SHARE:  
Facebook  Instagram  X  Web  YouTube

View as Webpage

Logo_ICLMG_HR NEWS DIGEST.jpg

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

August 30, 2024 - 30 août 2024

New online event: Twenty Years of Defending Civil Liberties From the Impact of Counter-terrorism!

20-Years-of-Defending-Civil-Liberties image

ICLMG 27/08/2024 - Please join us for the launch of Defending Civil Liberties in an Age of National Security and Counter-terrorism, a new publication from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group featuring 27 pieces from leading experts, activists and ICLMG members reflecting on the past twenty years and the challenges that lie ahead.


Wednesday, September 11, 2024

7:00PM ET

Please register for the webinar here


The launch event will feature a panel with four of our contributors:


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


Please share widely via email + Facebook post & event + Twitter + Instagram

Fareed Khan: Canada shows it doesn’t really care about stopping genocide

Fars_Photo_of_Casualties_in_Gaza_Strip_during_2023_War_05-e1723657313431 image

rabble.ca 14/08/2024 - The international legal order along with the human rights of Palestinians under Israeli rule and in the West are under assault by Israel and its Western cheer leaders like never before as three foundational documents of the UN go ignored: the UN CharterGenocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


As the world marks 10 months since the start of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Israel, we have to question whether Canada’s leaders who often claim to be defenders of human rights and the “international rule of law” actually believe in standing behind these documents and treaties, and whether Canada truly cares about stopping genocide. Because if Canada’s response to past genocides and current Israeli crimes in Gaza since October are any indication the answer seems to be “no”.


Since its election in 2015 the government of Justin Trudeau has often talked about Canada being a “rule of law nation” and a defender of human rights. But such political rhetoric is meaningless if his government does nothing to back that claim, particularly as the world witnesses the Palestinian genocide with almost 47,000 Palestinians killed by Israel as of mid-July.


In September 2018 the House of Commons and Senate made history when they each passed motions with unanimous support declaring the atrocities committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya in 2017–18 as a genocide, becoming the first country to do so. Subsequently the Canadian government did little of substance to follow it up with actions to stop the on-going crimes.


In February 2021 the House of Commons passed a motion declaring China’s persecution of its Uyghur minority as genocide. Of 338 MPs 266 voted in favour of the motion with the entire cabinet but one being absent for the vote. Since then, the Canadian government has done nothing of consequence, either on its own or with other like minded nations, to help stop the Uyghur genocide.


In January of this year the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an interim ruling on South Africa’s genocide case for Israeli crimes in Gaza calling it “plausible” that Palestinians were victims of genocide. Twelve other countries have joined South Africa’s case, including Ireland, and Canada’s NATO allies Belgium and Spain, but not Canada. This is another instance of Canada doing nothing to help stop genocidal crimes. Even a motion in the House of Commons tabled by the NDP and supported by NDP, Bloc Quebecois, Green Party and all but three Liberal MPs calling for a ceasefire and an end to Canadian arms sales to Israel, hasn’t compelled the Trudeau government to act. Canada continues to be complicit in Israeli crimes by selling Israel weapons.


Under the Genocide Convention Israel is committing four of the five crimes against Palestinians defined as genocide. By all appearances, these alleged crimes have been perpetrated “with an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”, including: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.


Even Jewish and Israeli academics have signed letters and petitions calling Israeli atrocities a genocide. Israeli scholar Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, has called Israel’s actions “A textbook case of genocide”. And hundreds of thousands of Jews in the diaspora have joined pro-Palestinian protests in Western nations demanding an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza.


Signatories to the Genocide Convention are legally bound to prevent the crime from happening and also prosecute perpetrators. Canada has done neither in the past, and has run interference at the ICJ and the International Criminal Court in recent years by criticizing both courts and interfering in their investigations into genocidal crimes committed by Israel and its leaders.


Canada’s failure to live up to its international legal obligations isn’t new. Along with the Rohingya and Uyghur genocides it failed to act to prevent the Rwandan genocide, the Balkans genocide, the Darfur genocide, and now the Palestinian genocide.


Claiming to support the international rule of law and institutions that enforce it but undermining each in the face of genocide is the ultimate act of hypocrisy and racism by Canada, especially given that Palestinians, Rwandans, the Rohingya, Uyghurs, Darfuris, and Muslims in the Balkans are non-white or predominantly Muslim. It’s clear through their words and actions that Liberal and Conservative governments have utterly failed to serve the cause of human rights and international rule of law in the past, and especially right now when Palestinians are facing genocide. They have only shown humanity for genocide victims after the fact, and empathy and compassion for them only when politically expedient. In doing so they demonstrate the deep racism of Canada’s foreign policy, that Canada and its leaders don’t really care about stopping genocide and seemingly never have. Source


Foreign Office counter-terrorism official quits over UK refusal to ban arms exports to Israel


NEW Ottawa protest: Flood the streets for Gaza! Sat August 31 at 2PM


NEW Tell Joly: Stop Shipment of Explosives to Israel!


NEW Stop the Contract: No Canadian Weapons to Israel


“Trying to Repeat the Nakba”: Israel Launches Largest Military Raids in West Bank in Two Decades


New Human Rights Watch report: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured by Israel


How Israel's Elite Intelligence Unit Targets Queer Palestinians in the West Bank


Inter Pares' letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on Gaza

Alex Neve: One year on: My shaken but determined belief that human rights will prevail in Northeast Syria

Letts-Banner-PMO_Hill image

Moving Rights Along blog 27/08/2024 - My confidence that my country is prepared truly to stand for human rights, particularly when it is controversial and politically risky to do so, is diminished and shaken today.


A year ago to the day, literally in the final hours of five days on the ground in Northeast Syria, I was part of a humanitarian civil society delegation – also including Senator Kim Pate, retired Canadian ambassador Scott Heatherington and immigration and human rights lawyer Hadayt Nazami – that was granted access to two Canadian men, held in two separate prisons.


It took considerable advocacy to get through those prison doors. For days we had been told variably that we would not be allowed to see any of the nine Canadian men we believed to be held in prisons in Northeast Syria, that it would be difficult to make arrangements to interview them and even, in Jack Letts’ case, that it was not known where he was being held.


Two days earlier we had been allowed to interview four women – one a Canadian citizen, the other three not – who among them are the mothers of thirteen young Canadian children, all of whom have been held in the dangerous, unhealthy and overcrowded Al-Roj detention camp for years.


Each of these interviews was haunting. There was much we could not ask, and much that they could not tell us, as prison and camp officials, and representatives of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (which is the Syrian Kurdish de facto governing authority for this region, faced with enormous security and humanitarian challenges and nowhere near enough international support), were present at all times. But even under those constraints there were so many deeply troubling accounts that came spilling out.


Violence and mistreatment, and fear of more. A range of serious health concerns, including for the children, which largely go under or untreated. Disregard for the well-being and best interests of those children, including something as vital as access to basic education. The soul-destroying prospect of mothers and children being forced apart. Dangerous, life-threatening and inhumane conditions in the camps and prisons. Inadequate food and safe water. Women facing menacing threats, sexual violence and attacks from others in the camps. Men in the prisons virtually cut off from the outside world, including from wives, parents, siblings and children who in some instances have had no word even if they are still alive for over five years. And so much more. It is, in fact, hard to think of a universal human rights principle that is not disregarded and violated in these cruel places of detention.


Overarching all of this is wholesale contempt for the most fundamental principle of liberty and justice, that no one should be arbitrarily locked up without being charged with a recognized offence and given access to a fair and prompt legal process that offers them a meaningful opportunity to present a defence. No one should endure that for seven weeks or seven months, let alone the seven years and counting that has become the Kafkaesque reality for most of these Canadians, and for the tens of thousands of others, both Syrian and foreign nationals, who have been illegally detained, abused and forgotten for years. Foreign intelligence and policing services are given free rein, particularly the FBI, and seem to interview prisoners, particularly the men, whenever they like. But never with a lawyer and never toward the goal of bringing charges or being released.


It all feels like Guantánamo Bay redux, this time on steroids. The same determined effort to warehouse a huge number of people as far beyond the reach and protection of the law as possible, attaching the same extremist label to all of them, and with absolutely no end in sight. At Guantánamo it was hundreds of people, in Northeast Syria it is tens of thousands. At Guantánamo it was a handful of children, in Northeast Syria over 25,000 are kids.


Perhaps what is most galling for me today, a year after those two prison visits and the time we spent in the camp, is the Canadian government’s utter disregard for its own citizens, including the seven children who are still there. There has been no lack of ploys behind and excuses for that disinterest and inaction.

First and foremost, in the court of public opinion they have all been tarred with the accusatory brush of being ISIS fighters, militants and supporters, who made their own egregious choices to leave Canada to engage in terrorism and therefore deserve no sympathy or assistance. Seemingly this extends even to five-year-old children? Women who were trafficked? Men who were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Of course, there may well be credible evidence that points to some of these individuals being responsible for acts of serious criminality. All the more reason, therefore, to make sure that justice runs its course. We have the police, intelligence services, laws and courts to do so.


We have also repeatedly been told that consular assistance is not being provided and repatriation has been slow to materialize because it is too dangerous, too expensive, too isolated and too difficult for Canadian officials to travel to the area. Our own travel exposed that to be an excuse with no clothes.

We continue to press the government to comply with human rights through consular support and, critically, repatriation. UN experts have in fact made it clear that the only way to protect human rights in these circumstances is for governments to repatriate their citizens from Northeast Syria, to bring them home either to freedom or to a fair system of justice. All we get back in response are variations of the same empty complaint: these are complex cases. Of course they are; whoever said otherwise. But while that excuse may have been somewhat justified at early stages, it is definitely not as we pass seven years of illegal detention and unrelenting grave harms.


The last prisoner we were allowed to interview on that Sunday night a year ago was Jack Letts, in the waning hours of our final day. At the end of the interview, he asked us whether we thought he would still be there, locked up and abandoned, in ten years. It was an impossible question to answer. On one hand we did not want to crush his hope and on the other, we did not want to give rise to false hope. I said that I was sure he would not be there in ten years but made it clear that he was not imminently going to be freed. Right or wrong, naïve or optimistic, I told him that I was hopeful he would be back in Canada within a year. 


Today marks the one-year anniversary of that hopeful one-year prediction I offered Jack. Clearly I got it wrong and my faith that ultimately Canadian justice would take hold was entirely misplaced. I can only imagine how empty and hollow any assurances of justice and the rule of law must seem to him in his prison cell today. When he posed the question to me he had been locked up for over six years. Now it is seven years and nearly four months; and counting.


If I was back in that prison today, meeting again with Jack, would I, in all honesty, have to admit that my belief that Canada is a country that would not allow such blatant injustice and disregard for the tenets of international human rights to continue for another decade has been shattered? Perhaps I would, but I refuse to go to that place of cynicism and cave in to the hopeless despair that has come to define not only Canada’s, but the world’s approach to the plight of the tens of thousands of people, more than half of them children, who remain illegally detained in Northeast Syria.


It will take work to deliver justice, of course it will. It will cost money to deliver justice, of course it will. It will take political will and courage to deliver justice, of course it will. But continuing to turn our back on justice is untenable and profoundly, morally wrong. It betrays our shared humanity. That, in the long run, is far more expensive.


If instead of our delegation a year ago, it had been a Canadian government official meeting with Jack in that prison (which they have never done), how would they have answered? We have no idea when you will leave this place? So be it if your detention is indeterminate and indefinite? There is presently no end in sight? We simply cannot abide by that; it is too deep a betrayal of what we aspire to as a nation.


It pains me to know that I let Jack down when I gave him hope of justice within a year. And that I let him down because my country has essentially decided that human rights do not fully apply to him or to other Canadians trapped in the harrowing labyrinth of injustice in Northeast Syria. Enough. This simply has to end. Now. I’m not giving up. None of us can. Source


Danish Supreme Court orders government to repatriate Danish boy with non-citizen mother to ensure the child's rights and well-being


ACTION Call to save and repatriate Jack Letts and other Canadians illegally detained in NE Syria!


ACTION Email to urge Canada to repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

Green Party of Canada Stands Against the Extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab

The Green Party 28/08/2024 - The Green Party of Canada expresses deep disappointment with the Government of Canada’s inadequate response to Petition e-4901, which seeks to address the ongoing injustices faced by Dr. Hassan Diab and his family. The government's statement, which merely reiterates the confidentiality of extradition requests, fails to provide the meaningful response that Canadians deserve.



Dr. Diab, now 70 years old, was wrongfully extradited to France on November 14, 2014, under a case described by extradition Judge Maranger as “weak” with “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely.” Dr. Diab spent over three years in a Paris prison, much of it in solitary confinement, without ever being formally charged or tried. Two senior anti-terrorist investigating judges concluded in January 2018 that there was no evidence to justify a trial, leading to Dr. Diab’s release and return to Canada.


However, in a grave miscarriage of justice, a French appeal led to a summary trial in April 2023, during which Dr. Diab was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment based on hearsay and secret, anonymous intelligence. Strong alibi and other exculpatory evidence was disregarded by the court.


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in June 2018 that “what happened to Hassan Diab should never have happened” and assured that such an ordeal should never occur again. The Green Party of Canada calls upon the Government of Canada to uphold this commitment and formally declare that Canada will neither accept nor agree to any second request for the extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab.


“Dr. Diab has been living under a perpetual state of uncertainty, a limbo that has taken a severe toll on him and his loved ones,” said Leader Elizabeth May. “The government’s response does nothing to address this, nor does it offer any assurance that Dr. Diab will be protected from further unjust actions.”


The Green Party calls for a more substantive and compassionate approach from the Government of Canada—one that actively seeks to end this prolonged state of limbo. Dr. Diab and his family deserve to live without the constant fear of another wrongful extradition, and it is incumbent upon the government to ensure that their rights and freedoms are fully upheld.


The case of Dr. Hassan Diab is a stark reminder of the critical importance of protecting the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens. The Green Party of Canada stands firm in its opposition to any further attempts to extradite Dr. Diab and urges the Government of Canada to take a decisive stance against this ongoing injustice. We urge the government to take decisive action to protect Dr. Diab and to provide a clear and just resolution to this case. Source


ACTION Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

National security agencies should explain how they're using AI: federal advisory body

Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-7 image

The Canadian Press 23/08/2024 - A federal advisory body is calling on Canada's security agencies to publish detailed descriptions of their current and intended uses of artificial intelligence systems and software applications.

In a new report, the National Security Transparency Advisory Group also urges the government to look at amending legislation being considered by Parliament to ensure oversight of federal agencies' use of AI.


The recommendations are among the latest proposed by the group, created in 2019 to increase accountability and public awareness of national security policies, programs and activities. The government considers the group an important means of implementing a six-point federal commitment to be more transparent about national security.


Security agencies are already using AI for tasks ranging from translation of documents to detection of malware threats. The report foresees increased reliance on the technology to analyze large volumes of text and images, recognize patterns, and interpret trends and behaviour. As use of AI expands across the national security community, "it is essential that the public know more about the objectives and undertakings" of national border, police and spy services, the report says. "Appropriate mechanisms must be designed and implemented to strengthen systemic and proactive openness within government, while better enabling external oversight and review."


The 'black box' problem


As the government collaborates with the private sector on national security objectives, "openness and engagement" are crucial enablers of innovation and public trust, while "secrecy breeds suspicion," the report says. A key challenge in explaining the inner workings of AI to public is the "opacity of algorithms and machine learning models" — the so-called "black box" that could lead even national security agencies to lose understanding of their own AI applications, the report notes.


Ottawa has issued guidance on federal use of artificial intelligence, including a requirement to carry out an algorithmic impact assessment before creation of a system that assists or replaces the judgment of human decision-makers. It has also introduced the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, currently before Parliament, to ensure responsible design, development and rollout of AI systems.


However, the act and a new AI commissioner would not have jurisdiction over government institutions such as security agencies. The advisory group is recommending that Ottawa look at extending the proposed law to cover them. [...]


CSIS said work is underway to formalize plans and governance concerning use of artificial intelligence, with transparency underpinning all considerations. "Given CSIS's mandate," it added, "there are important limitations on what can be publicly discussed in order to protect the integrity of operations, including matters related to the use of AI." In 2021, Daniel Therrien, the federal privacy commissioner at the time, found the RCMP broke the law by using cutting-edge facial-recognition software to collect personal information.


Therrien said the RCMP failed to ensure compliance with the Privacy Act before it gathered information from U.S. firm Clearview AI. Clearview AI's technology allowed for the collection of vast numbers of images from various sources that could help police forces, financial institutions and other clients identify people. In response to the concern over Clearview AI, the RCMP created the Technology Onboarding Program to evaluate compliance of collection techniques with privacy legislation.


The transparency advisory group report urges the Mounties to tell the public more about the initiative. "If all activities carried out under the Onboarding Program are secret, transparency will continue to suffer," it says. The RCMP said it plans to soon publish a transparency blueprint that will provide an overview of the onboarding program's key principles for responsible use of technologies, as well as details about tools the program has assessed. The Mounties said they are also developing a national policy on the use of AI that will include a means of ensuring transparency about tools and safeguards.


The transparency advisory group also chides the government for a lack of public reporting on the progress or achievements of its transparency commitment. It recommends a formal review of the commitment with "public reporting of initiatives undertaken, impacts to date, and activities to come."


Public Safety Canada said the report's various recommendations have been shared with the department's deputy minister and the broader national security community, including relevant committees. However, the department stopped short of saying whether it agreed with recommendations or providing a timeline for implementing them. Read more - Lire more


ACTION Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!


CBSA to use facial recognition app for people facing deportation amid privacy concerns


Homeland Security wants to use face recognition technology on drivers and passengers approaching the border

Who saved Chinese Family Services?

Who-Saved-Chinese-Family-Services-1 image

The rover 23/08/2024 - Chinese Family Services was a hair strand away from losing their building. 


Earlier this spring, they fell behind on their mortgage payment with Caisse Desjardins. The bank was quick to start procedures to seize the building and their operating account which effectively tied the organization’s hands. 



They would’ve been left with just one option: to shut down. 

The trouble started a year earlier, when the RCMP put forth allegations that the organization might be a Chinese “police station” sending information back to the Chinese government. In the aftermath, Chinese Family Services (CFS) have lost millions in funding and had to cut down on services and their staff. 


Yet, just a few months after the allegations came out, the RCMP announced that they found the Chinese police stations (in Toronto and Vancouver) and shut down all illegal activity. When asked to clarify publically that CFS was not one of the illegal police stations, the RCMP maintained that they are still investigating the organization. 


The organization occupies the third floor of the building on Rue Clark in the heart of Chinatown and rents the other spaces out to different groups. But since the allegations, the flood of mainstream media coverage, it’s become increasingly difficult to rent out the space. On May 1, 2024, with no tenants at hand, the bank did not renew the mortgage and started sending out letters to the staff at CFS to empty the building.  


With the organization’s operation account drained, CFS was at the bank’s mercy. But the organization’s director Xixi Li wasn’t ready to give up her fight. By reaching out to the community for help, Li found 10 people, including herself, who all mortgaged their houses to pay the balance to the bank. Li herself was unable to speak publicly about this topic because of CFS’s recent court case against the RCMP, suing them for $4.9 million in damages and lost funding. 


“It shows the resilience and the determination of the community to save their social services organization. Because we really, we almost lost everything,” says May Chiu, community activist in Montreal’s Chinatown, who also mortgaged her house. “But on the verge of losing everything, the community stepped up, we’ve dug into our own personal resources and saved the centre.” 



Still, it was a risky decision for Chiu to mortgage her own house and put her life savings on the line. But as CFS’ former director, Chiu knows firsthand how the organization helps people. She knows that it is both the first and last resort for everything from translating students’ notes from school for parents to helping victims of domestic abuse. And she thought, “Well, where are people going to go if that organization is shut down?” [...]


With the level of scrutiny on Chinatown, community members have been reluctant to speak up about the issue because no one wants to be investigated by the RCMP. Chiu also explains that people in the community have been fearful of going to CFS for their services because of the allegations. The fear that comes from these allegations has forced the community to limit their own freedom of speech and freedom of association.


Chiu says she knew one person who has friends in Toronto who wanted someone to do a health check on their aging parents in Montreal, and usually they would call CFS, but reached out to Chiu wondering if it’s even safe to call CFS now. “So people deprive themselves of the services… I think it has had a chilling effect,” says Chiu, adding that people are even scared to defend CFS in case the RCMP will personally come after them. “So we impose on ourselves, we limit our own freedom of speech. I think that people also are afraid because they can’t even say anything positive about China without thinking, ‘Am I going to be accused of being pro-Chinese?’” says Chiu. [...]


Despite this heightened focus on Chinese Canadians and the fear of foreign interference, Quebec’s Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said his office is regularly in communication with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and the main intelligence agencies in the country. “We have no reason to believe that there is any interference or anything else going on in Quebec,” said Bonnardel. 


David Johnston, the former independent special rapporteur on foreign interference, echoed the same sentiments in his first report from May 2023. Johnston also notes that, “it is crucial that efforts to combat foreign interference do not cause discrimination against diaspora populations. Diaspora communities are largely victims of foreign interference activities. This is especially (although not uniquely) true for the Chinese Canadian diaspora, since so much of the recent discussion of foreign interference has focused on the (People’s Republic of China).” 


The psychology of ‘Yellow Peril’ in Canada


In order to understand what’s happening today to the Chinese-Canadian community, Dere says it’s crucial to look into Canada’s past — particularly the yellow peril. The yellow peril was used to exclude Chinese people from coming into Canada, first with the Chinese head tax introduced in 1885 and then with the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1923 to 1947. The term itself, according to Dere, is used to describe the alleged power of Asiatic peoples, especially the Chinese, to threaten or destroy the supremacy of white or Western civilization. 


“For 60 odd years of Canada’s history, there was legislation against a whole race of people from China. People need to understand that to understand the psychology of Canadian history, and also the wider Western approach to China,” says Dere. 


In our present political context, these deep histories of racism and discrimination show up in different ways. COVID-19 brought out a wave of anti-Asian racism in Canada. The political “witch hunt” (as Dere describes it) towards many Chinese Canadians across the country is also bringing the history of Chinese exclusion to the surface. 


“There’s a yellow peril 2.0 happening today, and it’s not the blatant racism of the past… Today, what is happening is that you have Chinese exclusion and Chinese discrimination in the form of xenophobia under the guise of the China threat — that China or Chinese people are a threat to the civilization and democratic values of the West,” says Dere. 


In reality, those under scrutiny like CFS do crucial work to support Canadians. CFS has been in Montreal for around five decades, offering bread and butter services for Chinese immigrants like employment help, French language classes, and legal aid, just to name a few. It’s the only place along with its sister organization the Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud that provide support specifically for Chinese immigrants in the city. Read more - Lire plus

BC’s Secretive Plan to Tighten Protest Response

CivilDisobedienceCollage image

The Tyee 28/08/2024 - On the heels of the last significant police action on Wet’suwet’en territory, B.C. quietly embarked on a process to “streamline” its response to what it saw as a rising wave of protests across the province.


Weeks after the RCMP arrested 30 people on Nov. 18 and 19, 2021, along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route, the Civil Disobedience Work Plan was launched by B.C.’s Public Safety Ministry following direction from the premier’s office, according to documents obtained by The Tyee through freedom of information requests.


In addition to CGL opposition, the province was concerned with protests against old-growth logging at Fairy Creek and demonstrations that began in February 2022 against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures.


“Government, law enforcement and the justice system recognize that all Canadians have the right to peaceful protest,” the Public Safety Ministry’s Policing and Security Branch wrote in internal briefing notes introducing the initiative in early 2022. “However, the magnitude and frequency of protests that have exceeded the boundaries of this right and interfere with public safety, private enterprise, government operations and civil society have demonstrated that the current tools to deal with this issue are insufficiently robust.”


Efforts to develop a plan got underway on Jan. 25, 2022, with a meeting among the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and police leaders, according to the documents. The work plan was meant to result in a “new model” for managing civil disobedience in B.C., according to an internal briefing note prepared for deputy solicitor general Doug Scott on March 8, 2022. Scott approved the work plan the following month.


It’s not clear where the process led or what changes may have resulted. The Tyee emailed questions about the Civil Disobedience Work Plan and its outcomes to B.C.’s Public Safety Ministry on Aug. 7 but the ministry did not provide a response prior to publication. Aislin Jackson, policy staff counsel with the BC Civil Liberties Association, said one glaring omission from the work plan is public consultation.


“From the materials, it seems like they don’t see the public, who engages in protest activity, or civil society groups like ours that are watchdogs for protest rights, as stakeholders in this conversation,” Jackson told The Tyee. “When they’re talking about stakeholders, it seems like mostly they’re talking about various branches of the government and the police.”


Among the changes considered by the plan was an “Integrated Protest Response Team” to respond to civil unrest. The plan also considered new information systems to “enhance government monitoring of protests” and ensure consistent messaging across provincial ministries, as well as plans to “update the information management system and policies to allow broader access to policing data.”


Documents show that the government also contemplated a communications strategy to combat negative publicity related to police actions, which have attracted scrutiny by First Nations groupsindependent police watchdogshuman rights organizations and the courts. “How to counteract the negative narrative re: police response. Should we do an info campaign to the public? Narratives to avoid/include?” reads a note in one document meant to track progress on the work plan.


The first phase of the the Civil Disobedience Work Plan, which began in March 2022, was meant to identify gaps related to managing protests and explore “legislative, regulatory and policy tools” to improve the province’s response to civil disobedience. The second phase, which began September 2022, would see the Public Safety Ministry play a co-ordinating role with other provincial ministries, “including those who manage projects that attract civil disobedience.”


The ministries flagged for engagement included Indigenous Relations, Lands, Forests, Energy and Mines, Environment, and Transportation, according to briefing notes. Also included were B.C.’s LNG Canada Implementation Secretariat, the BC Energy Regulator and the Environmental Assessment Office. [...]


Secretive ‘Critical Incident Secretariat’ played role in plan


Records obtained by The Tyee also show that a mysterious arm of the provincial government’s Policing and Security Branch was involved in guiding the discussions. The Critical Incident Secretariat is not mentioned on the B.C. government’s website and the Public Safety Ministry did not respond to a request for information about the department.


The secretariat provides “situational awareness throughout the province regarding protests pertaining to the natural resources sector,” according to the March 2022 briefing note. It was prepared by an unidentified author whose name and affiliation are redacted under sections of B.C.’s information and privacy act that protect personal information and law enforcement.


According to the briefing note, the Critical Incident Secretariat consists of an RCMP liaison and representatives from “several impacted ministries in the resource extraction, Indigenous relations and justice sectors.” It is funded and operated by the Public Safety Ministry and “has a contracted resource who maintains ongoing situational awareness” related to Fairy Creek, Coastal GasLink, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and “convoy style protests.” [...]


Jackson said the focus on information collection within the Civil Disobedience Work Plan — including the enhanced role of the Critical Incident Secretariat, which was attending regular meetings with industry and police in order to provide updates to senior provincial officials — “absolutely” raises concerns about privacy.


“We are generally concerned whenever we see surveillance of protesters,” Jackson said. “There’s an inherently political dimension to policing protests and we certainly see that there appear to be differential levels of police force applied to people with different causes.”


Jackson added that “networks of information sharing could potentially lead to information about people in Canada’s political activity being shared with intelligence agencies abroad through information sharing with federal-level police, the RCMP and CSIS.”


“That can go out to our Five Eyes partners and disseminate from there,” Jackson said, “and it’s hard to know what is being done with that information once it gets disseminated.” The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance composed of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.


This creates fear for people with loved ones overseas who could be impacted by their protest activity here in Canada, Jackson added. “It has a significant chilling impact on people’s ability to engage in political expression.”


BC silent on work plan outcomes


According to the March 2022 briefing note introducing the work plan, its intended outcome was to be “a cross-government plan with a range of policy and funding options for consideration by decision makers.” By fall 2023, the province intended to share a draft of an unspecified deliverable for feedback, according to the documents. But it’s unclear where the process currently stands.


About half of the roughly 150-page document provided in response to The Tyee’s freedom of information request was withheld, and references to specific outcomes were redacted under a section of the act that protects government recommendations and policy advice. The work plan’s timeline coincides with provincial efforts to make the RCMP’s Critical Response Unit — British Columbia, or CRU-BC, a unit formerly known as the Community-Industry Response Group, a permanent part of the province’s policing.


The unit, which was created in 2017 in response to Indigenous-led pipeline opposition, faces allegations of misconduct related to arrests on Wet’suwet’en territory and Fairy Creek protests. It is currently the subject of a systemic investigation by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, the RCMP’s federal oversight body. Calls for its disbanding have come from as high as the United Nations. Despite the controversies, the province has moved toward formalizing CRU-BC’s role in the BC RCMP.


The Tyee reported earlier this year that CRU-BC’s mandate had expanded from resource industry conflicts to encompass protests more broadly, with its officers most recently appearing at demonstrations opposing Israel’s war on Gaza. An RCMP spokesperson said at the time that the unit’s approach to public disorder had been adopted as a “national best practice.” Civil Disobedience Work Plan documents appear to link the initiative with efforts to make CRU-BC a permanent fixture in the province. Read more - Lire plus


Meet the hereditary chief who Amnesty International calls Canada’s first prisoner of conscience


EVENT In Conversation with Canada’s First Prisoner of Conscience: Chief Dsta’hyl, Sept 25 at noon ET


BC Illegally Collected Personal Info Tied to the Wet’suwet’en Conflict

'This is what the US military was doing in Iraq': Photos of 2005 Haditha massacre finally published

this-photo-shows-the-arm-of-an-iraqi-woman-killed-in-the-haditha-massacre image

Common Dreams 28/08/2024 - After years of working with Iraqis whose relatives were killed by U.S. Marines in the 2005 Haditha massacre, American journalists finally obtained and released photos showing the grisly aftermath of the bloody rampage—whose perpetrators never spent a day behind bars.


On Tuesday, The New Yorker published 10 of the massacre photos—part of a collaboration with the "In the Dark" podcast that joined the magazine last year. The podcast's reporting team had filed its public records request four years ago, then sued the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Central Command over their failure to hand over the images. "In the Dark" host Madeleine Baran also traveled with a colleague to Iraq's remote Anbar Province to meet relatives of some of the 24 Iraqi civilians—who ranged in age from 1 to 76—slaughtered by U.S. troops.


"The impact of an alleged war crime is often directly related to the horror of the images that end up in the hands of the public." Baran explained that she sought the relatives' help partly because "we anticipated that the government would claim that the release of the photos would harm the surviving family members of the dead," as "military prosecutors had already made this argument after the trial of the final accused Marine."


Khalid Salman Raseef, an attorney who lost 15 members of his family in the massacre, told Baran that "I believe this is our duty to tell the truth." The graphic photos show dead Iraqi men, women, and children, many of them shot in the head at close range. One 5-year-old girl, Zainab Younis Salim, is shown with the number 11 written on her back in red marker by a U.S. Marine who wanted to differentiate the victims in photos.


On November 19, 2005, a convoy of Humvees carrying Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, First Marine Division was traveling through Haditha when a roadside bomb believed to have been placed by Iraqis resisting the U.S. invasion killed Miguel Terrazas, a popular lance corporal, and wounded two other Marines.


In retaliation, Marines forced a nearby taxicab to stop and ordered the driver and his four student passengers out of the vehicle. Sgt. Frank Wuterich then executed the five men in cold blood. Another Marine then desecrated their bodies, including by urinating on them. Wuterich then ordered his men to "shoot first and ask questions later," and they went house to house killing everyone they saw. They killed seven people in the Walid family home, including a toddler and an elderly couple.


"I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny," Iman Walid, a survivor who was 8 years old when her family was slain, toldTime in 2006.

Next, the Marines killed eight people in the Salim family home, six of them children. Finally, the troops executed four brothers in a closet in the Ahmad family home.


The Marines subsequently conspired to cover up what a military probe would deem a case of "collateral damage." The military initially claimed that 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by the same explosion that took Terrazas' life. However, a local doctor who examined the victims' bodies said they "were shot in the chest and head from close range."


Eight Marines were eventually charged in connection with the massacre. Six defendants were found not guilty and one had their case dismissed. Initially charged with murder, Wuterich pleaded guilty and was convicted of dereliction of duty. He was punished with a reduction in rank and was later honorably discharged from service.


Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis—who earned his "Mad Dog" moniker during one of the atrocity-laden battles for the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004—intervened on behalf of the Haditha defendants and personally dismissed charges against one of them.


Later, while serving as former President Donald Trump's defense secretary, Mattis oversaw an escalation in what he called the U.S. war of "annihilation" against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The general warned that "civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation," and thousands of men, women, and children were subsequently slaughtered as cities including Mosul and Raqqa were leveled.


The Haditha massacre was part of countless U.S. war crimes and atrocities committed during the ongoing so-called War on Terror, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of civilian lives in at least half a dozen countries since 2001. One of the reasons why the Haditha massacre is relatively unknown compared with the torture and killings at the U.S. military prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq is that photos of the former crime have been kept hidden for decades.


"The impact of an alleged war crime is often directly related to the horror of the images that end up in the hands of the public," Baran wrote in the New Yorker article. She noted that Gen. Michael Hagee, who commanded the Marines at the time of the Haditha massacre, later boasted how "proud" he was about keeping photos of the killings secret. "This," journalist Murtaza Hussain reminded the world on Tuesday, "is what the U.S. military was doing in Iraq." Source

UN report calls for UK to pay reparations over Prevent abuses

000_36EC7KD image

MEE 23/08/2024 - United Nations report has slammed the UK’s counter-terrorism policies and called for the suspension of Prevent, as well as advocating reparations for people abused under the programme.



This significant intervention heavily criticises the previous Conservative government’s approach to “counter-terrorism” and “counter-extremism” for negatively impacting British Muslims. It also places the new Labour government under renewed pressure to reform the policies.


The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is expected to publish its concluding observations on submissions made by the UK government in Geneva on 13 and 14 August. An advance copy of the report, seen by Middle East Eye, says that British counter-terrorism strategies “have created an atmosphere of suspicion towards members of Muslim communities and continue to have a negative impact on the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, education, health and freedoms of religion and peaceful assembly.”


The committee levelled specific criticism at the UK’s controversial Prevent strategy. Prevent targets all forms of “extremism”, and requires public sector workers - including doctors, teachers and nursery staff - to report signs of potential radicalisation and "prevent people being drawn into terrorism". The UN committee said it is “particularly concerned about the high number of interventions and referrals of persons belonging to Muslim communities, especially children, to the Prevent programme, including by teachers, health and other public sector personnel. 


“It is also concerned about the lack of effective guarantees against abuse and of lack of adequate access to important personal information such as recorded in police files.” The report strikes a blow to the conclusions of the Conservative government’s review of the policy in February 2023, which said Prevent needed to target “Islamist” terrorism more, and suggested that this threat was being downplayed for fear of causing offence. In contrast, CERD has argued that Prevent disproportionately targets Muslims.


The committee has called on the UK government to “revise” its counter-terrorism strategies: “With a view to eliminate any discriminatory and disproportionate impact on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of members of ethnic and ethnoreligious minorities, including children.” Significantly, the committee has recommended that the government “suspend” Prevent “and adopt robust measures to guarantee that while these counterterrorism strategies remain in force, they do not result, in purpose or effect, in profiling and discrimination”. The report further calls for people affected by “abuse of the existing measures” to be given access to “adequate reparations” - including “children and their families”.


New 'counter-extremism' strategy


The report by the UN comes less than a week after the British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper commissioned a rapid review to inform a new “counter-extremism” strategy on tackling “extremist ideologies”. She vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs” and accused Prevent of being out of date. During the UK’s submission to the CERD, the government said it planned to bolster Prevent training to better spot signs of radicalisation. The CERD’s report takes aim at a range of government policies. It criticises another counter-terrorism policy, Schedule 7, which gives police and some immigration officers the power to hold people at airports and ports for six hours without any cause for suspicion. The report expresses concern that the policy has a “disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities”.


Rights & Security International, which provided evidence to the committee, said: "We are pleased that CERD has agreed with the multitude of academic and civil society research showing that Prevent is racist, while recognising our long-held concerns that there is no way for the government and the police to assess the strategy's discriminatory impacts. "The government must now scrap Prevent." Dr Layla Aitlhadj, director of Prevent Watch, told MEE: “The UN CERD's findings reinforce what civil society organisations and UN Special Rapporteurs have been warning about for nearly two decades.” “This is a crucial moment for the new government to acknowledge these human rights failures and take decisive action to suspend Prevent and fundamentally rethink its approach to counter-terrorism.”


Reem Abu-Hayyeh, racial justice campaigner at Amnesty International UK, told MEE the group welcomes CERD's findings. “It is essential that there is an independent monitoring mechanism and access to prompt and effective remedies for people affected by Prevent, a call which mirrors Amnesty's recommendations from our research into the human rights violations caused by Prevent. “With its current review of its counter-extremism strategy, the UK government has an opportunity to chart a new path forward. They must seize the opportunity to do so by ensuring that scrapping Prevent is within its parameters without seeking to replace it with something similar." Source


UK prosecutors drop case against academic over posts related to 7 October attack


UK: Now a Palestine Action activist has been charged under the Terrorism Act


Counter-terror cops arrest British independent journalist Sarah Wilkinson in the UK


'Can't Make This Up': Journalist Arrested Under UK Anti-Terror Law Hours After Criticizing It

Stop the Crackdown in Bangladesh!

Screenshot-2024-08-30-at-2 image

Amnesty International 05/08/2024 - Bangladesh witnessed the deadliest crackdown against protesters in the country’s post-independence history. The heavy-handed response from the authorities has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of students, journalists, and bystanders, and injured thousands. Following the protests, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on 5 August. Sign the petition now and demand that the government of Bangladesh hold those responsible accountable and urgently end the oppression.


On July 1, 2024, university students launched protests to demand reforms in the existing quota-system which reserves 30% of government jobs for descendants of independence war veterans claiming that it unjustly favours supporters of the ruling party. The protests were met with a severe crackdown by the authorities, resulting in 540 reported deaths. Thousands more people were injured. Mass arrests of protesters occurred nationwide with the government accusing over 213,000 people in around 200 cases. 


Amnesty International’s investigations show that security forces responded to the protests with unlawful, and sometimes lethal, force. The Bangladesh authorities also failed to prevent attacks against protesters allegedly carried out by members of the Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL), a group affiliated with the ruling party. The authorities issued a “shoot on sight” curfew and nationwide blackouts, cutting off the country from the rest of the world. The rights and safety of Bangladeshis are at serious risk. Immediate action is needed to hold those responsible to account.


To: Government of Bangladesh


Bangladesh is witnessing the deadliest crackdown against protesters in the country’s post-independence history. The government of Bangladesh must act urgently to uphold human rights.

We call on you to:

  • End the crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
  • Conduct a thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigation into the deaths and hold the perpetrators accountable.
  • Immediately release all those who have been arrested solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
  • Urgently strengthen legal and judicial capacity to undertake investigations into crimes under international law and gross human rights violations. Take action - Passez à l'action


Bangladesh revokes ban imposed on main Islamic party by ex-PM Hasina

Venezuela: Ongoing arbitrary detentions, disproportionate use of force fuelling climate of fear, Türk warns

UN News 13/08/2024 - UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Tuesday voiced his deep concern over the high and continuing number of arbitrary detentions, as well as disproportionate use of force reported in the aftermath of presidential elections in Venezuela, and the resulting climate of fear.


“It is especially troubling that so many people are being detained, accused or charged either with incitement to hatred or under counterterrorism legislation. Criminal law must never be used to limit unduly the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” the High Commissioner said.


According to official statements, over 2,400 people have been arrested since 29 July. This figure includes the arbitrary detention of protesters, human rights defenders, adolescents, people with disabilities, members of the opposition or those perceived to be connected to them, as well as people who served as electoral observers accredited by opposition parties in polling stations.


In most of the cases documented by the UN Human Rights Office, detainees have not been allowed to appoint lawyers of their choice or to have contact with their families. Some of these cases would amount to enforced disappearances. “I call for the immediate release of everyone who has been arbitrarily detained, and for fair trial guarantees for all detainees,” the High Commissioner said." Read more - Lire plus


NEW Urgent Action: Venezuela: Mass arrests of vulnerable groups


Venezuela’s many means of surveillance and control


#KeepItOn in Venezuela: Maduro must end his regime’s assault on free speech

Joint Statement: EU Should Press India to End Rights Abuses

GettyImages-2166623052-1468x710 image

Amnesty International 19/08/2024 - The European Union should press the government of India to immediately act to end serious human rights violations in the country, five organizations said today, ahead of the EU-India human rights dialogue scheduled for August 20, 2024.


The Indian Government should reverse its abusive and discriminatory laws and policies against Muslims, Christians, and other minorities; end restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; and free all human rights defenders, journalists, and others detained for exercising their basic human rights.


The groups are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), and CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide). The annual EU-India human rights dialogue is an important, though insufficient, opportunity for both the EU and India to articulate their concerns on human rights, the organizations said. The EU should call on the Indian government to uphold the rights to freedom of speech, assembly and religion, while the Indian government should raise concerns over increasing racist and xenophobic attacks in many parts of Europe, especially against migrants and minorities. [...]


The Indian government has escalated its crackdown on media, political opponents, and civil society groups, and is using allegations of financial irregularities and even its draconian anti-terrorism law to harass and prosecute human rights activists, journalists, students, government critics, peaceful protesters, and members of minority communities.


The Financial Action Task Force, of which the European Commission is a member, an intergovernmental organization that works to combat threats to the global financial system, has recommended that India put in place measures to prevent abusing anti-terror policies against nongovernmental groups. [...]


The Indian government has not restored freedom of speech and association to Jammu and Kashmir five years after revoking the region’s special autonomous status, on August 5, 2019. There are growing restrictions on media in the region. and a number of journalists and human rights defenders have been arrested on spurious terrorism charges. The authorities have failed to take adequate measures to protect minority Hindus from attacks by militants.


The Indian government has also used the anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, to arrest 16 prominent activists who promoted the rights of India’s severely marginalized Dalit and Adivasi [Indigenous] communities. While courts have granted bail to six people after several years in prison, nine activists are still detained without trial. Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who supported the rights of Adivasi communities, died in custody. The courts have repeatedly questioned the evidence against them. According to reports by the US-based forensic firm Arsenal Consulting, malware was used to surveil and plant evidence on the computers of at least three people accused in this case.


The Indian government faces increasing allegations of transnational repression – committing serious abuse beyond its borders. Several governments have accused Indian intelligence agencies of targeting terrorism suspects and separatist leaders for assassination in Canada, the United States and Pakistan. India has also targeted its critics in the diaspora by canceling visas of overseas Indians and barring them from entering the country.


In January, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on EU-India relations that raised urgent human rights concerns, including “violence, increasing nationalistic rhetoric and divisive policies” against minorities. The European Parliament recommended that the EU-India Human Rights Dialogue should be upgraded to a biannual, headquarters-level dialogue preceded by a civil society dialogue “setting concrete commitments and benchmarks for progress.”


The EU should ensure public oversight and accountability for the EU’s India policy. The EU should follow up on the outcomes from this dialogue in both public communications and diplomatic efforts, and integrate the lessons learned from it into the EU’s strategy on human rights in the wider framework of the planned Strategic EU-India Agenda.


As a matter of priority, the EU should urge the Indian government to:

  • Immediately release all arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, journalists, and other critics.
  • Repeal or amend repressive laws used to target minorities and those used to silence dissent both online and offline.
  • Implement the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations and conduct an adequate and transparent risk-based assessment before subjecting non-profit organizations to overbroad laws such as the FCRA.
  • Publicly condemn attacks on religious minorities and appropriately prosecute those responsible.
  • Instruct state governments to stop arbitrary and collective punishment of minority communities, including through so-called “bulldozer justice.”
  • Ensure security forces that commit human rights violations are held accountable.
  • Grant access to all United Nations independent experts and international human rights monitoring mechanisms, including in Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur. Read more - Lire plus

Kazakhstan: Unjustified ‘Financing Terrorism’ Restrictions

202408eca_kazakhstan_almaty_oppositionrally image

HRW 27/08/2024 - Peaceful opposition activists and others in Kazakhstan face unjustified state-imposed financial restrictions as a consequence of being prosecuted on overbroad extremist or terrorism-related criminal charges, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These financial restrictions can violate internationally protected economic, social, and cultural rights.


The 29-page report, “Politically Targeted, Economically Isolated: How Kazakhstan’s Financing Terrorism List Compounds Human Rights Harms,” documents that people on Kazakhstan’s Financing Terrorism List face financial restrictions that cause them significant hardship. The restrictions lead to violations of rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to which Kazakhstan is a state party, including the rights to an adequate standard of living and access to work and social security benefits. This is particularly egregious when the prosecutions are for alleged nonviolent “extremist” or “terrorist” crimes, that should not be considered crimes in the first place.


“If you participate in peaceful anti-government protests in Kazakhstan, not only can the government prosecute you as an ‘extremist,’ but it can cut you off financially,” said Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kazakhstan should immediately end its pernicious use of extremism and terrorism laws against peaceful critics and others and remove anyone currently on the Financing Terrorism List who has been convicted of nonviolent crimes.”


Human Rights Watch interviewed 18 people, 15 of whom had been prosecuted on extremism- or terrorism-related charges and 3 whose adult children had been prosecuted on such charges. Human Rights Watch also interviewed two human rights lawyers and reviewed relevant court documents and media articles pertaining to several of the cases documented in this report. Kazakhstan’s legislation does not distinguish between violent and nonviolent extremism and multiple articles in the criminal code relating to extremism and terrorism are vaguely worded and overbroad. Kazakhstan authorities have used these provisions to criminalize activities and speech that are protected under international human rights law.


Anyone prosecuted in Kazakhstan on criminal charges that authorities qualify as “extremist” or “terrorist” is automatically placed on the state’s “list of people and organizations associated with financing terrorism and extremism” regardless of whether the individual instigated, participated in, or funded violence. Under Kazakhstan’s 2009 money laundering law, people on the Financing Terrorism List are blocked from accessing their bank accounts and cannot use credit or debit cards. They are also banned from conducting certain financial transactions at notaries or post offices, for example. A majority of people interviewed for the report were prosecuted for alleged “participation in a banned extremist organization,” an overbroad criminal charge that authorities have long used to harass and silences peaceful opposition activists. Read more - Lire plus

China: UN rights office reiterates need to review national security framework

image1170x530cropped image

UN News 27/08/2024 - China still has “many problematic laws and policies” regarding the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region two years after the UN human rights office, OHCHR, published a report on serious violations against the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. 


The 31 August 2022 report stated that violations had taken place in the context of the Government’s assertion that it was targeting terrorists among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy, involving the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.


Detailed exchanges and dialogue


In an update to reporters, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office have had detailed exchanges with the Government of China on critical issues. Topics included counter-terrorism laws and policies, criminal justice, and other policies of concern that impact the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including in Xinjiang and the Tibet Autonomous Region.


Equality and non-discrimination, as well as national security and human rights concerns in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were also addressed. Ms. Shamdasani highlighted that a UN human rights team had visited China in June and engaged in dialogue with the authorities, specifically on counter-terrorism policies and the criminal justice system.


Review laws, investigate allegations


“In particular, on Xinjiang, we understand that many problematic laws and policies remain in place, and we have called again on the authorities to undertake a full review, from the human rights perspective, of the legal framework governing national security and counter-terrorism and to strengthen the protection of minorities against discrimination. Allegations of human rights violations, including torture, need to be fully investigated,” she said.


OHCHR hopes to continue active engagement with the Chinese Government, as well as civil society, “to seek tangible progress in the protection of human rights for all in China,” she added. The Office also continues to closely follow the current human rights situation in the country “despite the difficulties posed by limited access to information and the fear of reprisals against individuals who engage with the United Nations.”


“We have continued to raise with the Government individual cases of particular concern, calling on the authorities to take prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, and to clarify the status and whereabouts of those whose families have been seeking information about them,” she said.


Commitment to engage


Meanwhile, advocacy continues in connection with China’s implementation of these and other recommendations by OHCHR and other human rights mechanisms. Ms. Shamdasani concluded by saying the UN human rights chief Volker Türk “is committed to sustained engagement with the Government of China and to advocating on behalf of victims – always guided by the goal of helping improve human rights protections for the people on the ground.” Source


Jury convicts 1, clears 6 over 2019 bomb plot in Hong Kong’s first UN anti-terror trial

A Global Treaty to Fight Cybercrime—Without Combating Mercenary Spyware

un-general-assembly image

Lawfare 27/08/2024 - On Aug. 8, the international community concluded its final negotiations at the United Nations over an international cybercrime treaty. The treaty—now set to go to a vote before the UN General Assembly—is intended to align the cybercrime laws and investigatory police powers of its state parties. The negotiation process revealed deep fault lines within the global community about the role of human rights in the digital age. Amid a number of disputes, the treaty’s potential to fuel the global proliferation of mercenary spyware casts a looming shadow over its final draft. As the White House has underscored, state abuses of commercial spyware are a clear and pressing threat to human rights and to the national security interests of both the United States and its allies.



Proponents of the UN’s treaty process hoped to harmonize global efforts to combat transnational cybercrime. However, the treaty has come under intense fire—from civil societyleading security researchershuman rights authorities, the international press, and industry—for threatening to do far more harm than good for the digital security of the world’s population.


The draft treaty’s mandate calls for surveillance and cross-border data-sharing powers over a breathtaking range of online content—a vision that, as advocated by Russia, China, and other adversaries, dramatically overshoots a narrow focus of combating cybercrime. Chapters IV and V of the draft treaty call for surveillance and data-sharing obligations concerning any digital information of interest in domestic criminal law investigations in each country that is party to the treaty. The treaty is thus posed to flood already overloaded legal cooperation channels with low-priority or abusive police requests for digital information.


Recent Efforts at Countering the Proliferation of Mercenary Spyware


If adopted by the General Assembly, the UN’s treaty would represent one of the first major setbacks amid ongoing international efforts to combat mercenary spyware. Following the release of the White House’s 2023 executive order on commercial spyware, 16 other countries joined the United States in releasing a joint statement recognizing spyware as a threat to both national security and human rights. The joint statement emphasizes that spyware is far too often misused by both authoritarian regimes and democracies—including against human rights defenders and journalists. The U.S.-led coalition affirmed that they “share a fundamental national security and foreign policy interest in countering and preventing the proliferation of commercial spyware.” The United States has taken this a step further by prohibiting the federal government from using commercial spyware and has rolled out a government-wide response to combat the technology, including, for example, export controls and sanctions targeting individuals involved with commercial spyware entities. The United States also joined a parallel initiative in the EU, now led by the United Kingdom and France, with the objective of “Tackling the Proliferation and Irresponsible Use of Commercial Cyber Intrusion Capabilities.”


An International Framework for the Global Spy Trade


If the treaty proceeds, all signatories would be required to adopt surveillance and interception capabilities that can be weaponized by countries seeking legal cover to justify their use of commercial spyware. For example, the convention’s Article 28 obliges signatories to obtain surveillance capabilities over stored electronic data in their territory, and Articles 29 and 30 oblige states to obtain capabilities to carry the real-time interception of traffic data and content data. Notably, the provisions do not prohibit states from turning to cyber mercenaries wielding commercial spyware to obtain the requisite capabilities. A state could, under the aforementioned articles, argue that the treaty allows states to turn to commercial spyware vendors for the requisite surveillance capabilities. Language in Article 40, requiring states to provide the “widest measure” of mutual legal assistance in law enforcement investigations under the treaty, provides additional fodder for such interpretive claims. It is highly likely that governments would then abuse spyware to buttress despotic practices and undermine democratic institutions at home and abroad. Investigations by Citizen Lab researchers into the prevalence and impact of digital espionage have documented evidence of targeted attacks, both within and across borders, against civil society including human rights defendersjournalists, and political dissidents. [...]


Article 47(1) also endorses the rapid exchange of information through transnational channels, including any “data” or the location information of any person of interest. Subgroups of illiberal regimes also already have established practices that have raised serious concerns about data-sharing risks: For example, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s counterterrorism unit has reportedly used such data-sharing tactics to target dissidents and to circulate lists of individuals to be arrested and rendered. Even the informal sharing of inappropriate or inaccurate information can lead to the rendition and torture of innocent persons. Without robust human rights controls, low-visibility networks are particularly ripe for abuse by countries seeking to obtain and share data gleaned from mercenary spyware. [...]


Difficult Lessons From INTERPOL’s Legacy


INTERPOL’s Secretary General Juergen Stock has explained that at this stage, INTERPOL is limited in its capacity to better protect individuals from state abuses of the Red Notice program. Stock cited geopolitical tensions and the absence of a common international definition of terrorism—a nod to the danger of countries that misuse INTERPOL’s framework as a tool for transnational repression. Authoritarian countries often wield criminal law as a sword against free speech to silence opposition and suppress dissent, as in the case of Alexei Navalny, who was a leading anti-corruption advocate and leader of an opposition party in Russia. Moscow labeled Navalny as a criminal extremist, and Navalny was jailed until his death in a Russian prison in February. Despite the repeated abuse of INTERPOL’S framework, earlier this year Stock underlined that while it will scrutinize state requests for Red Notices, the organization has chosen not to police the human rights records of its member countries, stating that this is not its role “as a technical police organization.” Read more - Lire plus

LinkedIn Share This Email

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence


Activists sue police over violence at November 2023 DNC headquarters protest


Australia/Pakistan: Harrowing Phone Calls Expose Global Campaign of Repression

Charities

Organismes de bienfaisance


CJPME letter to Toronto Sun: Numerous factual errors require correction

Criminalization of dissent

Criminalisation de la dissidence


70 International Groups Demand Immediate Release of the National Alliance El Salvador in Peace Political Prisoners


Baguio activists all set to challenge ‘terrorist’ tag


Top Nigerian union leader faces terrorism charges


More than 70 DNC protesters arrested, including several journalists


Summer of Heat: Dozens of Climate Activists Arrested Outside Home of Citi CEO Jane Fraser


UK: Yvette Cooper to defend tough anti-protest laws introduced by Tories in High Court battle

Criminalization of the opposition

Criminalisation de l'opposition


Anti-terrorism court exonerates Bushra Bibi in May 9 violence cases

Freedom of expression

Liberté d'expression


Access Now’s statement on French authorities’ detention of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov


I Tweeted Chicago Protesters Were 'Ready' for Harris. Then, I Got the Call From the FBI


Student protesters were suspended with no chance to defend themselves. Will courts return them to campus?


Sri Lanka’s counter terrorism police interrogate Tamil students and staff over school decoration

Freedom of the press

Liberté de la presse


Spencer Ackerman: They Have To Call Bisan Owda A Terrorist

Islamophobia & racism

Islamophobie & racisme


This Afghan student received a $75K scholarship to study in Canada. She was denied a permit

Migrant and refugee rights

Droits des migrant.es et des réfugié.es


I fled Gaza to Australia not by choice but as a matter of survival. How can I be a security risk?


Sept 12-15 across Canada: Take to the Streets: Say No To Racism! Yes to Immigrant Justice!


Judge blocks failed refugee claimant’s deportation from Canada, scolds minister for misleading evidence


Visitors to Canada with valid visas claim they are being pressured to seek asylum upon arriving — or leave

Miscellaneous

Divers


La moitié des décès de personnes détenues au Canada sont évitables


Several NGOs start a registry of disappeared persons in El Salvador as anti-gang crackdown continues


British authorities must finally come clean over whether they helped terrorists bomb Ireland’s capital city back in 1974

ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC

image image

Uphold rights and liberties at protests and encampments across Canada!

Please join us in calling for the following:

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

Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!

Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task. Please join us in denouncing the dangerous national security related exemptions in the bill.

ACTION
Screenshot-2023-06-23-at-4 image

Canada: Do not purchase armed drones

The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign

In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan.

ACTION
CSIS-ABOVE-THE-LAW-2_1 image

CSIS isn't above the law!

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



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

ACTION

Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

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

Letter in English + Lettre en français


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

Petition in EnglishPétition en français


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

Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now!

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


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

ACTION

Please share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

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

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


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


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

Screen Shot 2021-08-26 at 5.55.05 PM.png

Reform Canada's extradition law now!

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



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


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


Phone PM Justin Trudeau


TAKE ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab!


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

ACTION

Canada must protect encryption!

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



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


Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir

ACTION
FR_frontpage_slider.png

Protect our rights from facial recognition!

Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place. Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now.

ACTION

December to June 2024 - Décembre à juin 2024

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


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


What we have planned for the rest of 2024!


  • Pressuring lawmakers and officials to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security as well as opposing the discourse of “countering terrorism” to repress dissent, such as protests and encampments in support of Palestinian rights and lives.
  • Opposing the weaponization of concerns around foreign interference to unnecessarily increase national security powers, which will greatly affect rights and liberties of Canadians, and will most likely lead to more harassment and xenophobia
  • Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices
  • Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for good privacy law reform
  • Addressing the lack of regulation on the use of AI in national security, including proposed exemptions for national security agencies
  • Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
  • Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
  • The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
  • The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
  • Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency
  • Greater accountability and transparency for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
  • Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada
  • Keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
  • Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
  • And much more! Read more - Lire plus


Help post it.png
Contribution post it.png
long border agent website.jpg
Archives.jpg

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

THANK YOU

to our amazing supporters!


We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!


James Deutsch

Bill Ewanick

Kevin Malseed

Brian Murphy

Colin Stuart

Bob Thomson

James Turk

John & Rosemary Williams

Jo Wood

The late Bob Stevenson


Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!



Merci!