International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
December 14, 2018
ICLMG: Canada is deporting a man to torture. Will we let that happen?
ICLMG 10/12/2018 - This is a story about a man who came to Canada as a refugee  out of fear  of persecution in his home country. Several years later, though, he was  jailed without charge  based on allegations from a secret informant who  failed a lie-detector test  and whom the judge refused to make available for cross-examination. After his arrest, the government proceeded to  destroy  the original “evidence” against him. Only a summary was given to a special, security-cleared lawyer, who wasn’t allowed to discuss the evidence with the person in question. The process that followed, based on a special law, was so skewed that the courts were allowed to make their decisions based on information  not normally admissible in a court of law . It doesn’t end there. Over the next 16 years, this person faced  constant monitoring and harassment  by government officials,  three-and-a-half years of detention , including one in solitary confinement, and years of house arrest but has never event been charged, let alone convicted, of a crime. On top of all this, he is now facing  deportation to torture  because he is not a Canadian citizen. After hearing this story, do you think it unfair? Do you think it is shocking that this could happen in Canada? Do you believe this needs to stop — and should never have happened in the first place? Would it change your answers to the questions above if we told you the person we are talking about is... Read more - Lire plus


Canada failed to provide full redress for its involvement in the torture of five Canadians, says UN Committee Against Torture
ICLMG & LRWC 11/12/2018 - A new UN report is once again criticizing Canada for failing to provide full redress for its involvement in the torture of five Canadians. The UN Committee Against Torture just finished its regular review of Canada. In its report, it found that Canada has continued to fail to provide full redress for five Canadians who were tortured abroad, with Canada’s complicity:
  • Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who were all subjects of the Iacobucci Inquiry, which found that Canadian security agents were complicit in their torture abroad;
  • Omar Khadr, who was illegally imprisoned, and tortured in the Guantanamo Bay prison;
  • Abousfian Abdelrazik, who was arbitrarily imprisoned, and tortured in Sudan, while the Canadian government blocked his attempts to return home.
Canadian officials have been found or are alleged to have been complicit in torture in each of these cases. For the first four men, Canada has provided cursory apologies and financial compensation. Regarding Abousfian Abdelrazik, the government has been criticized for refusing to negotiate a settlement or proceed to trial, and instead taking action that will draw the case out — possibly for years. The Committee reported that Canada has failed to meet some of the most important requirements of redress under the Convention Against Torture, namely:
  • Investigation into those complicit in torture and mistreatment, and criminal prosecution where warranted;
  • Verification of the facts, and full and public disclosure of the truth, ideally through a public inquiry; and,
  • Official declaration or judicial decision restoring the dignity, the reputation and the rights of the victims. Particularly in the case of Omar Khadr, the government and political officials have continued to share misleading and prejudicial information about the violation of his rights.
The Committee also noted Canada’s continuing failure to provide adequate training about Convention duties for law enforcement officials, judges, prosecutors and medical personnel. The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), which raised these concerns in a joint report to the Committee, welcomed the findings and are calling for the government to take immediate action to meet its legal obligations to oppose torture and ill-treatment. Read more - Lire plus 


Bill C-59 is moving on to the Senate Committee
ICLMG 12/12/2018 - Bill C-59, the National Security Act of 2017, is moving on to the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. We hope the Committee will make important and necessary amendments to protect civil liberties and human rights in Canada and internationally. Read more - Lire plus
Editorial note: With respect, we feel that the title misrepresents the content of the article, and that it would be more accurate if it said: "Time to Repair the Errors of the War on Terror". We would also add that stronger review mechanisms for spy agencies are necessary to prevent those errors from happening again.
CIPS 10/12/2018 - The aftermath of 9/11 produced many problems in many countries. Canadian police and security agencies made numerous mistakes as followers and participants in an ill-considered American-led War on Terror declared shortly after that tragedy. The evidence in two public inquiries and numerous court cases is irrefutable. Most of these cases — from the most prominent case of Maher Arar to the nearly forgotten situations of New York detainees in the weeks after 9/11 — are covered in my recently released book Detained. Several cases are still awaiting judgment and settlement. It’s time for the Canadian government to act on these remaining cases. It’s also time to acknowledge the mistakes of the past. We continue to see resumés of the events after 9/11 that ignore responsibilities and evade blame. A recent example is  a paper  on a slightly different subject, in which the author touches on some post 9/11 cases and suggests that the Canadians detained abroad after 9/11 were imprisoned “by foreign governments on Islamist security grounds.” His cryptic summation ignores the real story. Let’s set the record straight. Numerous Canadians (as well as several permanent residents of Canada who had yet to become citizens) were imprisoned abroad after 9/11 at the instigation of American agencies, mainly the CIA and FBI. The Maher Arar case was a blatant “rendition” from the United States to Syria. All of these Canadians were tortured or mistreated. In virtually every case, Canadian police or security agencies, mainly through the provision of information to American agencies, facilitated their detention but also, in some cases, did so through active participation in helping to keep Canadians detained abroad. Even more egregious, much of the information provided to the US by Canadian agencies consisted largely of half-baked factoids and conclusions, many of which turned out to be factually inaccurate and contextually flawed. This isn’t a secret. Key cases examined by the O’Connor and Iacobucci inquiries established the nature of the liabilities against the Canadian government that became the basis of subsequent legal cases and settlements. So let’s stop hinting that we got the right people, even if the methods were wrong. No, Canadian agencies were supposed to target Islamic extremists; in far too many cases, their purported investigations were simply erroneous. The same paper summarized the Omar Khadr case in flagrantly misleading terms. As a partial corrective, let me offer the following quick points. Khadr pleaded guilty to numerous US offences, but only to avoid a Draconian fate in a one-sided US justice system in Guantanamo Bay. It’s now  doubtful that Khadr was even involved in the death of an American soldier in the incident in which he was severely wounded. Two Supreme Court of Canada decisions on the Khadr case went against the Canadian government, the second establishing the liabilities on which his civil claim was based. The case was mediated to a conclusion to save the Canadian taxpayers the cost of an extended trial and possibly an even larger settlement, based on a decade of incarceration with the fingerprints of Canadian police and security agencies all over it. Read more - Lire plus 
Polytechnique, 6 décembre 1989 : un premier attentat antiféministe?
The Conversation 05/12/2018 - En fin d’après-midi le 6 décembre 1989, Marc Lépine, âgé de 25 ans, se présente à l’École polytechnique de Montréal armé d’un semi-automatique. Il entre dans une classe et ordonne aux hommes de sortir. Seul avec les étudiantes, il déclare « J’haïs les féministes », avant d’ouvrir le feu. [...] Quatorze femmes sont mortes. [...] Presque trente ans plus tard, de jeunes hommes commettent des meurtres de masse contre des femmes,  cette fois sous prétexte d’être privés des rapports sexuels . Ces « célibataires involontaires » (Incels) sont célébrés sur des médias sociaux o ù se croisent des appels au meurtre et au viol de femmes , ainsi que des propos racistes. Alek Minassian, le présumé auteur du carnage à la voiture bélier , survenu en avril 2018, à Toronto, s'est réclamé des Incels. La très grande majorité des victimes étaient des femmes. Marc Lépine visait des femmes qui se destinaient à un métier non traditionnel, sous prétexte qu’elles prenaient la place des hommes. Ces nouveaux terroristes veulent punir et terroriser les femmes parce qu’elles leur refuseraient des rapports sexuels auxquels ils prétendent avoir droit. Tous ces meurtres de masse constituent, en définitive, du terrorisme contre les femmes et les féministes. Mais ose-t-on aujourd'hui utiliser ce mot pour décrire et analyser ces événements tragiques? [...] Sans jamais avoir consulté le tueur ni son dossier médical, des psychologues prétendent qu’il souffrait de troubles de la personnalité. Cette  psychologisation du meurtre  avait pour effet de le dépolitiser. Un processus similaire a été observé  à la suite de l’attentat contre la Mosquée de Québec, en janvier 2017, où six Musulmans ont été assassinés. D’autres voix — dont celle du psychologue Guy Corneau — ont prétendu que le massacre de Polytechnique était la conséquence de « l’absence du père » et l’expression d’une « crise de la masculinité ». Pour certains, il s’agissait même d’une réaction masculine normale, après tant d’avancées des femmes grâce au féminisme. Les médias ont aussi relayé l’information (fausse) que l’École polytechnique aurait refusé la demande d’admission de Marc Lépine (il y avait alors moins de 20% d’étudiantes). Onze mois après la tuerie, la journaliste Francine Pelletier a reçu une copie de la lettre de suicide retrouvée sur le corps du tueur. Il y expliquait ses motivations politiques et fournissait une liste de 18 femmes (et d’un groupe d’hommes antisexistes) qu’il désirait tuer, soit des personnalités féministes ainsi que la première policière, la première pompière, etc. Se qualifiant d’« érudit rationnel », le tueur avait même anticipé qu’on le qualifierait de « tueur fou », alors qu’il exprimait très clairement ses motivations politiques. Enfin,  le courant antiféministe « masculiniste »  a reproché aux féministes d’avoir « récupéré » et même tiré profit de l’attentat. Quelques individus se sont même identifiés au tueur, par exemple dans des menaces adressées à des femmes. Cette référence au tueur se retrouve encore aujourd’hui dans plusieurs cyberattaques,  par exemple contre des féministes travaillant à l’UQAM .  Un site Web ouvertement antiféministe a même été dédié au tueur, qualifié de « héros et martyr ». En décembre 2009, des féministes ont alors proposé de penser la tuerie de 1989 comme un « attentat terroriste » antiféministe, puisque le tueur ne visait pas seulement les étudiantes (victimes directes), mais cherchait aussi à terroriser toutes les féministes (cibles ultimes). Il aura donc fallu vingt ans pour parvenir à parler d’un « attentat terroriste antiféministe ». [...] Comme on l'a vu, la lutte pour imposer une interprétation de l'événement du 6 décembre 1989 se poursuit au fil des décennies, mais la distance qui se creuse semble permettre aux féministes d'être mieux entendues dans l'espace public. À une époque comme la nôtre, obsédée par le terrorisme, il semble cependant qu'il soit encore difficile de considérer, hors des milieux féministes, les meurtres de masse contre les femmes comme du terrorisme. Et ce, même si ces attaques relèvent bien de cette logique. Read more - Lire plus
Tim McSorley's comments on news article: " GCHQ boosts powers to launch mass data hacking"
Twitter 10/12/2018 - This article is important for two reasons: First, the issue itself should be of major concern: 'The move, which has alarmed civil liberty groups, will see an expansion [of] the process by which GCHQ can target entire communication networks overseas in a bid to identify individuals who pose a threat to national security." Second, specific to Canada, is how this information was discovered: in a letter from the security minister, Ben Wallace, to the head of the intelligence and security committee, Dominic Grieve, filed in the House of Commons library. Canada's equivalent is the new National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP). However, all proceedings of the committee are private and any document prepared for this committee is considered secret. It raises the serious concern that should an update like this in the UK be provided by our Public Safety Minister to the NSICOP, it would not be placed on the public record and would be immune from the Access to Information Act. An ideal solution, which ICLMG has argued for, is that this be a committee of Parliament, with members appointed by Parliament, which reports to Parliament (all of which, from my understanding, is how the UK committee is set up). More on this here . Source 

GCHQ Propose A 'Going Dark' Workaround That Creates The Same User Trust Problem Encryption Backdoors Do
techdirt 03/12/2018 - Are we "going dark?" The FBI certainly seems to believe so, although its estimation of the size of the problem was based on extremely inflated numbers. Other government agencies haven't expressed nearly as much concern, even as default encryption has spread to cover devices and communications platforms. There are solutions out there, if it is as much of a problem as certain people believe. (It really isn't…) But most of these solutions ignore workarounds like accessing cloud storage or consensual searches in favor of demanding across-the-board weakening/breaking of encryption. A few more suggestions have surfaced over at Lawfare. The caveat is that both authors, Ian Levy and Crispin Robinson, work for GCHQ. So that should give you some idea of which shareholders are being represented in this addition to the encryption debate. The idea (there's really only one presented here) isn't as horrible as others suggested by law enforcement and intelligence officials. But that doesn't mean it's a good one. And there's simply no way to plunge into this without addressing an assertion made without supporting evidence towards the beginning of this Lawfare piece: "Any functioning democracy will ensure that its law enforcement and intelligence methods are overseen independently, and that the public can be assured that any intrusions into people’s lives are necessary and proportionate." By that definition, the authors' home country is excluded from the list of "functioning democracies." Multiple rulings have found GCHQ's surveillance efforts in violation of UK law. And a number of leaks over the past half-decade have shown its oversight is mostly ornamental. The same can be said for the "functioning democracy" on this side of the pond. Leaked documents and court orders have shown the NSA frequently ignores its oversight when not actively hiding information from Congress, the Inspector General, and the FISA court. Oversight of our nation's law enforcement agencies is a patchwork of dysfunction, starting with friendly magistrates who care little about warrant affidavit contents and ending with various police oversight groups that are either filled with cops or cut out of the process by the agencies they nominally oversee. We can't even get a grip on routine misconduct, much less ensure "necessary and proportionate intrusions into people's lives." According to the two GCHQ reps, there's a simple solution to eavesdropping on encrypted communications. All tech companies have to do is keep targets from knowing their communications are no longer secure. […] Suppressing notifications might be less harmful than key escrow or backdoors. It wouldn't require a restructuring of the underlying platform or its encryption. If everything is in place -- warrants, probable cause, exhaustion of less intrusive methods -- it could give law enforcement a chance to play man-in-the-middle with targeted communications. But there's a downside -- one that isn't referenced in the Lawfare post. If both ends of a conversation are targeted, this may be workable. But what if one of the participants isn't a target? This leaves them unprotected because the suppressed messages wouldn't inform other non-target parties the conversation isn't protected. Read more - Lire plus


U.S. Border Agents Fail to Delete Personal Data of Travelers After Electronic Searches, Watchdog Says
Gizmodo 11/12/2018 - Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searched through the electronic devices of more than 29,000 travelers coming into the country. CBP officers sometimes upload personal data from those devices to Homeland Security servers by first transferring that data onto USB drives—drives that are supposed to be deleted after every use. But a new government report found that the majority of officers fail to delete the personal data. The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog, known as the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), released a new report yesterday detailing CBP’s many failures at the border. The new report, which is redacted in some places, explains that Customs officials don’t even follow their own extremely liberal rules. Customs officials can conduct two kinds of electronic device searches at the border for anyone entering the country. The first is called a “basic” or “manual” search and involves the officer visually going through your phone, your computer or your tablet without transferring any data. The second is called an “advanced search” and allows the officer to transfer data from your device to DHS servers for inspection by running that data through its own software. Both searches are legal and don’t require a warrant or even probable cause—at least they don’t according to DHS. It’s that second kind of search, the “advanced” kind, where CBP has really been messing up and regularly leaving the personal data of travelers on USB drives. It’s bad enough that the government is copying your data as you enter the country. But it’s another thing entirely to know that your data could just be floating around on USB drives that, as the Inspector General’s office admits, could be easily lost or stolen. Read more - Lire plus 

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret
The New York Times 10/12/2018 - The millions of dots on the map trace highways, side streets and bike trails — each one following the path of an anonymous cellphone user. One path tracks someone from a home outside Newark to a nearby Planned Parenthood, remaining there for more than an hour. Another represents a person who travels with the mayor of New York during the day and returns to Long Island at night. Yet another leaves a house in upstate New York at 7 a.m. and travels to a middle school 14 miles away, staying until late afternoon each school day. Only one person makes that trip: Lisa Magrin, a 46-year-old math teacher. Her smartphone goes with her. An app on the device gathered her location information, which was then sold without her knowledge. It recorded her whereabouts as often as every two seconds, according to a database of more than a million phones in the New York area that was reviewed by The New York Times. While Ms. Magrin’s identity was not disclosed in those records, The Times was able to easily connect her to that dot. The app tracked her as she went to a Weight Watchers meeting and to her dermatologist’s office for a minor procedure. It followed her hiking with her dog and staying at her ex-boyfriend’s home, information she found disturbing. “It’s the thought of people finding out those intimate details that you don’t want people to know,” said Ms. Magrin, who allowed The Times to review her location data. Like many consumers, Ms. Magrin knew that apps could track people’s movements. But as smartphones have become ubiquitous and technology more accurate, an industry of snooping on people’s daily habits has spread and grown more intrusive. Read more - Lire plus

Omar Khadr writes of hope for end to 'indefinite and potentially endless detention'
The Canadian Press 11/12/2018 - Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr wants to be granted a Canadian passport to travel to Saudi Arabia and permission to speak to his controversial sister. Khadr, who is now 32, will be back in the Court of Queen's Bench in Edmonton Thursday to apply for changes to his bail conditions which were imposed while he appeals war crime convictions by a U.S. military commission. An affidavit by Khadr filed with the court says the impact of his bail conditions are mainly psychological -- a daily reminder of what he went through. "I feel like the indefinite and potentially endless detention that I suffered in Guantanamo Bay is continuing," he wrote. "I hope that there will be some end to this process, but there is none in sight." Khadr spent years in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay after he was caught when he was 15 and accused of tossing a grenade that killed special forces soldier Christopher Speer at a militant compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He says in his affidavit that he would like to be able to speak on the phone or over Skype to his sister Zaynab Khadr. He is also asking to perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia which is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims once in their lifetime. "For this reason, I would like to apply for a Canadian passport," he said in the document. [...] Khadr also needs permission to travel outside Alberta, and has made several trips to Toronto both to visit his family and deal with a civil lawsuit there to enforce a judgement granted against him in Utah. In his affidavit, Khadr said he has been volunteering with an organization that helps refugees integrate into the community and has earned his high school diploma. Khadr said he is happily married and was accepted into a nursing program, but has been unable to devote himself to study due to his legal issues. "My reintegration into the community has been filled with happiness and not bitterness," he wrote. "I have no anger towards anyone and I have been getting on with my life. I have made many friends, and I am proud and happy to be a Canadian citizen living in Canada. "I have not gotten into any trouble of any kind with the authorities." Read more - Lire plus
Activists found guilty of terrorism-related offense for stopping U.K. migrant deportations
The Intercept 11/12/2018 - The guilty verdict arrived around lunchtime on December 10 — Human Rights Day, which this year marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It signaled the end of a nine-week trial and three days of jury deliberations in Chelmsford Crown Court, about 30 miles northeast of London. More than a year and a half after the 15 defendants had locked themselves around a deportation charter flight at London’s Stansted Airport, successfully stopping it from taking off, the defendants were convicted of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome, a terrorism-related offense with a potential life sentence. Known as the Stansted 15, the defendants had all pleaded not guilty to the charge, which falls under the United Kingdom’s  Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 , an obscure law intended to fight terrorism. The activists were originally charged with aggravated trespass, but that charge was later upgraded to intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome — under the “endangering safety at an aerodrome” section of the act — and seen by many as a disproportionate response to peaceful protest. Now, the guilty verdict has sent a chilling message to those who may wish to follow in the Stansted 15’s footsteps. Amnesty International, which had been observing the trial,  tweeted , “The rights and freedoms of all of us are being eroded. The UK should not be targeting human rights defenders in this way.” In a statement released minutes after the verdict was announced, the defendants wrote, “We are guilty of nothing more than intervening to prevent harm. The real crime is the government’s cowardly, inhumane and barely legal deportation flights and the unprecedented use of terror law to crack down on peaceful protest. We must challenge this shocking use of draconian legislation, and continue to demand an immediate end to these secretive deportation charter flights and a full independent public inquiry into the government’s ‘hostile environment’.” Read more - Lire plus

'Terrorism' database cites 'Islamophobic' sources in Muslim profiles
Middle East Eye 10/12/2018 - A leading financial risk database that is already facing multiple lawsuits from Muslim organisations which it suggested had links to terrorism is still using as sources websites accused of promoting far-right and Islamophobic agendas, Middle East Eye can reveal. An MEE investigation has found several entries for prominent Muslim individuals and organisations in the World-Check risk intelligence database that include links to material posted on notorious websites such as Jihad Watch and Frontpage Magazine. Some of the sources, including controversial US-based think tanks such as the Gatestone Institute and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, were also  reported  by the Guardian newspaper last week to be part of a "hidden global network" supporting Tommy Robinson, a far-right anti-Muslim activist in the UK. Several are also cited in the militant far-right manifesto of Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a mass shooting at a youth camp and a car bombing in Norway in July 2011. MEE also discovered that several reputable organisations, including the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the most prominent Muslim rights group in the US, and Muslim Aid, a large British charity, continue to be categorised under “terrorism” on World-Check. World-Check was created in London in 2000 in response to legislation designed to reduce financial crime in the UK and elsewhere. It says its customers include  49 of the world’s 50 largest banks , and more than 300 government and intelligence agencies. It was sold to media giant Thomson Reuters in 2011. In October, 55 per cent of Thomson Reuters’ risk arm, made up of World-Check and a handful of other services, was  sold to the investment giant Blackstone and rebranded Refinitiv. World-Check has been under scrutiny since 2014 when several Muslim organisations and individuals in the UK said that their  bank accounts had been closed  at short notice. Subsequent investigations revealed that some of them had been wrongly listed on the database under the category “terrorism”. Read more - Lire plus 
UN human rights experts concerned about EU’s online counter-terrorism proposal
OHCHR 12/12/2018 - UN human rights experts have raised concerns about the European Union’s  Proposal for a Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online , calling on the EU to ensure that it is brought into line with human rights standards. “We recognise the need to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online,” the experts said. “However, we have serious concerns that the Proposal’s overly broad definition of what constitutes ‘terrorist content’ could include legitimate forms of content. “The definition as it stands could encompass legitimate forms of expression, such as reporting conducted by journalists and human rights organisations on the activities of terrorist groups and on counter-terrorism measures taken by authorities,” they said in a  letter to the EU  on 7 December. The letter lists the experts’ concerns and recommends changes to the Proposal. The experts said that the proposed legislation, along with the threat of penalties for non-compliance, would likely result in platforms removing lawful content. Freedom of expression is a prerequisite for the effective promotion and protection of a broad range of human rights, including rights that cannot be lawfully limited such as freedom of opinion, they said. “Therefore, as a matter of principle, limitations on freedom of expression must remain the exception and should be applied strictly so as to ‘not put in jeopardy the right itself’,” the experts said. “But our concerns go beyond definitions,” they added. “The Proposal may lead to infringements to the right to access to information, freedom of opinion, expression, and association, and could impact interlinked political and public interest processes.” They said the best way to prevent Internet platforms being used for terrorist purposes was for the authorities and service providers to work together, using international human rights law and the framework set out under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. “We regret that the Proposal fails to require companies to develop terms of service and community standards for content regulation in accordance with human rights standards,” the experts said. “By allowing the authorities to request private actors to remove content that the authorities cannot themselves remove in a way that complies with human rights standards, the Proposal creates an ‘escape route’ from human rights oversight,” the experts said. The experts urged continued dialogue with the EU on the issue. Read more - Lire plus
Turkish anti-terror laws make lives of some impossible - Council of Europe commissioner
Ahval News 06/12/2018 - The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic  told Deutsche Welle Turkish on Thursday that anti-terror legislations in Turkey, as well as in other countries, could limit freedom of expression and the human rights of people in case those laws were misused. Mijatovic recently published an opinion report on anti-terror legislations in several members of the council, including Turkey. “My predecessors have for instance repeatedly warned against the dangers, arbitrariness and abuses of anti-terrorism laws to stifle freedom of expression in Turkey, where several provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code relating to terrorism and the Anti-Terrorism Law continue to generate some of the most serious violations of freedom of expression in the country,” the commissioner said in a  blog post  on Tuesday. She said that in many instances the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression had been criminalised in Turkey as propaganda for terrorism or as proof of membership of terrorist organisations. “I am following the issue closely,” told Mijatovic to DW. “Some anti-terror laws in Turkey has made the lives of some people impossible,” she said. According to the commissioner there are some imprisoned in Turkey for being regarded as potential terrorists. “I want to discuss this issue with Turkish authorities during my next visit to Turkey,” she said. The commissioner announced last month that she had informed the European Court of Human Rights that she would submit written observations as a third party in the pending case of Osman Kavala. Kavala, a Turkish businessman and philanthropist, has been in prison for more than a year reportedly over charges of being the mastermind behind 2013 Gezi Park protests, the biggest anti-government demonstrations since the country’s Islamist ruling party came to power in 2002. “This special case is important due to the fear it created among the civil society,” the commissioner said. “He is a well-known philanthropist and activist. He is someone we are in dialogue as the Human Right Commission of the Council of Europe. But that is not what is important. People should not be put into jail without any official charges. I do not see this as the decision of an independent judiciary. In fact, it seems like political pressure on someone who is important for civil society in Turkey,” she said. Read more - Lire plus

UN Review Should Help Children Caught in ISIS Conflict
Just Security 12/12/2018 - Baraa Zayani, a 4-year-old Tunisian boy, has been held for the past two years in a militia-run prison in Libya. In 2016, a bullet tore through his stomach during clashes between armed groups that killed his father, a member of the Islamic State. He has had five operations and needs one more. “We have asked every Tunisian authority we can think of to bring him home,” Baraa’s uncle, Moncef Abidi, told me last week in Tunis. “I keep begging them, ‘Save Baraa. He needs more surgery to survive.’ But nothing.” The Libyan authorities say that Baraa and his mother can go home, but Libya and Tunisia are deadlocked on terms, Abidi said. Children like Baraa should be a top priority when the United Nations Security Council  meets Thursday to review  guidelines  for countries whose citizens have joined transnational extremist armed groups such as the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). More than 2,000 children and 1,000 women from more than 20 countries are estimated to be detained in Syria, Iraq and Libya because their fathers are known or alleged ISIS members. The family members come from countries as disparate as France, Russia and Tunisia. While many foreign spouses and offspring are being prosecuted for ISIS-related offenses–often in procedures that miserably  fail  fair trial standards–the majority have not been accused of any crime. Most of these children, including infants and toddlers, are crammed with their mothers into overcrowded prisons and camps. Some are orphans. Many lack sufficient healthcare or food. “My sister told me they suck on olive pits to stave off hunger,” Abidi said of Baraa’s mother Wahida, who is detained with Baraa in Tripoli’s Mitiga prison, notorious for ill-treatment and inhumane conditions. Another Tunisian man said his daughter told him two of her children got sick from eating garbage in Roj, a camp controlled by Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria. Other family members in Tunisia told me that tents in the northeast Syrian camps leak in the rain or blow over in the wind. Schooling, they said, is almost non-existent. Governments  have repeatedly stalled on bringing home  these children, even those with clear proof of citizenship, claiming that they may be future terrorists or that their returns will prompt a popular backlash. Meanwhile, the plight of these children receives only one passing reference in the 2015  Madrid Guiding Principles , which were designed to help countries carry out binding U.N. Security Council  resolutions  to counter the foreign fighter phenomenon. The Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee is expected to update these guidelines on Thursday. Read more - Lire plus
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Tell the Senate to Fix Bill C-59 before it's too late!
From mass surveillance to the No Fly List, the new National Security Act fails to undo past problems and brings in new powers that threaten our rights & freedoms. Send a message to the Senate that they need to fix Bill C-59.
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All-in-one action page: Stop Mohamed Harkat's Deportation to Torture
Call PM Trudeau, write a letter to Public Safety Minister Goodale & 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.
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. There were lengthy periods when he had no family or consular visits. 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. Those actions prolonged his detention, with no concern for the obvious risk of mistreatment he was facing.
Don’t invest my CPP contributions in Trump’s racist agenda
An investigation by the Guardian just revealed that the  Canada Pension Plan (CPP), is pouring millions of your pension dollars into the US private prison corporations that are executing Trump’s cruel and inhumane anti-immigration agenda. That’s your money.  If you’ve ever worked in Canada, you’ve paid contributions to the CPP fund. We can’t let our CPP contributions flow to corporations that are profiting from Trump’s cruel immigration policies.

Tell the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB): Stop investing our savings in private US prison corporations that are executing Trump’s cruel and inhumane anti-immigration agenda.
Parliamentary Petition: Release Edwin Espinal!
We call upon MPs to: 

- Urgently intervene in the case of Edwin Espinal, spouse of Karen Spring of Elmvale, arrested January 19, 2018, on trumped-up charges in the wake of popular protests; and

- Immediately ensure that Honduras release Espinal and four other political prisoners still held in inhumane maximum-security military prisons, and drop all charges against 22 political prisoners.
Remember January 29
On Jan. 29, 2017, a lone gunman entered a mosque in Quebec City and opened fire on dozens of Muslim-Canadian worshipers. By the time the shooting had ended, six had been tragically killed, and 19 more injured.  We, citizens and residents of Canada, call on the government of Canada to henceforth designate January 29th as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia and other forms of religious discrimination  as per the report from Parliament's Heritage Committee.
Five Eyes: Save encryption
Ministers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S. have gone public with their plans for a huge attack on our personal security.

They want to force companies to crush the encryption that protects our private data and messages. But ordinary people need and use encryption every day, in everything from online banking to personal messaging in apps like WhatsApp.
Tell ministers to stop their attacks, and commit to protecting our privacy and security.
Iran: Release Saeed Malekpour!
Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian national with permanent residency in Canada, has been imprisoned in Iran since his arrest on 4 October 2008. In late 2010, he was initially sentenced to death for “spreading corruption on earth” in relation to a web programme he created for uploading photos which the Iranian authorities said was used on pornographic websites. This was an open source programme and Saeed Malekpour has maintained that the use of this web programme on other websites was without his knowledge. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2012.
MORE NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES
Migrant and refugee rights
Droits des migrant.es et des réfugié.es









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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