International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
April 10, 2021
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‘Random’ tax audits of Muslim charities provide cover for biased terrorism suspicions, report finds |
The Toronto Star 30/03/2020 - The Islamic Shi’a Assembly’s troubles began in 2011 right after Stephen Harper was elected prime minister, the report says. The Charities Directorate first determined that the organization’s operations did not support “advancing religion” as its purpose. And if it wasn’t advancing religion then it deemed it to be supporting a political purpose. [...]
How did the organization run afoul of its “advancing religion” mandate? The audit report said it found the organization hosting Eid festivals for Ramadan two-and-a-half weeks after the recognized religious dates for Eid ul-Fitr. But there are no statutory holidays for Muslim festivals. And because they follow the lunar calendar, the festival sometimes falls mid-week. As with other non-Christian groups, Muslims have to decide whether to take time off work or school to attend religious services. It is therefore standard for organizations to schedule festivities on a weekend at a later date. The decision “smacked of a protestant Christian bias that manifested as state protection and state oversight,” Emon says.
IRFAN-Canada or the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (Canada) also ran afoul of the terrorism financing rules, but via a different route. Its mandate was “poverty relief” not advancing religion. Among regions it worked in was the West Bank and Gaza Strip and it was given charitable status in 1999. But when Hamas won the parliamentary election in the Palestinian territories in 2006, it sent the world into a tailspin. [...] By 2011 the directorate revoked IRFAN-Canada’s charitable status alleging direct links to Hamas. Any of its projects funded through a government ministry in Gaza were automatically deemed to support Hamas after 2006.
The report "Under Layerd Suspicion" calls for an immediate suspension of the CRA’s Review and Analysis Division, the agency’s investigative unit of charities and terrorism funding and a review of Canada’s risk assessment model and strategy to combat extremism and radicalization. It seeks transparency from the Charities Directorate to let organizations know why they’re being audited. It’s calling for the suspension of discretionary use of revocation powers in audits where counter-radicalization policies are involved. Read more - Lire plus
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Activist's deportation case adds to increased calls for oversight of border services |
CBC 08/04/2020 - An Egyptian human rights activist is fighting to stay in Vancouver, saying the political affiliations that forced him to seek asylum in Canada are now being used to justify his deportation. In 2011, Abdelrahman Elmady joined other Egyptians in an uprising against the country's then president, Hosni Mubarak, over issues of increased police brutality, high unemployment and the lack of political freedoms. Following Mubarak's resignation, the country held free elections in 2012, which saw the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), of which Elmady was a member, capture the popular vote.
The victory, however, was short lived. In 2013, a military coup overthrew the government and raided Muslim Brotherhood supporters, killing hundreds, before labelling the party a terrorist organization. Elmady says, in the years that followed, Freedom and Justice Party members were "persecuted." He was working in Saudi Arabia for fear of his safety when Egyptian authorities started asking his family about him. "If I go back to Egypt, I'm going to be in jail, tortured and detained ... maybe dead" said the 38-year-old. But while he believes Canada "values human rights," Elmady says the political ties that make him a potential target, resulted in him being profiled by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In particular, he accuses one CBSA officer of presenting an Islamophobic and inaccurate document to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), painting the Freedom and Justice Party as terrorist organization [although no Western country identifies the Muslim Brotherhood or FJP as terrorist organizations], and him as a national security threat.
Documents shared with CBC also show Elmady, who has a hearing disability, was subsequently detained by the IRB at a correctional facility for two months and went more than a week without his hearing aid as he waited for staff to provide replacement batteries. The case highlights the sweeping powers of the CBSA, which operates without independent oversight, despite recent federal attempts at reform. It also shows the effect those powers can have on asylum seekers like Elmady, who the IRB deemed inadmissible to Canada in October 2017, and who last week deemed he must be deported back to Egypt — decisions he's fighting in Federal Court. Read more - Lire plus
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Carleton PhD student arrested in Turkey denied bail |
CBC 04/04/2021 - A Carleton University PhD student detained in a Turkish prison for more than six months will have to stay there for at least one month longer after his bail was denied. Cihan Erdal, 32, was taken into custody in September as part of a mass arrest of approximately 80 people across Turkey, including three students and a university professor. "It's scary," said Ömer Ongun, Erdal's spouse.
"It's shocking because you always question the rule of law. You really question if this is really a fair trial at the moment." Ongun said lawyers had been optimistic that Erdal would be released, along with two other students, before the trial scheduled for later this month. But those hopes were quashed at a hearing Friday, and Ongun said he's now worried about whether the trial itself will be fair. "It's a continuation of the torture as we defined it," he said. "He's a hostage."
Since being arrested, Erdal has been held in a prison in the Turkish capital, Ankara. He was originally kept in solitary confinement. Erdal's arrest violates "the protections of freedom of expression and political participation and freedom of association" and amounts to "arbitrary detention," said Paul Champ, a human rights lawyer in Ottawa and Erdal's Canadian counsel. "Unfortunately, I think he's just kind of been swept up in this broader wave of arrests," Champ said.
Erdal's legal team in Ankara, Champ said, had put forward arguments that the evidence — two social media posts Erdal made seven years ago — wasn't enough to keep him detained until the April 26 trial. "They're saying that [Erdal's posts] somehow contributes to disunity of the state," Champ said. "But, you know, the political reality is that these charges are targeted to undermine the People's Democratic Party in Turkey and anyone who's connected to that party." Read more - Lire plus
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Letter to Justin Trudeau Regarding Bloody Sunday in the Philippines |
ICHRP Canada 16/03/2021 - Sixty-five organizations (including churches, trade unions and Filipino associations) and prominent individuals based in Canada have jointly sent a letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to publicly condemn the state-sponsored terror perpetrated by the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte against the Filipino people.
The human rights situation in the Philippines is a matter of utmost urgency, says the March 16th letter to the Prime Minister. A series of military operations during the weekend of March 4-7, 2021 killed 9 labour and indigenous leaders and human rights activists. Now known as “Bloody Sunday”, the deadly military operations are part of President Duterte’s increasingly brutal implementation of the government’s counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism wars. Since Duterte came to power in 2016, “tens of thousands have died in Duterte’s so-called ‘War on Drugs’, 300 farmers, indigenous peoples, human rights defenders, including 55 lawyers and judges have been killed.”
Citing Canada’s “Voices at Risk: Canada’s guidelines on supporting human rights defenders”, the letter urges Prime Minister Trudeau to follow through on Canada’s commitment to protect and promote human rights and end its policy of quiet diplomacy. It calls for the ending of Canada’s military trade, aid and cooperation with the Philippine Government. Read & sign the letter, and see the original list of signatories: Read more - Lire plus
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AUMFs, Drones, and Guantánamo: Three ways to begin to end the war on terror
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Common Dreams 25/03/2021 - The Biden administration has offered up its own list of priorities and challenges. Setting out its national security agenda, the president has committed his administration "to engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday's challenges, but today's and tomorrow's." In a new strategy paper, "Renewing America's Advantages: Interim National Security Strategic Guidance," his administration has made its priorities reasonably clear: the development of a multidimensional strategy, led by diplomacy and multilateralism (though not averse to the "disciplined" use of force if necessary) with an overriding commitment to strengthening democracy at home and abroad.
Among the priorities set out in that strategy is one that should—if carried out successfully—be a relief to us all: moving beyond the global war on terror. "The United States should not, and will not, engage in 'forever wars' that have cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars," the paper states, pointing to ending "America's longest war in Afghanistan," as well as the war in Yemen, and helping to end Africa's "deadliest conflicts and prevent the onset of new ones." [...] As far as I'm concerned, the first six-month marker for the Biden administration should be the repeal of the 2001 and 2002 congressional Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) that granted the president the right to continue to pursue conflicts in the name of the war against terror without further recourse to Congress. Three presidents over the last nearly 20 years relied in ever-expanding ways on just that supposed authority to expand the war on terror any way they saw fit.
The first of those AUMFs, passed in Congress with a staggering unanimity (lacking only the brave "no" vote of California Representative Barbara Lee just days after September 11, 2001), authorized the president to "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons." The second authorized the president to use force "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate" to counter the (supposed) threat posed by Iraq to the "national security of the United States" and "to enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq," a reference to weapons of mass destruction monitoring and compliance. Both AUMFs provided a basis for future unilateral war-making decisions that excluded Congress and, as such, superseded its constitutional authorization to declare war. [...]
Under President Obama, drone warfare—the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) to target individuals and groups—became a signature tool in Washington's war on terror arsenal. Such "precision" strikes (chosen in "Terror Tuesday" meetings at the White House in the Obama years) were justified because they would reputedly reduce American deaths and, over time, battlefield deaths generally, including the "collateral damage" of civilian casualties. Obama used such drone strikes expansively, even targeting U.S. citizens abroad. In his second term, Obama did try to put some limits and restrictions on lethal strikes by RPAs, establishing procedures and criteria for them and limiting the grounds for their use. President Trump promptly watered down those stricter guidelines, while expanding the number of drone strikes launched from Afghanistan to Somalia, soon dwarfing Obama's numbers. According to the British-based Bureau for Investigative Journalism, Obama carried out a total of 1,878 drone strikes in his eight years in office. In his first two years as president, Trump launched 2,243 drone strikes. When it came to civilian casualties, at first the Trump administration merely ignored a mandated policy from the Obama era whereby a yearly report on civilian drone strike casualties had to be produced and made public. Then, in March 2019, Trump simply cancelled the requirement, consigning the drone killing program to an even deeper kind of secrecy.
On the subject of drones, in the first weeks of the Biden administration, there have been some potentially encouraging signs. His appointees have signaled an intention to revamp and limit drone policy. On Inauguration Day 2021, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued an order announcing the administration's intention to review the use of RPAs for targeted-killing missions outside of war zones. While the review takes place, some of the Trump-era freedom of the CIA and the military to decide on drone targets on their own was suspended. According to reporting by Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times, "The military and the CIA must now obtain White House permission to attack terrorism suspects in poorly governed places where there are scant American ground troops, like Somalia and Yemen." [...] Last (but very much not least) on my list, it's time to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. This past January was the 19th anniversary of its opening, the moment when the first prisoners from the war on terror were flown to Cuba, offshore from American justice and away from the eyes of the world. Read more - Lire plus
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The Pitfalls of a National Security Approach to Climate |
FPIF 03/03/2021 - On one hand, federal climate policy appears to offer a refreshing contrast. The U.S. has now officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, a cornerstone of President Biden’s pledge to put climate “at the center of United States foreign policy and national security.”
On the other, Biden’s “national security” approach to the crisis could end up exporting some of the same inequities we’re seeing in Texas. Biden has ordered a National Intelligence Assessment on “the security implications of climate change” and called on the secretary of defense to incorporate climate into military planning. Biden’s idea isn’t new — the military has integrated climate into its planning for nearly two decades. But this planning has little to say about how to mitigate climate change itself. Instead, it reveals an obsession with controlling migration and bolstering the carbon-intensive U.S. military presence abroad. In short, our “national security response” to climate change has meant accelerating our emissions and punishing those most impacted by them — sometimes in shocking language.
Other planning focuses on retooling military bases to withstand rising sea levels and extreme weather. But maintaining these very bases — at least 800 in 70 countries — is itself an enormous contributor to climate change. With its global footprint, the Pentagon’s emissions exceed what some entire industrialized nations produce in a year. This is a recipe for more instability, not less. Real climate security demands a completely different set of responses. Instead of pouring more money into keeping out “unwanted starving immigrants” or arming up for resource conflicts, wealthy nations like the United States must invest in new forms of global cooperation, resource sharing, and solidarity.
That includes humanely resettling the 250 million people the UN estimates may be displaced by climate change in the coming decades. It means engaging in good-faith climate diplomacy to bring down emissions globally. And it means sharing resources to support climate mitigation and adaptation around the globe. No country can wall itself off from climate change. Doubling down on a failed playbook will only worsen the uneven impact of the crisis — which Texans recently learned as they froze at home while their wealthy politicians fled the state. The only good “national security” approach to climate change is to make the planet itself safer — for everyone who lives on it. Read more - Lire plus
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Facial recognition tech is supporting mass surveillance. It's time for a ban, say privacy campaigners |
ZDNet 06/04/2021 - A group of 51 digital rights organizations has called on the European Commission to impose a complete ban on the use of facial recognition technologies for mass surveillance – with no exceptions allowed. Comprising activist groups from across the continent, such as Big Brother Watch UK, AlgorithmWatch and the European Digital Society, the call was chaperoned by advocacy network the European Digital Rights (EDRi) in the form of an open letter to the European commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. It comes just weeks before the Commission releases much-awaited new rules on the ethical use of artificial intelligence on the continent on 21 April.
The letter urges the Commissioner to support enhanced protection for fundamental human rights in the upcoming laws, in particular in relation to facial recognition and other biometric technologies, when these tools are used in public spaces to carry out mass surveillance. According to the coalition, there are no examples where the use of facial recognition for the purpose of mass surveillance can justify the harm that it might cause to individuals' rights, such as the right to privacy, to data protection, to non-discrimination or to free expression. It is often defended that the technology is a reasonable tool to deploy in some circumstances, such as to keep an eye on the public in the context of law enforcement, but the signatories to the letter argue that a blanket ban should instead be imposed on all potential use cases. Read more - Lire plus
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Looking tough, but hampering rights: civil society organisations say no to online Terrorism Regulation |
AccessNow 25/03/2021 - Access Now, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Civil Liberties Union for Europe, and 58 other civil society organisations are urgently calling on Members of the European Parliament to reject the proposed Terrorism Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
“The proposed Terrorism Regulation has the power to undermine the protection of fundamental rights across the European Union and beyond,” said Eliška Pírková, Europe Policy Analyst at Access Now. “The framing sounds like it’s tough on terrorism — a rhetoric we would all support. In reality, it will place people’s fundamental rights, artistic freedoms and journalistic content in jeopardy, while missing its mark.”
The proposed Regulation is headed for a final vote in the plenary of the European Parliament in April 2021. Through an open letter, the coalition urges Members of the European Parliament to vote against the adoption of the proposal because:
- It continues to incentivise online platforms to use automated content moderation tools, such as upload filters;
- There is a severe lack of independent judicial oversight; and
- Member States will issue cross-border removal orders without any checks, seriously undermining the judicial cooperation in the EU.
Discussions around the Terrorism Regulation have been ongoing since 2018, attracting warnings from human rights organisations, journalists associations, and researchers, on the serious threat it poses to freedom of expression and opinion, freedom to access information, right to privacy, and the rule of law.
Through an extended debate that included civil society voices, a number of the proposal’s problematic issues have been addressed. Yet, the latest iteration of the proposed Regulation contains measures that will ultimately weaken the protection of fundamental rights in the EU, while providing space where a dangerous precedent for online content regulation worldwide could gain a foothold. The coalition’s message is clear: as it currently stands, the proposed Terrorism Regulation has no place within EU law. Read more - Lire plus
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Bloody Crackdown in Burma Since Feb. 1 Military Coup Kills 500+ Amid Resistance from Youth, Women |
DemocracyNow! 31/03/2021 - More than 500 people have been killed in Burma during protests against the February 1 military coup that toppled Burma’s democratically elected civilian government. At least 141 people were killed over the weekend alone, when soldiers opened fire on civilians demonstrating against military rule in dozens of cities and towns across the country. Children were among the dead, including a 5-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, according to Amnesty International. Burmese troops also fired on a funeral service for a 20-year-old student protester. “We wake up to more bad news every morning, more deaths,” says Aron Aung, a Burmese student studying at the New York Institute of Technology, who also describes how women are helping lead the resistance. Read more - Lire plus
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NEW Save Abdo from deportation
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Abdelrahman El Mady is a father, a husband, a human rights activist and a refugee. He escaped persecution in his home country of Egypt, hoping to find safety in Canada. Instead he faced profiling and Islamophobia at the hands of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The CBSA has deemed him inadmissible and is now trying to deport him to Egypt.
The Canadian government must hold the CBSA accountable, offer Abdo protection from the risks of detention and torture in Egypt, and reunite him with his wife and children in Canada.
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New action to help free Cihan Erdal
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CUPE member Cihan Erdal has been unjustly jailed for six months in Turkey. With a trial date approaching, we are calling on the Canadian government to work to free Cihan and bring him safely home. Click below to add your voice and press for immediate action.
Even if you have already sent a letter it is vitally important to send this new letter, which is based on the latest updates about his situation and outlines key steps the Canadian government must take.
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NEW No New Fighter Jets: Vigil & Fast
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We will not allow Canada to buy 88 new warplanes to rain bombs in US and NATO wars.
Join us online on Saturday April 10 at 7:00pm for a candlelit vigil to honour those who have been killed by Canadian war planes and reject Canada’s plans to buy 88 new bomber jets. Bring a candle or light - we will all light them together.
This event is part of a larger series of public fasts and vigils that will take place across Canada on April 10 and 11.
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Protect freedom to protest in the UK! |
The UK government is planning to make important changes to the law that will restrict the right to protest when lockdown restrictions ease. We oppose this new planned legislation and instead demand that the National Police Chiefs Council adopts a new, eleven-point Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights – or explain why they refuse to do so. Backed by a coalition of other organisations, the Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights sets out what people at protests can expect from the police.
Support the campaign by clicking below, signing and sharing the petition. If you’re part of a group or organisation, you can contact info[at]netpol.org to add your name.
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Environmental defenders are not terrorists! |
We, the undersigned environmental and climate activists from the Philippines and the international community, thus urge Filipino public authorities to undertake preventive interventions against the continued red-tagging and the possible escalation of reprisals against environmental defenders.
We urge legislators to declare red-tagging as a crime punishable by law for curtailing constitutionally-guaranteed free speech and other civil liberties.
Finally, we urge the Supreme Court to take action on the 37 pending legal actions filed by various groups and sectors to junk the authoritarian Anti-Terrorism Law.
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Call on China to allow reunion of Uyghur families |
Many Uyghur parents overseas have had to leave one or more children in the care of family members in Xinjiang. Some parents have since learned their children were taken to state-run “orphan camps” or boarding schools after the relatives taking care of them had been detained.
The mass detention campaign in Xinjiang has prevented Uyghur parents from returning to China to take care of their children themselves.
Sign the petition and call on China's President to ensure that children are allowed to leave China to be reunited as promptly as possible with their parents and siblings already living abroad, if that is preferred by them.
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Stop arms shipments to Saudi Arabia now! |
Sign this parliamentary petition to call upon the Government of Canada to:
1) Halt arms shipments to Saudi Arabia immediately and ensure that any future arms transfers fully comply with Canada’s int'l legal obligations under the UN Arms Trade Treaty;
2) Participate in international efforts to bring an immediate end to the deliberate Saudi-led attacks on civilians which constitute war crimes;
3) Demand and support international partners in lifting the siege on Sana’a Airport and Hudaydah Port in order to deliver humanitarian assistance.
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Tell Transport Minister to cancel Canada's drone contract now! |
Canada’s Transportation Ministry recently approved a $36M contract for drone technology from Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company. The money will purchase a “civilian” version of Elbit’s lethal military drone, the same one which was used to kill civilians during Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2014.
Click below to message the Transport Minister, the Prime Minister, federal political leaders, and your MP.
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Two recent 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 Bill Blair demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable. Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Read our full statement on the issue here for more information. Please share it on:
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Protect Encryption in Canada |
Our ability to use the Internet safely, securely and privately is under threat. Canada wants to create 'back doors' into encryption like some of our partner countries in the Five Eyes Alliance have already done. This weakens Internet safety for all of us. If we don’t act, Canada could be next. We need a policy that explicitly protects our right to encryption. |
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Repatriate Canadian Children from Syria |
Official Parliamentary petition to the Canadian government:
We, the undersigned citizens of Canada , call upon the Government of Canada to immediately repatriate the 25 innocent Canadian children living in inhumane conditions in the camps of northeast Syria.
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Pardon Edward Snowden for exposing the government's illegal surveillance |
Edward Snowden exposed the U.S. government’s illegal mass surveillance programs, along with shocking collusion between large technology companies and spy agencies. He risked everything to blow the whistle and help protect all of our basic human rights. He’s been in exile for long enough. It’s time to bring him home. Everyone from the ACLU to Senator Rand Paul has spoken out in support of the embattled whistleblower, and now even President Trump has indicated his potential support for a pardon. The administration is testing the waters. If we show overwhelming support to #PardonSnowden right now, we could finally get justice for him, and set a precedent that protects whistleblowers, journalists, and defenders of human rights in the future.
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Reunite Ayub, Khalil, and Salahidin with their families |
Ayub Mohammed, Salahidin Abdulahad, and Khalil Mamut are three Uyghur men who left China after childhoods of discrimination, persecution, and hopelessness.
They were sold by Pakistani bounty hunters to the US military in 2001 and taken with 19 other Uyghurs to Guantanamo Bay. Despite being exonerated as early as 2003, they were kept in Guantanamo for years.
Now in forced exile - Ayub in Albania, and Salahidin and Khalil in Bermuda - their families are here in Canada; and their kids growing up without their fathers.
Despite posing no threat to Canadian national security, these men have been waiting over five years to reunite with their families and find a safe place to live.
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China: Free Canadian Huseyin Celil |
The Chinese authorities accused Huseyin of offences related to his activities in support of Uighur rights. They held Huseyin in a secret place. They gave him no access to a lawyer, to his family, or to Canadian officials. They threatened him and forced him to sign a confession. They refused to recognize Huseyin’s status as a Canadian citizen, and they did not allow Canadian officials to attend his trial. It was not conducted fairly, and resulted in a sentence of life in prison in China. His life sentence was reduced to 20 years in February 2016. Huseyin has spent much of his time in solitary confinement. He lacks healthy food and is in poor health. Kamila needs her husband, and the boys need their father back. |
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Canada must act to end Islamophobia in Xinjiang, China |
There is credible evidence that up to one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other mainly Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are being detained in secret internment camps. Detainees are brainwashed, tortured and are forced to renounce their religion and culture.
And send a message to Chrystia Freeland demanding that Canada actively support an independent and unrestricted international fact-finding initiative to Xinjiang.
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Stop CSIS from targeting everyday citizens & community groups |
A recent report revealed that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, collected over 8,000 pages of documents, spying on citizens like you, people who exercise their democratic rights by attending a community meeting at a local church or taking peaceful action for what they believe in. And CSIS shared this info with Big Oil corporations. Sign this petition to tell the govt to stop using taxpayer money to unconstitutionally spy on Canadians part of peaceful community groups. |
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All-in-one action page: Stop Mohamed Harkat's Deportation to Torture
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Call PM Trudeau, write a letter to Public Safety Minister & your MP, and sign Sophie Harkat's petition to stop the deportation of Moe Harkat.
If sent back to Algeria, Moe faces detention, torture and death.
No one should be deported to torture. Ever.
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Defund the police & the RCMP |
More and more people are calling on their city councils to reduce and eliminate budgets for policing. We are no longer going to pay for police to harm our communities. These funds can be re-directed to support the recovery and provide much need improvements to public housing, transit, and food security programs among other basic needs. Please use this e-mail tool to tell your City Councillor to act now to defund the police in your communities. Together we keep each other safe.
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Philippines: Junk the terror bill and uphold human rights! |
The Anti-Terrorism bill is a clear and direct attack against our academic freedom, right to organize, and freedom of expression to air out our grievances towards the inefficiencies and deficiencies of the government's mandate to serve its people through government services.
This positions the government to silence the any dissenter or organizer and given the rich history of harassment of law enforcement agencies and military personnel, harassment and terror-tagging has been a step further for even more killings and silencing.
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Call on Justin Trudeau to ensure justice for Abousfian Abdelrazik |
In September 2003, Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan, while he was back in the country visiting his ailing mother. Over the next three years he was imprisoned for nearly 20 months and was held under house arrest for 12 months. He was denied a lawyer, and was never charged or brought before a judge. During that time he was badly tortured in three different prisons.
Not only did Canada fail to take steps to protect him, CSIS officials frequently obstructed efforts to secure his release.
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Your phone is not safe at the border |
Canada’s border agents can search your phone and laptop at borders and airports, including looking through your private photos, personal messages, and call history.
These ‘digital strip searches’ are allowed because our laws are incredibly out of date. But politicians are refusing to update them for our digital age.
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MORE NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES |
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Accountability
Reddition de comptes
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Islamophobia
Islamophobie
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From July to December 2020 |
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ICLMG - 2020 has been BUSY! Click below to see what we’ve accomplished in the second half of 2020, but first here is our plan for the next year.
In 2021, we will continue fighting:
- against facial recognition technology, governments' attacks on encryption, and online mass surveillance
- for a review mechanism for the Canada Border Services Agency
- to abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture
- to repeal of the Canadian No Fly List
- for justice for Hassan Diab & the reform of the Extradition Act
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Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG. |
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THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
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Merci!
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