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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

June 10, 2023 - 10 juin 2023

Canada must not bow to French demands to extradite Hassan Diab

Op-ed by Howard Tzvi Adelman, Bernie M. Farber, Ivan Kalmar, Karen R. Mock, Ariel Salzmann

The Ottawa Citizen 08/06/23 - As scholars and human rights advocates with expertise in antisemitism and anti-minority discrimination, we are profoundly disturbed by the calls to extradite Canadian academic Hassan Diab: tried and convicted in absentia by a French court and sentenced to life, for a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that by all the evidence he could not have committed.

A version of this story was written 100 years ago, by the European Jewish author Franz Kafka. We find it impossible not to see the parallels between Kafka’s The Trial — in which protagonist Josef K is trapped in the gears of a state tribunal for a crime of which he has no knowledge — and the trials of Hassan Diab: a chilling transposition of Kafka’s 20th-century art into 21st-century life.

Indeed, the ordeal imposed on Diab is in some ways even more Kafkaesque than a Kafka story. In The Trial, Josef K is presumed guilty without any evidence. Hassan D, on the other hand, has been declared guilty, even in the face of contradictory evidence demonstrating his innocence. None of the forensics from the scene of the bombing point to him as the perpetrator, and testimonies corroborate that he was not even in France at the time. The handwriting analysis supposedly inculpating him has been authoritatively debunked — and in fact relied in part on writing samples that were not produced by Diab at all.

This is the exact same body of “evidence” previously deemed insufficient for pursuing the charges by two French investigative judges specializing in terrorism, and described by Canadian judge Justice Maranger as “weak,” “very problematic,” and “unlikely (to lead to) conviction in the context of a fair trial.” And yet, the French Special Court of Assize decided to proceed with the prosecution, despite the lack of any new evidence — and now, somehow, Diab has been convicted, in absentia no less.

Why Diab, and why now? In the 1980 bombing’s aftermath, recriminations against the French government and security agencies for their failure to protect Jewish citizens — or even identify the perpetrators — coincided with the introduction of draconian new laws, powers and state institutions in the name of “counter-terrorism.”

This misdirected, unfair and discriminatory response to antisemitism has been widely condemned in France and internationally. Yet four decades after the synagogue attack, Diab’s conviction for this horrific unsolved crime comes against a backdrop of further escalating state repression against Muslims, Arabs and other racially oppressed communities, as documented during France’s recent Universal Periodic Review at the UN and in copious other human rights reports.

Far from representing justice for antisemitism, the scapegoating of Diab compounds the failure of justice and continues the French courts’ history of racial and religious profiling.

Most notorious is the wrongful conviction of French Jewish military officer Alfred Dreyfus for treason in 1894. Like Diab, Dreyfus was convicted on the basis of faulty handwriting analysis and secret “evidence,” underpinned by pervasive antisemitism and a presumption of Jewish guilt.

More recently, contrast the fate of Hassan Diab in the French legal system with that of U.S. Maj.-Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who oversaw the U.S.’s torture operations at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Miller refused to appear in France to face a case brought on behalf of two French Muslim survivors of Guantanamo; in 2021, the French courts simply dismissed their complaint. Contrast, too, France’s demands for the extradition of Diab with its refusal to extradite its own citizens to Canada, for example French priest Johannes Rivoire, accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in residential schools. Read more - Lire plus

Bernie Farber: Hassan Diab: Prime Minister Trudeau must reject France’s extradition demand

CALL Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Urging Him to Protect Hassan Diab

LETTER: Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

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Lettre: Le Canada doit protéger Hassan Diab

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Take Action to Prevent Another Wrongful Extradition of Hassan Diab! (all actions, one link)

Over 130 members of Canadian legal community call on Trudeau government to deny French extradition request in case of Hassan Diab

ICLMG 08/06/23 - In a new Open Letter calling for an end to fifteen years of manifest injustice in the case of Canadian citizen Hassan Diab, over 130 members of the Canadian legal community – including law professors, retired judges, practicing and retired lawyers, and legal researchers from across the country – have called on Prime Minister Trudeau to deny the French government’s second request that Dr. Diab be extradited to France.

The letter reminds the Prime Minister of his comments in 2018, after Hassan Diab returned to Canada following his earlier extradition. Dr. Diab had been held in a maximum-security prison in Paris for more than three years, almost entirely in solitary confinement and he was never officially charged or brought to trial. He was released and returned to Canada after the French investigative judge found solid evidence that he was in fact in Lebanon when the crime he was extradited for was committed.

Prime Minister Trudeau stated that what had happened to him “never should have happened” and that steps would be taken to “make sure that it never happens again.”

In April 2023, Dr Diab was declared guilty by a French tribunal after a short and unjust trial. There is great political pressure in France for someone, apparently anyone, to be convicted for this terrible crime; it appears a conviction was inevitable, despite the lack of an actual case. In the view of the undersigned, this cannot stand. Read more

Version française: Lettre ouverte: Plus de 130 membres de la communauté juridique canadienne demandent au gouvernement Trudeau de refuser la demande d’extradition française dans l’affaire de Hassan Diab

The Canadian Press: Supporters of Ottawa professor Hassan Diab urge Canada to reject France's latest extradition request

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) letter in support of justice for Hassan Diab

Dal prof urges PM to reject extradition of Hassan Diab (video)

New CBSA and RCMP watchdog: ICLMG’s concerns and recommendations

ICLMG 30/05/23 - ICLMG has submitted a brief on Bill C-20 (An Act establishing the Public Complaints and Review Commission and amending certain Acts and statutory instruments) to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

The bill would would reform the existing review and complaints mechanism for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and create, for the first time ever, a dedicated review and complaints process for the activities of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). It would do so by transforming the existing Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), renaming it the Public Complaints and Review Commission (PCRC).

Existing watchdogs and their limitations

Significant change was brought about with the establishment of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) in 2019, creating the first overarching body empowered to review Canada’s national security activities. Importantly, this included the national security related activities of the CBSA, subjecting this federal law enforcement agency to any form of independent review for the first time. However, NSIRA was never intended to provide complete coverage of CBSA’s activities, and considerable gaps remain in accountability and review of Canada’s immigration and border policing activities.

Beyond independent review and investigation of public complaints of the CBSA, it has been clear for many years that the review and complaints process for the RCMP has also been in dire need of reform. Long delays in review and investigation completion, often caused by refusal on the part of the RCMP to respond to interim reports, undermined the credibility of the review process; this was further worsened by the RCMP not following through on implementing recommendations, along with the under-resourcing of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

The many areas of concern in Bill C-20

Bill C-20 would address many of these concerns, the most crucial being the ongoing and inexcusable absence of an independent review body for the CBSA. However, there remain key areas where the bill continues to fall short and would require amendment at committee. Further, the study of Bill C-20 presents an important opportunity to examine whether the hybrid NSIRA-CRCC review and complaints investigation of the RCMP has proven effective and where there are areas for improvement. Finally, while not included in the legislation, we would urge the committee to also examine the resourcing needed for the newly proposed Public Complaints and Review Commission to carry out its expanded mandate.

Our brief examines the following key points:

• Complaints process
• Referrals of national security complaints and reviews
• Rules mandating the discontinuance of complaints investigations and reviews
• Investigational independence
• Recourse and remedies
• Restrictions on judicial review
• Reporting, transparency and other concerns

You can read our full brief here, where we go into detail on each area, and offer 29 recommendations for amendments to the committee. Read more - Lire plus

Centre for Free Expression: It’s not a secret anymore: Canada Border Services nabs national dis-honour

ACTION: Abolish CIRG

ICLMG reacts to troubling court decision on Canadians indefinitely detained in northeast Syria

ICLMG 06/06/23 - The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), based in Ottawa, released the following statement today regarding the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Canada v. Boloh 1(a):

The Federal Court of Appeal’s recent decision on Canadians indefinitely imprisoned in northeastern Syria is deeply troubling. The ruling ignores the clear and undeniable fact that the Canadian government’s actions (and inaction) amount to leaving its citizens in life threatening, indefinite detention akin to torture. In its original ruling, the Federal Court found that the government had violated section 6(1) of the Charter and the country’s obligations under international law by essentially condemning these Canadians to exile and banishment. This remains the case.

The Canadian government’s unrelenting efforts to avoid their duty under both the Charter and international law is unacceptable. Canada must urgently repatriate all Canadian detainees – men, women and children – and, in the case of Canadian children, their parents as well. Source

ACTION: Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

Federal Court of Appeal Perpetuates Torture and Arbitrary Detention of Four Canadians in NE Syria

Homes Not Bombs 31/05/23 - Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal today overturned a repatriation order for 4 Canadian men who have been arbitrarily detained without charges for as long as 6 years under conditions akin to torture in Northeast Syria.

In addition to today's reactionary decision, it was revealed in an Orwellian statement that Canada is refusing to take any further steps towards repatriation because – without providing any evidence for this proposition – Ottawa has determined that "to request the voluntary repatriation of the [detainees] would be detrimental to them." [...]

Justice Stratas also pulls his own Forrest Gump moment, claiming “International law is not a box of chocolates from which one can take what one wants, leaving the rest in the box. Instead, international law is a specialized field calling for discipline, intellectual rigour and careful judgment when applying it to domestic issues.” Yet that is exactly what his decision engages in, refusing to recognize the positive obligations on governments not to be involved, directly or indirectly, in arbitrary detention and torture.

Indeed, as UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin noted one year ago in a special report on the ongoing detention of Jack Letts, “the urgent, voluntary and human rights compliant repatriation of all the [Canadian] citizens…is the only international law-compliant response to the complex and precarious human rights, humanitarian, and security situation” of the detainees. [...]

In the absence of positive government action, a citizen’s initiative has sprung up with plans for a delegation of “parliamentarians, former diplomats, human rights experts and lawyers” to travel directly to NE Syria to seek a negotiated release of the men. In one more instance of its refusal to abide by domestic and international law, Global Affairs Canada has informed the delegation that it will not appoint them to receive the Canadian detainees.

As Canada seeks a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, today’s judgment – and Canada’s ongoing refusal in these cases to uncouple itself from complicity in arbitrary detention and torture – speaks volumes. Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture will continue its efforts to seek repatriations of all Canadians illegally detained in NE Syria as well as non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children. Read more - Lire plus

Canadians held in Syria mulling SCC appeal after court denies Ottawa has obligation to repatriate

Website for the CSO coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism is live

CSO 06/06/23 - The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism is a global network of civil society organizations advocating for an end to the misuse of counter-terrorism measures. We push for greater protection of human rights and civic space in counter-terrorism responses.

Our coalition focuses on multilateral norm-setting and policy processes, while connecting and supporting our members’ work at national, regional, and international levels.

ICLMG is a member of the coalition. Read more - Lire plus

MPs must say no to agency request for powers to spy on your bank and travel records

The Toronto Star 27/05/23 - MPs considering new laws to expand the powers of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s signal intelligence agency, must heed a dire warning found in a treasure trove of surveillance records.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) recently published nearly 5,000 pages of documents detailing CSE’s surveillance practices, warning they “paint a picture of a powerful spy agency in dire need of oversight.”

Their publication is timely, with MPs on the House of Commons’ Public Safety committee about to start scrutinizing Bill C-26, controversial cybersecurity legislation that would grant CSE sweeping new powers. The documents raise serious concerns for MPs tasked with reviewing the bill.

First, the BCCLA highlights “how hard CSE pushes up against the edge of legality, and pushes back against even the most reasonable regulation and oversight.” When CSE management previously testified before Parliament, they assured MPs that they respect their strict legal prohibition against spying on individuals in Canada. In reality, CSE collected vast quantities of our sensitive information, including records of Canadians’ use of Google, Facebook, Instagram and more, while exploiting its security arrangements with government departments to intercept private communications, the BCCLA reported. And, for five years, CSE illegally shared Canadians’ private data with its Five Eyes counterparts in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.

That’s how CSE handles the invasive powers it already has. Bill C-26 pours fuel on this fire, placing CSE at the nexus of Canada’s information-sharing framework and empowering it to obtain and distribute our private information from a swath of federally regulated companies that Canadians trust — including banks, telecommunications providers, energy companies, and airlines, already operating under woefully inadequate privacy rules.

Second, the documents expose a deeply troubling CSE accountability deficit, which persists today, notwithstanding the creation of watchdogs like the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA). NSIRA seemed like an encouraging step forward — but CSE refused to play ball. As Dr. Christopher Parsons, one of Canada’s foremost experts on surveillance law, writes “For two straight years, NSIRA has said it’s had problems getting access from the CSE to information that the watchdog uses to confirm the lawfulness of the CSE’s activities.” And, when NSIRA complained about CSE’s disregard for international human rights law, CSE replied that this was merely a “philosophical disagreement.” Well the law, and our rights, aren’t here for philosophical creativity. And frustratingly, this culture of disregard for the law permeates CSE to this day.

CSE’s track record is clear. For decades, they’ve played fast-and-loose with their legal obligations. When MPs finally created a meaningful oversight body, CSE treated it with utter contempt. How can any MP justify granting extensive new powers to CSE in Bill C-26 when it refuses to be held responsible for those it already has? Read more - Lire plus

Against democracy: A brief history of CSIS

Spring Magazine 13/04/2023 - [...] A look at the history of CSIS, and its troubled relationship with the truth and democracy should make us deeply skeptical about any claims they are advancing about Chinese interference in Canada’s elections. This history also shows the real threat to our democracy: CSIS. [...]

Fascist organizing

In 1988, CSIS recruited a private investigator, Grant Bristow, as an undercover agent in Operation Bristow. Bristow forged relationships with people on the Canadian far-right, specifically around the Nationalist Party of Canada. Bristow and others on the right of the party broke off to form the Heritage Front, an overtly fascist organization. From the beginning, Bristow was one of the leaders of the Front, helping to organize its actions and recruit members. Not only did CSIS support this, but they provided vital funding to the Front that helped pay for their hotline, their main recruitment method. He also used CSIS funds to bring prominent American neo-nazi Tom Metzger for a speaking engagement in Canada. 

Bristow was one of the main drivers of the Front’s harassment of anti-racist activists. He helped train Front members to find their opponents’ phone numbers and addresses. When Elisa Hategan, recruited to the Front in 1991, turned away from those politics and started to inform on the front, CSIS coordinated a campaign to discredit her to protect Bristow.

The media eventually unearthed Bristow’s ties to CSIS. No charges of Front members were ever tied to evidence collected by Bristow or CSIS.  

Spying on workers

In 2000, another former undercover CSIS agent, John Farrell, revealed the extent of CSIS’ dirty trick operations conducted in Canada. Farrell began his relationship with CSIS in 1990. They helped get him a job as a postal inspector, smoothing over his criminal record when he applied for the job. 

As a paid CSIS agent, he coordinated other postal inspectors to spy on the union, read the mail of union activists and even inspect their garbage. Farrell also engaged in intercepting mail of other national security targets as well the mail of their neighbours. Farrell described how the extent of the mail intercepts grew so large they had to hire a third-party firm to help intercept the mail. Farrell’s revelations also included breaking into vehicles of former CSIS agents who they suspected of whistleblowing and funnelling funds for other collegiate activities. Farrell admitted to illegally breaking into mailboxes and homes and planting listening devices in postal stations to spy on workers. 

Farrell’s revelation of rampant spying on national security targets, their neighbours and union activists followed a 1994 report in the Journal de Québec about CSIS spying on postal workers during the 1991 strike on behalf of management. This closeness between Canada Post management and CSIS showed the deep links between the bosses and the state. It is also known that other unions such as the CSN in Quebec were infiltrated by CSIS agents: in that case by Marc-André Boivin was involved in making bomb threats in 1988 during a hotel strike.

War and Islamophobia

After the 9/11 attacks in the US, the Canadian government dramatically increased the budgets of CSIS, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), and the RCMP. Their expanded budget and staffing levels followed suit with an expanded mandate for spying and data collection. They used their new powers and influence in very reactionary ways, fueling war and terrorizing the Muslim community.

In the lead-up to the 2003 war on Iraq, CSIS fed the government false intelligence about the capabilities and motives of the Iraqi government. They produced “intelligence reports” which claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was aiming to acquire nuclear weapons. These claims, which mirrored the highly politized intelligence reports in the US, were false. But CSIS pushed this false intelligence, which was at odds with almost every other Canadian analyst, in the hopes of pressuring the government to join the invasion.

Almost immediately following 9/11 CSIS ramped up its sustained and mass spying and harassment program on the Muslim community in Canada. CSIS routinely showed up to mosques, recorded the names of people in attendance, showed up to people’s houses and schools, and threatened to show up at people’s workplaces. CSIS routinely hacked phones, emails and social media of Muslim community members. They targeted religious leaders in the community, and in particular targeted Muslim community members who engaged in political activism–creating a chilling effect on political expression. 

The sustained and mass surveillance of the Muslim community was not just done from afar. CSIS cultivated a network of informers, often by coercing or threatening people. There are numerous documented incidents of CSIS agents threatening people’s immigration status if they refuses to become an informant. A typical CSIS tactic was to deny or delay people’s access to a lawyer. They also routinely engaged in entrapment. 

CSIS’ played a large role cultivating Islamophobia. They treated the Muslim community as a threat, and they operated with little to no accountability. 

Rendition and torture

As part of the war on terror, Project O Canada was created to coordinate a security response in Toronto by different wings of the security services and police. The head of CSIS in Toronto, Jack Hooper played an instrumental role. Project O Canada and its evolving iterations were at the centre of the rendition scandal.

Project O Canada and its Ottawa counterpart early on labelled Muslim men such as Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, and Maher Arar as imminent threats and members of terrorist groups. They were subjected to surveillance and had their homes searched. Almalki, who was travelling during the search, had his travel itinerary leaked to the CIA, who turned it over to Syrian officials, where he was visiting his sick mother. He was arrested, detained and tortured. Arar, who knew Almalki, was detained by the INS on information provided for by the RCMP during a visit to the United States in 2002. He was then deported to Syria, where he was tortured. Hooper later confirmed CSIS knew exactly what the result of the Canadian security services disclosure to the US would mean:”I think the United States would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.”

CSIS wanted to keep Arar in Syria, because there was not enough evidence to detain him in Canada. CSIS also supplied the Canadian ambassador to Syria with questions to be delivered to Syrian officials who were torturing Arar, Almalki, El-Maati, and Nureddin. CSIS was, in effect, using torture. None of the people who were renditioned or subject of the Project O Canada surveillance were ever proved to have any links to terrorist organizations. The evidence against the individuals was the product of racial profiling and the known use of confessions obtained under torture. No officials have ever been held to account for this ugly incident. 

Spying on land defenders and dissenters

CSIS, throughout its history, has routinely spied on protest movements. Most recently, it has been revealed that CSIS has been systematically spying on Indigenous activists and land defenders. In 2019 the B.C. Civil Liberties Association released thousands of redacted documents from CSIS that showed they had systematically spied on protesters who opposed the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project. CSIS retained information on hundreds of individuals in collaboration with oil and gas companies. CSIS not only received information from corporations about protesters, but it also shared intelligence with those companies. CSIS had regular meetings with members of the petroleum industry. The Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which is supposed to operate as an oversight committee of CSIS, has deep ties to the oil and gas sector.

In 2019 and 2020, Wet’suwet’en led protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline were heating up, and CSIS was watching. CSIS labelled Indigenous activists and others who engaged in blockades as “ideologically motivated violent extremists“. This meant they could be seen as a national security threat and subject to state surveillance. This spying on First Nations activists and land defenders is not new but arises from CSIS’ view that its job is to protect “critical infrastructure” projects such as mining and oil and gas developments. CSIS spies on activists, shares this info with corporations and also engages in routine intimidation of activists because, ultimately, CSIS role is to protect the interest of capital.  

The spying on activists is not limited to Indigenous land defenders and environmental groups. Right from its inception, CSIS continued the RCMP spying operations on peace groups and left-wing organizations of all stripes. It has systematically spied on the Tamil, Kurdish and Palestinian communities. Any expression of dissent and threat to the national corporate agenda in Canada is liable to brand a group or an individual as a potential threat and subject them to CSIS’ spying. Read more - Lire plus

End Canada’s support to the counter-terrorism campaign in the Philippines

United Church 09/06/2023 - The United Church of Canada joins with other denominations and civil society organizations to express deep concern that the Canadian government is inadvertently enabling continued attacks on human rights and human rights defenders by providing financial, programmatic, and technical support to the Government of the Philippines. Canada risks being complicit in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and irregular searches, arrests and detention, vilification and harassment campaigns, and other severe human rights violations associated with the counter-insurgency campaign.

In July 2020, the Government of the Philippines approved the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows attacks on the basic rights of its critics in the name of fighting “terrorism.” The Act’s definition of terrorism remains vague enough that it blurs the distinction between legitimate criticism of the government and criminality.

The counter-terrorism campaign of the Philippine government has been misused to stifle dissent, suppress human rights defenders, and restrict democracy. Unfortunately, this has led to extrajudicial killings, false accusations, arbitrary arrests, and detention, as well as other grave violations of human rights against those who oppose the government. Many of these individuals are wrongly accused of terrorism.

More information can be found in this briefing from the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP): Why Canada Must Stop Funding the Philippine Counter-Terrorism Campaign. ICHRP is a global network of organizations concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines. The United Church of Canada is a board member of the active Canadian chapter. *Since July 2016 Mission and Service partner Karapatan has documented 469 cases of politically motivated extrajudicial—beyond the action or authority of a court—killings. Read more - Lire plus

ACTION: Call on the Canadian government to ensure that funding to the Government of the Philippines does not harm human rights defenders

Canadian Muslim charity wins 'milestone' settlement after being falsely accused of funding terrorism

CBC News 09/06/2023 - One of Canada's largest faith-based charities has won a settlement over a set of publications that falsely claimed it was a "front" to fund terror groups abroad.

Islamic Relief Canada reached the out-of-court settlement earlier this month in a lawsuit against Thomas Quiggin — a former military officer turned self-described researcher who last year emerged as one of the more recognizable names in the truck convoy protests — and six others who it argued made "false, malicious and defamatory" statements aimed at harming the charity.

Along with Quiggin, the $2.5-million lawsuit from December 2018 took aim at Benjamin Dichter, who later emerged as a convoy spokesperson; writer Tahir Aslam Gora and an online television channel of which Gora is CEO; writer Raheel Raza and her husband Syed Sohail Raza; as well as a Yarmouth-based man named Joseph Hazelton who interviewed Quiggin about the charity in a YouTube video that garnered over 10,000 views.

"This case illustrates the kind of misinformation that legitimate aid organizations too often face in carrying out their vital humanitarian missions," said Usama Khan, Islamic Relief Canada's CEO. "The settlement reached by Islamic Relief Canada is a milestone in this fight," said Khan. "By holding those who spread misinformation accountable for their actions, we can send a clear message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated."

The exact terms of the settlement have not been made public, but as part of it, the defendants issued a statement of clarification acknowledging their statements were "unfounded." "We did not exercise sufficient due diligence in researching, drafting and/or publishing the defamatory statements," the defendants said. [...]

The added scrutiny facing Muslim charities is something Anver Emon, director of the University of Toronto's Institute of Islamic Studies, zeroed in on in a report he co-authored last spring. The report, called Under Layered Suspicion, documented how potential biases within the Canada Revenue Agency's auditing rules may unfairly put certain Muslim charities under the microscope and how real-world anti-terror can be influenced by Islamophobic bias.

"Since 9/11 we have witnessed many self-declared experts claiming to know where terrorism is, who finances it, and how. These so-called experts contribute to an echo chamber that reverberates in the halls of all our Canadian institutions, public and private and in between," said Emon. Earlier this year, CBC News reported the watchdog for Canada's security and intelligence agencies has begun an investigation into the CRA's work on charities following allegations of bias and Islamophobia within its auditing practices. Read more - Lire plus

‘We are being treated like trash’: Afghan-Canadians sue Ottawa, claim immigration rules are discriminatory

The Toronto Star 26/05/2023 - Afghan-Canadians who worked for the Canadian military in Afghanistan are asking the Federal Court to declare a special immigration program for Ukrainians in breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and expand it to include nationals from all countries. Two Afghan-Canadian men filed the lawsuit this week in a move they say may also be the last step left in a long fight by former language and cultural advisers to rescue their families from abroad.

“We are proud Canadians, we are proud of what we did for Canada and now we are being treated like trash,” said one of the men, who is referred to as “John Doe 1” in the lawsuit and who only spoke to the Star on the condition he not be named to protect his family.

Their application argues the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program is discriminatory because its wide-ranging provisions only apply to Ukrainians, as opposed to all those fleeing conflict. The program also discriminates based on race, the lawsuit says.

“Ukrainians are predominantly white and European. Afghans are predominantly dark-skinned and Muslim. Thus, the CUAET has the effect of distinguishing based on race, colour, ethnic origin and religion, which are prohibited grounds under s. 15 of the Charter,” reads the application, which was obtained by the Star on Friday. The men are asking for the court to declare the program in breach of the Charter, and order it applied to all foreign nationals. Their application to Federal Court comes nearly six months after two other advisers settled a human rights complaint with the government over the fact they’d initially been completely shut out of immigration programs for Afghans set up in the wake of that country’s collapse to the Taliban in 2021. [...]

Canada has committed to resettling 40,000 Afghans by the end of the year via programs launched in 2021; to date, about 32,000 have arrived. Those numbers are cold comfort to the men who are suing Ottawa. As Canadians, they say they don’t understand why they can’t bring family members here from abroad the way others can. “We are Canadian citizens,” said John Doe 1. “We were on the front lines as Canadian citizens, and now they just don’t care about us.” Read more - Lire plus

Our London Family: Two Year Commemoration

NCCM 06/06/2023 - June 6th, 2023 marks two years since the attack that took #OurLondonFamily. It is time to honour their memory. It is time to carry forward the fight against Islamophobia. That action starts with remembrance. It starts with intention. Join with others of good will to begin this journey by participating in any of the challenges, attending any of the following community events to commemorate #OurLondonFamily, and sharing any of the resources below. It is time for us to heal. It is time for us to act. All are welcome to join.

STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE

Call your Local Elected Officials

In the aftermath of the tragedy that took Our London Family, the Muslim community pushed Ottawa to help convene the very first National Action Summit on Islamophobia. The Summit produced a total of 61 policy recommendations to tackle systemic Islamophobia and hate in Canada. 35 of these recommendations were made for the federal government level; 19 for the provincial level; and 7 for the municipal level.

We have made good progress in pushing those in power to implement many of these policies. But we need your help to push for the items that have yet to be implemented. That is our challenge to you: help us get the job done.

Here’s how to get going:

• Step 1: Check out this graphic to see which items have yet to be implemented: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg5DcbEg44L/
• Step 2: Pick a policy item and identify which level of government it corresponds to: federal, provincial, or municipal.
• Step 3: Download our Summit Recommendations report to learn more about that policy recommendation: https://www.nccm.ca/Islamophobiasummit/
• Step 4: Once you determine which level of government is responsible for that undone policy recommendation, do a quick Google search to find out who the elected official is for your area.
• For federal, it would be your Member of Parliament. For provincial, it is your Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), or Member of the National Assembly (MNA) for Quebec. For municipal, it is your City Councillor and Mayor.
• Step 5: Once you have determined which elected official you should contact, find out their office phone number via a quick Google search and give them a call.

Cite the Summit Recommendations list and tell them why it is important to implement the policy item you selected. Then follow up with an email reiterating the points you made.

Speak Up at Work

So much of our time is spent at work, with colleagues whose only exposure to Islam is through their Muslim coworkers. This often means that our institutions can do much more to address Islamophobia. It is an opportunity for us to play a role in alerting the leadership within our workplaces about this issue, in order to strengthen our institutions. We must ask: What are the leaders there doing to fight against Islamophobia and hate in the workplace? What more can be done? 

Specifically, we must approach management at work to raise the following points to address Islamophobia:  

1. Ask to clarify what in-house policies are already in place to address Islamophobia.
2. Propose company-wide anti-Islamophobia training.
3. Ensure that workplace accommodations are present to support religious practices, be it prayer spaces, time for jumaa, or holiday accommodations.

Engaging Our Educators

Unfortunately, Islamophobic bullying is an increasingly severe issue at schools across Canada as the Muslim student population continues to grow. School boards and administrations are often at a loss at how to deal with Islamophobia. Many end up perpetuating the problem instead of helping solve it. So it is up to civil society to hold the system accountable and to play a positive role in fostering a safe learning environment for our children. This is where we have to step up to the plate: we have to help protect our kids who often struggle to uphold their Muslim identities at school. We have to take administrations to task.  

Here are a few points and suggestions that we can approach our school boards and administrations with:

1. Ask to clarify: What your local school administration is doing to fight anti-Muslim bullying? 
2. Propose that all educators receive anti-Islamophobia training. 
3. Ensure that accurate Muslim representation is built into the class curriculum.
4. Make sure that schools create spaces for affirming and supporting Muslim students, including:

• safe spaces to pray;
• Muslim Students Associations;
• observing the designated National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia (January 29th); and
• celebrating Islamic Heritage Month in October. Read more - Lire plus

The Mounties: 150 years of conflict with Indigenous Peoples

APTN 23/05/2023 - [...] Jean Teillet, a Métis lawyer and the great grand-niece of Louis Riel, says numerous reports have shown issues with the RCMP’s conduct and she believes that a lot of the biases that they have been criticized for have been there since the beginning. “My theory has always been that when we look at the misogyny and racism that report after report after report says is embedded in the DNA of the RCMP—I see it got baked in right from the beginning,” says Teillet. 

She says the military leaders who helped form the RCMP brought in their prejudices, including those focused against Indigenous rights and sovereignty. “The Supreme Court justices, some former, have said the RCMP cannot fix itself and I think it is because of that DNA,” says Teillet. A report in 2020 from former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache detailed 634 interviews that showed a systemic, brutal treatment of women who entered the force. “It is impossible to fully convey the depth of the pain,” Bastarache wrote. [...]

In 2020, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, and BC Civil Liberties Association wrote a letter to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission or CRCC for the RCMP about an exclusion zone the Mounties had set up around Wet’suwet’en territory. That’s where supporters of the hereditary chiefs had set up a roadblock to stop the construction of a pipeline through the territory. 

The CRCC pointed to previous findings from earlier commissions. “There is absolutely no legal precedent nor established legal authority for such an overbroad policing power associated with the enforcement of an injunction. “The implementation and enforcement of the RCMP exclusion zone in Wet’suwet’en territory is unlawful,” says a letter by BC Civil Liberties.

In June 2022, APTN reported the federal watchdog received nearly 500 complaints from the Wet’suwet’en operation in B.C., but only five led to disciplinary actions. The RCMP also put together a secret unit called the C-IRG – Community-Industry Response Group to ensure that resource projects like the Coastal GasLink isn’t interfered with by Indigenous opposition. [...]

On May 18, the RCMP released its transparency and trust action plan. “Public trust in policing has decreased. The RCMP is taking action to be more open and transparent while building and strengthening trust in law enforcement,” says the news release. Trust in the police does seem to be on the decline. Statistics Canada reports that only 41 per cent of Canadians had “great confidence” in the police in 2019. Another 49 per cent have “some confidence”. 

Visible minority groups and people with disabilities as well as victims of crime, expressed lower levels of confidence. Today, the RCMP plan around transparency is focused on the release of information on “police intervention options,” calls for service and employee and diversity statistics. Their strategic plan also aims to reduce bias and “advance Indigenous reconciliation”. The plan does not go into specifics.

Hewitt says it is time to consider what role the RCMP should now play in Canada after 150 years. “To have a paramilitary force perhaps made sense in the 19th century. I am not sure it makes sense in the 21st century. I think they need reform…all the scandals around sexual harassment and assault. “But the Mounties, because they are this national symbol, make it difficult to reform,” says Hewitt. Read more - Lire plus

The National RCMP Research Council: A new website about the about the mythologization of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and its present day problems

Did Canada Fail to Protect a Human Rights Defender Assassinated for His Opposition to a Canadian Mine in Mexico?

MiningWatch Canada 05/05/2023 - Finding no avenues for justice in Canada, the family of murdered Mexican environment defender Mariano Abarca have filed a groundbreaking complaint against Canada at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). 

The complaint alleges that Canada failed to uphold its international human rights obligations when it pressured Mexican authorities to advance a Canadian mining project despite having knowledge about related threats to Mariano’s life. Canada has since failed to investigate any wrongdoing by Canadian Embassy officials who, through their unwavering support and persistent lobbying on behalf of the Canadian mining company, may have put Mariano’s life at greater risk. The complaint marks the first time that a Canadian embassy has been singled out at the IACHR for its actions in another country. 

A community leader, Mariano Abarca was outspoken in the movement to protect community rights in relation to the “Payback” mining project – a barite mine owned by Blackfire Exploration Ltd (“Blackfire”) that operated in his hometown of Chicomuselo, Chiapas between 2007 and 2009. After receiving complaints from Blackfire about community opposition around the mine, a high level delegation from the Canadian Embassy went to the Governor’s office in Chiapas to “advocate” for Blackfire in October 2009. Seven weeks later, on November 27, 2009, Mariano was murdered in broad daylight in front of his family restaurant. Nearly 14 years later, no credible investigation into his murder has been conducted. 

The IACHR complaint, filed last Friday by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP), relies on over 1000 pages of internal reports and emails from the Canadian Embassy in Mexico that show the Embassy played a crucial role getting the mine into operation but failed to do any human rights due diligence before becoming involved. “Embassy staff worked behind the scenes to advance Blackfire’s mining interests, all the while knowing that Mariano was a threatened human rights defender and that their actions or inaction could elevate the real risk to his life,” says Leah Gardner, a lawyer with the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP). “This combination of influence and foreseeability of serious harm created a legal obligation for Canada to do what was reasonably within its power to avoid increasing the risk to his life and help protect him.”

In 2018, Mariano Abarca’s family and supporters filed a complaint with the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner (PSIC) in an effort to launch an investigation into whether the actions and omissions of the Canadian Embassy put Mariano at greater risk. The Commissioner refused to investigate embassy conduct in this case, and Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision. In January 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal the decision, effectively closing the door to any investigation by Canada. The complaint filed on Friday at the IACHR is trying to change that. 

José Luis Abarca – Mariano’s son – joins Esperanza Salazar from the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA) in Ottawa this week to launch the complaint against Canada on a visit backed by 15 Canadian civil society organizations and coalitions. “Canada has refused to investigate whether Canadian officials bear any responsibility for my father’s murder,” says José Luis Abarca. “This case is important, not only for my family, but for all the other human rights and environmental defenders around the world who have the misfortune of catching the eye of Canadian mining interests.” Canadian mining investments in Mexico are on the rise. “As more Canadian mining money comes to Mexico, risk of violence against human rights and environment defenders opposing these projects increases substantially,” says Esperanza Salazar. “Canadian officials need to have this front and centre.”

Canada recently announced its candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council’s 2028-2030 term and topping Canada’s list of priorities is “seeking justice and accountability for those on the frontlines of defending human rights.” For Viviana Herrera, the Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, Canada has a long way to go to get serious about accountability. “Canadian embassies continue to play a major role advancing Canadian mining investment across the world,” she says. “Yet they wash their hands of any responsibility to protect the people who are put in harm’s way because of that Canadian investment. We are looking to the IACHR to finally take this case seriously – because Canada hasn’t.” Source

Webinar: Canada Closed its Doors to Justice for Mariano Abarca - What's next?

Niger’s cycle of deadly violence raises questions over US counter-terror role

The Guardian 29/05/2023 - "We fled here to Niamey with nothing. We don’t even know how to feed ourselves,” said Amadou as he sat outside a tiny concrete home on the fringe of Niger’s capital, recounting an attack on his village by government forces late last year. Another family member opened the door, revealing that it was empty except for a few foam bedrolls and a couple of cooking pots and household items.



According to Amadou, several members of his family, and others from their village near the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, the Nigerien military executed several village elders and local leaders during the attack. They said it wasn’t the first time that people from their village had been killed or injured by government troops. Amadou and several others provided their full names and that of their village, but the Guardian has withheld them due to fears of potential retribution.

Amadou and the others are all members of the Fulani ethnic group – predominantly semi-nomadic Muslim cattle herders also known as the Peuhl who have long expressed discontent with their governments across the Sahel over neglect of their communities and their poor political representation. As a stigmatised minority with limited economic prospects, they have been heavily recruited by the jihadist groups who have killed thousands in the region in recent years, leading to a self-reinforcing cycle of government abuse.

“Our area is under jihadist domination, so the government believes that we are on the jihadists’ side,” Amadou said. A neighbour from his village said she had fled with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. “I don’t even know if my sister is alive or dead,” she said. “They have been killing us, innocent people, and also our imams and leaders to break the pillars of our community.” Amadou’s account raises awkward questions for the US, which has developed a close relationship with the Nigerien military over the past two decades. [...]

In 2002, the US began providing Niger with counter-terrorism assistance and over the last decade has provided more than $500m in security assistance, from armoured vehicles to surveillance aircraft, making it the largest recipient of state department military aid in west Africa and the second highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last decade, the number of US personnel deployed to Niger has jumped from 100 to 1001 – an increase of 900%. US troops have trained, advised and assisted Nigerien troops and even fought alongside their local partners. The US has been joined in Niger by a host of foreign partners, among them Canadian commandos, and trainers from African Union and European Union member states, including military personnel from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy and former coloniser, France. [...]

This counter-terrorism assistance has, however, failed to stem sky-rocketing jihadist violence. Even the Pentagon admitted this in its little-noticed analyses. [...] Elizabeth Shackelford, a former US state department foreign service officer who served in several posts in Africa and is now a senior foreign policy fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said these metrics mean that hard questions must be asked. “At a minimum, more US security assistance isn’t leading to more security, and all signs suggest it plays a role in making matters worse,” she said. “While correlation isn’t necessarily causation, any rational observer would ask the question: ‘What role is US security assistance really playing here?’ Niger is supposed to be the success story for US counter-terrorism partnership in the region. If these are the wins, what do the losses look like?”

The international mentorship has also failed to curb a long history of abusive behaviour by the Nigerien armed forces. Sands, the SOCAFRICA commander, had only good things to say about Niger’s military. “I’m encouraged by what I see from Nigerien special operations and the government of Niger,” he said. “They have an effective force. They continue to build that force, to train that force, and they’re exceptional partners.” But the US state department is far less sanguine. “There were numerous reports of arbitrary or unlawful executions by authorities or their agents,” reads their most recent assessment of human rights in Niger. “For example, the armed forces were accused of summarily executing persons suspected of fighting with terrorist groups in the Diffa and Tillaberi regions.” Read more - Lire plus

UN group says systematic imprisonment at Guantanamo in violation of international law

presstv 07/06/2023 - A United Nations group of rights experts has released a scathing report criticizing the United States and some of its allies for the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The group, made up of five independent experts, compiled the report in November 2022, but did not release it until last week.

The experts stressed that while they were addressing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri's case, a Saudi prisoner of Yemeni descent currently awaiting a death penalty trial, in particular, "the conclusions reached here also apply to other detainees in similar situations a Guantanamo Bay." They cautioned that "under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty, in violation of international law, may constitute crimes against humanity."

In the case submitted to the group last June, lawyers maintained that after Nashiri was captured in Dubai in 2002, he spent four years shuttled between various CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, being tortured and abused. The group determined that all the eight countries were "jointly responsible for the torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” of al-Nashiri. "The submissions that Mr. al-Nashiri was tortured stand unrefuted," it said, also finding that all the eight countries were responsible for his "arrest, rendition and arbitrary detention." Al-Nashiri arrived at Guantanamo Bay in 2006, where he remains detained. He was only charged in 2008, and his military commission death penalty case still remains in pre-trial proceedings.

The experts called on the countries to "take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of al-Nashiri without delay." They said "the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. al-Nashiri immediately," and provide him compensation and reparations. And they called for "a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. al-Nashiri, including an independent inquiry into his allegations of torture." "The Working Group is obliged to remind the government of the United States that all persons deprived of their liberty must be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person," they said. Read more - Lire plus

No more Pakistanis in Guantanamo Bay as last three Pakistani detainees exit notorious prison

UK spy agencies under scrutiny over torture of Saudi men by CIA

The UK was complicit in Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah’s torture. His lawyer says reparations should follow.

At Guantánamo’s Court Like No Other, Progress Is Frustrated by State Secrets

Showtime Pulls ‘Vice’ Episode on Ron DeSantis

When Protest Is 'Terrorism,' Material-Support Charges Are Next

FOREVER WARS 05/06/2023 - Around the time we send out this newsletter, the Atlanta City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to approve a huge, hotly contested police training facility billed officially as the “Atlanta Public Safety Training Center” but known more widely as Cop City. However the vote goes, activists have planned a "week of action" against the project beginning June 24. But last Wednesday, well in advance of both the vote and the anticipated protests, police raided, arrested and charged three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money for people arrested for protesting Cop City, with money laundering and charity fraud.

Moving against the Atlanta Solidarity Fund follows a classic War on Terror pattern. First, violently confront and even kill anti-Cop City activists. Then, arrest more than 40 similarly-motivated activists and charge them with domestic terrorism using a state law passed to stop white-supremacist murderers like Dylann Roof. The arrestees are resisting a redistribution of public resources to police that involves the environmental spoilage of southeast Atlanta, and Georgia authorities have represented that resistance to the courts as terrorism. Then, go after those who provide the resources that get such people out of jail.

The arrests also speak to another tradition in this country, one coterminous with the War on Terror and whose legacy the War on Terror reflects: state violence against Black liberation. Cat Brooks, the executive director of Oakland-based activist coalition The Anti-Police Terror Project, says the crackdown on resistance to Cop City represents a template that can be deployed nationwide by right-wing state governments, prosecutors, and allied police departments. "If they're allowed to be successful, they could take out grassroots organizing groups across the country," Brooks tells FOREVER WARS, who warns of a potential chilling effect even if those organizers aren't directly targeted by prosecutors. "Solidarity bail funds, collective bail funds have been part of the Black resistance movement, most notably since the Civil Rights Movement, and with the 2020 George Floyd rebellion, that's something that's picked up again," Brooks explains. [...]

Georgia may not exactly have a material-support-for-terrorism law in place, but it does have a RICO statute, and what unfolded on Wednesday is unmistakably a strike against protester infrastructure. The charges faced by Marlon Scott Kautz, Savannah Patterson and Adele Maclean of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund carry the potential for 20-year prison sentences and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Georgia Deputy Attorney General John Fowler argued in court that the Atlanta Solidarity Fund provided money to "keep people connected to the protests." Among the claims made in the warrants for their arrest is that they "fund actions in part of Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF), a group classified by the United States Department of Homeland Security as Domestic Violent Extremists." But on Jan. 25, FOREVER WARS reported that the Department of Homeland Security does not, in fact, classify Defend the Atlanta Forest as domestic violent extremists.

If Fowler's arguments succeed, then the financial infrastructure of a protest movement will be held responsible for crimes allegedly committed by people several steps downstream of that funding, whether or not an act of violence occurred or funding was intended to finance such an act. That is the logic of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and, five years later, the PATRIOT Act. Only now we're not talking about terrorism, we're talking about organized dissent against a police training center—and other actions likely to accelerate as the movements against climate change and structural racism continue to understand themselves as two sides of the same coin. [...]

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund provides not only bail payments, but also access to attorneys for arrestees, making the move against the Fund an attack not just on "the right to free speech but the access to counsel in criminal proceedings," Weber points out. "The collective goal is to silence dissent about the locating and building of the Police Training Center. I've been a civil rights lawyer for 33 years, I've never seen these kinds of charges rolled out this way," Weber tells FOREVER WARS. Read more - Lire plus

DHS intel report on Cop City protesters cribbed far-right activist Andy Ngo

Abolish Section 702

FOREVER WARS 09/06/2023 - In 2008, a bipartisan Congress took a sledgehammer to the Constitution. The FISA Amendments Act codified what the Bush administration had been doing illegally after 9/11: collecting Americans’ international communications data on a massive scale, without anything resembling individualized suspicion of a crime, let alone a warrant.

With Congress’s blessing, the National Security Agency siphoned user data from the servers of tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook under a program called PRISM; for data in transit between servers, it used a method called upstream collection. What the NSA amassed, it could share with other intelligence agencies, including the FBI. Armed with a few keywords, the FBI could query a database of unfathomable and ever-growing size, bypassing the centuries-old warrant requirements that are a basic bulwark against tyranny. The statutory authority that the new law created for the NSA’s surveillance panopticon is known as Section 702, for its place within the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Section 702 is among the enduring abuses of the War on Terror: Fifteen years on, the FBI is using the post-9/11 surveillance apparatus against constitutionally protected demands to end institutionalized racism. A partially declassified order from the secret surveillance panel known as the FISA Court recently revealed that the FBI used 702 to spy on the racial justice demonstrations of summer 2020. There should be no future for Section 702 after this latest lesson in how the War on Terror empowered the most noxious currents in American history. Read more - Lire plus

What’s really changed 10 years after the Snowden revelations?

The Harvard of anti-terrorism: how Israel’s military-industrial complex feeds the global arms trade

The Conversation 31/05/2023 - In The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, Antony Loewenstein details how Israel’s military-industrial complex has grown from a minor industry into a dominant economic and social force at home and abroad.

He traces how, since 1967, the Occupied Territories and their people have furnished Israel with a living laboratory for their application and development of border security and surveillance systems, phone-hacking spyware, tracking and targeting technologies, as well as more traditional weapons systems. Tried and tested in the field, these systems are then packaged and sold for export.

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the wave of anxiety they engendered, demand for Israeli hardware and know-how exploded. Israel is now one of the world’s top-ten weapons dealing nations. Its defence enterprises market everything from small arms to killer drones, from spyware to surface-to-air missiles. If it flies, watches, listens or goes bang, Israeli companies make and will sell it to (just about) anybody. The Israeli economy, one critic noted, has “abandoned oranges for hand grenades”. Perhaps. But, as Loewenstein notes, everybody wants hand grenades nowadays.

Loewenstein’s analysis of Israeli arms dealing offers a sobering roll-call of the past half-century’s standout despots and pariah nations, ranging from apartheid-era South Africa to Saudi Arabia’s bonesaw authoritarians. Their clients have included, among others, Suharto-era Indonesia, Ceausescu’s Romania, Pinochet’s Chile, the Shah’s Iran, the Duvaliers’ – père et fils – Haiti, Stroessner’s Paraguay, and Rios Montt’s genocidal tyranny in Guatemala, where Israeli-made Galil rifles were used to massacre indigenous communities.

Through its commercial relationships and the diplomacy into which they so often shade, Israel has consistently pursued international acceptance of, or acquiescence to, its occupation of pre-1967 Palestinian territories. Israel will trade with any state whose backing will help stifle criticism or stave off sanctions, as well as just about anybody else who can pay. As a result, not only has Israel surrendered its once-prized status as “a light unto nations”, its export policies have ensured that millions labouring under autocratic rule remain locked in darkness. Despite the massive investments of manpower, materiel and infrastructure, Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the containment of Gaza, has been a boon to the state, not a financial burden. The high operational tempo of its military means that those marketing Israeli defence materiel can point to the performance of their technologies in Gaza, Jenin, and across the Occupied Territories, as well as in Lebanon and Syria.

Do you need to know what your enemies are planning? Listen to these recordings of their conversations and messages sourced via the latest spyware. Do you want to see where your enemies are and interdict them before they can do you any harm? See how this drone locates, tracks and then detonates the car in which the militant commander is travelling. Looking for a surgical strike option? Watch this missile demolish the tower block where enemy intelligence has occupied offices, leaving the surrounding real estate mostly intact. The September 11 attacks on New York and Washington turbocharged Israel’s defence sector. Spooked by the fear of hostile foreigners and enemies within, governments from around the world queued up to learn from “the Harvard of anti-terrorism” and buy its technology. Read more - Lire plus

Political leaders blast push for Kashmiri separatist leader to get death sentence

AA 27/05/2023 - One day after India’s top anti-terrorism investigation agency sought the death sentence for Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, on Saturday many political leaders, including a former chief minister of the region, blasted the move.

Mehbooba Mufti, the last elected chief minister of the region and the leader of a regional party, said that in a democracy like India, where even the assassins of a prime minister were pardoned, the case of a political prisoner like Yasin Malik must be “reviewed and reconsidered.”

Mufti wrote on Twitter that “those gleefully supporting his hanging” are a “grave threat to our collective rights.” Sarah Hayat Shah, a spokesperson of National Conference, one of the oldest parties of the region, said that Malik deserves a “fair trial,” adding that the death penalty will benefit no one. In a long note, Sajad Lone, head of the People’s Conference regional party, said seeking a death sentence for Malik is “dangerous.” He implored the Indian government to “let Kashmiris live in peace.”

“We need oxygen from the rest of the country, as we are gasping for political breath. We cannot afford Kashmir being the oxygen for political landscape in the rest of the country,” he said, also decrying what he called the “hurry to execute” Malik. Last year Malik was sentenced to life by an Indian investigative court. Read more - Lire plus

Why does New Delhi want death penalty for Yasin Malik?

Iran begins trial of journalist who covered Mahsa Amini’s death

CNN 31/05/2023 - Two journalists responsible for breaking the story of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman killed after being held in custody by Iran’s morality police last year, stood trial in an Iranian court this week. Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi have been imprisoned in Iran for the past eight months and face charges of “conspiracy and rebellion against national security” and “anti-state propaganda” – charges carrying a possible death penalty, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The two women separately stood trial on Monday and Tuesday in a revolutionary court presided over by notorious judge Abolghasem Salavati, according to Iranian pro-reform outlet SharghDaily. The trial comes after nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as anger over the regime’s treatment of women and other issues flared up after the death of 22-year-old Amini. Authorities violently suppressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.

Hamedi was arrested after visiting Amini in hospital and reporting on her serious medical condition and coma after she was in police custody, according to RSF. SharghDaily said Hamedi was denied access to lawyers for most of her detention, while the UN said the journalist has been held in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin Prison since September. In her trial on Tuesday, Hamedi denied all accusations and highlighted her journalistic duties within the law, her husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorloo, wrote on Twitter. Mohammadi, who also stood trial in a separate hearing, was arrested after reporting on Amini’s funeral in September, according to RSF and the UN. The families of the journalists were informed of the charges seven months after the arrests were made, RSF said.

Hamedi, Mohammadi and another detained journalist, Narges Mohammadi, were awarded the prestigious 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for outstanding contribution to press freedom. “We are committed to honoring the brave work of Iranian female journalists,” Zainab Salbi, the jury Chair, said according to a UN statement, adding “They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth.” The Iranian government has continued to clamp down on dissent with several recent death sentences handed down to protesters. Critics say the regime has taken capital punishment to a new level. Source

ACTION: Stop the execution spree in Iran

Amnesty International expresses concerns over Sri Lanka’s continued use of draconian anti-terrorism laws

Twitter 26/05/2023 - Sri Lanka: @amnesty

is concerned by the Sri Lankan government’s continued use of its draconian anti-terror law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) despite repeated assurances to repeal the legislation, while ignoring calls to issue a serious moratorium against its use. 

4 persons, Mohamed Asfer Mohamed Anas, Mohamed Jusair Abdul Hameed Jabir, Mohamed Azeez Abu Bakr Siddique, and Rawutar Naina Asnar Marrikar were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police on 18 May 2023 for charges under the Penal Code and the PTA in connection with the 21 April 2019 bombings. As we have raised our concerns before, the PTA facilitates arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention without trial. The law has been used time and time again to target minorities, without any fair or due process safeguards, including against extracting confessions under torture and duress.

According to information provided by the Police to the Fort magistrate, the authorities intend to record statements from at least 4 more persons who we fear may also be subjected to arrests under the PTA. These are worrying developments especially in a context where the government is hoping to bring in a new Anti-Terrorism Act which, amongst other issues, seeks to further expand the definition of what constitutes an act of “terror.”

Those arrested must be immediately released or if credible evidence persists, they must promptly be charged with an internationally recognisable crime using fair trial standards. We urge the Sri Lankan government to ensure investigations into the 21 April 2019 bombings are conducted promptly and impartially in line with international human rights standards. The authorities must desist from using the #PTA and repeal the Act immediately. Source

ACTION: End the crackdown on peaceful protests in Sri Lanka

En France, une vague d’arrestations contre le mouvement écologiste radical

Reporterre 07/06/2023 - Lundi 5 juin à six heures, une vague d’arrestations et de perquisitions sans précédent a frappé des militantes et militants proches des Soulèvements de la Terre et de l’écologie radicale. L’opération a été menée dans le cadre d’une instruction judiciaire concernant des faits de dégradations accomplis le 10 décembre dernier dans une usine Lafarge à Bouc-Bel-Air (Bouches-du-Rhône).

Les forces de police ont ciblé huit grandes agglomérations à travers la France — Marseille, Montreuil, Dijon, Lyon, Toulouse, Bayonne — ainsi que deux communes rurales, Caylus et Verfeil-sur-Seye, dans le Tarn-et-Garonne. Plus d’une quinzaine de personnes sont actuellement en garde à vue dans différents commissariats du pays. Elles sont interrogées, selon des sources proches du dossier, dans le cadre d’une enquête ouverte pour association de malfaiteurs et dégradations en bande organisée. Leur garde à vue pourrait durer jusqu’à 96 heures.

Intervention de la police antiterroriste

Il aura fallu attendre près d’une journée avant de recouper les informations et mesurer l’ampleur de l’opération policière. Lundi 5 juin à 21 h, les autorités n’avaient d’ailleurs toujours pas communiqué sur cette affaire. Contactée par Reporterre, la Direction générale de la police nationale a seulement répondu de manière laconique qu’« une opération visant plusieurs objectifs a eu lieu aujourd’hui ». Selon différents témoins présents lors des perquisitions, la BRI (Brigade de recherche et d’intervention de la police) et la SDAT (Sous-direction antiterroriste de la Direction centrale de la police judiciaire) auraient été mobilisées. Dans la campagne tarnaise, le coup de filet de la police a provoqué un véritable choc. À six heures du matin, 70 policiers ont débarqué dans le petit village de Verfeil et bloqué la circulation. [...]

Il est frappant de voir que des services antiterroristes sont mobilisés dans cette affaire. La SDAT ne s’occupe pas d’ordinaire des mobilisations écologistes mais plutôt du nationalisme corse et du terrorisme islamiste, bien qu’elle ait été impliquée par exemple dans l’affaire dite de Tarnac. « Assimiler aujourd’hui à du terrorisme l’usage légitime de la pince coupante, de la masse et de la clef à molette en vue de neutraliser des infrastructures est un inacceptable retournement ! Les centrales à béton sont des armes d’artificialisation massive des terres agricoles et de destruction de la biodiversité, des bombes à retardement climatique. Il est donc plus que jamais légitime et nécessaire de les désarmer », estiment dans leur communiqué les Soulèvements de la Terre. Lire plus - Read more

France: Affaire du 8 décembre: Le chiffrement des communications assimilé à un comportement terroriste

La Quadrature 05/06/2023 - Cet article a été rédigé sur la base d’informations relatives à l’affaire dite du “8 décembre” dans laquelle 7 personnes ont été mises en examen pour « association de malfaiteurs terroristes » en décembre 2020. Leur procès est prévu pour octobre 2023. Ce sera le premier procès antiterroriste visant « l’ultragauche » depuis le fiasco de l’affaire Tarnac.

L’accusation de terrorisme est rejetée avec force par les inculpé·es. Ces dernier·es dénoncent un procès politique, une instruction à charge et une absence de preuves. Ils et elles pointent en particulier des propos decontextualisés et l’utilisation à charge de faits anodins (pratiques sportives, numériques, lectures et musiques écoutées…). De son côté la police reconnaît qu’à la fin de l’instruction – et dix mois de surveillance intensive – aucun « projet précis » n’a été identifié.

L’État vient d’être condamné pour le maintien à l’isolement du principal inculpé pendant 16 mois et dont il n’a été libéré qu’après une grève de la faim de 37 jours. Une seconde plainte, en attente de jugement, a été déposée contre les fouilles à nu illégales et répétées qu’une inculpée a subies en détention provisoire. De nombreuses personnalités, médias et collectifs leur ont apporté leur soutien. C’est dans ce contexte que nous avons été alerté du fait que les pratiques numériques des inculpé·es – au premier rang desquelles l’utilisation de messageries chiffrées grand public – sont instrumentalisées comme « preuves » d’une soi-disant « clandestinité » venant révéler l’existence d’un projet terroriste inconnu. Nous avons choisi de le dénoncer. Lire plus

English version: Criminalization of encryption: The December 8 case

Europe fixed its poor intelligence sharing. Now it’s a privacy risk.

Politico 02/06/2023 - Poor data sharing was once Europe's bugbear in its fight against terrorism. Today, that fear may have pushed the bloc to the other extreme, as privacy investigators launch a probe into EU agencies' oversharing of data.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has started an investigation into the European Union’s border agency Frontex for automatically sharing information from interviews of detained migrants and asylum seekers to EU police agency Europol, it announced this week after finalizing an audit of Frontex.

"We found a lot of things that were quite worrying," said European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski. "With people crossing the border, we have a feeling that the EU has a problem keeping the values and its principles it's proud of." The data sharing is meant to help root out cross-border crimes like smuggling and terrorism. The program known as "Processing of Personal Data for Risk Analysis" (PeDRA) was launched a few months after a wave of terror attacks started hitting Europe in 2015. The attacks exposed how European security services failed to exchange information that could have prevented some of the tragedies. "There is a black hole of information," former Europol director Rob Wainwright said at the time.

The EU’s in-house privacy watchdog EDPS is now warning that troves of Europeans' and migrants' data are likely being shared illegally with Europol, which has grown increasingly powerful in the past few years when it comes to aggregating and monitoring law enforcement data across the bloc. The EDPS said the broad automatic data exchange set up by Frontex with Europol indicated a breach of an EU privacy law as well as the European Border and Coast Guard regulation. Frontex conducts interviews with migrants in European detention facilities to obtain several pieces of information, including their routes, people who might have helped them and identities of suspects of cross-border crime like smuggling and terrorism. The border agency has sent information about 13,000 possible suspects to Europol since 2016, Frontex’s deputy director Uku Sarekanno said in November 2022.

“It’s in the interest of the Union and of its citizens that the two agencies cooperate, that we will simply not sit on top of information that we have obtained and not be sharing this with the other agency helping member states tackling organized crime and cross-border crime,” Sarekanno told a hearing in the European Parliament in 2022. But the privacy regulator is challenging Frontex's eagerness to gather and share a swathe of data. It said an audit last year triggered “serious doubts” that the border agency's operations were legal and respected fundamental rights. He slammed the border agency for “systematically, proactively and on its own” collecting information about potential suspects during interviews with migrants under “high vulnerability.”

The troves of information shared with Europol were also likely to be relatively unreliable and discriminatory, the audit noted. Names of NGOs have appeared in 1,058 documents documenting debriefing interviews with migrants, the EU affairs publication EUobserver reported in April. The privacy probe comes as Europe’s surveillance apparatus is steadily expanding. Europol obtained considerable new powers to process reams of data and further exchange information with private companies last year. The new law alarmed Wiewiórowski, who — in an unprecedented move — in September took the European Parliament and Council of the EU to the Court of Justice of the EU for effectively canceling its previous enforcement against Europol.

The EDPS had ordered the agency a few months before to erase data of individuals who have no established link to a crime, after finding that the law enforcement agency was likely to have mishandled troves of personal data. Just law week, the European Parliament voted to start negotiations on a draft law named Prüm II with the EU Council to expand access to data for EU police authorities to share biometric information like facial images, fingerprints, DNA and vehicle registration. Europol would also be granted access to the data and enable national police to access its own databases with non-EU biometric data. 

Privacy groups have also warned that another ongoing EU reform known as EURODAC could enable national police and Europol to more closely track migrants and collect children’s fingerprints. Read more - Lire plus

Reporters Without Borders: Macau national security law threatens residents and journalists

Jurist 04/06/2023 - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced on Friday Macau’s decision to expand their national security law, which takes effect this week. The effect of these changes, according to RSF, “increases the pressure on journalists and further threatens the residents’ right to information.”

Macau’s National Security Law defines seven crimes that can result in a maximum sentence of up to 25 years’ imprisonment. Under the revised rules, enacted at the end of May, the law now encompasses “any individual” who is suspected of undermining China’s national security. This applies regardless of the territory in which the acts occur, and regardless of nationality, meaning that Macau law enforcement will have authority to pursue suspected violations extraterritorially. National security suspects can also be subject to communications surveillance and restricted from leaving Macau for up to five days upon court orders.



Speaking on the changes, Cédric Alviani, RSF East Bureau Director, stated:

The original regulation was already dangerously open to interpretation, and the expansion of its scope makes it the perfect tool for the government to intimidate, and possibly detain, the journalists they dislike. We urge the international community to build up pressure on the Chinese regime to restore full press freedom in Macau and Hong Kong, and to release all 113 journalists and press freedom defenders detained in the country.

The crimes have been expanded far beyond their previous definitions. For example, “subversion” and “secession” now extend to non-violent acts, while “sedition” includes “acts that incite participation in riots.” Read more - Lire plus

ICLMG ACTIONS & EVENTS

CSIS isn't above the law!

In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.



Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.

Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

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

Letter in English + Lettre en français

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

Petition in English + Pétition en français

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

Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable. 

Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.

Please share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

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

December 10, 2022 - ironically Human Rights Day - marked the 20th "anniversary" of the arrest of Mohamed Harkat under Canada's rights-violating security certificate regime. For Mr. Harkat, it's been two decades of fighting deportation to torture, 16 years of harassment and intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, secret trials, PTSD: enough is enough! We call for justice for Moe Harkat now! Watch - Visionnez

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

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

Reform Canada's extradition law now!

Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.



Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!

Version française: Le Canada doit réformer la loi sur l'extradition! + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Phone PM Justin Trudeau

TAKE ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab!

Just Peace Advocates' action: Write a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Say “No" to a second extradition of Hassan Diab

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

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

Accountability

Reddition de comptes

Prime Minister announces appointment to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians

Indigenous teenager tells commission of ‘horrific’ abuse by police during Anzac Day counter-terrorism raids

Anti-terror laws

Lois antiterroristes

New anti-terror law should convince Turkey to back NATO bid, Swedish minister says

Artificial intelligence

Intelligence artificielle

Artificial Intelligence “Godfathers” Call for Regulation as Rights Groups Warn AI Encodes Oppression

Pentagon won’t pause AI development despite warnings

China warns of artificial intelligence risks, calls for beefed-up national security measures

EU’s AI ambitions at risk as US pushes to water down international treaty

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence

State of the Israeli occupation. Year 56: A joint situation report

Amnesty International Secretary General in Peru to present report on state repression

ACTION: Peru: Alarming death toll amid repression

Scores detained in Hong Kong on Tiananmen massacre anniversary

Ox Sam Camp Raid Update: One Arrested as Prayer Tipis Are Bulldozed and Ceremonial Items Confiscated

ACTION: Belarus: Trade union activity is not extremism!

Freedom of expression and of the press

Liberté d'expression et de la presse

If the Police Can Decide Who Qualifies as a Journalist, There Is No Free Press Where’s the outcry? Mainstream media have been strangely silent following the arrest of two reporters in North Carolina.

Hong Kong court rebuffs effort to dismiss Jimmy Lai national security trial

Biden embraces antisemitism definition that has upended free speech in Europe

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance

Interpol must halt Turkey's use of databases to pursue dissidents

“King: A Life”: New Bio Details Extensive FBI Spying & How MLK’s Criticism of Malcolm X Was Fabricated

Whistleblowers

Lanceurs d'alertes

“Enough Is Enough”: Australian PM Throws Support Behind Movement to Free Julian Assange

FBI reopens case around Julian Assange, despite Australian pressure to end prosecution

Free Julian Assange: Noam Chomsky, Dan Ellsberg & Jeremy Corbyn Lead Call at Belmarsh Tribunal

Miscellaneous

Divers

The Breach barred from weapons show for ‘critical anti-war journalism’

Photos of CANSEC arms show protest

ACTION: Urge PM Trudeau to reduce military spending

ACTION: Stop Deporting Russian War Resisters

July to December 2022 - Juillet à décembre 2022

In case you missed it, we've published our biannual summary of activities last month. Here are the legislation and issues we worked on from July to December 2022:

• Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
• Bill C-26, An Act respecting cyber security & amending the Telecommunications Act
• Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
• "Online harms" proposal
• Countering terrorist financing & prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
• International Assistance and anti-terrorism laws
• Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
• CSIS accountability and duty of candour
• Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
• Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
• Justice for Moe Harkat and abolish security certificates
• Canada’s armed drone purchase
• Listing of Iranian Canadians
• Ongoing No Fly List problems

For more details on each issue, click here. And here are the issues we plan to work on in the first half of 2023:

• Advocating for changes to anti-terror laws that prohibit Canadian organizations from providing international assistance in Afghanistan and other regions in need;
• 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 privacy law reform;
• Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility;
• Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law;
• The return of the 40+ Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including more than 20 children;
• The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities;
• Pushing for Canadian government action on behalf of Iranian Canadians negatively and unjustly impacted by the US terror listing of the IRGC;
• Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency;
• 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;
• And much more! Read more - Lire plus

Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG.