International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
May 25, 2024 - 25 mai 2024
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Joint letter urges Justice Minister to split Bill C-63, the new Online Harms Act
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ICLMG 16/05/2024 - On May 7, 2024, the ICLMG, OpenMedia and more than 20 civil society groups and legal experts delivered an open letter to Minister of Justice Arif Virani, urging the government to separate controversial Parts Two and Three of Bill C-63, The Online Harms Act, into independent legislation. This separation is vital to allow Parliament and the public to focus on considering the merits of the Online Harms Act itself, as described in Part One of Bill C-63.
The signatories point out that public discussion surrounding Bill C-63 has overwhelmingly focused on its controversial changes to the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act described in Parts Two and Three, overshadowing the core elements designed to tackle illegal online content and protect young people in Canada.
Part Two’s proposed Criminal Code changes, including pre-emptive peace bonds and potential lifetime imprisonment, raise serious concerns about disproportionate punishments that risk chilling legitimate speech. Part Three’s changes to the Human Rights Act are widely believed likely to overwhelm the Commission with complaints, delaying more substantive cases and potentially incentivizing bad-faith complaints as tools of harassment.
To refocus public and parliamentary conversation on due consideration and debate of the Online Harms Act itself, signatories request the government separate Parts Two and Three as a distinct legislative package.
Many of today’s signatories have engaged the government throughout its consideration of illegal online content, including through 2023 expert letter outlining red lines and recommendations for potential legislation, and by individual submissions to the government’s 2021 consultation.
Bill C-63 was introduced on February 26th, and is currently awaiting second reading in the House of Commons. Since Bill C-63’s introduction, more than 4000 OpenMedia community members have written to their MPs asking them to split Bill C-63. Read more - Lire plus
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Abdul Nakua: Muslim charities want a tough talk with the CRA
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Canada's National Observer 22/05/2024 - This spring, a meeting was held between leaders of the Muslim philanthropic sector and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to address fundamental questions around the targeting of Muslim-led charities by intrusive audits — ostentatiously, the start of a dialogue to address the tension between the sector and the Charities Directorate that has been building for more than a decade.
Leaders who attended the session organized by the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto were hoping to engage in an open and transparent dialogue. They were seeking clarity about why a disproportionate number of Muslim-led charities have been selected for audit by the CRA’s research and analysis division.
They expected their concerns around how the charities were selected and how the audits were conducted to be addressed. They wanted to learn what guidelines the CRA uses to ensure the audit process is transparent and how the CRA ensures its audit decisions and compliance approaches are fair as well as timely, as some audits remained open for more than eight years.
What followed was disappointing. The main meeting featured five panelists and pre-selected questions. No follow-up questions were allowed from the audience. The second meeting was a more focussed session with selected sub-sector leaders and was more open. The meetings were conducted under the Chatham House Rule, meaning off-the-record.
An open dialogue can bring clarity to these questions. It can also provide a platform for better policies and can promote public-sector integrity by focusing on transparency, accountability and fairness.
Those hoping for an open and provocative encounter were left underwhelmed by the depth of the conversation. At the center of these audits is a little-known division (RAD) charged with investigating terrorist financing in the charitable sector. RAD audits trace their roots to reactionary post-9/11 anti-terrorism legislation and policies. Those audits sent a chill across the Muslim charitable sector for many years. However, they started to get public attention only after the release of two reports that exposed troubling systemic biases.
The first report titled “Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities,” raised concerns that Muslim-led charities in Canada were being unduly targeted for surveillance, audits and revocation of their charitable status based on a faulty and unsubstantiated national security “risk assessment” approach to the monitoring of terrorism financing. A similar review from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) found at least 75 per cent of the 16 completed audits by RAD targeted Muslim-led charities. This finding was confirmed by Geoff Trueman, assistant commissioner of the legislative policy and regulatory affairs branch at the CRA, during his testimony in the Senate Inquiry about Islamophobia. He confirmed that out of the 14 revocations, 12 charities were Muslim-led.
The actual audits conducted by RAD are 39.
The CRA is less comfortable discussing RAD-administered audits. Instead, they refer to their generic audit process and dismiss the concerns around the RAD audits by claiming that they are a very small fraction of the total audits the directorate conducts annually. Despite the fact these audits were conducted for over a decade, they gained little public attention or scrutiny. But the testimony of the taxpayers’ ombudsperson, Francois Boileau, before the Senate’s Human Rights Committee shifted that. Boileau declared that the CRA was obstructing his investigation on the grounds of national security and his lack of jurisdiction. A CRA briefing note Canada’s National Observer obtained through an access-to-information request confirms the findings of Boileau.
Muslim charities fear these audits were just a smokescreen for an undeclared agenda, as they lacked transparency and precision and, most critically, a robust means of legal recourse within CRA audit procedures. At minimum, they helped to cast Muslim lifestyles and activities as inherently foreign or outsider. They also unduly raised suspicions that Canadian Muslim-led charities serve foreign interests.
A recent Senate report on Islamophobia validated those fears. It concluded that “various forms of structural bias appear to be responsible, including bias that casts Muslims as outsiders and a threat to national security, and bias that views valid religious activities as primarily those that are grounded in Christian ideals and practices'.” It further confirmed that “RAD’s work to date – regardless of the intentions of its employees – has demonstrated structural bias against Muslim charities.” More broadly, the report confirmed that “Islamophobia is present in Canadian society and in many of our institutions”.
Canada’s struggle with discrimination and racism, both historical and contemporary, has always been hidden. Systemic Islamophobia within the federal government agencies and regulatory bodies is the result of legislation and directives. These audits are a window into how that plays out in daily exchanges between the government and the governed. As the Senate Report concluded, such “laws, policies and practices continue to systemically disadvantage Muslims” and have “profound and lasting effects on Muslim communities.”
It is important to realize that the future is likely to be shaped by the past unless we purposefully confront that past. This requires government action and not just dialogue.
As a first step, the CRA must take seriously the systemic biases existing within its operations. The federal government must show leadership and commitment to address the troubling findings of the Senate report on Islamophobia, particularly when it comes to recommendations about the CRA audits. Those include a comprehensive review of Canada’s national security framework, and the updating of the National Inherent Risk Assessment using the lens of intersectional Islamophobia, a mandate to bring more transparency to the CRA audit process, including a review of the mandate and functioning of the RAD, and the establishment of an independent civilian body to review decisions of the CRA’s Charities Directorate and provide timely decisions on appeals.
Because of the power imbalance in the relationship between the regulator and the regulated, such integrity is key to maintain any trust in the regulator." Source
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Marie Vastel: Priorité au registre et au respect des droits
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Le Devoir 22/05/2024 - Sous le couvert d’une modernisation des lois qualifiée de prétendument nécessaire par le gouvernement, sans qu’il l’ait pour autant démontré, le projet de loi C-70 vient défendre des intentions possiblement sincères, mais à coups de mesures potentiellement délétères. Et dont la portée s’étendrait bien au-delà de l’ingérence étrangère, pourtant présentée comme la cible première de cette vaste proposition législative.
Une nouvelle infraction de sabotage serait ainsi adjointe au Code criminel, interdisant de s’en prendre à toute une liste d’« infrastructures essentielles » (d’énergie, de transports, de communications, financières, et plus encore). Il suffirait, pour y contrevenir, d’y gêner l’accès — en somme, de manifester —, d’en entraîner la perte ou de les rendre inutilisables. La seule exception serait de ne pas avoir eu « l’intention », ce faisant, de nuire à la sécurité ou la sûreté du Canada, ou de compromettre la sécurité ou la santé de la population.
Une bien vague et subjective exemption, s’il en est. Et qui fait craindre à l’avocat Paul Champ, spécialisé dans la défense des droits de la personne, un « effet paralysant » sur les libertés fondamentales d’expression et de réunion pacifique.
D’autre part, le C-70 propose de permettre le dépôt en preuve de renseignements secrets pouvant n’être consultés que par le juge d’un procès. Cette dérogation au droit d’un accusé à une défense pleine et entière était jusqu’ici limitée à des cas d’exception dans le cadre de certificats de sécurité en matière d’immigration. Les balises et les garanties prévues au projet de loi sont insuffisantes aux yeux de groupes rassemblés sous l’égide de la Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles, qui craignent une « vaste incidence sur les droits et libertés » des Canadiens.
Une telle disposition soulève de sérieuses préoccupations quant à la préservation de l’un des principes fondamentaux du système juridique et prescrit effectivement un méticuleux examen parlementaire. Le lourd passé des services policiers et de renseignement les prive aujourd’hui du luxe de profiter de la confiance inhérente du public.
Les failles du système actuel ont abondamment été révélées par les experts, les diasporas, les témoignages devant la commission d’enquête sur l’ingérence étrangère et dans les médias. Ces signaux d’alarme ne donnent toutefois pas carte blanche à une réplique législative répressive. Un projet de loi d’une telle incidence, soumettant sur une centaine de pages une kyrielle de changements importants, commande une étude parlementaire exhaustive et réfléchie. Source
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Joint statement condemning police brutality at the University of Calgary & the University of Alberta | |
CMPAC 11/05/2024 - The undersigned individuals and Canadian civil society, faith-based, community and human rights organizations from all over Canada, are writing to express our deep concerns regarding the recent events at the University of Calgary and University of Alberta encampments. We strongly condemn the excessive use of force and violence by the Calgary Police Service (CPS) and Edmonton Police Service (EPS) against peaceful protesters, students and members of the university community.
During this egregious act, where police officers in riot gear broke up a peaceful assembly with tear gas and flash bangs, CPS arrested at least four individuals and sent several to the hospital for sustained injuries. EPS also made arrests but numbers are not disclosed yet.
We express our solidarity with the students and community members who were subjected to police brutality and aggression. The actions of the CPS and EPS not only violated the fundamental rights of individuals engaged in peaceful protest but also eroded trust in law enforcement and undermined the principles of accountability and transparency.
The encampments, established by students at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta, were legitimate form of peaceful protest, an exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is deeply troubling that instead of engaging in dialogue and communication with the students, the authorities and university administration chose to resort to violent and oppressive tactics, reminiscent of authoritarian regimes.
We demand the following:
- A thorough and transparent investigation into the actions of the CPS and EPS must be conducted holding accountable those responsible for ordering and carrying out the use of force.
- The police chiefs must demonstrate restraint and abstain from actions that impede freedom of expression or encroach upon the protected charter freedoms of students.
- The University of Calgary and the University of Alberta administration must uphold the principles of academic freedom and respect the rights of students to engage in peaceful protest. They should engage in dialogue with students rather than invite police to intimidate students by using force.
- Elected officials in Calgary and Edmonton should take concrete steps to ensure that the safety and rights of our students are protected. It is imperative that they seize this responsibility, publicly demonstrate their support for students by standing with them, and actively work to ensure their protection and the preservation of their rights.
- All communities in Calgary and Edmonton should unite in solidarity with the students on campus, offering both physical protection and unwavering support during these challenging times.
We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the students and community members who bravely stood up for justice and human rights at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta. We urge all Canadians to join us in condemning police brutality and advocating for the protection of fundamental freedoms and democratic values. Source
UPDATED ACTION: Uphold rights and liberties at protests and encampments across Canada!
ACTION MISE À JOUR : Demandez le respect des droits et libertés dans les manifestations et les campements partout au Canada!
University of Calgary Faculty of Law: An Open Letter Regarding the Response to Recent Protests at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary
La LDL dénonce la brutalité policière lors d’une manifestation – Campement étudiant à l’UQAM en soutien à la Palestine
Some blame outsiders for spread of pro-Palestinian encampments. The idea isn't new, say students and experts
New Coalition sounds alarm about antisemitism and Islamophobia studies at justice committee
Crown drops charges against 4 accused in Indigo bookstore vandalism
ACTION Drop the Charges against the ‘Peace 11’ Indigo Protestors!
Germany bans a Palestinian solidarity group
Repression of peaceful international solidarity demonstrations is against human rights: UN experts
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Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters |
The Toronto Star 19/05/2024 - Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
The Canadian Press obtained a redacted letter sent to the applicant by a Canadian immigration officer, which asks if he has “ever provided medical care to injured Hamas members.” If he has not, the letter asks him to say how he was able to refuse “without consequences.”
Kelly O’Connor, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said she gasped out loud when she saw the text. Any medical worker who denies care to someone hurt in a war zone is committing a “serious breach of the Geneva Convention,” she said in an interview.
“It’s completely outrageous that the government would ask these kinds of questions because it’s trying to promote that someone would violate the Geneva Conventions in wartime, which is really not something that the Canadian military stands for,” O’Connor said. Visa applicants are already being asked “very invasive questions” in the process, she added. “And then seeing this letter? It’s just really shocking.”
The Canadian visa program has been mired in setbacks and controversy since it opened on Jan. 9. It is open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents hoping to get extended family members out of the Gaza Strip, where the war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The war began after Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others on Oct. 7, 2023.
Applicants to Canada’s special temporary visa program must complete several steps. First, a relative in Canada must submit a “statutory declaration” indicating the family members in Gaza for whom they are seeking visas, as well as voluminous details about each member, including a description of scars and markings on their bodies, and a list of all the jobs they have held since they were 16 years old.
The questions go “above and beyond what is asked in a normal immigration application,” O’Connor said.
The declarations are examined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which then sends a unique code to each family member listed in the document. Those family members use their code to file a second batch of paperwork for a temporary visa. They must then somehow get from Gaza to the Canadian immigration office in Cairo, Egypt, to complete a final screening process.
More than 7,500 people submitted statutory declarations between Jan. 9 and April 1, according to data obtained through an access to information request. As of April 29, 179 people had been granted temporary visas. Canada has been unable to work with Egypt or Israel to get applicants across the border. Those who have been granted visas have made it across themselves, often by paying thousands of dollars to a private company. O’Connor represents three Canadians who filed declarations for a total of 16 family members in Gaza, though one — a child — has since died. She said they are all still waiting for the codes needed to proceed to the second phase of the process.
The letter sent to the medical worker, whose name was blacked out because he feared repercussions, is on the letterhead of the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan, and its contents are attributed to an unnamed migration officer with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Before inquiring about care provided to Hamas fighters, it asks for the applicant’s work history at two Gaza hospitals.
Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Randall Cohn said the questions in the letter are “patently illegal and absolutely egregious.” He has seen two such letters asking about medical treatment of Hamas members — sent to a doctor and a nurse — and he is aware of two more, he said in an interview. The people who received these letters and brought them to lawyers were afraid to do it, Cohn said, because they worried they would be penalized by Canadian immigration officials. He wonders how many other people have received similar letters but haven’t shown them to anyone out of fear.
Cohn said he hopes the questions were a mistake made by an “overzealous” visa officer, and that the letters have since been corrected. Either way, he added, “Canadians should know that the immigration system works in such a centralized and messy way that it allows for this kind of discriminatory treatment, and it usually goes uncorrected and unpunished.” The federal Immigration Department said that an interview with its minister, Marc Miller, was not possible. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said visa applicants may be asked additional questions about their employment and travel history, and their online presence, as part of Canada’s screening process.
MacDonald declined to comment on why it asked a medical worker about whom they had treated, citing privacy reasons. Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist group, and Canada has the right to screen visa applicants for possible security threats, said Lorne Waldman, a Toronto-based lawyer who wrote a widely used textbook on Canadian immigration law. “But this type of question is completely unacceptable,” Waldman said in an interview. “If there was a shootout in Toronto between members of a gang, a doctor wouldn’t stop to ask whether a person was a gang member before they treated them.” Canada also cannot ask such questions of a visa applicant strictly for intelligence-gathering purposes, he said. Read more - Lire plus
Palestinians seeking passage to Canada fight despair as Rafah campaign closes off their exit
NEW United for Palestine Ottawa rally on May 26 at 2pm
NEW National Mobilization against the Arms Trade, May 29
NEW Endorse the May 29 action as an organization
NEW NCCM action: Canada needs to support arrest warrant applications of Netanyahu at the ICC
NEW Demand Your MP Sign Onto the Call for a Full and Immediate Arms Embargo on Israel!
An open letter from US government attorneys questions the legal cover for arms transfers to Israel
International Court of Justice Orders Israel to Immediately Halt Military Offensive in Rafah
Relief agency UNRWA targeted politically over partiality claims, funding must resume: UN experts
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Kristen Thomasen and Bianca Wylie: Canada’s focus on overhyped future threats of AI miss the harms already being perpetuated against us | |
The Toronto Star 15/05/2024 - On April 7, the Liberal government announced $2.4 billion of public money to aid in “securing Canada’s AI advantage,” the murky goal of which is bolstering economic growth. This signals the government’s ongoing commitment to Canada’s purported leadership role in the world of “responsible” AI.
The development of this myth of Canada as a global leader in responsible AI has been in motion for a long time. It is promoted although a federal bill, currently touted as emblematic of Canada’s “responsible AI” leadership — the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, AIDA for short — has been a profoundly undemocratic undertaking, as emphasized repeatedly by stakeholders throughout its development.
Neither the workers that will be confronted with this technology in their professional lives — doctors, teachers, gig workers, or urban planners, to name a few — nor the publics upon which it will be used — all of us — have had any meaningful say in the draft law.
While uncritically proclaiming the inevitability of the mass uptake of AI, the federal government has also committed $50 million to an AI “Safety Institute.” That automated technologies can perpetuate social inequities is now well-established. But it is unclear how this informs the concerns about “safety” this new Institute will be tasked with examining.
In light of this announcement, and the role this Institute may play in the image of Canada as a leader in “responsible” AI, it’s necessary to note that Canada has a tumultuous history with broad governance appeals to “safety.” “Safety” is not a neutral or straightforward concept. Historically, it has been repeatedly cited to justify a range of harmful policies and state conduct.
Broad appeals to an undefined notion of safety can be perilous. Legal regulations guided by the objective of public safety have, at various times in Canadian legislative history, compromised the safety of already politically oppressed communities, furthered colonialism, and prompted over-policing, undermining the safety of some under the misconstrued guise of attaining “safety” for all. Appeals to safety can also be used to further economic or political goals without any regard to material or immediate concerns about individual and community safety.
The current focus on the overhyped future existential threats of AI, for example, distracts us from the harms already being perpetuated by AI systems, like discrimination, environmental damage, loss of livelihood, pervasive surveillance, and the facilitation of war and genocide. As far as we can tell, the new Canadian Institute is designed to focus on the former to the peril of the latter. If Canada wants to be a leader in the safer adoption of AI, we need to recognize that safety is not just physical and futuristic, it is emotional, intellectual, economic, spatial, and environmental.
Creating comprehensive conditions of safety involves economic and housing supports, health care, child care, environmental protection, and enabling community-level governance of technology use. Understanding, funding, and applying all of this as a crucial part of building “safe AI” would truly set Canada apart as a leader. To figure out how to use AI more safely requires talking to people that understand its impacts, in context. The impacts that are happening now. Not in a hypothetical future.
This government has not done the work of talking to those of us most impacted by an increased use of automated technologies in our lives, our professions, and our workplaces. Instead, it is racing to frame the future use of AI with catchphrases that don’t fit the patterns of either history or reality.
We join a wide-range of civil society, business, academic, and labour signatories calling on the government to scrap AIDA and restart its approach to AI governance with proper public consultation. This process must begin with clarity on “why” we’re regulating AI. What, exactly, are the kinds of safeties we’re trying to create? Source
ACTION: Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27!
ACTION: Protect our rights from facial recognition
AI Goes to War: Lucy Suchman in conversation with Brenda McPhail (webinar)
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Ken Rubin: CBSA: a troubled agency under the microscope | |
The Hill Times 22/05/2024 - The government has not acted, despite CBSA becoming more of a failed agency that is too authoritative, too administratively weak, and too secretive. The Canadian Border Service Agency is facing criticism on a number of fronts such as late and lost access-to-information requests, corrupted contractual practices, and its controversial law enforcement operations in detaining high-risk immigrants.
On the access-to-information side, the latest problems include having difficulties with handling a large backlog of hundreds of immigration-related requests as highlighted in a recent Information Commissioner of Canada special report. CBSA has also had to publicly acknowledge that it has experienced a technological breakdown and as yet is unable to retrieve or find hundreds of past submitted access requests.
CBSA has always had a high number of complaints about its processing delays and exemption claims that my access-to-information experience confirms. This includes lengthy delays and limited responses on subjects like criminal activities at ports of entry and cross-border car and gun smuggling. At one point, I discovered CBSA was overstepping by profiling my various access requests inside the agency because I was filing applications on behalf of Maher Arar. They probably did not like that I had found out that Arar was on their look-out list. That dug-up data became part of the O’Connor Inquiry record examining his rendition to Syria.
On the contractual side, CBSA’s mishandling of contracts has been exposed by the media, by the Auditor General and Procurement Ombudsman and in Parliament, especially in the ArriveCan application case.
CBSA has been called out as an agency that too often tries to bypass competitive bidding while conducting inadequate contract bid evaluations. Its sparse and sloppy recordkeeping has been the subject of more than one inquiry.
All this keeps CBSA being an accountable agency, and, at times - combined with its arbitrary powerful law enforcement operations - has made CBSA suspect, feeding the narrative that it is an untrustworthy. Its vast powers of arrest, detention, search and seizure - with some of its officers being suspended for misconduct and biases - make it benign image of just mainly doing work checking travellers and goods look bad.
Its enforcement powers include being able to detain and arrest non-citizens which is made possible under section 55 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. But its treatment of persons deemed to be high-risk or a flight-risk, and detained at immigration holding centres (IHC) - or until recently at provincial jails - without requiring warrants, has attracted much attention, criticism, reports and queries.
Highlighted here, is its practice of placing some detainees considered high-risk in solitary confinement. A January 16, 2023 CBSA access-to-information document defends solitary confinement as “not potentially amount(ing) to cruel and unusual treatment”, arguing that a detainee’s stay in solitary confinement beyond 15 days at an IHC “may not immediately equate to a breach of a detained client’s section 12 Charter rights”.
CBSA also admits that detainees placed initially in the staging detention holding area “should not be held there unless there for more than 48 hours, unless there are extraordinary reasons necessitating a longer replacement”. An April 5, 2022 briefing note confirms too “that minors are housed or detained as last resort’ and that “the vast majority of minors held at an Immigration Holding Centre are not detained but are housed (there)”.
Another operational note dated November 29, 2022 stresses that officers can under certain circumstance arrest and detain immigrants but should “do so with the least amount of force necessary”. Further instructions on monitoring detainees put in solitary confinement note that officers should be doing “informal counts at every hour”. As a last resort only, “should the use of a flashlight and the nightlight not be sufficient to confirm the detainee’s identity and well being, the guard must enter the room to witness breathing/identity and or wake the detainee”.
There have been deaths, including by suicide, at CBSA detention centres that even checks twice a day or going into detainee cells to see if they are breathing has not stopped. The CBSA directives/memos cover their officers’ powers of detention but do not describe services for detainees or the type of humane treatment detainees can expect.
Now, the 2024 federal Budget is putting millions of dollars into expanding CBSA’s immigration holding centres for detainees, and wants some detainees held at federal prisons. Yet no new instructions are provided requiring new service standards or changes for dealing with the most vulnerable and high-risk detainees. Critics who already see CBSA’s treatment of detainees as harsh, inhuman and abusive fear the proposed use of federal prisons as abetting those practices.
However, CBSA remains the only major enforcement agency without independent civilian oversight. The government’s Bill C-20 to create such oversight is not high on the government’s legislative priorities. The government has not acted on all these front, despite CBSA becoming more of a failed agency that is too authoritative, too administratively weak, and too secretive and in need of a major makeover and stronger oversight. Source
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Former Liberal ministers urge Trudeau to drop plans to house migrants in federal prisons | |
The Toronto Star 13/05/2024 - Two former Liberal cabinet ministers are urging the Trudeau government to cancel its plans to start using federal prisons to hold immigration detainees, citing a recent inquest recommendation to end the practice of detaining migrants in jails.
Lloyd Axworthy, a former foreign affairs minister, and Allan Rock, who was a justice minister, have joined a chorus of 85 Canadian and international organizations opposing the spring budget’s proposal to use federal prisons to detain “high-risk” migrants after all 10 provinces said they were ending their agreements to hold them in their facilities.
“We cannot allow unjustified fears and unsubstantiated claims about public security to override our respect for human rights,” said Rock and Axworthy, in an open letter released Monday. Axworthy is chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council.
“Asylum seekers and migrants should be welcomed to Canada with dignity and respect, not dehumanized and detained.” Calling Canada’s immigration detention system “deadly,” the two said at least 17 people have died in immigration detention since 2000, including most recently a person held in a Surrey immigration holding centre in B.C. on Dec. 25, 2022. They referenced the 2023 coroner’s inquest into the death of Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan.
Hassan, a former refugee from Somalia with a long history of mental illness, had been held in Central East Correctional Centre, a maximum-security jail in Lindsay, Ont., for years awaiting deportation. He was found unresponsive in a segregated cell there and taken to hospital, where he later died under the watch of two police officers in 2015.
The inquest jury called on the federal government to end the practice of housing immigration detainees in provincial jails, among its 53 recommendations. “The inquest highlighted the disturbing conditions that Mr. Hassan endured before his death, including solitary confinement and indefinite detention,” said the letter signed by the two former ministers. “Federal prisons are not the answer.”
Groups led by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International launched a campaign in 2021 to lobby provinces to stop holding the detainees in their jails for breaking immigration laws.
In March, the campaign reached a milestone when Newfoundland and Labrador became the last province to commit to end its immigration detention agreements and arrangements with the Canada Border Services Agency, hoping to push Ottawa to work toward ending the practice altogether. Instead, in its latest budget, Ottawa committed $325 million over five years to upgrade immigration holding centres and proposed to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Immigration Act to enable the use of federal jails as a “supplement.”
“Your government should instead invest in community-based organizations that would provide support to migrants and asylum seekers awaiting clarification of their immigration status, and ultimately end immigration detention altogether,” said the letter. [...]
Advocates for migrants said they are deeply concerned by Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s recent media comments that prisons would be used for “a very small segment of the population,” which he described as “not criminals,” but “high-risk” and often with “severe mental health problems.”
They said immigration detention can exacerbate and trigger mental health conditions, particularly when incarceration is prolonged and without end in sight. Read more - Lire plus
ACTION Stop the federal government from using prisons for immigration detention
Le Canada doit mettre fin à la détention arbitraire des migrant-e-s pour des motifs administratifs
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Omar Khadr loses battle against teen war crimes conviction as U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeal | |
The Toronto Star 20/05/2024 - Nearly 15 years after pleading guilty to war crimes, including murder, at a military commission, Omar Khadr, the Toronto-born former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, has lost his bid to have the U.S. Supreme Court hear his appeal.
In a brief decision issued Monday, the U.S. justices declined to take on the case, leaving in place a lower court’s conclusion that Khadr waived his appeal rights during his plea and closing a chapter in a years-long battle to vacate Khadr’s convictions in the 2002 death of American soldier Christopher Speer. Neither Khadr nor his lawyer could be immediately reached for comment Monday.
The court decision is the latest development in Khadr’s story, which captured attention across Canada and the U.S. amid controversy over his involvement in Speer’s death and his detention at Guantanamo Bay, where he was among the youngest of detainees.
Now 37, Khadr was 15 years old when he was shot and captured in Afghanistan by U.S. forces on July 27, 2002. He had been injured at a suspected Al Qaeda compound in a firefight with U.S soldiers that had killed Speer and seriously wounded another soldier. Khadr, whose father had ties to Al Qaeda’s elite, was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer and was interrogated for three months at a U.S. base in Afghanistan before he was taken to Guantanamo. There, he was tortured, and held for eight years.
In 2010, in exchange for an eight-year prison sentence, Khadr, then 24, accepted a Pentagon deal and pleaded guilty at a military commission to a series of crimes including murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war. Khadr later said he falsely confessed to secure his release to Canada following years of deplorable conditions inside Guantanamo, and is unsure of what happened during the firefight. His lawyers have previously argued it would have been impossible for him to have thrown the grenade that hit Speer based on where he had been located. As part of his guilty plea, Khadr had waived his right to appeal. His lawyers later argued that a subsequent ruling by the federal appeals court called into question whether Khadr could have been charged with the crimes to begin with, but a divided three-judge panel ruled that, despite the appellate ruling, Khadr gave up his right to appeal.
Reached at his home in North Carolina, Morris Davis, Guantanamo’s former chief prosecutor, said he was not surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday because of the seriousness of what Khadr pleaded guilty to, including murder. It also would have taken “extraordinary circumstances” for him to have been granted the right to appeal after having waived those rights.
Khadr’s story was “unfortunate,” Davis said, given his age and what he was brought into due to his father’s actions.
“We prosecuted a juvenile as a war criminal, which is not something we should be proud of,” said Davis, who resigned as Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor in protest of interrogation methods, including waterboarding. After spending nearly three years behind bars in Canada, Khadr was granted bail by an Edmonton judge in 2015. He spent a total of 13 years behind bars. The Supreme Court of Canada has harshly condemned the federal government for its mistreatment of Khadr. In 2017, Khadr was given a $10.5-million settlement from Ottawa for his mistreatment by Canadian officials while held as a minor in Guantanamo.
Davis said despite Khadr losing his bid to appeal his convictions, he believed he’d made the right choice in accepting the plea when he did. “There’s still 30 people at Guantanamo and here we are in 2024. And most of them have never had their day in court,” Davis said. Source
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The U.S. held Saeed Bakhouch at Guantánamo Bay for 20 years without charge, then sent him to have his rights violated in Algeria | |
The Intercept 21/05/2024 - Former Guantanamo detainee Saeed Bakhouch was sentenced by a court in Algeria to three years in prison on terrorism charges, Bakhouch’s lawyers told The Intercept.
The May 13 sentencing, on charges made under Algeria’s broad Article 87 anti-terror laws, which can carry the death penalty, came despite assurances from the U.S. State Department that he would be treated “appropriately” and “humanely” after being repatriated after his stint in Guantánamo.
Bakhouch was the most recent Guantánamo detainee to be transferred out of the military prison under the Biden administration, never having been charged with a crime. Bakhouch, his American lawyer Candace Gorman said, was a victim of torture at the hands of the U.S. and slowly deteriorated over his 20 years of arbitrary detention until his release in April 2023.
When Bakhouch first arrived in Algeria, he was immediately taken into custody by Algeria’s internal security forces — a standard and usually brief period of detention for Algerian detainees returning from Guantánamo. Bakhouch was vulnerable, Gorman said, having mentally deteriorated in recent years.
Gorman had warned about possible post-traumatic stress disorder and depression ahead of his repatriation. Nonetheless, Bakhouch was held incommunicado and subjected to intense interrogation with no lawyer present.
“He was interrogated every day of the 12 days — after decades of trauma — was given no help from a lawyer and he was under extreme pressure while being threatened by the interrogators,” Sofiane Chouiter, a Canada-based attorney who is providing legal support to Bakhouch, told The Intercept. Chouiter, the president of the Justitia Center for the Legal Protection of Human Rights in Algeria, obtained a transcript of the interrogation by the Algerian intelligence services showing that Bakhouch, in the course of the encounter, began agreeing with all the accusations made against him. Bakhouch responded to all the questions with “sure, yes,” Chouiter told The Intercept.
The transcript doesn’t include what Bakhouch told Chouiter was the initial part of the interrogation, when the detainee had denied charges of ties to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In early October, Bakhouch recanted his testimony before an investigative magistrate and denied the terror charges, Chouiter said. Bakhouch pleaded not guilty at his most recent trial and, in the presence of a judge, again recanted his initial admissions.
Being held without contact to the outside world is considered an enforced disappearance and prohibited by international law, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights Ben Saul told The Intercept. “A detainee in custody must be promptly given access to a lawyer and to communicate with family,” Saul said. Algerian officials admit they did not allow him access to a lawyer or family calls until his 13th day of detention. “The U.S. responsibility for his welfare did not end when he was transferred to Algeria,” Saul said. “It should be apparent that he should not suffer from any further victimization through the legal system. He has already paid a very heavy price in terms of his health and mental state, and he needs supportive measures of rehabilitation and reintegration, not more punishment.”
State Department “Bullshit”
With a possible end to the Biden administration looming in the next six months, State Department diplomats are running low on time to clean up the legal mess created by an era of rampant arbitrary U.S. detentions and CIA torture. Thirty detainees remain at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, with 16 cleared for release and awaiting a resettlement deal. A trial for the men accused of plotting 9/11 has not yet begun. And former Guantánamo detainees scattered across the world battle both their mental scars and the stigma of being branded a “terrorist.”
Last July, a report from The Intercept detailed blistering correspondence between Gorman, Bakhouch’s lawyer, and members of the State Department’s Office of Guantánamo Affairs, where she fought to protect her client from the outcome now at hand. Gorman wrote to the State Department that, without help once he landed in Algeria, Bakhouch would be facing grave dangers. “I fear my client might become homeless — or worse — locked up,” Gorman wrote in one email.
When Bakhouch wasn’t released following the initial interrogation period and found himself in a form of pre-trial detention, Gorman became enraged by what she said were the State Department’s “bullshit” assurances. “They did not even know Saeed was sent to prison following his 12 days of interrogation. No one at the State Department was watching or paying attention to anything,” Gorman told The Intercept. “Then, the State Department started backpedaling about their role in Saeed’s transfer. They started claiming to me that once Saeed was released their hands were tied.”
Saul, the U.N. special rapporteur, said the U.S. bears responsibility for making sure its assurances are followed through on. “Diplomatic assurances must always be effective, meaning that they must be accompanied by monitoring and safeguards to ensure they are enforced in practice, not just empty promises,” he said. “The greater the risk in a particular country of serious rights abuses, such as torture or arbitrary detention, the more caution is warranted in the use of safeguards, including whether a transfer should go ahead at all.” Read more - Lire more
Daphne Eviatar: The U.S. should stop stalling the transfer to Oman of 11 Guantanamo detainees never charged with crimes. They have nothing to do with the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Civilian Prosecutors Rejected Evidence in 9/11 Case That Military Calls Crucial
Former CIA psychiatrist testifies to lasting brain trauma from Black site interrogations of Ammar al Baluchi
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Who’s a “potential terrorist or violent extremist threat”? Plans to exchange information about “future” criminals | |
statewatch 16/05/2024 - EU member states have finalised a set of “non-binding” criteria for assessing when someone may be labelled a potential terrorist or violent extremism threat. The intention is to feed European databases such as the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the Europol Information System (EIS), as well as Europol analysis projects such as “Hydra” and “Traveller”, according to a note circulated by the Belgian Council Presidency last month.
Feeding databases
The goal of the new criteria “is to promote entering such individuals into the European databases and information systems,” says the note (pdf).
Analysis project (AP) Hydra, one of two Europol files mentioned in the note, targets activities involving Muslims, aiming: “…to support the prevention and combating of terrorism-related crimes against life, limb, personal freedom or property, and related criminal offences, perpetrated by individuals, groups, networks or organisations who evoke Islam to justify their actions”.
AP Travellers, meanwhile: “…coordinates investigations into, and data analysis on, foreign terrorist fighters, and supports law enforcement efforts to counter foreign fighters when they return to Europe or the US from i.e. Syria or Iraq. In response to the concerted efforts of EU Member States, with Europol’s help, the amount of data on foreign terrorist fighters within AP Travellers has increased substantially since early 2015.”
The note stresses that the sharing of information on people considered potential terrorists or violent extremists “cannot be used for investigations” without prior or subsequent mutual legal assistance requests.
The title of the document containts the German word Gefährder, meaning "person posing a potential threat to public safety." The initiative to agree a set of common guidelines originated with the German authorities. Read more - Lire plus
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BAME people about 70% of those held at UK ports under terror laws, data shows | |
The Guardian 12/05/2024 - About 70% of the thousands of people stopped at UK ports under anti-terrorism laws since 2021 were from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, according to figures, which have fuelled concerns that counter-terrorist policing is institutionally racist.
The figures from police logs released to the Guardian under freedom of information laws also show that fewer than one in five people who were stopped under the same laws in this period were recorded as being white.
Campaigners say the figures are evidence that counter-terrorism laws are disproportionately affecting black and minority ethnic groups. They also say the data calls into question assertions by police leaders that counter-terrorism officers are tackling the growing threat of violence from white far-right extremists.
The figures show that of the 8,095 people stopped at UK ports in the last three years under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, 5,619 (69.4%) people were recorded as being from BAME backgrounds. In the same period, 1,585 (19.6%) people stopped under schedule 7 were recorded as white British, white Irish or white other. The ethnicity was not recorded in 891 (11%) of cases, reflecting the fact that it is not a legal requirement for police to record the ethnicity of those stopped.
The police monitoring group Netpol said the ethnicity breakdown suggested that counter-terrorist officers were underestimating the threat of far-right extremism. Kevin Blowe, its campaigns coordinator, said the figures also challenged a controversial government review by Sir William Shawcross that said the counter-terrorist programme Prevent was too focused on far-right extremism.
Blowe said: “The figures from the logs certainly appear not to reflect counter-terrorism’s insistence on a rapidly growing threat of violence from the far right, which has seemingly led to no significant change in the ethnicity of people stopped at ports of entry. “If there had been a greater level of attention on the far right, you would expect to see a shift in the number of white people who are stopped, but they have been pretty consistent over the years.
“Schedule 7 powers are broad and intrusive, and decisions about how they are used, without the need for reasonable suspicion, are overwhelmingly made by white counter-terrorism officers. A lack of scrutiny and accountability means the obligation lies with the police to demonstrate the use of these powers does not lead to unlawful discrimination. Our view is, their repeated failure to do so is the result of state surveillance mechanisms that are institutionally racist. It is time these powers were abolished.” Read more - Lire plus
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Mass executions in Iraq under anti-terrorism laws of 'great concern', UN envoy says | |
The National News 16/05/2024 - The head of the UN mission in Iraq said on Thursday that a recent increase in mass executions of people convicted under antiterrorism laws was a cause for great concern.
Iraqi authorities this month executed 11 people by hanging who had been convicted of “terrorism”, according to AFP. They were the second such group put to death since late April.
“Power grabs or punitive policies may benefit one segment of society or community in the short term, but, in the end, everyone loses,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, special representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami),told the Security Council. “This is particularly true in a country with conflict in living memory.”
Ms Hennis-Plasschaert, who assumed her role in January 2018, warned that corruption and other issues remain in the country more than two decades since the UN mission was founded. "The recent increase in mass unannounced executions ... is a cause for great concern," she said.
Iraq frequently ranks among the world's most corrupt countries and activists say freedom of expression there has been curtailed in recent years. Ms Hennis-Plasschaert’s comments were part of her final briefing to the council in her current role, after she announced her resignation in February. She will step down at the end of May. Last week, the Iraqi government announced its intention to terminate the UN mission by the end of 2025. Read more - Lire plus
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Opinion: Sri Lanka’s killing fields cast a long shadow | |
Al Jazeera 18/05/2024 - Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical juncture, amid the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The global response to Gaza, across many states, peoples and international institutions, shows that there is a strong will to uphold international norms on protecting civilians and a strong will to address the underlying political injustices of the conflict itself, rather than seeing it merely as a problem of security and terrorism. The international failure to translate this will into concrete action is appalling but sadly not unprecedented.
The state of Sri Lanka, 15 years after the end of the armed conflict there, shows what happens when mass atrocities are unaddressed and the political fault lines that led to them in the first place remain unresolved and are arguably exacerbated. There are also striking and unavoidable similarities between the events still unfolding in Gaza and those that took place in the Vanni, the area of northern Sri Lanka where the war ended.
In the final months of the conflict, the Sri Lankan military besieged and bombarded a civilian population of 330,000 along with an estimated 5,000 Tamil Tiger fighters, corralling them into ever thinner strips of land in the Vanni. The offensive was brutal and unconstrained. It destroyed and defeated the Tamil Tigers’ armed group LTTE but also made a raging bonfire out of international humanitarian law, the laws of war and basic norms of civilian protection.
The Sri Lankan military bombed and shelled food distribution centres, hospitals and civilian shelters even though it had received the precise coordinates of these from the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross. It ordered civilians into ever-shrinking “no-fire” zones that it would then relentlessly attack using unguided artillery shells and multi-barrelled rocket launchers, firing hundreds and sometimes thousands of shells a day.
The last of the no-fire zones was a mere 2-3 square kilometres and the death toll often reached 1,000 civilians a day, sometimes more. Sri Lanka also limited the supply of food and essential medicines including anaesthetics in moves calculated to compound and exacerbate the humanitarian distress.
Subsequent UN investigations concluded that the Sri Lankan military’s campaign amounted to the “persecution of the Vanni population”. At least 40,000 people were reported killed in the fighting, but some estimates based on population figures suggest the death toll could be as high as 169,000.
At the end of the war, the Sri Lankan authorities summarily executed LTTE cadres and others who surrendered and herded the remaining civilians into barbed wire-ringed internment camps, allegedly for “processing”. The government only released them after immense international pressure.
Sri Lanka justified its campaign as the only way to defeat “terrorism” and proclaimed its “victory” over the LTTE as a military model that other countries could follow. It has consistently and vehemently rejected international demands for meaningful accountability and has also refused to implement political changes that would ensure real political equality for the Tamils and address the root causes of the conflict. Yet, Sri Lanka’s trajectory after 2009 shows that mass atrocities and the “victory” they secure entail consequences that rebound and not just for the Tamil population. After the war ended, Sri Lanka simply doubled down on its repression of Tamils.
The high-intensity bombardment turned into a suffocating and all-pervasive de facto military occupation that continues to this day. Five out of seven of the army’s regional commands are stationed in the northern and eastern provinces and in some districts, there is one soldier for every two civilians.
The military is also participating in the ongoing process of “Sinhalisation” and “Buddhisisation” of the northeast. Military personnel accompany Buddhist monks and Sinhala settlers as they violently seize Tamil lands and places of worship so that they can be converted into Sinhala ones.
Finally, military personnel exercise a constant surveillance of everyday Tamil social, cultural and political activities that has a chilling effect on everyday life and makes meaningless any talk of “reconciliation” or even a return to “normalcy”. Yet Tamils in the former war zones and the now extensive diaspora have not been cowed into submission. They have worked to keep alive the struggle for justice and accountability. These efforts have kept Sri Lanka on the back foot internationally with repeated UN investigations and resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lankan officials also have to live with the ever-present danger of sanctions and possible prosecutions for their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. [...]
Meanwhile, the same militarisation and repression used against Tamils are now being deployed against other communities. Sri Lanka has used “high security zones” extensively in the Tamil-speaking areas to confiscate land, displace civilians and militarise public space. This same tactic has now been deployed to restrict protests in the capital city of Colombo. The anti-terrorism measures that were normally reserved for use against Tamils are now being deployed against other dissidents and critics. [...]
Israel’s assault on Gaza has rightly brought international attention and focus on the need to uphold and defend humanitarian law. Sri Lanka shows what happens when states that commit mass atrocities are allowed to go scot-free. Remembering and effectively addressing the Vanni atrocities is not just about the past, it is also about the future. Most immediately, it is about Sri Lanka’s future. But it is also about re-building and securing the viability and integrity of international humanitarian law and the possibility of securing genuine and lasting peace, security and prosperity. Source
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No Justice for Crackdown in Tajikistan’s Autonomous Region Two Years On |
Human Rights Watch 15/05/2024 - Two years ago, Tajik authorities cracked down on protesters in an autonomous region of the country, resulting in the death of a local man by what witnesses reported was live ammunition from security forces. In the next couple of days, police reportedly killed up to 40 people from the area during so-called security operations. These events were a turning point for an already troubled region.
The protests began peacefully on May 16, 2022, in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno-Badakshan autonomous region (GBAO), with people demanding an end to harassment and alleged persecution of local people by Tajik authorities.
Over the next two days, police blocked and dispersed protesters using rubber bullets and teargas, reportedly with excessive force. Police also carried out killings and arbitrarily detained and tortured more than two hundred protesters and local people, who were prosecuted behind closed doors.
There has been no accountability for the crackdown on protesters, which authorities called an “anti-terrorism operation.”
At least six civil society activists who stood up for the rights of the Pamiris, a culturally, religiously, and linguistically distinct ethnic minority living in the region that has been historically persecuted by authorities, are still imprisoned. They include Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, a 67-year-old independent journalist and civil rights activist sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of conspiring against the state and organizing the protests, and Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov, director of the Lawyers Association of Pamir, sentenced to 16 years on charges of participation in a criminal organization.
Since the protests, Pamiris have reportedly been prohibited from speaking their languages in public and from hosting prayer meetings in their homes. At a high-level UN meeting, Tajikistan’s justice minister, Muzaffar Ashuriyon, denied that the Pamiris are a distinct ethnic minority. Hundreds of nongovernmental groups in the region and the country have been forced to close.
The international response to the crisis has been relatively muted. In July 2022, the European Parliament and in December 2022, Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, called on the Tajik authorities to investigate the clashes in GBAO. But more is needed.
Despite reports of Tajikistan's increased involvement in transnational repression, there are signs of growing security cooperation between certain EU members and Türkiye with Tajikistan.
It is imperative that Tajikistan’s international partners remember the May 2022 events in Khorog and demand accountability from Tajik authorities. Source
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Philippines: Commission on Human Rights lauds Supreme Court decision calling red-tagging 'threat to life, liberty and security'
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phil star 11/05/2024 - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) welcomed the recent decision of the Supreme Court (SC) declaring red-tagging, vilification, labelling and guilt by association as threatening to one’s right to life, liberty, or security.
Following activist Siegfried Deduro's petition and his experience of red-tagging by military officers, the high court identified the issuance of a writ of amparo as a remedy to address threats stemming from such acts. This legal recourse also extends to cases involving enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
"In a society built on the rule of law, every citizen is entitled to the protection of their fundamental rights," said the commission in a statement on Saturday.
"The SC’s decision underscores the importance of protecting these rights against any form of unwarranted harassment or intimidation. Red-tagging and similar practices not only violate the inherent dignity of individuals but also undermine the fabric of democracy and the rule of law."
The issuance of a writ of amparo serves as a mechanism to ensure accountability by empowering individuals to seek legal protection against actions that threaten their safety aand well-being.
Upon the filing of a petition for a writ of amparo, or at anytime before final judgment, courts, justices or judges may grant the following reliefs:
- temporary protection order
- inspection order
- production order
- witness protection order
The CHR noted that the SC defined red-tagging as the "use of threats and itimidation to discourage subversie activities," this as state agents haphazardly claim that individuals or legal organizations are one and the same with the armed communist insurgency.
"CHR is hopeful that the SC decision will set a strong legal precedent for court cases involving red-tagging. Most especially, we hope that this will fortify adherence to due process and the rule of law before making serious accusations and labels that endanger human rights and dignity," continued the commission.
"As the country’s national human rights institution, CHR endeavors to continually respond to red-tagging issues. As such, another national inquiry on red-tagging is scheduled this year to further engage civil society, the government, and other relevant stakeholders in addressing this persistent issue."
The SC decision affirms the CHR's 2020 national inquiry on the situation of human rights defenders, as many of them have first been red-tagged prior to being killed, injured, illegally arrested, charged with trumped-up cases, or otherwise put in harm’s way. Source
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Turkey sentences pro-Kurdish politicians to lenghty prison terms over deadly 2014 riots |
AP News 16/05/2024 - A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced several pro-Kurdish politicians to between nine and 42 years in prison over deadly riots in 2014 by Kurds angered by what they perceived to be government inaction against Islamic State group militants who had besieged the Syrian border town of Kobani.
The three days of clashes that broke out in October 2014 resulted in 37 deaths and left hundreds of others — police and civilians — injured. The protests were called by leaders of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, who were frustrated by what they considered to be Turkish support for IS militants.
A total of 108 people were charged with various crimes, including the killings of the 37 victims and crimes against the integrity of the state. The defendants include HDP’s imprisoned former leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, who were accused of organizing the protests and inciting the violence. Critics decried the trial as politically motivated and part of a wider government crackdown on the pro-Kurdish party. Of the defendants, 18 were jailed, 18 others were freed pending the verdict and 72 remain at large.
The court in Ankara convicted Demirtas - who has run for president twice - of a total of 47 charges and sentenced him to 42 years in prison, state broadcaster TRT reported. Yuksekdag was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempts to challenge the unity of the state, of inciting criminal acts and of engaging in propaganda on behalf of a terror organization.
Twelve defendants were acquitted of all charges. Defendants still at large would be tried at a later date.
The politicians are expected to appeal the verdicts. The hearing took place in a tense atmosphere with lawyers banging on desks and leaving the courtroom to protest the verdicts, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported. The pro-Kurdish movement’s current co-leader, Tuncer Bakırhan, described the verdicts as a “black stain” on the Turkish justice system.
“The Selahattins, the Figens and others who were prosecuted in this Kobani conspiracy trial have been acquitted in the hearts and minds of the Kurds, the Turks, the workers, the women and the young,” he said. In anticipation of protests condemning the sentences, authorities imposed a four-day ban on demonstrations in the predominantly Kurdish provinces of Diyarbakir, Siirt, Tunceli and Batman.
The government accused the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. The group has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.
Government officials accused the HDP leaders of taking instructions from the PKK to stage the riots.
The government has frequently cracked down on the pro-Kurdish political movement by stripping legislators of their parliamentary seats and removing elected mayors from office. Several HDP lawmakers have been jailed alongside Demirtas and Yuksekdag, on terror-related charges.
The party has since changed its name to the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, and is the third-largest grouping in Turkey’s parliament. Source
Turkey’s DEM Party defies ban to protest Kobane ruling
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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC | |
UPDATED Uphold rights and liberties at protests and encampments across Canada!
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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.
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Canada: Remove the national security exemptions from Bill C-27! | |
Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task. Please join us in denouncing the dangerous national security related exemptions in the bill. | |
Canada: Do not purchase armed drones | |
The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign | |
In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. | |
CSIS isn't above the law! | |
In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.
Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | |
Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! |
On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable.
Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.
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20 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | |
Canada must protect encryption! |
Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.
Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!
Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir
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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place. Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now. | |
July to December 2023 - Juillet à décembre 2023 | |
Thanks to your support, in the second half of 2023, we were able to work on the following issues or with the following entities:
- Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
- Bill C-26, An Act respecting cybersecurity and amending the Telecommunications Act
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
- Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
- Security certificates & inadmissibility
- Combatting Islamophobia
- National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA)
- Prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
- Federal anti-terrorist financing consultation
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Canada’s 4th Universal Periodic Review
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- UN Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Canada assessment
- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global study on counter-terrorism and civic space
For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.
What we have planned for 2024!
Your support, will allow us to continue our work on these issues and much more in the next year:
- 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
- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
- Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
- And much more!
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Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG. | |
THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!
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