News Digest - Revue de l'actualité: ICLMG: Time to end Canada's No Fly List once and for all; RCMP Sued for Preventing Release of Watchdog Report into Spying; RCMP breached anti-fracking protesters’ rights; Surveillance at Canada's borders & more

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

November 13, 2020

ICLMG: Time to end Canada's No Fly List once and for all

ICLMG 05/11/2020 - This week, the federal government announced new regulations modifying Canada's No Fly List regime that will have an important impact on protecting the rights of up to 100,000 travellers, including Canadian citizens, who have suffered through more than a decade of being delayed, questioned, religiously and racially profiled, and placed under suspicion when traveling by air, all because they were falsely flagged by a faulty system.

This has been a long, hard-fought battle led in large part by the No Fly List Kids campaign, founded by parents whose children have been wrongly identified at airports as potential terrorist threats.

Unfortunately, these regulations do not address the central, foundational problems that plague Canada’s No Fly List system and will continue to result in the in the undermining of individuals’ rights as they travel.

Canada’s No Fly List is made in secret, kept secret, allows for secret evidence and undermines fundamental rights. It has never been publicly scrutinized and is based on “security at all costs” logic. Read more - Lire plus

Share this op-ed on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Changes designed to fix no-fly list false flags come into force

BCCLA: RCMP Commissioner Sued by Civil Liberties Group for Preventing Release of Watchdog Report into Police Spying

BCCLA 11/11/2020 - Today, the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) announces it is launching a lawsuit against RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. The BCCLA is suing the RCMP Commissioner for inexcusable delays preventing the release of a civilian watchdog report into RCMP spying on Indigenous and climate advocates. In February 2014, the BCCLA filed a complaint against the RCMP contending it illegally spied on the democratic activities of organizations and Indigenous nations opposed to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project.

The complaint further alleged the RCMP improperly shared the information it collected with oil companies and the National Energy Board. The BCCLA argued the RCMP’s secret surveillance created a chilling effect and violated constitutional rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and privacy. The RCMP watchdog, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), launched an investigation into BCCLA’s complaint in 2014 and completed its interim report in June 2017. It forwarded the interim report to the RCMP Commissioner for response. The CRCC cannot prepare a final report available to the public and the BCCLA until the RCMP Commissioner responds.

Over three years later, the RCMP Commissioner still has not provided her response. The RCMP Act requires the RCMP Commissioner to respond to CRCC interim reports as soon as feasible. In 2019, the RCMP specifically committed to responding to CRCC reports in a 6 month timeline. The BCCLA’s lawsuit claims the RCMP Commissioner has breached her obligations under the RCMP Act and violated the BCCLA’s Charter right to freedom of expression by failing to respond. The lawsuit will be heard at the Federal Court of Canada, where the BCCLA is represented by Paul Champ of Champ & Associates and Jessica Magonet of the BCCLA. Read more - Lire plus

The CRCC is awaiting a response from the RCMP for 149 of its reports

Globe and Mail editorial: Civilian oversight of the RCMP is too lax. Here’s how to give it some teeth

RCMP surveillance, searches breached anti-fracking protesters’ rights, watchdog says

Canadian Press 13/11/2020 - The RCMP watchdog has uncovered shortcomings with the national force’s crowd-control measures, physical searches and collection of social media information while policing anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick. In a long-awaited report issued today, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP chastises the Mounties for their reluctance to take action on some of the findings and recommendations. The commission received 21 public complaints related to the RCMP’s management of protests in 2013 over shale-gas exploration by SWN Resources Canada near the town of Rexton and the Elsipogtog First Nation reserve in Kent County, as well as in various other parts of the province. The report notes that a primary motivation for Indigenous protesters opposing the actions of SWN was their dedication to protecting land and water they considered their own, unceded to the Crown through treaty or other agreement.

“Several incidents or practices interfered to varying degrees with the protesters’ rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” the commission concluded.

It stressed that police may only establish “buffer zones” in accordance with parameters set by the courts. “As such, decisions to restrict access to public roadways or sites must be specific, reasonable and limited to minimize the impact on people’s rights.” The commission also found that some of the RCMP’s surveillance practices and physical searches were “inconsistent with protesters’ charter rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.” For example, in conducting “stop checks,” RCMP members randomly stopped vehicles for a purpose other than those set out in provincial highway traffic legislation, the report says.

The commission found that RCMP policy did not provide clear guidance as to the collection, use, and retention of personal information obtained from social media or other open sources, particularly in situations where no criminal activity was involved.

The watchdog recommended that RCMP policy describe what personal information from social media sites can be gathered, how it can be used, what steps should be taken to verify its reliability and limits on how long it can be kept. It urges the RCMP to destroy such material once it is clear there is no criminal or national-security dimension.

"While the RCMP indicated support for eight of the commission’s 12 recommendations, it believed three needed no further action. “This concerns the commission, as these included recommendations concerning roadblocks, exclusion zones and limits to police powers,” the report says. “In stating that she believed the RCMP’s practices are already in line with the recommendations, the RCMP commissioner provided no information indicating that practices have been adjusted since the Kent County events, or that the commission’s concerns have been recognized.” Lucki also strongly rejected recommendations limiting collection and retention of open-source information, saying the RCMP must have ready access to data about protesters, even if they have no criminal history." Read more - Lire plus

Judge rules Trans Mountain must release correspondence that may show bias in the arrest of Secwepemc land defenders

Federal guidance for border agency surveillance and sources drafted but never issued

The Canadian Press 08/11/2020 - A newly released memo shows Canada's border agency signed off on rules to guide its most intrusive intelligence operations months ago, but the federal government has yet to issue the ministerial direction. The memo, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, describes efforts stretching back seven years to introduce formal government instruction on the Canada Border Services Agency's use of surveillance and confidential sources.

One civil liberties group called the delay in issuing guidance "deeply concerning." The border agency's 14,000 employees manage the flow of millions of travellers and commercial shipments entering Canada annually. They collect, analyze and distribute information concerning people and goods at border points, air terminals and seaports.

Border officers can stop travellers for questioning, take blood and breath samples, and search, detain and arrest people. The agency also covertly observes individuals, vehicles and places to gather information when there is reason to believe laws have been broken. And it gives money to confidential sources whose information leads to significant enforcement actions. [...]

Formally setting out expectations in a ministerial direction is at the very low end of accountability measures for a public entity, especially one that has the authority to covertly collect intelligence, said Meghan McDermott of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. "So it's deeply concerning to us that it has yet to be issued," she said. McDermott acknowledged that COVID-19 has thrown all schedules off, but she noted the delay in this case seems to be part of a larger pattern, given that a draft direction was also developed several years ago. "What is the holdup?" Read more - Lire plus

Tamir Israel: Facial recognition is transforming our borders, and we are not prepared

Policy Options 09/11/2020 - Airports have embraced a technology that threatens privacy and civil liberties. We urgently need an updated legal framework that can limit its use.

When global travel emerges from the constraints imposed by the pandemic, travellers may find themselves returning to border crossings that are unfamiliar. Facial recognition is rapidly becoming embedded in many airports around the world, transforming border crossings in a purported effort to increase efficiency and security. But the technology is deeply problematic. Facial recognition poses an insidious threat to human rights and is frequently biased so that when errors inevitably occur, the brunt of these will unacceptably be borne by members of marginalized communities. Yet CIPPIC's research shows that facial recognition is becoming central to how travellers are processed when traversing increasingly automated airports around the world. Meanwhile, our current legal toolkit lacks the clarity necessary to check the more problematic aspects of this rapid technological evolution.

Despite improvements in recent years, facial recognition remains less accurate than other biometrics (fingerprints and iris scans, for example). Its accuracy has been sufficient enough, however, to inspire confidence in those who rely on its results over time. This confidence is both overstated and difficult to dislodge. The most accurate facial recognition systems still yield thousands of errors on a daily basis when systematically applied to all international travellers. In more complex investigative contexts, errors are rarer but with severe consequences —individuals have been falsely arrested and publicly accused of serious offences based on facial recognition errors. If facial recognition eventually becomes accepted proof of identity or nationality in asylum claims, errors could imperil the lives of refugees as well as undermine human rights obligations.

Even cured of its inaccuracies and racial biases, facial recognition still poses an insidious threat to human rights and civil liberties, and our research has shown that systems adopted at borders are frequently repurposed. Facial recognition provides a powerful surveillance tool that can reveal the identity of an individual from any live or historical image. When used online, facial recognition can locate pseudonymous profiles and link these to a known traveller on the basis of facial images alone. If integrated into live CCTV camera feeds, facial recognition can locate, track and identify anonymous individuals in real time. While border crossings have always been characterized by high levels of surveillance, airports from the United States, to Japan, to India are being inundated with hundreds of “touchpoints” that pervasively track travellers in their myriad interactions with airlines and border agencies.

Too often, facial recognition capabilities created at border crossings are ultimately repurposed to achieve numerous other objectives. In the European Union, a controversial border control facial recognition system can now be used for general law enforcement purposes. In an Australian proposal, a border system is set to form a central backbone for a national facial recognition capability that can be used for anything from general law enforcement to traffic safety. If the proposal becomes law, the system will even be available to private companies and government agencies seeking to verify their customers’ identities, creating the building blocks for a de facto national ID system.

In 2019, Canada and the Netherlands launched a joint pilot program at Montreal’s Trudeau Airport, Toronto’s Pearson Airport and Schiphol in Amsterdam. Through this “Known Traveller Digital Identity” initiative, travellers build rich “trust rating” profiles by interacting with various state agencies and private companies, including approved airlines, which in turn “attest” to the traveller’s trustworthiness. These attestations, along with accompanying data such as educational credentials, vaccination records and credit ratings are stored in a digital profile and complied into a “trust score,” which is then linked to travellers using facial recognition. Travellers with higher trust scores can access expedited security processing at airports, but once broadly adopted, these profiles are intended to facilitate a range of health care, banking and voting-related objectives. Participation is voluntary but the inherently coercive nature of border crossings, where travellers can routinely be subject to questioning and security checks they would not face in the course of daily life, provides a powerful incentive for enrollment. Read more - Lire plus

Portland, Maine has voted to ban facial recognition

Canada & the Arms Trade: Fuelling war in Yemen & beyond

The Leveller 31/10/2020 - While the conditions of the war make it impossible to provide an accurate casualty count, researchers estimated in 2019 that at least 100,000 people — including 12,000 civilians — had been killed since the start of the war. This number does not include deaths due to famine and disease resulting from the war and blockade, which another study estimated would reach 131,000 by the end of 2019. [...]

Many Canadians are also likely unaware that Canada is the second-biggest supplier of arms to the Middle East region, after the United States. [...] Although Canadian governments have long worked to establish Canada’s brand as a peaceful country, both Conservative and Liberal governments have been happy to profit from war. In 2019, Canadian arms exports to countries other than the U.S. reached a record high of approximately $3.8 billion, according to the Exports of Military Goods report for that year. Military exports to the U.S. are not counted in the report, a significant gap in the transparency of Canada’s arms export control system. Of the exports covered in the report, 76% were to Saudi Arabia directly, totalling $2.7 billion.

Most of the attention — and controversy — surrounding Canadian arms sales in recent years has centred around a $13 billion (U.S) deal for General Dynamics Land Systems Canada (GDLS-C) to provide thousands of light armoured vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia. [...] The government of Canada has defended the LAV deal on the grounds that there is no evidence of Canadian-made LAVs being used to commit human rights abuses. Yet a page on Lost Amour that documents losses of armoured vehicles in Yemen lists dozens of Saudi-operated LAVs being destroyed in Yemen since 2015. LAVs may not have the same impact on civilians as airstrikes or the blockade, but they are clearly an integral component of the Saudi war-effort.

A less-known Canadian manufacturer of armoured vehicles, Terradyne, also has a deal of unknown dimensions to sell its Gurkha armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia. Videos showing Terradyne Gurkha vehicles being used in suppressing an uprising in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and in the war in Yemen have circulated on social media for several years. Global Affairs Canada suspended export permits for Terradyne Gurkhas in July 2017 in response to their use in Eastern Province. But it reinstated the permits in September of that year, after it determined that there was no evidence the vehicles had been used to commit human rights abuses.

The Leveller reached out to Anthony Fenton, a PhD student at York University researching Canadian arms sales to Persian Gulf countries for comment on these findings. Fenton stated in Twitter direct messages that the Global Affairs Canada report uses “intentionally false/impossible to meet criteria” and was meant simply “to temper/deflect criticism.” According to Fenton, “Canadian officials took the Saudis at their word when they insisted that no [human rights] violations took place and claimed that it was a legitimate internal ‘anti-terror’ operation. Satisfied with this, Ottawa resumed exports of the vehicles.” Read more - Lire plus

Yemen on brink of losing entire generation of children to hunger, UN warns

Call to Protest: World says No to War on Yemen – 25 January 2021

Canadian technology is being used to thwart human rights overseas — but there are solutions

Brainwashed: The echoes of MK-ULTRA

The following story is based on material from the CBC podcast Brainwashed, a six-part series co-produced with The Fifth Estate that investigates the CIA's covert mind-control experiments — from the Cold War and MK-ULTRA to the so-called U.S. war on terror. The series is available on CBC Listen, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

CBC 21/10/2020 - When Lloyd Schrier tells his story, it sounds more like a conspiracy than his family's tragic past. But many of the details are laid out in a thick file of documents, correspondences and reports. He has news articles and pictures spanning decades, all describing what his family went through. And he has his mother's heartwrenching medical report that is still hard for him to comprehend.

"She had her 30th and last day of sleep on March 24th," Schrier said as he read from the 1960 hospital record. "They gave her all the drugs… about four or five barbiturates and amphetamines at a time." Esther Schrier received electroshock therapy, massive amounts of drugs and so-called psychiatric treatments that sound as if they were lifted from the pages of George Orwell's dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. She was a patient at Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute in the 1960s. She had gone to "the Allan," as the hospital is known, to seek treatment for what today would be considered anxiety or postpartum depression.

But once she walked through those hospital doors and into the care of a psychiatrist named Dr. Ewen Cameron, she became an unwitting experiment subject for a massive CIA brainwashing operation codenamed MK-ULTRA. And Schrier was part of this clandestine program, too, because his mother was pregnant with him at the time. "It's crazy," said Schrier. "I don't think it was fair to do that to a developing fetus." Schrier is now 60 years old, semi-retired, living in Toronto and still fighting to be recognized as an experiment victim. Hundreds of relatives whose loved ones were experimented upon by Cameron are now demanding compensation for family members and an apology from the Canadian government.

Canada has never provided a list of the victims of the experiments that took place during Cameron's tenure from 1943 to 1964. In the decades since, no government has ever admitted liability, let alone apologized — despite the fact that part of the experiments in Montreal were funded not only by the CIA, but also by the Canadian government. "I think eventually they should come out with the truth. I think after all this time I don't know what they're trying to prove, who they're trying to protect. I don't think it's right," said Schrier. "I think they should come out and just, you know, deal with it." To "deal with it" means acknowledging the legacy of a dark period that still reverberates today.

For Schrier and other relatives who have launched two separate lawsuits against the Canadian government and others, their mission is personal. They say their lives were irrevocably damaged by what happened. Families split up. Children were placed in foster homes. The trauma has been generational. But the story of MK-ULTRA isn't just relegated to Cold War history. The idea of mind control — the theory that breaking a person down will make them do something against their will — has been constantly revisited by governments during other periods of fear and uncertainty, when the military and medicine collide. What happened at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute laid the groundwork for torture spanning decades to follow. Read more - Lire plus

More than 600 children of European militants detained in northeastern Syria: study

Roya News 29/10/2020 - Two Belgian researchers confirmed in a study published Wednesday that more than 600 children of European militants, nearly a third of them French, are currently being held in two Kurdish-controlled camps in northeastern Syria, denouncing the "inaction" of their countries.

Touma Renard and Rick Colsaet, experts on militant affairs at the Egmont Institute in Brussels, said in their study that "between 610 and 680" children from European Union citizens are currently detained with their mothers in the Rouge and Al Hol camps in northeastern Syria. If these children are added to about 400 adults - including militants detained in particular in the Syrian city of Hasaka - there are in total about 1,000 Europeans detained in the Iraqi-Syrian region, according to the study, which was based on official data, expert estimates, and statistics from field NGOs.

The French top the list of those European detainees, as there are between "150 to 200" adults and "200 to 250" children, the vast majority of them in Syria. The French are followed by the Germans, then the Dutch, then the Swedes, then the Belgians, then the British, according to the study that pointed out that there are at least 38 detained Belgian children and 35 British minors. The researchers considered that with regard to adult militants who fought in the ranks of Daesh and whose countries have ruled out the possibility of taking them back, the detention of these "outside any international legal framework" and the ambiguity surrounding the possibility of them getting a trial where they are, is reminiscent of the case of the detainees in the American Guantanamo camp.

As for the children, according to the researcher, "they are victims of the choices of their parents, victims of war and the extremely difficult conditions in these camps, as well as victims of the inaction of European governments." Renard stressed that European governments "are fully aware of their situation, but have chosen not to return them to their homelands, often in contravention of the recommendations of their administrations and their specialized agencies to combat terrorism." The researcher rejected the idea that these children would be "ticking bombs" if they were returned to their countries. "Sixty to 70 percent of them are under the age of five, almost all of the others are under the age of 12, and there are only a handful of teenagers," he said. Read more - Lire plus

Amira Elghawaby: France is undermining civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism and Canada should say so

The Toronto Star 03/11/2020 - Muslims will often brace themselves whenever there’s news of a terrorist attack, waiting to learn whether the perpetrator will be linked with their faith, a religion practiced peacefully by over one billion people.

Imagine then how France’s significant Muslim population is feeling following the killing of a teacher and of three churchgoers by two young Muslims over the ongoing conflict involving the republication of the incendiary cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Earlier, an 18-year-old Muslim had attacked and seriously injured two people near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine where 12 people were killed in 2015.

Each of those horrific crimes has been condemned by French Muslims and their organizations. Yet President Emmanuel Macron has launched an all out campaign against “Islamism,” “Islamic separatism,” and also against dozens of Muslims organizations — fuelling division and undermining the very civil liberties he claims to defend. Gérald Darmanin, his interior minister, quickly announced a crackdown on many French Muslim civil society organizations and human rights defenders who “were not linked with the investigation but to whom we are clearly willing to send a message.” Meaning, they have nothing to do with the crime but the state will go after them for the crime of being Muslim. Those organizations include the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), which Darmanin labelled an “enemy of the republic.” The group has defended human rights for over 20 years, and is now being threatened with dissolution. The same interior minister has also decried the presence of halal and kosher options in France’s supermarkets. [...]

Where are Blanchet and O’Toole in calling out the French government for taking the violent actions of a handful of individuals and applying it to all of France’s seven million Muslims? And for using collective guilt to target French Muslim NGOs? And for its long-time failure to integrate its Muslim population, which is in actual fact economically separate due to searing discrimination and demonstrable lack of equal opportunity?

Beyond standing in blind solidarity with France, Canada has much to offer the country on ways to promote inclusive communities in which diversity is seen as a strength, not a problem.

It also isn’t lost on anyone that Quebec has long looked to France for inspiration. It happens to be the only Canadian province in the country that has legislated second-class citizenship of religious minorities. Bill 21 bans those who visibly practice a religious faith from working in certain professions. Several individuals and human rights groups are currently challenging the law as unconstitutional in a case that is just now being argued before a Quebec Superior Court. There is absolutely no justification for violence. Perpetrators should be met with the full force of the law. Equally, liberal secular democracies should be upholding the law by fully safeguarding the civil liberties of law-abiding members, businesses and organizations belonging to minority populations. Read more - Lire plus

EU draft declaration sets out stricter rules on migrant integration

8 Hong Kong Opposition Politicians Arrested as National Security Law Crackdown Continues

DemocracyNow! 02/11/2020 - In Hong Kong, authorities have arrested eight opposition politicians over their roles in resisting a controversial new security law that gives China sweeping powers over Hong Kong. The eight were part of contentious parliamentary hearings last May where they opposed a bill that critics say criminalizes free speech and protests, and erases any autonomy Hong Kong once held.

This is Wu Chi-wai, chair of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party: “We think this is completely unacceptable, and the government has fabricated pretexts and used groundless charges to suppress the opposition voice in the Legislative Council meeting.” Meanwhile, calls are growing for China to release 12 activists arrested at sea in August after they allegedly tried to reach Taiwan from Hong Kong by boat. Lawyers hired by families of the 12 prisoners say they’ve been harassed by Chinese authorities and have not had any access to their clients. Read more - Lire plus

Amnesty International: China: Disqualification of Hong Kong lawmakers deals another blow to rule of law

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers to resign en masse

National security law: Australian universities move to protect Hong Kong students

Outrage as Hong Kong launches national security crime hotline

From January to July 2020

ICLMG - The first half of 2020 has been very difficult given the impact of the pandemic, but we continued working hard to protect our civil liberties. Below you can see what we have accomplished so far this year, but first here is a sneak-peek into what we plan to do for the rest of 2020:

We will continue to protect our civil liberties and human rights against the threat of digital surveillance in the response to COVID-19, as well as the growing dangers of facial recognition technology.

We will continue to fight to abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture. Central to this is our work to stop Mohamed Harkat’s deportation to torture.

We will continue to monitor the implementation of the National Security Act, 2017 (formerly Bill C-59), especially around mass surveillance and immunity for CSIS employees.

We will continue to push for greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism.

We will continue advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada for flights that do not land in or fly over the US.

We will continue to call for justice for Dr. Hassan Diab and for the reform of the Extradition Act.

We will continue to pressure lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our 47 member organizations, informed via the News Digest.

What we've been up to so far in 2020 + Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Ce que nous avons fait en 2020 + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

ACTIONS & EVENTS

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.

TAKE ACTION

Read our full statement on the issue here for more information. Please share it on:

Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

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.