News Digest - October 11, 2013
ICLMG Editorial

Stop the deportation of Jose Figueroa

11/10/2013 -  Last week, Jos� Figueroa, a Salvadoran refugee claimant living in B.C., was forced to claim sanctuary in a Langley Lutheran church to avoid deportation to El Salvador. Mr. Figueroa, a married father of three Canadian-born children, has been ordered  deported by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) due to his past affiliation with the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), currently the governing political party in El Salvador. If deported Mr. Figueroa will be forced to uproot his family, including his Canadian-born children, despite by all accounts having contributed positively to his Canadian community for over 15 years. Unless the order is reversed by the Minister of Public Safety, Mr. Figueroa will be deported on October 29. The ICLMG is especially troubled by the fact that the IRB based its ruling on the Canadian Border Security Agency's (CBSA) assessment that the FMLN "is or was engaged in terrorism and/or subversion" and on coinciding legal arguments from the Ministry of Public Safety.  This is ludicrous! 

Act now!

Langley Times editorial - Let Jose stay

Video - Warrant issued: Refugee claims sanctuary in Langley church 
Canada, CSEC and mass surveillance

Canadian spies targeted Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry: report

Associated Press 07/10/2013 - A Brazilian television report that aired Sunday night said Canadian spies targeted Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry. The report on Globo television was based on documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and was the latest showing that Latin America's biggest country has been a target for U.S., British and now Canadian spy agencies. The report said the metadata of phone calls and emails from and to the Brazilian ministry were targeted by the Communications Security Establishment Canada, or CSEC, to map the ministry's communications, using a software program called Olympia. It didn't indicate whether emails were read or phone calls were listened to.

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Canadian spies met with energy firms, documents reveal
  
The Guardian 23/09/2013 - The Canadian government agency that allegedly hacked into the Brazilian mining and energy ministry has participated in secret meetings in Ottawa where Canadian security agencies briefed energy corporations, it has emerged. Claims of spying on the ministry by Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) come amid the Canadian government's increasingly aggressive promotion of resource corporations at home and abroad, including unprecedented surveillance and intelligence sharing with companies. According to freedom of information documents obtained by the Guardian, the meetings - conducted twice a year since 2005 - involved federal ministries, spy and police agencies, and representatives from scores of companies who obtained high-level security clearance.

Read more

Canada spying on Brazil? President Dilma Rousseff tells Harper government to explain itself

Brazil-Canada espionage: Which countries are we spying on?


Exclusive - Spy agency CSEC needs MPs' oversight, ex-director says

 

 

National Post editorial: Our spies need oversight

Security certificates

Mohamed Harkat leads challenge of national security certificates in high court

 

The Canadian Press 10/10/2013 - Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and her colleagues peppered Kaczmarczyk with queries Thursday as the federal lawyer recited chapter and verse of Harkat's case. At one point McLachlin reminded her the court was interested not just in his circumstances but in the validity of the overall certificate regime. "You have to answer that or face the consequences," McLachlin said. "That's why we're asking you these questions." The government contends the certificate process is consistent with the guarantee of fundamental justice under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In their submission to the Supreme Court, Harkat's lawyers argue the process is inconsistent with the charter because it provides only rudimentary information about the allegations he faces. Almost 11 years after his arrest, the former gas station attendant and pizza delivery man "is still unaware of the substance of these very serious allegations," says the filing.

Read more 
US, NSA and mass surveillance  


The New York Times 28/09/2013 -
Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials.

Read more
 
More news
Access to information             
Anti-terrorist laws
Criminalization of dissent     
Freedom of the press                 
Guantanamo
Immigration and refugee rights 
Islamophobia
No fly list 
Omar Khadr 
Privacy      

Surveillance



Terrorism

War on terror        

 
IN THIS ISSUE...
- ICLMG Editorial: Stop the deportation of Jose Figueroa
- Canada spies on Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry
- Harkat's Supreme Court case against security certificates & secret trials
- NSA gathers data on social connections of US citizens
- More news
 

The views expressed in this News Digest do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG
News from ICLMG 

ICLMG and CCR intervened at the Supreme Court to oppose secret trials and security certificates    
 
On October 10, the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and ICLMG asked the Supreme Court of Canada to rule that it is fundamentally unfair to rely on secret evidence in deciding whether to deport a non-citizen, potentially to a risk of persecution. The CCR and ICLMG were jointly intervening in the Harkat case, which addresses the use of undisclosed evidence in the security certificate process. The organizations, represented by Sharry Aiken, Barbara Jackman and Andrew Brouwer, presented oral arguments yesterday.

 

Read more  

Take action 

Tell Harper: No Secret Spying!  
 

Openmedia.ca - According to online surveillance expert Ron Deibert, a secretive Canadian government agency is collecting our sensitive private information, giving them the power to "pinpoint not only who you are, but with whom you meet, with what frequency and duration, and at which locations." We need to use this moment-when privacy issues are in the spotlight-to get answers. Call on the government to stop this secretive spying scheme, and to tell Canadians exactly what's going on. We deserve to know


Event  

"Who is Watching the Watchers?": A panel on Canadian privacy and surveillance in the post-Snowden era   

Panelists: Profs. Craig Forcese, Michael Geist, Ian Kerr, Valerie Steeves & Wesley Wark



Wednesday, October 16, 2013
11:30 am-1:00 pm
Fauteux Hall
room FTX 351


What is the News Digest?

 

The News Digest is ICLMG's weekly publication of news articles, events, calls to action and much more regarding national security, anti-terrorism, civil liberties and other issues related to the mandate and concerns of ICLMG and its member organizations. The ICLMG is a national coalition of thirty-eight Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.