International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
June 7, 2019
ICLMG had its Spring General Assembly on June 4 in Montreal
Always a great day spent at our general assembly with our members, reporting on our activities and strategizing for the upcoming 6 months! Get to know them!
China targeting human-rights activists in Canada, Senate committee told
The Globe and Mail 06/06/2019 - Canadians who monitor human-right abuses in China are being targeted by China’s surveillance and spy network, a Senate committee was told Thursday. Alex Neve, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, warned the Senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade that China isn’t only targeting Canadians in China, but also human-rights advocates in Canada.

Mr. Neve alleges that Canadian individuals and organizations – such as the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China – who track human-rights violations in China have come forward with ways they are being targeted, including online surveillance and threats. Those who are targeted don’t know whether to turn to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or municipal police, and Mr. Neve said they rarely receive a coherent response from officials. “Not only is this of broad concern for those of us interested in the Canada-China relationship, this has real consequences for people in their ordinary, daily lives,” he said.

The Senate committee received an update on the human-rights situation in Tibet as part of its study on foreign relations and international trade. The committee hearing comes two days after the 30th anniversary of events in Tiananmen Square, and amid rising tensions between Canada and China. Senators also heard from Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, who thanked Canada for its efforts and said it is uncommon for a country to hold a formal hearing on the human-rights violations facing the Tibetan people. “You are sending a clear message to Beijing, and to Tibetans suffering in Tibet, that you are for human rights,” he said.

Mr. Neve advised that Canada’s human-rights advocacy needs support from other countries, which he said are fearful of upsetting China. Too often, he said trade is about economic advancement, rather than human rights, arguing that China’s global influence is to blame for a lack of co-operatio n from other countries. “We certainly need a human-rights-based trade policy with respect to China,” he said. Read more - Lire plus

The Ongoing Persecution of China’s Uyghurs
Jacobin 06/2019 - The Chinese government isn’t letting up on its repression of Uyghurs. It’s setting a dangerous example of how to use “anti-terrorism” to justify authoritarian practices. In February, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, declared on Chinese state television, “China has the right to carry out antiterrorism and de-extremization work for its national security.” He was following the clumsy script that China has used repeatedly to cover up its violations of the human rights of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.

The alibi is common to authoritarian states who create “states of exception” and “emergency resolutions” to bypass the rule of law, substituting its own self-appointed notion of “right” to violate human rights doctrine conventions. In the case of the Uyghur, an entire people has been categorized as “terrorist,” and China has developed a massive and programmatic response to such “extremism” — concentration camps that extract labor at the same time as they suppress any thoughts, beliefs, cultural values, language, even food, that evinces Muslim identity.

Besides bin Salman, other leaders regarded as strong advocates for Muslims have also signed on to what might be called the “Uyghur Exception.” In 2017, Pakistan’s current prime minister, Imran Khan , while still in the political opposition party, condemned the “hypocrisy” of the international community in failing to protect the rights of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar; Khan also has criticized human rights violations against Muslim Kashmiris. But when asked about the Uyghur, Khan simply said , “Frankly, I don’t know much about that,” explaining that the issue was “not so much in the papers.” Many speculate that, like bin Salman, Khan has chosen not to defend Uyghur Muslims because of the lucrative trade deals Middle East countries are inking with China. [...]

Economics also plays a large role in the persecution and repression of the Uyghur as well. [...] China has long been intent on exploiting Xinjiang’s vast natural resources — increasing oil extraction and refining, along with coal and natural gas production, among other resources. The province has an estimated twenty-one billion tons of oil reserves; its coal resources represent 40 percent of China’s total. Thus the repression of the Uyghur takes place simultaneously with the plundering of Xinjiang’s natural resources.

But Xinjiang is important for another reason: it is the hub of the most ambitious infrastructure project in modern history. The Belt and Road initiative runs along the old Silk Road, and will span three continents and cover almost 60 percent of the world’s population. It is the vehicle with which China hopes to become the world’s predominant superpower. Thus it is all the more essential to control this key geopolitical area with an iron hand.

The suppression of the Uyghur also has both a direct and indirect benefit. It represses an entire population and that repression serves as a threat to any other group that would challenge Chinese hegemony. The construction and maintenance of the concentration camps is meant to “re-educate” the rest of China, and indeed the world, at the same time it tortures the Uyghur and extracts all elements of their independence. Read more - Lire plus
Trump Administration Asks Congress to Make Disrupting Pipeline Construction a Crime Punishable by 20 Years in Prison
The Intercept 05/06/2019 - Legislation proposed by the Trump administration would prescribe up to 20 years in prison for “inhibiting the operation” of an oil or gas pipeline — or even conspiring to do so. Since Donald Trump was inaugurated, at least 17 states have introduced bills that would criminalize participation in pipeline protests. But this is the first time the tactic has been formally proposed by the executive branch. If it were to pass, it would strike a major blow to the climate movement, putting anti-fossil fuel organizers at significant legal risk for simply providing training or logistical support to peaceful protesters.

The criminal penalties are part of a proposal to reauthorize pipeline safety programs at the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The proposal, which Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao delivered to Congress on Monday, echoes language from a  model bill  promoted by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, whose members include legislators and oil industry lobbyists.  Eight  state legislatures have passed laws similar to the ALEC model.

Activists fighting fossil fuel extraction have long been the most confrontational arm of the U.S. climate movement, with participants routinely standing in the way of pipeline construction. Thousands of people showed up to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its effort to stop construction of the Dakota Access pipeline over concerns that pipeline leaks would harm the reservation’s primary source of drinking water.

From the early days of his presidency, Trump made a point to tip the scales in favor of highly controversial oil and gas pipelines; one of his first executive orders was designed to expedite DAPL construction and lift a halt imposed by former President Barack Obama. But it’s another pipeline fight that stands to be most impacted by the proposed federal legislation. The Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline launched the U.S. pipeline opposition movement back in 2011, and it still has yet to be built. Trump has issued multiple executive orders to push it forward, but it remains mired in legal challenges. If it begins construction, opponents, many from the same Indigenous nations as the anti-DAPL organizers, have promised another Standing Rock.

Meanwhile, with the pipeline industry booming, communities are organizing against numerous projects across the United States. In Louisiana, for example, multiple people were arrested under the state’s ALEC-inspired law while protesting construction of the Bayou Bridge oil pipeline. The Center for Constitutional Rights is  challenging  the Louisiana law on First Amendment grounds. Pam Spees, the attorney representing pipeline opponents in the case, said the goal of the Trump administration’s proposal is clear. “We already know from the way similar legislation has been applied in Louisiana what the true aim of this bill is to chill and eliminate opposition to these projects.” Read more - Lire plus
Meltdown Showed Extent of NSA Surveillance — and Other Tales From Hundreds of Intelligence Documents
The Intercept 29/05/2019 - The problem had been brewing for nearly a decade, intelligence sources had warned, as the National Security Agency vacuumed up more and more surveillance information into computer systems at its Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters: There just wasn’t enough power coming through the local electric grid to support the rate at which the agency was hoarding other people’s communications. “If there’s a major power failure out there, any backup systems would be inadequate to power the whole facility,” a former NSA manager told the Baltimore Sun in August 2006. “It’s obviously worrisome, particularly on days like today.”

It turns out that manager, and other sources quoted in the Sun piece, were even more correct than was publicly known at the time: The NSA had, just the prior month, already experienced a major power outage and been forced for the first time to switch over its most critical monitoring — its nerve center, the National Security Operations Center — to a backup facility in Augusta, Georgia, according to an internal report classified “secret.” The culprit: hot weather and electric company problems generating sufficient power, according to an article posted on the internal agency news site known as SIDtoday.

For the NSA, the relatively smooth handoff was a triumph. But the incident marked an important turning point, underlining how the NSA was collecting too much information for its facilities to handle. The agency would go on to build a massive data center in a barren stretch of Utah desert, estimated to be capable of holding billions of gigabytes of information.

Indeed, the story of the 2006 Fort Meade brownout is one of several stories of overwhelming mass surveillance to emerge from a review of 287 SIDtoday articles, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Other tales, collected below, include how an NSA intern working in the English countryside marked for killing or capture nine people in Iraq; how a secret team of NSA commandos deployed to foreign countries to break codes ; and how the NSA spied on satellite internet systems in the Middle East.

The Intercept is publishing three other articles taken from this cache of documents, including an investigation by Henrik Moltke into how revolutionary intelligence pooling technology first used by the U.S., Norway, and other allies in Afghanistan spread to the U.S.-Mexico border — raising questions about over-sharing at home and abroad. In another article, Miriam Pensack reveals how the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in 2000 was closely monitored by Norwegian (and eventually U.S.) intelligence, which knew more about the tragedy than was initially revealed. And Murtaza Hussain shows how the NSA drew up new rules in response to a request from its Israeli counterpart, which had sought to use U.S. intelligence to target killings, apparently at Hezbollah. Read more - Lire plus
Prosecuting Julian Assange for Espionage Is a Coup Attempt Against the First Amendment
The Intercept 29/05/2019 - The Trump administration’s prosecution of Julian Assange is an all out assault on freedom of speech. This week on Intercepted: For the first time in U.S. history, the government is criminally prosecuting a publisher for printing truthful information.

Whether Assange is extradited or not, this case casts a dangerous cloud over aggressive national security reporting and means criminalizing journalism is on the table. Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and former top lawyer at the ACLU, analyzes the indictment and explains why he believes this case represents a grave threat to a free press. Podcast & transcript

Turkey seeks extradition of UK barrister over Twitter activity
The Guardian 20/05/2019 - A British barrister who has given evidence to parliament is facing possible extradition to Turkey on terrorism charges over his Twitter activity. Ozcan Keles, who is of Turkish descent and holds UK citizenship, appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Monday accused of spreading propaganda online.

The attempt to remove him is the latest in a series of high-profile extradition actions in the British courts against critics or opponents of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. All cases to date have been thrown out on the grounds that they are politically motivated or that Turkey’s prison system breaches human rights. The most recent involved a media proprietor, Hamdi Akın İpek .

The Home Office has a duty to certify that extradition requests are legitimate, but has rubber-stamped a stream of Turkish claims that involve the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the courts in lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful actions. In 2017, the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, visited London and urged Theresa May to extradite fugitive businessmen and activists living in Britain who were allegedly involved in the 2016 failed military coup in Ankara and Istanbul.

Tens of thousands of journalists, lawyers and civil servants remain in prison in Turkey following the coup attempt, which the Erdoğan administration blamed on supporters of the exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen. Gülen has denied involvement. Keles, who is working on a PhD in the sociology of human rights at Sussex University, is a non-practising barrister and a member of Gray’s Inn. In 2016, as chairman of the Dialogue Society, he gave evidence to parliament’s foreign affairs select committee about UK relations with Turkey.

The extradition request alleges that Keles is a member of Fetö, an organisation that Turkey claims is associated with Gülen and the failed coup. The UK does not list it as a terrorist organisation. The extradition papers given to the CPS claim Keles used his social media accounts to share photos and videos of Gülen as propaganda. Keles denies all the allegations. The Turkish authorities say Keles would face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of membership of what they describe as an “armed terrorist organisation”. [...]

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Ozcan Keles was arrested this morning in relation to an extradition request from Turkey. The home secretary must certify a valid request for extradition from a category 2 territory unless certain narrow exceptions in the Extradition Act 2003 apply. In this case, none of those exceptions apply.” Read more - Lire plus
“Massacre” in Sudan: Protesters Continue Call for Civilian Rule After Military Kills 100+ at Sit-in
Democracy Now! 06/06/2019 - The death toll in Sudan has risen to more than 100 following a deadly military raid on a nonviolent sit-in in Khartoum Monday morning. According to doctors who have been taking part in the ongoing anti-government uprising, at least 40 bodies were dredged up from the Nile River in the aftermath of the carnage. Meanwhile, the state news agency reported Thursday that the death toll was no more than 46.

On Wednesday, the Transitional Military Council said it had launched an investigation into the violence and offered to resume a dialogue on a transition to democracy, just a day after scrapping all agreements with an opposition alliance. But the opposition has rejected the military’s calls to negotiate, citing ongoing violence against civilians. Demonstrators from a range of civil society groups are continuing to demand a civilian transitional government following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April, after a months-long popular uprising, and the military’s subsequent government takeover. We speak with Marine Alneel, a Sudanese activist recently back from Khartoum. She was at the sit-in just days before it was raided. Read more - Lire plus 
Big Data and Criminal Justice – What Canadians Should Know
Broadbent Institute 21/05/2019 - Every Google search, credit card purchase, social media interaction, and doctor’s visit leave traces of information about you, where you’ve been, who you’ve interacted with, and what you like. What’s more, advertisers, data brokers, and government agencies can collect and analyze the digital breadcrumbs you leave behind as you go about your day. Welcome to the world of ‘big data.’ [...]

Conclusion: Big data, predictive software, and risk assessment algorithms have already significantly shifted the criminal justice landscape. These seemingly handy pieces of technology have the capacity to expedite and streamline the work of criminal justice actors, but may do so at the expense of those entering or already entrenched in the justice system. Though it is unclear the full extent to which the Canadian justice system has embraced these technologies, recent reporting on Project Wide Awake and Risk-driven Tracking Databases suggests that Canadian law enforcement has already started to accept them, and that their implementation can bring consequences for vulnerable populations. Canadians should maintain a healthy skepticism about the use of big data and algorithmic decision-making, which are only likely to grow more ubiquitous as we head forth into an increasingly technologized future. Read more - Lire plus 
U.S. now seeking social media details from most visa applicants
CBC 01/06/2019 - The U.S. State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It's a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors.

In a move that's just taken effect after approval of the revised application forms, the department says it has updated its immigrant and non-immigrant visa forms to request the additional information, including "social media identifiers," from almost all applicants. The change, which was proposed in March 2018, is expected to affect about 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the United States each year.

Social media, email and phone number histories had only been sought in the past from applicants who were identified for extra scrutiny, such as people who'd travelled to areas controlled by terrorist organizations. [...] The new visa application forms list a number of social media platforms and require the applicant to provide any account names they may have had on them over the previous five years. They also give applicants the option to volunteer information about social media accounts on platforms not listed on the form.

In addition to their social media histories, visa applicants are now asked for five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses, international travel and deportation status, as well as whether any family members have been involved in terrorist activities.
Only applicants for certain diplomatic and official visa types are exempt from the requirements. Read more - Lire plus
Fatal gunfire escalates Pakistan army crackdown on Pashtun group
Asia Times 04/06/2019 - I n ongoing crackdown by the Pakistani military establishment on the Pashtun Tahaffuz [Protection] Movement has taken a violent turn. Last week, according to eyewitnesses, military personnel deployed at a check post near North Waziristan’s Khar Qamar area opened fire on PTM protesters.The PTM’s latest protest near the Khar Qamar area had been staged to complain about state authorities’ taking Pashtun youth into custody and about incidents of violence against the youths’ family members.

After a five-day-long sit-in, the protesters called in a pair of members of the National Assembly, PTM leaders Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, to lead a May 26 rally. Two eyewitnesses, a tribal leader and a local shopkeeper, told Asia Times that the military opened fire as Mohsin Dawar entered the rally, with bodies falling around him. Dawar also fell down initially, owing to someone else’s falling on him, and was feared to be injured. Security officials wanted to arrest Dawar, those eyewitnesses said, but he escaped.
At least 14 people were killed and 45 injured. The PTM leadership says that no shot was fired from the rally. [...]

The PTM is a nationalist group representing the Pashtun people – an Iranian ethnic group historically known as ethnic Afghans or Pathans – from the tribal areas in the northwest of the country. It has been struggling against what it calls military-led oppression against the community. The PTM has its roots in a group started in 2014 as an initiative for removing landmines from Waziristan and other areas affected by the war in North-West Pakistan. That initiative turned into a human rights movement in 2018 after 27-year-old Naqeebullah Mehsud was killed, allegedly in a staged police shooting. Mehsud, originally hailing from South Waziristan, was a laborer who had been aspiring to become a model in Karachi. An inquiry team that looked into the case called it “extrajudicial killing,” concluding that he was killed in a “fake encounter” that had been “staged.”

Given the group’s alignment against the Pakistan Army, there has been a complete blackout of the PTM on the mainstream TV channels. While the English newspapers provide some space to the PTM, the local Urdu publications echo the official army narrative. [...] A factor prompting mainstream media coverage of the PTM has been Pakistani opposition parties’ condemnation of the violent crackdown against the movement. Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bh utto Zardari on Saturday said that the arrested PTM leaders Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar  “are MNAs, not terrorists.” Many see the military action against the PTM as a result of the movement’s having garnered nationwide sympathy. This has prompted the civil and military leadership to accuse the PTM of being funded by Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies to “destabilize Pakistan.” Read more - Lire plus

German security agencies want access to home devices
FT 05/06/2019 - Germany wants to allow its police and security forces to access information stored on devices such as smart fridges and home assistants such as Amazon Alexa, in a move that is likely to raise data protection concerns. The plan, announced by the interior ministry in Berlin on Tuesday, puts a spotlight on the growing importance that connected devices play in private homes, and the digital traces they contain.

Amazon revealed this year that it had already sold more than 100m Alexa-enabled devices. “Our view is that digital traces have become increasingly important,” a spokesman for the German interior ministry said. “We are talking about traces that come from connected devices such as smart fridges but also voice-controlled devices such as smart speakers.” There was “no sufficient legal basis” at present to allow German authorities access to such data, the spokesman said. Details of the new initiative had yet to be worked out. Devices such as home assistants and smart appliances store a wealth of data, such as when and for how long they were used but also far more complex and sensitive information such as recordings of conversations. Access to that data can help police and other law enforcement agencies, for example by proving that a person was in a certain place at a certain time. Information from devices such as Alexa has played a key role in several high-profile legal cases in the US. At the same time, the collection and storage of such data has potentially grave implications for the privacy of users.

In one widely reported incident in the US state of Oregon, a couple discovered that their Amazon Echo smart speaker had recorded their conversation and sent the audio to an acquaintance without their knowledge. A spokesman for Amazon said: “We do not pass on customer data to authorities without a valid, legally binding order. Demands that are too broad in scope or that are inappropriate we reject.“ He added that Alexa used “diverse security measures to guarantee data protection”. Data protection has long been a high-profile concern for large sections of the German public, and any move to widen government access to data is likely to face stiff resistance.

Marit Hansen, the data protection commissioner of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, said it was unclear why devices and their makers had to store large volumes of data. “My criticism is that companies are able to store too much data already. They should collect only little data, and only for a short time, and do so locally. Citizens have the right to be protected from the state but also from the companies themselves — you never know where that data ends up.” Thomas Jarzombek, a member of parliament for the governing Christian Democrats and the party’s spokesman for digital affairs, also urged caution. “When it comes to home assistants, the threshold must not be lower than the rules for phones. Whether you’re accessing metadata or content …in each individual case you require a court order,” Mr Jarzombek said. Source
ACTIONS & EVENTS
NEW Free Ahmed Mansoor
A year ago, Ahmed Mansoor’s iPhone was targeted using elite spyware only sold to governments. This was an attempt to turn it into a tracking device, to find out who his contacts are and where he was going. Ahmed is an award winning human rights defender and blogger – and this attack was designed to spy on him and his fellow activists.

In March this year, security officials entered his home and searched it. They confiscated his phones and other electronic devices, and after three hours of searching the property, they took Ahmed away. The authorities issued a statement saying he had been arrested for using his social media accounts to “publish false information that damages the country’s reputation” and to “spread hatred and sectarianism”. Right now, Ahmed is being held in solitary confinement and has not had access to a lawyer, an d he is on hunger strike .

Act now and demand that the UAE release Ahmed immediately and unconditionally.
Letter to Justice Minister: Release Report and Launch Public Inquiry into Hassan Diab Case Now
The external review report into the case of Hassan Diab, written by Mr. Murray Segal, has been submitted to the office of the Justice Minister, but that there has been no commitment to when – or if – the report will be made public. After the more than a decade ordeal that Dr. Diab and his family have been through, they deserve justice.
Send a message to the Justice Minister calling for the public release of the report, and the launch of a public inquiry into the case of Hassan Diab that will actually examine the Extradition Act and have powers to compel documents and testimonies.
Release Yasser Albaz from arbitrary detention in Egypt
On February 18, 2019, my dad, Yasser Albaz, was stopped at Cairo airport, his Canadian passport was confiscated, and he was kidnapped by Egyptian State Security. My dad remains in the notorious Torah prison where he is forced to sleep on cold, concrete floor. He has not been charged and continues to receive 15-day extensions to his arbitrary detention.

Sign to tell PM Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to do everything in their power to bring this Canadian citizen home to his family.
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.
Canada: Don't roll back refugee rights
The federal govt plans to significantly roll back the human rights of refugees, and is hurrying these rights restrictions into law by including them in the federal budget (Bill C-97).

The new restriction would stop any refugee claimant from having an independent hearing to decide on their claim, if they previously filed a refugee claim in the United States and in certain other countries.

Using the quick tool below, call on Parliament to reject the rights-violating amendments to IRPA proposed in Bill C-97.
Your phone is not safe at the border
Canada’s border agents can search your phone and laptop at borders and airports, including looking through your private photos, personal messages, and call history.

These ‘digital strip searches’ are allowed because our laws are incredibly out of date. But politicians are refusing to update them for our digital age.

Fight back with us: demand updated laws , learn more about your rights, and make a complaint if your privacy has been violated at the border.
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
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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