International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
March 1, 2019
ICLMG: Canada must act now for the release and return of Yasser Ahmed Albaz
ICLMG 28/02/2019 - On behalf of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and our 45 member organizations across Canada, we are calling for Mr. Yasser Ahmed Albaz’s immediate release from Tora prison in Egypt and his return to Canada. The ICLMG is deeply concerned about Mr. Albaz welfare. In the past, our organization has supported and spoken out for others who have been arrested and imprisoned in Tora. We know how important it is in these situations that immediate action be taken at the upper levels of the Canadian government to ensure that Mr. Albaz’s rights are protected, to avoid grave mistreatment and to secure his release. We are pleased and thankful that Canadian consular officials have met with Mr. Albaz, and that he has been able to meet with his legal counsel. We urge the Canadian government to use all possible channels to ensure Mr. Albaz is able to return home to his family, friends and colleagues in Oakville, Ontario, as soon as possible. All too often we see state security around the world, including in Egypt, arresting individuals without charge, as in the case of Mr. Albaz. In this case, neither he nor his legal counsel have even been informed of what he is charged with. This lack of due process seriously hinders any ability to defend oneself, and raises serious concerns about the respect of Mr. Albaz’s other fundamental freedoms or protection from mistreatment. It is the duty of the Canadian government to protect the rights of its citizens, and to defend human rights internationally. It is of the utmost importance that Canadian officials, including MPs and members of government, take immediate action to ensure Mr. Ahmed’s safety and to bring him home. We are asking them to take action today. Source

'I want my father home': Family of man detained in Egypt calls on Canada to intervene
MEE 28/02/2019 - The family of an Egyptian-Canadian man detained in Egypt for nearly two weeks has called on the "highest levels" of Canada's government to intervene, saying they fear for the safety of Yasser Ahmed Albaz. In a news conference on Thursday morning in Ottawa, Albaz's daughter, Amal, said her family has been living a nightmare since 18 February, when Albaz was first detained at Cairo International Airport. "Our lives have turned upside down. Our pain is like a cloud that's constantly hovering over us ... We're all impacted by this storm," she told reporters. "We need the Canadian government to intervene at the highest levels and bring my father home." Albaz, a 51-year-old engineer and businessman, was detained at the airport in Cairo as he attempted to return to Canada from a business trip. At first, the Egyptian authorities denied he was in their custody, his family said. "My father was subjected to enforced disappearance for days," Amal said. The family first confirmed Albaz's whereabouts when he was taken to the Egyptian state security prosecutor's office for questioning on 23 February, they said in a statement earlier this week. He was interrogated again a few days later, on 26 February. He now is being held at the notorious Tora prison facility in the capital, and his family says they expect him to be questioned again on Saturday. "Until this moment, my dad continues to be detained at one of the worst prisons in the world. He is sleeping on a concrete floor, without a blanket," Amal said. Albaz's family and supporters in Canada also raised concerns on Thursday about the conditions he may be facing in Egyptian detention. The Egyptian government under President Abdelfattah el-Sisi has been accused of myriad human rights violations, including the use of torture in order to coerce confessions from detainees. Human rights groups have described the country's justice system as deeply flawed, pointing to a widespread lack of due process. Read more - Lire plus


ICLMG's comment on Bill C-59 and the inaction on the No Fly List
Twitter 22/02/2019 - The powerful words from a parent about the fight of the No Fly List Kids to this point underline the need to address the terrible system that is the No-Fly List . But also raises question: Liberals could have passed a redress system, and addressed other problems regarding the No-Fly List separately... Instead, they tied it to other, much more controversial and (I would argue) unrelated national security changes (like creating the CSE Act or addressing information sharing issues). The result now is to either push for a (rushed) study of Bill C-59 at the Senate, or see the No-Fly List go unaddressed. Could have been avoided if an unopposed issue wasn't hitched to other, controversial issues. Source
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
UN Human Rights Council 15/02/2019 - This report addresses the human rights challenge of the use of counter-terrorism, countering extremism and preventing extremism measures and practices on the protection of human rights for civil society and human rights defenders. The report further tackles the global challenges of protecting civic space resulting from counter-terrorism law and practice. Since 2001 civil society space has been shrinking around the globe. Civil society as a whole is stigmatised, sometimes discriminated against, its actors are subjected to smear campaigns, defamation, physical harassment, spuriously charged and sentenced under various laws, its peaceful actions are criminalised, and its members are simply unable to carry out their work, either because they are detained, tried, or threatened or submitted to various restrictions on their ability to express themselves, to meet, or to operate. The shrinking space for civil society is indisputably linked to the expansion of security. The Report gives an empirically based assessment of the scale of misuse as well as identifying trends and patterns in state practice. Targeting civil society violates human rights and makes for inept and poorly executed counter-terrorism practice. It undermines the fundamental interests of all states and must be urgently addressed. Read more - Lire plus
UN says Israel's killings at Gaza protests may amount to war crimes
The Guardian 28/02/2019 - UN investigators have accused Israeli soldiers of intentionally firing on civilians and said they may have committed war crimes in their lethal response to Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza . The independent Commission of Inquiry, set up last year by the UN’s human rights council, said Israeli forces killed 189 people and shot more than 6,100 others with live ammunition near the fence that divides the two territories. The panel said in a statement that it had found “reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognisable as such”. Thirty-five of those killed were children, three were clearly identifiable paramedics and two were clearly marked journalists, the report said. The panel acknowledged “acts of significant violence” from the demonstrators, who threw stones, molotov cocktails and in several cases explosives at the fence and Israeli troops behind it. It made clear, however, that such actions did not amount to combat or military campaigns, rejecting an Israeli claim of “terror activities” by Palestinian armed groups. “The demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims,” it said. Investigators also said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli troops had killed and injured Palestinians “who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat.” They said: “These serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.” Read more - Lire plus
Nunavut priest sex abuse case stirs up criticism of 'least fair law in Canada'
The Toronto Star 19/02/2019 - Canada's decision to quietly stay the sex charges against a French priest accused of abusing Inuit children shows extradition laws should be "thrown out," according to an Ottawa academic who spent three years in a French prison. This week, CBC News reported that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC)  stayed charges against Father Johannes Rivoire , an Oblate priest accused of sexually assaulting four children in Nunavut. That 2017 decision was never publicized. While the department will not share its assessment of the Rivoire case, it said there was no "reasonable prospect of conviction."In a statement to CBC News after the story was published, the PPSC said the decision was made, in part, because France does not extradite its citizens. That explanation upsets Hassan Diab. The former Ottawa university professor says Canada extradited him to France to face decades-old terrorism charges based on questionable evidence. "[Rivoire's] country is behind him. In my case, my country and my Department of Justice was pushing hard to send me abroad." So Diab is left to wonder. Why was he — but not Rivoire — sent abroad? The extradition treaty between Canada and France is based on the legal principle of comity, a mutual respect and recognition of national laws. But experts in the area say that's not practically true. "France, like many civil jurisdictions — continental countries in Europe — will not extradite its citizens, does not trust a foreign country's justice system to try its citizens," said Don Bayne, the Ottawa lawyer who has represented Diab throughout his case. "Canada does." Inuit leaders say the government failed them in this case, and Bayne doesn't disagree. But he adds that Canada compromises the liberty of each Canadian it sends to a foreign country to stand trial. "What we've allowed to happen in Canada is the whittling down of constitutional liberty in the case of extradition. It's not justified." Read more - Lire plus
Police in Canada Are Tracking People’s ‘Negative’ Behavior In a ‘Risk' Database
Motherboard 21/02/2019 - Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behaviour of vulnerable people—including minors and people experiencing homelessness—with little oversight and often without consent. Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces—Ontario and Saskatchewan—maintain a “Risk-driven Tracking Database” that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people’s lives. Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a “negative neighborhood.” The Risk-driven Tracking Database (RTD) is part of a collaborative approach to policing called  the Hub model  that partners cops, school staff, social workers, health care workers, and the provincial government.  Information about people believed to be “at risk” of becoming criminals or victims of harm is shared between civilian agencies and police and is added to the database when a person is being evaluated for a rapid intervention intended to lower their risk levels. Interventions can range from a door knock and a chat to forced hospitalization or arrest. Saskatchewan  and  Ontario  officials say data in the RTD (sometimes called the “Hub database” in Saskatchewan) is “de-identified” by removing details such as people’s names and birthdates, though experts Motherboard spoke to said that scrubbing data so it may never be used to identify an individual is difficult if not impossible.  A Motherboard investigation—which involved combing through MCSCS, police, and city documents—found that in 2017, children aged 12 to 17 were the most prevalent age group added to the database in several Ontario regions, and that some interventions were performed without consent. In some cases, children as young as six years old have been subject to intervention. [...] More than  100 Hubs  a re now operating in cities and towns across Canada and the US, with 37 in Ontario (where Hubs are usually called Situation Tables) contributing to the Risk-driven Tracking Database as of April 2018, according to MCSCS documents. In total, 55 are expected to be contributing by the end of this year. Read more - Lire plus
The Trial
The Guardian 02/2019 - Alka Pradhan, James Connell and Sterling Thomas are lawyers for Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the five men facing the death penalty for plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This 15-minute short film provides a window into the build-up to the largest criminal trial in US history and reflects on the impact of a rarely seen part of the war on terror: the lack of accountability for the legacy of torture .


Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani
SelfMadeHero 02/2019 - Saudi Arabia offers few prospects for the bright young Mohammed El-Gharani. With roots in Chad, Mohammed is treated like a second-class citizen. His access to healthcare and education are restricted; nor can he make the most of his entrepreneurial spirit. At the age of 14, having scraped together some money as a street trader, Mohammed seizes an opportunity to study in Pakistan. One Friday in Karachi, Mohammed is detained during a raid on his local mosque. After being beaten and interrogated, he is sold to the American government by Pakistani forces as a member of Al-Qaida with links to Osama Bin Laden. Mohammed has heard of neither. Under the custody of the US Army, he is flown first to Kandahar and then to Guantánamo Bay. In this landmark work of graphic non-fiction, Jérôme Tubiana and Alexandre Franc tell the eye-opening, heart-wrenching story of one of the Bay’s youngest detainees. Written in collaboration with Mohammed El-Gharani,  Guantánamo Kid  reflects as closely as possible his memories and experiences of life in the camp. This book is endorsed by Amnesty International. Read more - Lire plus
Stansted 15 ordered back to court over aggravated trespass case
The Guardian 25/02/2019 - Activists known as the Stansted 15 who were convicted under a terrorism-related law for chaining themselves around an immigration removal flight at  Stansted airport  have been ordered back to court over the same incident in a move they have described as “cruel and vindictive”. Earlier this month , the activists received suspended sentences or community orders after they  were convicted  of endangering the safety of an aerodrome following a 10-week trial. The offence carries a potential life sentence. The activists, who are appealing against those convictions, have received letters from Essex magistrates court ordering them to appear in April on an aggravated trespass case. They had initially been charged with this offence before the terror-related charge was added. On Monday, the activists’ lawyer, Raj Chada, of Hodge, Jones & Allen solicitors, sent an urgent letter to Essex CPS urging them to drop the aggravated trespass case. A spokeswoman for the protesters said: “This latest threat of prosecution is cruel and vindictive. After spending well over half a million pounds on prosecuting and convicting us of a piece of draconian terror-related legislation, to spend more money on trying us for yet another offence isn’t just wasting money, it’s playing cold-hearted games with our lives. “This malicious prosecution is a window in on the kind of psychological punishment people seeking asylum in this country face from the Home Office every single day. Our current immigration system is vicious – that’s why we will not stop standing together to challenge it.” Read more - Lire plus
Liberté for Whom? French Muslims Grapple With a Republic That Codified Their Marginalization
The Intercept 23/02/2019 - When I met Louati recently at a restaurant in Paris’s 13th arrondissement, he had just returned from teaching the same English class he was teaching the night of the Hypercacher shooting. A former airline pilot who is now 39 years old, Louati was born and raised in Paris, the son of a Tunisian father who worked as an electrician and mother who was a seamstress. Tall, with close-cropped brown hair, a trimmed beard, and a youthful appearance, he dresses carefully in a suit and tie to teach, business attire draped over the frame of the pilot he had spent years becoming.In 2015, Louati had been briefly pushed into the spotlight. A wave of major terrorist attacks in France set off an international media fixation on a community — French Muslims — whose struggles and history had been of little interest before. At the time, Louati was working with the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, a grassroots group focused on fighting discrimination. That November, extremists attacked the Stade de France and the Bataclan theater, leaving 130 people dead and horrifying the country. Louati gave an interview on CNN, his first appearance on television. The clip became notorious. The cable news hosts forthrightly blamed the French Muslim community as a whole for the attacks, demanding that Louati accept responsibility on air. To their visible frustration, he refused: “Sir, the Muslim community has nothing to do with these guys!” Louati said. “Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves for the actions of someone who claims to be Muslim.” The interview captured a growing sentiment that French Muslims were not just a “problem,” but a possible fifth column inside the country. While the French Republic does not compile statistics on race and religion, it is estimated that up to 10 percent of its population comes from Muslim backgrounds. France’s Muslims are mostly the descendants of the country’s former colonial territories: Algeria, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, and Senegal. Long associated with stereotypes of social delinquency, poverty, and now extremism, French Muslims have been fighting a battle for equality in a manner similar to the U.S. civil rights movement long before the world began noticing them. Louati’s life stands as a poignant example. As a teenager in Paris’s 94th department, the suburbs south of the city, he was awakened to politics at a young age. It was a sentiment that crystallized when Spike Lee released his biographical film about Malcolm X. “The anger I felt, and the hostility and racism that I experienced as a child, were all distilled in that film,” he recalled. “It was like I was run over by a train watching it. After the movie ended, I stood alone at the back of the theater and cried. I couldn’t believe that a man gave up his life fighting for these things.” Louati spent much of his life in the same city, trying to avoid the pitfalls of crime, delinquency, and drug use that plague many young men there. He did better than most, managing to get an education and train for a professional career that allowed him to travel and see something of the world outside the concrete blocks of Paris’s suburbs. Activism kept its pull on him, though, drawing him to a life of organizing that led him to give up the career he trained for. The failures of modern France weigh on Louati. The country has become a “laboratory” for discriminatory laws targeting minorities, particularly Muslims, he says. But this isn’t the criticism of an outsider, let alone an ungrateful foreigner. “It’s because you feel French, and you are French, that you criticize France,” he said emphatically when we spoke. “If something is wrong in this house, I’m going to say it, because I belong here.” [...] Over the past year, French President Emmanuel Macron announced pla ns to create a “French Islam” that is structured and controlled under the guidance of the state. Not a single person I met in France thought this was a good idea; most tended to view the plan as either a patronizing intrusion into their personal lives or a surreptitious expansion of the police state. Without popular support, it’s hard to see how such a plan could ever be implemented. Read more - Lire plus
Why people should govern surveillance technology and not the other way around
TEDxTalk 20/02/2019 - The market in surveillance technologies is assisting repression of human rights worldwide. At the same time, the business models of social media and search platforms are eroding the public debate in democracies, while oversight over algorithms is lacking. To turn the tables, and for people to govern technologies and not the other way around, engineers, business developers, politicians and internet users need to rise, now. Watch - Visionner
ACTIONS & EVENTS
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.
Share on Facebook & Twitter .
Partagez sur Facebook & Twitter .
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.
OPP must be held accountable for violent repression of land defenders
The terrifying incident happened in April 2008 during a land occupation and road blockades by members of Tyendinaga Mohawk Nation, near Belleville, Ontario. Although the road blockades involved only a small number of community members – none of whom were armed -- the Ontario Provincial Police sent more than 200 officers, including the Tactics and Rescue Unit (TRU), tasked with responding to “the most serious threats to peace and order”. 

There has never been any formal, independent review of how and why the police response went so badly wrong. In December, the UN Committee against Torture called on Canada to address this glaring gap in police accountability by ensuring that a thorough and impartial review is finally carried out.
Respectez les droits des migrant.es!
Migrer ou mourir. Des milliers de personnes d'Amérique centrale, y compris des familles, ont été forcées de quitter ce qu'elles connaissent et aiment pour trouver la sécurité et une vie meilleure pour leurs enfants. Elles ont marché pendant des semaines vers les États-Unis pour échapper aux menaces, à la violence et à une pauvreté extrême - non par choix, mais par obligation.

Mais Donald Trump et son administration travaillent dur pour s’assurer qu’ils ne pourront pas rechercher la sécurité aux États-Unis.
Les droits humains ne dépendent pas du document que vous possédez ou de votre nationalité. Ils appartiennent à tout le monde.

Signez cette pétition pour soutenir les personnes et les familles en quête de protection.
Tell China to close its secret ‘re-education’ camps for ethnic minorities
It is estimated that up to one million people - predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities - are being arbitrarily detained in “de-extremification" camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Among them are Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minority groups whose religious and cultural practices are key to their identity.
The detentions appear to be part of an effort by the Chinese government to wipe out religious beliefs and aspects of cultural identity in order to enforce political loyalty for the State and the Communist Party of China.
Make January 29 a National Day
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. 

 W e, 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 or a National Day of Action against Hate and Intolerance .
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.
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: Free 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
Free speech & press
Liberté d'expression et de la presse

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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