “Arab and Muslim communities are also fearing increased hate and discrimination due to a rise in Islamophobia,” before pledging to stand against “all forms of discrimination.” “We condemn any behaviour or expression of hate in the workplace regarding the individual identities of others.” Hannaford then provided links to various programs aimed at supporting the “wellbeing of public servants,” as well as information on “Canada’s response to the crisis in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
The Maple interviewed five public servants who received the email and agreed to keep them anonymous in order to protect them from retribution by their employers. An employee with the Department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) told The Maple that emails from managers that take a position on world affairs are extremely rare. They found Hannaford’s message to be clearly “taking a side” with Israel. By contrast, the employee said, public servants based in Ottawa received an email that provided information during the “Freedom Convoy” that occupied areas of the capital for several weeks last year, but that message did not take a stance for or against the protest. “It’s shockingly one-sided,” the employee said of Hannaford’s email about Israel. “This conflict impacts two significant populations, and this email is only talking about one of them.” “It really seems to counteract what some departments, and ours in particular, really stands for,” the employee added.
Public servants are discouraged from publicly taking positions on contentious issues, and the employee from WAGE told The Maple that this is something they are frequently reminded of by their human resources department and executives. The “Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service” states that public servants should “maintain the tradition of the political neutrality of the Public Service.” For this reason, the employee said they were all the more angered to see a staunchly pro-Israel position taken by Canada’s most senior public servant. Based on Hannaford’s messaging, the employee said they feel that management would be much more tolerant of public servants attending pro-Israel “vigils” held in support of the country’s bombing campaign than those wanting to attend rallies calling for a ceasefire, for example.
In an emailed statement to The Maple, the Privy Council Office said: “Consistent with the government’s position, the Clerk’s message addressed this very sensitive, traumatic, and complex issue, offered sincere condolences for all of the innocent lives lost, and called for a united stand against all forms of discrimination.” In fact, the Clerk’s email did not mention Palestinians or those killed in Gaza. “The message also emphasized the Clerk’s commitment to ensuring that all public servants feel safe in their work environments and condemned any behaviour or expression of hate in the workplace,” the PCO’s statement added.
A second WAGE employee told The Maple: “I’m very disappointed with the direction the government and our department have taken in sending a pro-Israel biased email and merely suggesting we contact the employee assistance program if we need someone to talk to.” “As a union local we have debated whether we should make a solidarity statement for Palestine because of the fear of backlash from the upper management,” the employee added. Some public service unions have issued statements calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
On October 26, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents federal government employees, joined calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and “an end to the blockade of Gaza and for the restoration of humanitarian aid and access to the basic necessities of life.” PSAC’s statement added: “This crisis has reached a critical point that demands immediate intervention; the Canadian government must call for a peaceful resolution to this conflict and the end of the occupation of the Palestinian territories.” The Professional Institute of The Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) called for a ceasefire on October 30.
Glaring Omissions
A federal employee who works for Statistics Canada told The Maple that they found the omissions in Hannaford’s email to be glaring. “The word ‘Palestinian’ did not appear in the email, which is obviously a very deliberate choice of how to frame the whole situation,” the employee said. “It mentioned the loss of life on the Israeli side, but didn’t mention at all the loss of life on the Palestinian side, which had already started at that point and has now reached much greater proportions.” “We haven’t had any communication about that since then.” The employee said they believed the email could have made public servants feel obliged to hold a supportive position in regards to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I’m angry that they are using the capacity that they have as an employer to present one political interpretation of a situation — one that I don't share,” the employee added. “It makes it much harder for someone who heeded that message to be open to hearing another position outside of the workplace.”
“It feels to me like an abuse of the communication channels that they have to disseminate a political message.” The employee said they are unionized with the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), which has so far not called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some Government of Canada employees are pushing for the union to adopt that position.
Another CAPE member who is also involved with the group Labour For Palestine told The Maple that the union lacks a mechanism by which to give feedback to the leadership. Instead, rank-and-file members successfully worked through the Solidarity Caucus to democratically pass a ceasefire statement.
In response, the member said, CAPE leadership issued a cease and desist order against the caucus’ use of the union’s name. “It’s really reflective of a CAPE leadership that is conservative and that has always prioritized looking agreeable to the employer over supporting its members,” the member explained.
CAPE’s leadership, the member said, has long maintained a “culture of silence” around what it considers to be “social issues” that are supposedly not directly connected to the workplace.
The union’s leaders have also emphasized the “Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service” in its messaging, which, the member said, is the most common means by which members are being disciplined for speaking out in support of Palestine. The CAPE member stressed that the Clerk’s email had a chilling effect on public servants wanting to speak out in support of Palestine, and that there has been a unique degree of scrutiny and readiness to discipline employees for speaking up on this issue. “It set a tone from our employer and from our government that speaking out in any form for solidarity with Palestine, or about Palestinian rights, would be likely to draw negative attention,” they explained. “It left literally thousands feeling disregarded and ignored.”
“The continued silence [on Palestinian deaths] has sent the message to many public servants that some lives and deaths matter and others don’t.” As well, the CAPE member said the Clerk’s email demonstrated that the issue is not external to the public service workplace, as CAPE’s leadership have tried to claim. A group of rank-and-file members put together a petition calling for CAPE’s leadership to change its approach to this issue. CAPE is also currently undergoing a leadership election. “There’s a real hope that we will have change and we will be able to pressure leadership to behave differently going forward,” the member said.
Fears Of Backlash
The Stat Can employee said they are aware of colleagues who have been investigated for sharing pro-Palestinian social media posts. As reported by The Globe and Mail last month, the PCO launched an investigation into Nisam Siddiqui, a senior analyst at PCO, for criticizing Canada and other Western countries for aiding Israel in “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The employee said they believe Siddiqui has made comments in the past that were genuinely antisemitic, but is concerned that the PCO is deliberately targeting Siddiqui for pro-Palestinian comments in an effort to falsely conflate Palestine solidarity with antisemitism. “It feels like there’s an effort to connect or tie those two things together and try to ensure that there’s a sort of association in people’s minds that Palestine solidarity is antisemitic,” the employee explained. “I have suspicions that there’s a deliberate sort of strategy behind it. It’s not just random choices of who to target for discipline.” Read more - Lire plus
Palestine solidarity under attack in Canada + video
Naomi Klein on the Indigo 11: The extraordinary raids, arrests and property seizures of Palestine solidarity activists represent an extreme attack on political speech not seen in a generation
In Defense of the Peace-11: Standing with the Peace Activists Being Criminalized in Toronto for Palestine Solidarity
NEW ACTION: Write a letter to Canada Revenue Agency: No subsidies for war crimes--investigate HESEG Foundation
A chill has crept into Ontario’s health sector when it comes to criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza
CTV forbids use of ‘Palestine,’ suppresses critical stories about Israel
Don't Let Fabricated Outrage 'Distract From Genocidal Violence in Gaza,' Says Naomi Klein
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European governments donors’ discriminatory funding restrictions to Palestinian civil society risk deepening human rights crisis | |
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Amnesty International 28/11/2023 - Announcements by a number of European countries and the European Commission to restrict funding to Palestinian human rights organizations would further damage the European Union’s credibility as a self-proclaimed champion of human rights. Amnesty International and 95 other organizations have published a letter to the EU and member states expressing concern about the impact of such discriminatory measures on human rights.
“Human rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are already in deep crisis. Palestinian and Israeli organizations in the region do crucial work to protect people’s rights. Some act as watchdogs of Israeli authorities’ systematic violations of Palestinians rights with impunity, others provide pro-bono legal representation for victims who would be otherwise left with no support in their quest for justice. Restricting the funding of Palestinian organisations only is discriminatory and would silence them by hampering their vital work and would further deprive victims of any prospect of protection,” said Eve Geddie Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
Several European countries including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as the European Commission have taken measures to suspend or restrict their funding to Palestinian civil society organizations on the basis of unfounded allegations that funding has been diverted to ‘terrorist organizations’ or to used for ‘incitement to hatred and violence’. Such allegations mobilize longstanding racist and Islamophobic stereotypes that portray Arab and Muslim people as prone to violence and potential terrorists. Some measures to suspend funding to Palestinian NGOs long predated the attacks of 7 October 2023, in which members of Hamas and other armed groups committed war crimes and other violations of international law, including unlawful killings, took civilians hostage, and launched indiscriminate rocket attacks into Israel. However, restrictions have since intensified.
EU double standards
The European Commission announced on 21 November 2023 that ‘no evidence has been found to date that money has been diverted for unintended purposes.’ Despite this, it announced the introduction of ‘anti-incitement’ contractual clauses in all new contracts with Palestinian NGOs, which oblige funding recipients to state that they will not incite hatred, and subject them to “third-party monitoring” to ensure compliance. While the clause is not inherently problematic, applying such a clause only to Palestinian NGOs stigmatizes Palestinians, while emboldening others to incite hate.
t is vital for the EU and member states to combat all forms of racism and other forms of discrimination, including antisemitism, islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian racism and take all necessary measures to prohibit advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. Recipients of EU money were already required to respect these principles. Adding “anti-incitement” clauses to contracts of Palestinian organizations only and subjecting them to “third party monitoring” smacks of political posturing, is discriminatory and reinforces racist assumptions towards Palestinians and those who defend Palestinians’ human rights.
Sweden for example, has also stated that in the future it will require Palestinian partners to condemn Hamas. Requiring an organisation to express such a condemnation and making funding conditional to that, is an attack on the human right to freedom of expression and association, among others, and insofar as it targets exclusively organizations working on Palestine, it is discriminatory.
Meanwhile, despite egregious calls for killing, forcibly displacing or using nuclear weapons against Palestinians by Israeli officials and NGOs, as well as repeated deadly attacks against civilians by Israeli forces and settlers, and even NGOs building illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian lands, including those denounced by the EU, there are no similar requirements on Israeli organizations or governmental bodies cooperating with Sweden to condemn these crimes. This blatant double standard is not only discriminatory, but also demonstrates a concerningly selective approach to human rights.
Misuse of antisemitism as a tool of suppression
Combatting antisemitism and hate speech is vital, but over the last few years, Israeli authorities and officials from a number of countries in Europe — especially Germany and Hungary— and EU Commissioners Várhelyi and Schinas, have used unfounded allegations of antisemitism to silence criticism of Israeli violations of international law, including the ongoing system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians by Israel. Read more - Lire plus
Increasing repression of pro-Palestinian activists a worrying trend
Israeli repression extends to anti-war Jewish Israelis and Palestinians
Israeli Minister rolls out bill to strip citizenship from "terror supporters" in wartime
Israeli parliament bill criminalises ‘consumption of terrorist materials’: Human rights groups say the amendment to Israel’s counterterrorism law is tantamount to thought policing
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on the 23 November 2023 raids in Germany
Activist on trial for damaging UK sites of Israeli arms maker says he was justified
#StopSilencingPalestine: Meta must overhaul its biased content moderation
‘Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,’ US House asserts in ‘dangerous’ resolution
UK minister Suella Braverman fired after she criticised the police for being too lenient towards pro-Palestinian protesters
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Licence to break the law: More Canadian spies get permission to commit crimes, memo shows | |
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CBC News 06/12/2023 - The number of Canadian spies with permission to break the law is rising, according to an internal memorandum. The memo, marked secret, provides a glimpse into a murky world of how operatives can ignore normal rules with prior approval. Under current legislation, people working with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) who are "acting in good faith" can obtain "limited justification" to "commit acts or omissions that would otherwise constitute offences," said a memorandum to Canada's public safety minister. That limited justification can be granted to agents, contractors or intelligence assets, legal analysts said.
These otherwise-illegal activities "may be committed, or directed to be committed, as part of the Service's information and intelligence collection duties and functions," said the November 2022 memo obtained under access to information legislation. The memo was requesting sign-off for a new crop of spies. Though data on the number of agents allowed to commit crimes was redacted from these records, the memo said the number of people with this special clearance is rising. The reason for the increase was redacted. [...]
Civil liberties groups aren't convinced the current sign-off system of pre-approvals provides the right oversight for spies operating outside of the law. "We have deep concerns about a national security agency, acting in secrecy, being able to carry out these acts or offences," said Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. "We really don't know how they are using this; there needs to be clarity and accountability for the public."Under current rules, sign-off isn't typically granted for an operative to perform a specific tactic. Instead, the requests seek permission to conduct activities under broad categories, McSorley added.
Given that intelligence gathered by spies rarely makes its way into open court — where accused parties have the right to defend themselves against allegations — McSorley would prefer these powers be left to police agencies. Police, he said, typically aim to press charges, allowing for some level of due process for people accused of wrongdoing. Courts can then examine the tactics used by security forces. In contrast, spies typically gather information in the shadows. "When intelligence agencies have these powers to do real-world activities, they usually happen in secret and can't be challenged in open court," McSorley said.
In an example of how alleged law breaking by intelligence personnel has transpired in the past, McSorley cited the 2015 case of Mohammed al-Rashed, an alleged CSIS intelligence asset in the Middle East who is accused of helping to smuggle three British schoolgirls into Syria to join ISIS in 2015. The current rules mandating CSIS assets or agents get prior approval to break the law were not in place when al-Rashed was allegedly working with the agency. "If Canadians knew CSIS was working with an individual engaged in human trafficking, that would lead to serious ethical questions," McSorley said, adding that agents can theoretically now get advanced approval for similar types of lawbreaking. Al-Rashed's case, first brought to light by U.K. journalists, caused international uproar. In November 2022, Canada's National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) launched a probe into what happened.
According to the most recent annual report from NSIRA, CSIS was authorized to commit offences 172 times in 2022. That is up from 83 in 2019 and almost on par with 2021, which saw 178 authorizations,
In each of the four years cited in the report, non-CSIS employees received the majority of authorizations. In 2022, all but 41 permissions were granted to third parties, including intelligence assets — like al-Rashed is alleged to have been — or private contractors. "That raises questions about why more individuals considered human sources and operatives are carrying out more of these acts — and what kind of oversight and review there is," McSorley said.
Separately in the November 2022 memo, CSIS refers the public safety minister to "errors that we identified through an initial review." The nature of those errors was redacted. The public safety ministry referred interview requests back to CSIS, which didn't comment directly on this matter. Later, the CSIS briefing says two employees were accidentally given this designation to commit offences, though "neither … invoked the justification framework."
Even though those powers granted by mistake were not used, the situation still worries Brenda McPhail, acting executive director of a McMaster University master's program on public policy in digital society.
"There's a red flag there around process," she told CBC News. "After all, these are the most extreme powers an agent can be granted, so extreme care in getting those designations right is required." Read more - Lire plus
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A 'predator' at CSIS: Officers allege rape, harassment and a toxic workplace culture | |
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The Canadian Press 30/11/2023 - A rookie surveillance officer with Canada's spy agency and another officer decades her senior were tracking a person in British Columbia in the summer of 2019 when they lost sight of their target. She said the senior officer later blamed a communications failure due to a radio dead zone. But the woman said the real reason was her colleague was raping her, having broken off surveillance to drive to a parkade where the alleged attack took place in their Canadian Security Intelligence Service vehicle.
The man, who was supposed to be her mentor and coach, treated his "own needs as more important than doing the job," she said in an interview.
She said she was raped by her colleague nine times while at work in CSIS surveillance vehicles between July 2019 and February 2020. A second officer said she too was sexually assaulted as a rookie by the same officer in surveillance vehicles during covert missions, despite warnings from the first to their bosses that he should not be partnered with young women. They say supervisors told them other women had complained about not feeling safe around the man in the past.
“Nothing was done, and I started hearing these stories that there was this history of all these women (who) used to be working at our region. They used to be there, and they all had the same thing to say, and they all just ended up leaving,” the second officer said. The women are among four officers with the B.C. CSIS physical surveillance unit who say it was a toxic workplace where bullying, harassment and worse went unchecked, and where young female officers were victimized. Their accounts, provided in documents and interviews with The Canadian Press over several months, offer a rare unauthorized glimpse inside Canada's spy agency and its operations.
The two women who said they were assaulted by the same senior officer also describe their treatment in separate anonymized lawsuits against the federal government filed in B.C. They said they felt unable to go to police, in part because of an obligation to secrecy, including a law against identifying themselves or others as CSIS officers, and a belief the organization would cover things up. A flawed internal complaint process left victims vulnerable to retaliation and without access to external recourse, they said. Both are still employed by CSIS but are on leave. The young women also said they fell victim to a system that keeps CSIS rookies on probation for two years, making them susceptible to mistreatment by senior officers who could easily ruin their careers if they objected.
They're not the first CSIS employees to criticize the service's workplace culture. In 2017, five anonymous CSIS workers in the Toronto region sued the Canadian government for $35 million, claiming racism, sexism and harassment. [...] In December 2020, CSIS Director David Vigneault said at a national security advisory committee meeting "there is a level of harassment and fear of reprisal within the organization,” as he addressed questions about systemic racism. Read more - Lire plus
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Tools capable of extracting personal data from phones being used by 13 federal departments, documents show | |
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CBC News 01/12/2023 - Tools capable of extracting personal data from phones or computers are being used by 13 federal departments and agencies, according to contracts obtained under access to information legislation and shared with Radio-Canada.
Radio-Canada has also learned those departments' use of the tools did not undergo a privacy impact assessment as required by federal government directive. The tools in question can be used to recover and analyze data found on computers, tablets and mobile phones, including information that has been encrypted and password-protected. This can include text messages, contacts, photos and travel history. Certain software can also be used to access a user's cloud-based data, reveal their internet search history, deleted content and social media activity. Radio-Canada has learned other departments have obtained some of these tools in the past, but say they no longer use them.
Evan Light, associate professor of communications at York University's Glendon campus in Toronto and an expert in privacy and surveillance technology, said he's shocked by the widespread use of such software within the federal government. "It's worrisome and dangerous," said Light, who filed the original access to information request to find out more about how police agencies in Canada are using the technology. "I thought I would just find the usual suspects using these devices, like police, whether it's the RCMP or [Canada Border Services Agency]. But it's being used by a bunch of bizarre departments," he said. According to the documents Light shared with Radio-Canada, Shared Services Canada purchased the equipment and software for the end users from suppliers Cellebrite, Magnet Forensics and Grayshift. (The latter two companies merged earlier this year). [...]
Radio-Canada asked each of the federal institutions using the software if they had first conducted privacy impact assessments. According to their written responses, none did. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it intends to do so. The fact that these assessments were never done "shows that it's just become normalized, that it's not a big deal to get into somebody's cell phone," said Light. "There's been a normalization of this really extreme capability of surveillance." [...] Light calls the use of these tools by such organizations as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a regulatory agency, "overkill." "The CRTC is bringing a nuclear weapon to a spam fight," he said. "It's a bit ridiculous, but also dangerous." [...]
Treasury Board President Anita Anand declined Radio-Canada's request for an interview. According to her office, each federal institution is responsible for enforcing privacy laws and policies, but her office did not say what happens when these institutions fail to fulfil those obligations. Privacy protection should be a key element "before adopting high-risk technological tools to collect personal information," Canada's Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne wrote in an email to Radio-Canada. Dufresne also reiterated that he wishes the federal government made PIAs "a binding legal obligation" under the Privacy Act. Light said he's disappointed no one in the federal government seems accountable for the use of these tools that could have a "dramatic" impact on people's lives. "We have a right to privacy. It's not an abstract concept," he said. Read more - Lire plus
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New report by Citizen Lab finds serious Charter concerns with proposed federal cybersecurity legislation, Bill C-26 | |
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OpenMedia 28/11/2023 - The federal government’s draft cybersecurity legislation, Bill C-26, contains serious deficiencies and risks impacting the Charter rights of people in Canada to equality, freedom of expression, and privacy. That’s according to a new report by the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, which highlights that Bill C-26’s Charter implications “should be a central consideration for this Committee, and throughout the Parliamentary process ahead.”
The report has been submitted to the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee which is expected to commence its scrutiny of Bill C-26 shortly. Among the significant Charter concerns identified by the Citizen Lab report’s authors, Kate Robertson and Lina Li, are:
- Equality: The absence of key transparency, accountability, and proportionality requirements in Bill C-26 raises equality risks surrounding its implementation. Bill C-26’s lack of safeguards increases the risk that equality-undermining measures will not be adequately prevented or addressed. For example, adverse impacts could undermine efforts to redress disparities in Internet access between rural and Indigenous communities and the rest of Canada; result in mandated rules that impede access to assistive technologies for persons living with disabilities; or expose certain groups, including journalists, lawyers, and dissidents to a heightened threat of hacking and espionage.
- Freedom of Expression: Bill C-26’s excessive secrecy jeopardizes the freedom of expression rights of the public, the media, and commercial entities. Courts and government should be open and accessible or risk impeding meaningful discussion on matters of public interest. Such discussion is especially important in the cybersecurity sphere, and greater transparency in Bill C-26 is required to ensure this.
- Privacy: Bill C-26’s new information collection and sharing powers are insufficiently bounded or defined, posing a potential privacy risk exacerbated by the absence of key accountability and oversight mechanisms. The bill permits the government to collect the personal information of Canadians, creates criminal offences which incentivise over-sharing, and its extensive secrecy undermines the ability of courts or oversight bodies to assess whether such information collection is proportionate and necessary.
Civil society organizations campaigning to fix Bill C-26 have welcomed Citizen Lab’s findings, stating that they reinforce long-standing concerns, and that significant amendments are required to uphold civil liberties and strengthen public confidence in the resulting cybersecurity framework. These organizations recently submitted detailed recommendations to make sure the legislation “delivers strong cybersecurity for everyone in Canada, while ensuring accountability and upholding our rights.”
These recommendations reflect the findings of a previous Citizen Lab report, entitled Cybersecurity Will Not Thrive in Darkness, by Dr. Christopher Parsons which was published last October. The legislation has been subject to fierce criticism for its impact on civil liberties since it was first introduced by former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino in June 2022.
The groups and expert individuals campaigning to fix Bill C-26 are: the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Ligue des Droits et Libertés, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, OpenMedia, the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, Professor Andrew Clement, and Dr Brenda McPhail. Source
Podcast: Would the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty hurt more than it helps?
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European Parliament sidelined in adoption of new travel surveillance agreement with Canada | |
Six years ago, the Court of Justice struck down the EU's PNR agreement with Canada due to its lack of safeguards on data protection, non-discrimination and effective remedy for individuals. In 2019, a new draft agreement was shared by the Commission with the European Parliament, but no further amended version was communicated until yesterday, on the day negotiations are supposed to be finalised. | |
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statewatch 24/11/2023 - The vast amounts of data collected by private companies are of significant interest to policing, security and border agencies, and in the realm of travel, there is one type of information that has been increasingly sought by governments: Passenger Name Record (PNR) data.
PNR data is made up of a wide range of personal information shared with companies during the booking process, including name, address, travel itinerary, ticket information, contact details and means of payment, amongst other things. Where states have a PNR system in place, the data can be checked against lists of wanted or suspected individuals or run through profiling algorithms to detect individuals who may be of interest to the authorities.
The opinion of the Court of Justice in 2017 that led to the original EU-Candada agreement being halted was hailed by European Digital Rights (EDRi) as “good news for EU citizens, as the risks associated with massive and unnecessary databases of sensitive personal data are unacceptable. Blindly collecting data, hoping it will magically protect our society, is bad for security and bad for fundamental rights.” In practice, however, an interim solution for member states has been to transfer data directly to the Canadian authorities despite the Council of the EU calling it a “legal vulnerability.” It appears to be common practice for national law enforcement to go rogue (and unsanctioned) on European standards concerning PNR. In December 2022, following a court judgement on the law that governs the use of PNR data within the EU, the European Data Protection Board said it is “likely” that most member states were not complying with the judgment, operating systems that “continue to interfere disproportionately with the fundamental rights of data subjects every day.”
The new Agreement
The first version of the agreement in 2019 was not shared with the European Data Protection Board for an opinion and it is unknown whether the new version, published here (pdf) by Statewatch, was shared either to consult on potential data protection vulnerability. While the new agreement gives the appearance of complying with the requirements set out in the Court’s 2017 opinion, there are several exceptions in case of emergency that experts may well consider undermine legal certainty and the safeguards offered to individuals.
No clarity on automated decision-making
The new agreement acknowledges the Court’s 2017 opinion and introduces a clause providing that “any automated processing of PNR data is based on non‐discriminatory, specific and reliable pre‐established models and criteria”. A subsequent judgment on the EU’s own PNR rules, known as Ligue des Droits Humains, introduced more precise standards on automated data processing. It precluded the use of self-learning systems “capable of modifying without human intervention or review the assessment process and, in particular, the assessment criteria on which the result of the application of that process is based as well as the weighting of those criteria.”
The proposed agreement with Canada lays out that “Canada shall not take any decisions significantly adversely affecting a passenger solely on the basis of automated processing of PNR data.” The lack of clarity on when an automated decision will be taken and how it could be differentiated from human intervention during a legal review might, as noted by the advocate general in Ligue des Droits Humains case, render humans “redundant [in] the individual review of positive matches and monitoring of lawfulness.” Further discussion on automated decision-making in the context of PNR can be found here, here and here.
Wide exceptions to independent and judicial supervision
One key controversy on PNR agreements has been the role of courts and independent authorities in controlling the decisions of law enforcement agencies. This agreement does not move away from the rule.
On conditions for the use of PNR data
The agreement lays out that PNR data should only be retained for the purpose of investigating terrorism, excluding “lawful or unlawful advocacy, protest, dissent or stoppage of work, such as a strike” from this definition, provided it is not intended to cause a violent terrorist act. However, the text also includes exceptions, “where new circumstances based on objective grounds indicate that the PNR data of one or more passengers might make an effective contribution” to the commission of a terrorist act. This derogation is subject to prior review by a court or by an independent administrative body.
The text provides two further exceptions in case of “validly established urgency.” No further information is given on the meaning of this expression or the authority involved, nor are there any indications that an independent authority or judicial authority could contest the “validity” of the emergency or even be informed of it. An exception is also permitted for the purpose testing and training algorithms, or in the words of the agreement: “of verifying the reliability and currency of the pre‐established models and criteria on which the automated processing of PNR data is based, or of defining new models and criteria for such processing.”
Transfer to third countries
The text states that EU citizens’ passenger data cannot be shared with a third country that does not have a data protection agreement with the European Union. However, this safeguard can be ignored when “the disclosure is necessary for the prevention or investigation of a serious and imminent threat to public security”. In addition, it adds that the country should “provide a written assurance, pursuant to an arrangement, agreement or otherwise that the information will be protected in line with the protections set out in this Agreement.” Canada should also notify the authorities of the member state or states whose citizen’s personal data has been disclosed at the “earliest opportunity”. There is no mention of oversight or control by a judicial body or other independent authority.
Romain Lanneau, Consultant Researcher for Statewatch, comments: “The European Parliament might have grounds to refer the agreement again to the CJEU. In any case, MEPs should at the very least complain to the European Ombudsman about the lack of transparency of the Commission which only shared the agreement on the last days of negotiation. Moreover, the Commission did not seek an opinion of the EDPB despite an evident risk of controversy.” Source
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‘The Judge Sided with Peace’: Supporters celebrate as the first Coastal GasLink criminal trial ends in a not guilty verdict. | |
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The Tyee 30/11/2023 - There were tears and hugs in a Smithers courtroom on Wednesday morning as the first criminal trial involving an Indigenous land defender arrested in the Coastal GasLink conflict ended with a not guilty verdict.
In reaching his decision, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Michael Tammen accepted that Sabina Dennis was motivated by a desire to protect others and reach a peaceful resolution when she stepped onto a bridge where more than 50 police officers, some wearing military-style fatigues and carrying rifles, approached on the Morice Forest Service Road on Nov. 18, 2021.
He also acknowledged that the RCMP “arrived at the site with a significant show of force” as they moved to make arrests and reopen the remote resource road after it had been closed for several days by Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership, who oppose the pipeline project.
Standing outside the courthouse following the decision, Dennis expressed gratitude and relief. “I’m thankful to our ancestors and our spirit protectors for the strength to continue on, to create a safe space for all, and that the judge, Justice Tammen, sided with peace,” she said.
During closing arguments on Monday, defence lawyer Frances Mahon described Dennis as a “peaceful and principled Dakelh woman” who was attempting to act as peacekeeper and negotiator when she was taken into custody with more than a dozen others who were arrested the same day under a B.C. Supreme Court-issued injunction that prevents anyone from blocking access to roads or work sites used for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Mahon said Dennis felt “great risk” as officers with RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group — a specialized policing unit now under investigation by Canada’s police watchdog — and Emergency Response Team advanced onto the Lamprey Creek bridge, where heavy machinery had been used to block the road. She moved onto the bridge in the hopes of bringing about a peaceful resolution based on her past experiences with police in the area, Mahon said. [...]
The November 2021 police action came four days after the remote Morice Forest Service Road, a resource road that heads south from Houston and provides access to a portion of the Coastal GasLink pipeline route, was closed beyond kilometre 39 by Wet’suwet’en leaders on Nov. 14. The road closure prevented the delivery of supplies to two work camps housing hundreds of pipeline employees, the company said at the time. On Nov. 19, a day after Dennis and others were arrested on the Lamprey Creek bridge and once the road was reopened to traffic, the RCMP conducted a second raid on an encampment at a work site where Coastal GasLink was preparing to drill under the Morice River, known to the Wet’suwet’en as Wedzin Kwa.
In total, more than 30 people were taken into custody during the two-day police action, including several journalists. One journalist was released without charges on Nov. 18 while Coastal GasLink later announced it would not pursue legal action against two other journalists arrested Nov. 19. But the following summer the BC Prosecution Service announced it would assume contempt proceedings from Coastal GasLink, which holds the civil injunction, against 19 people arrested in November 2021, marking the first criminal charges laid in the years-long dispute. Some of those who were charged have since pleaded guilty, while others await upcoming trials.
Tammen explained that contempt of court has four essential elements, including the existence of a court order, a contemnor’s knowledge of the order and intentionally violating the order. But what distinguishes criminal contempt from civil contempt, he said, is “public defiance of the court’s process” in a way that’s meant to diminish respect for the courts. Criminal contempt requires proof that a person intentionally defied a court order in a way that would depreciate the authority of the court. Read more - Lire plus
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New open access book: Intelligence Oversight in Times of Transnational Impunity: Who Will Watch the Watchers? | |
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Taylor & Francis 23/11/2023 - This book adopts a critical lens to look at the workings of Western intelligence and intelligence oversight over time and space. Largely confined to the sub-field of intelligence studies, scholarly engagements with intelligence oversight have typically downplayed the violence carried out by secretive agencies.
These studies have often served to justify weak oversight structures and promoted only marginal adaptations of policy frameworks in the wake of intelligence scandals. The essays gathered in this volume challenge the prevailing doxa in the academic field, adopting a critical lens to look at the workings of intelligence oversight in Europe and North America.
Through chapters spanning across multiple disciplines – political sociology, history, and law – the book aims to recast intelligence oversight as acting in symbiosis with the legitimisation of the state’s secret violence and the enactment of impunity, showing how intelligence actors practically navigate the legal and political constraints created by oversight frameworks and practices, for instance by developing transnational networks of interdependence. The book also explores inventive legal steps and human rights mechanisms aimed at bridging some of the most serious gaps in existing frameworks, drawing inspiration from recent policy developments in the international struggle against torture. Read more - Lire plus
Watchdog flags 'risk of discrimination' in border agency's air traveller targeting
Christopher Parsons: Highlights from NSIRA’s 2022 Annual Report
UK: MPs and peers rebuke Sunak over lack of national security oversight
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Lina Chawaf: The forgotten war in Syria | |
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The Globe and Mail 06/12/2023 - On a recent trip back home to see my family in Montreal – far away from the Turkey/Syria border region where I spend much of my time – I joined a large march for an end to the fighting in Gaza. I started crying.
Not for the suffering of the people in Gaza, though they deserve our support. The tears came because I thought of my fellow Syrians being bombed to this day – and no one talks about them. All the memories of my fight, our fight for dignity and freedom since the revolt against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in 2011 came flooding back to me.
Syria is currently divided into four parts that are under the influence of Russia, the U.S., Turkey and al-Qaeda. The part under al-Qaeda control is still bombed by the Syrian regime, which receives support from the Russian air force. The moment Israel started to bomb Gaza, they intensified the bombing in Syria. Children in Syria now are dying the same way as children in Gaza, but no one talks about them. It’s a world war inside Syria, where global powers are fighting and the Syrian population pays the price.
How easily the world forgets and turns its eyes away when another equally gut-wrenching human tragedy grabs our attention. Remember the photos of the little boy, Alan Kurdi, lying dead on the beach as his family tried to flee war and repression? Remember how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadians welcomed thousands of Syrian refugees to our country with open arms? But then we quickly moved on. Afghanistan, then Ukraine and now Gaza. I can’t move on.
I was the editor-in-chief and an on-air radio host back then in Damascus, but like many Syrians, when the democratic protests began in 2011, I felt compelled to join. I refused to broadcast pro-government propaganda. I had no choice but to quit my job and with death threats hanging over me and my children, I was forced to flee. With other Syrian journalists in exile, I helped set up Radio Rozana, an independent news organization based in Gaziantep, Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. To a wide audience inside Syria and around the world, we broadcast citizen journalism, interviews and stories about atrocities by the Assad regime and other groups, with a focus on women’s rights and their resistance.
I remember back in 2016 when the city of Aleppo in northern Syria was under siege. The world’s international media were contacting us to cover what was happening on the ground. We shared our information with journalists in Canada, Denmark, Norway, France and Sweden and we put them in touch with citizen reporters, activists, and doctors in the field. But then came the silence.
When civilians in the town of Khan Shaykhun were hit by an air strike with chemical weapons in 2017 that killed at least 89 people and injured hundreds more – many of them children – I reached out to my contacts in the international media. But only a few got back to me. The perpetrators of human rights abuses know it is easier to act when the world’s eyes are distracted. It is not a coincidence that just as the war in Gaza started, the Assad regime – with their backers from Russia – chose that moment to launch a bombing attack on the town of Idlib, where resistance remains strong. They knew few would be watching or care. Syria has become the forgotten war.
It’s natural for us to turn our attention and open our hearts to the crisis that is most immediate, most pressing, most urgent. But I am sure Ukrainians are worried support for their cause may wane as the superpowers, the media and the public focus shifts to Gaza and Israel. And how long will it be until the Palestinian people in Gaza, too, will be relegated to second place when the next attention-grabbing conflict erupts? But this should not be a popularity contest. There is room in our hearts and minds for more than one outcry for help. And when we reach out to support the people of Syria or Ukraine, it doesn’t diminish our concern for what is happening in Gaza. It strengthens it because human rights are human rights. I will be back on the Syrian border soon, broadcasting stories about resistance and hope.
I hope the world will be listening. Source
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88 dead after military drone mistakenly strikes festival in Nigeria's Kaduna State, local officials say | |
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ABC News 06/12/2023 - The Nigerian Army mistakenly killed at least 88 people in a military drone strike on a religious festival in the country's Kaduna State, local officials said.
Officials announced that what they described as an accidental strike had occurred on Sunday night in the village of Tudun Biri, Kaduna State, where civilians had gathered to observe a Muslim holiday celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, Mawlid al-Nabi.
"Following the two airstrikes, about 88 people died while no fewer than 68 people sustaining various degrees of injuries," Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency announced in a statement. They called it a "tragic accident".
"It is worthy of note that the casualties ranged from children, women and the elderly," the agency said. The victims were from four different communities, who had gathered in the village for the religious celebration. An eyewitness to the incident described events to BBC Hausa, saying: "The aircraft dropped a bomb at the venue, it destroyed and killed our people including women and children." "The second bomb was dropped on some of us who went to bring dead bodies of the victims of the first blast. We lost about 34 people in my family, and we have 66 injured people in the hospital," the eyewitness said.
The Nigerian Army "expressed regret" for the mistaken bombing, saying in a statement that troops "wrongly analysed and misinterpreted" activities. "Troops were carrying out aerial patrols when they observed a group of people and wrongly analysed and misinterpreted their pattern of activities to be similar to that of the bandits, before the drone strike," the army said. [...]
According to research firm SB Morgen, Nigerian geopolitical intelligence platform, at least 300 people have been killed in accidental military strikes since 2017. Kaduna State government has announced it has established a commission of enquiry to investigate the incident. Read more - Lire plus
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The United States’ Forever Wars Yield a 75,000% Increase in Terror Attacks | |
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World Beyond War 14/11/2023 - America’s Global War on Terror has seen its share of stalemates, disasters, and outright defeats. During 20-plus years of armed interventions, the United States has watched its efforts implode in spectacular fashion, from Iraq in 2014 to Afghanistan in 2021. The greatest failure of its “Forever Wars,” however, may not be in the Middle East, but in Africa.
“Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated,” President George W. Bush told the American people in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, noting specifically that such militants had designs on “vast regions” of Africa.
To shore up that front, the U.S. began a decades-long effort to provide copious amounts of security assistance, train many thousands of African military officers, set up dozens of outposts, dispatch its own commandos on all manner of missions, create proxy forces, launch drone strikes, and even engage in direct ground combat with militants in Africa. Most Americans, including members of Congress, are unaware of the extent of these operations. As a result, few realize how dramatically America’s shadow war there has failed.
The raw numbers alone speak to the depths of the disaster. As the United States was beginning its Forever Wars in 2002 and 2003, the State Department counted a total of just nine terrorist attacks in Africa. This year, militant Islamist groups on that continent have, according to the Pentagon, already conducted 6,756 attacks. In other words, since the United States ramped up its counterterrorism operations in Africa, terrorism has spiked 75,000%. Let that sink in for a moment. 75,000%. [...]
U.S.-trained militaries in the region have been unable to stop the onslaught and civilians have suffered horrifically. During 2002 and 2003, terrorists caused just 23 casualties in Africa. This year, according to the Pentagon, terrorist attacks in the Sahel region alone have resulted in 9,818 deaths — a 42,500% increase. At the same time, during their counterterrorism campaigns, America’s military partners in the region have committed gross atrocities of their own, including extrajudicial killings. In 2020, for example, a top political leader in Burkina Faso admitted that his country’s security forces were carrying out targeted executions. “We’re doing this, but we’re not shouting it from the rooftops,” he told me, noting that such murders were good for military morale.
American-mentored military personnel in that region have had only one type of demonstrable “success”: overthrowing governments the United States trained them to protect. At least 15 officers who benefited from such assistance have been involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the war on terror. The list includes officers from Burkina Faso (2014, 2015, and twice in 2022); Chad (2021); Gambia (2014); Guinea (2021); Mali (2012, 2020, and 2021); Mauritania (2008); and Niger (2023). At least five leaders of a July coup in Niger, for example, received American assistance, according to a U.S. official. They, in turn, appointed five U.S.-trained members of the Nigerien security forces to serve as that country’s governors.
Military coups of that sort have even super-charged atrocities while undermining American aims, yet the United States continues to provide such regimes with counterterrorism support. Take Colonel Assimi Goïta, who worked with U.S. Special Operations forces, participated in U.S. training exercises, and attended the Joint Special Operations University in Florida before overthrowing Mali’s government in 2020. Goïta then took the job of vice president in a transitional government officially charged with returning the country to civilian rule, only to seize power again in 2021.
That same year, his junta reportedly authorized the deployment of the Russia-linked Wagner mercenary forces to fight Islamist militants after close to two decades of failed Western-backed counterterrorism efforts. Since then, Wagner — a paramilitary group founded by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot-dog vendor turned warlord — has been implicated in hundreds of human rights abuses alongside the longtime U.S.-backed Malian military, including a 2022 massacre that killed 500 civilians. Despite all of this, American military aid for Mali has never ended. [...]
On the opposite side of the continent, in Somalia, stagnation and stalemate have been the watchwords for U.S. military efforts. [...] America’s long-running, undeclared war in Somalia has become a key driver of violence in that country, according to the Costs of War Project. “The U.S. is not simply contributing to conflict in Somalia, but has, rather, become integral to the inevitable continuation of conflict in Somalia,” reported Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ Ṣóyẹmí, a lecturer in political philosophy and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. “U.S. counterterrorism policies are,” she wrote, “ensuring that the conflict continues in perpetuity.” Read more - Lire plus
Missiles and drones among weapons stolen from US in Iraq and Syria
Henry Kissinger, top US diplomat responsible for millions of deaths, dies at 100
Historian Greg Grandin: Glowing Obituaries for Henry Kissinger Reveal “Moral Bankruptcy” of U.S. Elites
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India accidentally hired a DEA agent to kill Sikh American activist, federal prosecutors say | |
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The Intercept 29/11/2023 - On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had filed charges against a man allegedly working for the Indian government to orchestrate the assassination of a U.S. citizen earlier this year. An Indian government official allegedly instructed Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, to coordinate the murder of a Sikh separatist living in New York.
The indictment alleges that Gupta, after being recruited by the Indian government official, hired a hitman and paid him a $15,000 advance to carry out the murder this past summer. The hitman was actually an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to a report on the indictment in the Washington Post, the intended target of the killing was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the New York-based Sikh activist group Sikhs for Justice. In the DEA’s press release, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said investigators had “foiled and exposed a dangerous plot to assassinate a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil.”
The alleged assassination plot against Pannun was in the works around the same time as the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was also a leader in the Sikh separatist movement. Nijjar was murdered outside Vancouver in June; the Canadian government has alleged the involvement of Indian intelligence in his death. The Indian government has come under scrutiny over an alleged transnational assassination program targeting its opponents in foreign countries. In addition to the murder of Nijjar, The Intercept has also reported on alleged FBI warnings to Sikhs in the U.S. as well as alleged plots by India to assassinate Sikh activists in Pakistan. Both the Nijjar killing and the Gupta plot came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the U.S. in June. “India showed a clear disregard for the rule of law when its government orchestrated the killing of an American activist on U.S. soil, coinciding with Modi’s White House visit,” said Pritpal Singh, a coordinator for the American Sikh Caucus Committee who was among the Sikh American activists who were contacted by the FBI after Nijjar’s killing.
The details in the indictment reveal a murder-for-hire plot gone awry. Gupta, 52, described as being tied to the international weapons and narcotics trade, was alleged to have worked as a co-conspirator to an Indian government official with a background in security and intelligence. Along with others based in India and elsewhere, Gupta helped plan the murder of Pannun over his advocacy for an independent Sikh state and criticisms of the Indian government. In return, the government official indicated he would help secure the dismissal of criminal charges against Gupta in India, including during a meeting in New Delhi to discuss the plot. The Indian government official provided Gupta with details about Pannun, including his address, associated phone numbers, and his daily routine, which Gupta then gave to the DEA agent working undercover as a hitman. Read more - Lire plus
Kashmir students accused of terror for ‘celebrating’ India World Cup loss
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The Enduring Surveillance Act of 2023 | |
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FOREVER WARS 29/11/2023 - U.S. Intelligence Senate allies on Tuesday released their bill to save their treasured, post-constitutional surveillance authority, barely a month before what's known as Section 702 expires. The bill, predictably, preserves the NSA and FBI's sweeping ability to mass-collect and warrantlessly search through Americans' international digital communications records. And at a moment of heightened antipathy on Capitol Hill to Section 702, the bill concedes virtually nothing to surveillance reformers.
That means December will feature a legislative contest between this bill (along with its House counterpart) and its polar opposite, a bill championed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that would create extensive surveillance restrictions and safeguards in exchange for letting Section 702 live another couple of years. FOREVER WARS wrote about that bill and its stakes earlier this month. Since surveillance is a pretty dry and technical topic, I'm not going to really recap that edition here—just click through to that piece if you want to get into both technical stuff and a broader overview. I had difficulty finding the Senate bill on Congress.gov, where it might not yet be posted, so I uploaded a copy of the full text here.
The most important attribute of this bill is that it locks in Section 702's mass surveillance for 12 years. That means there won't be any leverage for reforming bulk surveillance for over a decade—a decade in which we're going to see a rapid maturation of artificial intelligence, which needs massive amounts of data to train on, organize, and mine—and which the NSA is obviously embracing in full.
I think we can fairly call this a bill to make what was once emergency bulk surveillance into something semi-permanent, even if we can just as fairly debate whether that Rubicon was crossed by creating Section 702 in the first place. Back in 2008, 702 institutionalized the bulk digital surveillance of the War on Terror, but part of taking such a consequential step was to make its powers expire ("sunset") after four years. Congress in 2012 extended that sunset to five years. Congress in 2017 extended that sunset to six years. Extending it yet again to 12 years reveals the illusion behind the concept of sunsetting. The sun never sets on the surveillance empire.
The privacy safeguards in this bill are pretty much nil. There's no requirement for the FBI to get a warrant before diving into the warrantless 702 troves in search of information concerning U.S. persons—which would close the infamous "backdoor search" loophole, something even the milquetoast institutionalists on the government's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) endorsed in September. There's a prohibition on searching the database "solely" for information on criminal activity, but as long as an analyst can say they had an additional national-security purpose for such a search, the search is kosher.
Then the bill requires additional training on the internal procedures for querying the Section 702 database, additional bureaucratic sign-off from intelligence-agency higher-ups—particularly on queries surrounding politicians—and another layer of internal compliance checks. These sorts of "we'll police ourselves" measures have been in place for the nearly 15 years 702 has existed and they've facilitated, not prevented, surveillance abuse at scale, so the point is to pantomime protections. Nothing here will change that—although, in fairness, requiring additional documentation when the FBI searches the troves for Americans, as the bill does, has a certain deterrent effect for the obvious Stringer Bell reasons.
There's another pantomime in the bill: the creation of a congressionally-appointed surveillance review commission that will issue to the Hill a mostly classified report in seven years. Don't get your hopes up for reform from that commission, since the champions of this bill will appoint its membership. Should any substantial reform emerge from its report, this bill ensures there won't be a surveillance vote on 702 for another five years afterward. If anything, creating that commission just undermines the already-weak PCLOB.
I've probably belabored the point, as there isn't much to say about a bill that does what it's expected to do. It's brought to you by the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia and Republican Marco Rubio of Florida. Joining them are Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Angus King (I-Maine), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kans.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Conn.).
I'm not going to handicap this bill's chances. Dell Cameron at WIRED reports that they may try to sneak renewal of 702 into the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act. We'll see how the civil-liberties coalition mobilizes in response, and whether it'll be enough to stop what we might as well call the Enduring Surveillance Act of 2023. Source
Senate intelligence committee (SSCI) leaders have introduced a bill to reauthorize FISA Section 702 *until 2035* that would expand surveillance
The House Judiciary Committee has unveiled its long-awaited, bipartisan Section 702 reform bill
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Police Can Spy on Your iOS and Android Push Notifications | |
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WIRED 06/12/2023 - If you have push notifications turned on for sensitive apps, you may want to reconsider your settings. The United States government and foreign law enforcement can demand Apple and Google share metadata associated with push notifications from apps on iOS and Android, according to a US senator and court records reviewed by WIRED. These notifications can reveal which apps a person uses, along with other information that may be pertinent to law enforcement investigations. US Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, highlighted the government surveillance technique in a letter sent to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) today. Wyden is specifically asking the DOJ to allow Apple and Google to discuss government requests for push notification records with their users, which Wyden says the US government has required them to keep secret thus far.
“In the spring of 2022, my office received a tip that government agencies in foreign countries were demanding smartphone ‘push’ notification records from Google and Apple,” Wyden wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Reuters. “My staff have been investigating this tip for the past year, which included contacting Apple and Google. In response to that query, the companies told my staff that information about this practice is restricted from public release by the government.” App developers deliver push notifications using Apple’s Push Notification Service on iOS or Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android. Each user of an app is assigned a “push token,” which is transferred between the app and the mobile operating system’s push notification service. Push tokens are not permanently assigned to a single user, and new tokens may be generated when a person reinstalls an app or switches to a new device.
To identify a person of interest and whom they may have been communicating with, law enforcement must first go to an app developer to obtain the relevant push token and then bring it to the operating system maker—Apple or Google—and request information on which account the token is associated with. This puts the tech giants in “a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users are using particular apps,” Wyden writes.
According to Wyden, the records that governments can obtain from Apple and Google include metadata that reveals which apps a person has used, when they’ve received notifications, and the phone associated with a particular Google or Apple account. The content of push notifications is not included in this information, but, for at least some apps, law enforcement could obtain information about the content of specific pushes through additional requests based on the information from the push tokens. While Wyden’s letter says that governments outside the US have requested people’s push notification records, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has done so as well. Read more - Lire plus
Phantom Parrot, a British documentary, sheds light on the Orwellian technologies being used across borders to repress activists, journalists, and others
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Family of last Afghan held in Guantanamo calls for his release | |
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The News 30/11/2023 - The family of the last Afghan held at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba called for his release on Wednesday at a press conference in Kabul.
Muhammad Rahim was one of hundreds of suspected militants captured by US forces during the United States´ “war on terror” and held in the secretive prison.
US authorities faced accusations of torture and abuse against prisoners at the facility, where many were held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention. Most of the inmates have been released over the years, including senior Taliban leaders, but Rahim remains.
“I urge the American authorities and leaders to release my son,” said Rahim´s mother Safoora Bibi, breaking down in tears. Rahim´s family said he was arrested in Pakistan in 2007. The US government transferred Rahim in 2008 to Guantanamo Bay, according to a Pentagon announcement cited by Amnesty International at the time.
The CIA accused him of being a close associate of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. His family said they still do not know why he was arrested. Rahim's uncle Muhammad Ali called on Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to work for his release. “We want the Islamic Emirate to listen to us, they are now the government,” he told reporters, using the Taliban´s formal name for Afghanistan. Source
Kabul asks Washington to release Afghan prisoner held in Guantanamo
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“8 December” case: why is encryption on trial? | |
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EDRi 23/11/2023 - On 3 October, the trial of the so-called “8 December” case began. Seven people are prosecuted for being a “terrorist group”. The intelligence services in charge of the judicial investigation (Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, DGSI), the National Antiterrorist Prosecution Office (Parquet National Antiterroriste, PNAT), and the investigating judge based their case on the fact that the defendants were using different tools to protect their privacy and encrypt their communications on a daily basis.
This trial is part of an increased political push by states and law enforcement for surveillance measures and the criminalisation of encryption. That is why the trial is crucial in the battle against the state’s ongoing attempts to criminalise commonplace, secure and healthy digital practices. EDRi member in France La Quadrature du Net has continuously defended people’s right to privacy and fought for strong protections of everyone’s digital security. Now, once again, they stand up for the last pillar of our digital security – encryption. [...]
Why this can be a new crypto-war?
Encryption of electronic communications has always been a source of political tensions. This can be easily explained given the inherent political nature of this technology. One good example is the way Martin Hellmann, one of the mathematical researchers who developed asymmetric encryption in the 1970s, justified his work at that time. He explained that “the increasing use of automated processing tools would represent a real threat to the economy and privacy“. For him, reliable encryption techniques were a way of preventing the increase of “surveillance by a police state helped by computerisation.”
This encryption technology is not a random scientific discovery but it is rather the result of an emerging balance of power. This is why governments have always resisted the development and use of encryption that could take away their powers. Throughout the years, we have seen governments pushing for more control in instances where they suggest that creators and users of encryption are potential criminals.
When Hallman and his colleagues published their work about cryptography, the U.S. government lobbied to keep this technique within the military domain and maintain control of its development. Then, during the 1990s, encryption became more accessible, for example via the PGP protocol. Scared by this popularisation of encryption, the U.S. government proposed to introduce “Clipper Chips“. This is an obligation to install a chip containing a “backdoor” in any encrypted system, which could enable law enforcement authorities to access stored data.
This was the beginning of a “crypto-war“, positioning the Clinton administration against the many activists defending the right to cryptography. The federal government defended its position by explaining that “if encryption technology is made freely available worldwide, it would no doubt be used extensively by terrorists, drug dealers, and other criminals to harm Americans both in the U.S. and abroad.” But this criminalising narrative failed. In 1996, encryption was removed from the list of “arms and ammunition”, paving the way for its spread.
In France, although pushed for by activists, legalisation of the use of encryption only took place in 1999. This made France one of the last countries to keep this technology under state control. But state criticism of encryption resurfaced in the 2010s. It was a time when the public became aware of state surveillance programs, while also living through terrorist attacks. This context led to an intense security climate, accompanied by people gaining access to mainstream encrypted messaging services to protect their digital security. This context gave new opportunities to the various French Ministers of Interior (Cazeneuve, Castaner and Darmanin), Members of Parliament and the President to use the narrative of criminalisation of both the users and developers of encryption-based tools. For example, the San Bernardino iPhone case, which put Apple at the center of state criticism.
Fearing an irreparable precedent
The “8 December” case shows that the narrative of encrypted tools being associated as key elements of crime and terrorism can become a reality. It is no longer an opportunistic political statement of leaders wishing to extend long-desired prerogatives. Today, we are talking about a police and judicial accusation with concrete and serious consequences, leading to people being put in prison. In this context, La Quadrature du Net is deeply concerned about the possibility of judges endorsing the narrative of criminalising privacy tools. This would set legal and political precedents, enabling disastrous life consequences for the defendants. This would mean that privacy will no longer be seen as a right but a crime. Today, we are looking at digital security measures, tomorrow this will extend to physical practices.
In such a reality, adopting security measures for protecting ourselves would turn into a ground for prosecution.
In an op-ed published in Le Monde, 130 individuals and organizations (including EDRi and several EDRi members) have denounced this false link between clandestine behaviour and the use of privacy and encryption tools. The authors highlighted that this narrative is being used to feed a very weak criminal case. This dangerous situation arrives at a time when France is authorising remote surveillance of connected devices like phones, including those of journalists, under the pretext of national security. The state is also arresting journalists, who reveal war crimes committed with the complicity of the state, and wants to end online anonymity or confidentiality. La Quadrature du Net comments that they are currently witnessing a worrying authoritarian runaway. This trial is yet another threat to fundamental rights, but above all, it is a possible point of no return in how the state perceives the right to privacy. Read more - Lire plus
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Australia: Labor’s new laws to re-detain migrants at risk of reoffending to be modelled on Coalition’s anti-terror orders | |
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The Guardian 03/12/2023 - The Albanese government is close to finalising new laws to re-detain migrants and refugees deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk” of reoffending, amid an escalating political fight. The bill to be introduced to parliament this week is modelled on counter-terrorism laws put in place by the former Coalition government, but with some differences. Under the existing counter-terror provisions, the government can apply to a court for a “continuing detention order” for someone who has been convicted of terrorism-related offences and has served their sentence. The court must be satisfied that the person poses an unacceptable risk of reoffending.
The proposed new bill, expected to go to cabinet on Monday, is likely to allow such orders to be made for a broader category of people and will allow individuals already released to be re-detained. The ABC reported on Sunday that the use of the Coalition-era counter-terrorism laws as a template was intended, in part, to help secure the opposition’s support for legislation that it wants to pass before parliament rises for the year. But Guardian Australia has been told the main factor is the need for any legislative package to be consistent with last month’s landmark high court decision striking out indefinite immigration detention. Last week the Australian Border Force confirmed that more than 140 people had been released as a result of the high court’s NZYQ decision, which ordered that a stateless Rohingya man be freed because there was “no real prospect of his removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future”. [...]
“What we want to make sure is that the worst of the worst of these people who’ve been released into the community are detained, but that that’s done so in a constitutional way that stands up in court,” Watt said. But the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young blasted the major parties on Sunday for engaging in a “race to the bottom”. She said it was “ludicrous” that “the government wants to ram this through the Senate in the next three or four days”. “Peter Dutton said ‘boo’ and the government went to water,” Hanson-Young told the ABC’s Insiders program. “This is kneejerk hysteria policymaking, it’s a kind of moral panic.” Hanson-Young said her party was not interested in doing a deal with Labor on the legislation. “This is all about making refugees and migrants a group in our community that people are afraid of. I’ve debated immigration policy in this country for a long time and it’s Groundhog Day. It’s revolting. I think it’s dangerous.” Read more - Lire plus
Australia: Judges are set to be given new powers to strip terrorists of their dual of their dual citizenships
Bearer of war: how Asia views AUKUS
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Russian court sentences Ukrainian ex-soldier to 12 years on 'terrorism' charges | |
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The Kyiv Independent 30/11/2023 - A military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don sentenced a Ukrainian citizen to 12 years in prison on charges that he had planned a terrorist attack in the then-Russian occupied city of Kherson on May 9, or Victory Day, in 2022, Russian state-run media TASS reported on Nov. 30.
The convicted, Pavlo Zaporozhets, allegedly "admitted guilt, saying that he served in the Ukrainian military," TASS said. It is unclear if the supposed admission of guilt referred to him serving with the Ukrainian military or the alleged planned "terrorist attack." RFE/RL and other media outlets previously reported that Zaporozhets served in the Ukrainian army several years before but left in 2017 and was not an active member during the full-scale invasion. He was detained during the Russian occupation of Kherson, subsequently tortured, and then deported to illegally annexed Crimea, his lawyers said.
During court hearings, Zaporozhets said that he should be treated as a prisoner of war and thus subject to the Geneva Convention and added that he would appeal the sentence, TASS claimed. There is no way to independently verify this information. Russia does not provide transparent access to its legal system, and international human rights organizations have long detailed rampant abuse in prisons, as well as the use of torture to coerce confessions. In addition, Russia has widely used the charge of supporting or planning "terrorism" as a means of suppressing any perceived dissent against the regime.
At least 42 captured Ukrainian soldiers face trial in Russia, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
During a trial in August, a Russian-controlled court in occupied Donetsk Oblast sentenced two Mariupol defenders from the Azovstal Batallion to 24 years in prison. A Territorial Defense trooper was sentenced to 21 years for the alleged killing of a civilian. Read more - Lire plus
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Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27! | |
Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task. Please join us in denouncing the dangerous national security related exemptions in the bill. | |
Canada: Do not purchase armed drones | |
The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign | |
In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. | |
CSIS isn't above the law! | |
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In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.
Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | |
Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! | |
On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable.
Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.
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20 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | |
Canada must protect encryption! | |
Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.
Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!
Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir
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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place. Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now. | |
OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
January to June 2023 - Janvier à juin 2023 | |
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Here is what we worked on so far this year thanks to the support of our members and donors:
- Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
- Bill C-26, An Act respecting cyber security and amending the Telecommunications Act
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
- Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
- Combatting Islamophobia
- Countering terrorist financing & prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
- National Security and Intelligence Review Agency
- CSIS accountability and duty of candour
- CSE, surveillance and cyberwarfare
- Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
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“Online harms” proposal
- Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- UN Counterterrorism Executive Directorate Canada assessment
- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global survey on counterterrorism and civic space
For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.
What we have planned for the rest of 2023!
- 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
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Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
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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
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The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency
- Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
- Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada
- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
- Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
- And much more!
Version française: Ce que nous avons fait jusqu'à présent en 2023
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Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG. | |
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THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!
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