International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
23 mai 2020
Reminder: The News Digest is now published once every two weeks
New ICLMG video: Protect our rights in the fight against COVID-19!
ICLMG 21/05/2020 - As all levels of government across Canada seek to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are considering using smartphone tracking or other mass public data collection to track infections or ensure compliance with rules.
The pressure to adopt extraordinary measures in response to extraordinary situations is understandably high. But government officials must make sure to protect our privacy, values and human rights by following seven straightforward principles on privacy & surveillance.

Federal, provincial and municipal officials are deciding NOW whether to bring in new surveillance measures to counter COVID-19. Send them a message telling them to follow these principles in any decisions they make.
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Technologies de traçage numérique – Plus de 1700 personnes et organisations exigent un débat public
La Ligue des droits et libertés 21/05/2020 - Ce matin, la Ligue des droits et libertés (LDL) a envoyé aux gouvernements fédéral et provincial ainsi qu’aux directions de santé publique une déclaration signée par 89 organisations et de 1605 personnes, exigeant plus de transparence et un débat public sur les projet de traçage numérique liés à la COVID-19.« On met le doigt dans tout un engrenage, sans prendre le temps d’en débattre collectivement », avance Dominique Peschard, porte-parole de la LDL.

La LDL s’inquiète du fait que l’équipe du Dr Arruda rencontrera cette semaine les promoteurs et développeurs de divers projets de traçage numérique et donnera potentiellement un feu vert à certains d’entre eux sans impliquer la population dans ses analyses. « Nous sommes grandement préoccupés du fait que ces discussions se font derrière des portes closes, entre le gouvernement et les promoteurs privés. La population doit avoir son mot à dire dans ce dossier qui la concerne au plus haut point », fait remarquer Dominique Peschard. « Il n’a pas encore été démontré que des mesures de traçage numérique des individus seraient efficaces pour endiguer la pandémie actuelle. L’expérience des dernières semaines a démontré que le problème principal n’est pas la résistance de la population aux consignes sanitaires, mais bien plutôt le manque de moyens d’un système de santé malmené depuis des décennies par des politiques d’austérité et de privatisation. », renchérit M. Peschard.

La LDL souligne que ces divers projets de traçage numérique reposent sur des plateformes numériques transnationales fournies par les GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon et Microsoft). « Nous leur offrons sur un plateau d’argent l’opportunité d’étendre leur emprise sur nos données personnelles et leur contrôle sociétal, au détriment de la souveraineté étatique déjà fortement érodée dans le domaine numérique. C’est assez consternant », continue M. Peschard. En terminant, la LDL est d’avis que les gouvernements et les développeurs et promoteurs de ces projets de traçage numérique ne peuvent prendre seuls ces décisions, sans que la population aie voix au chapitre et que les institutions démocratiques aient joué leur rôle. « Ce débat public pourrait prendre la forme d’une commission parlementaire spéciale. Cela permettrait à des expert-e-s et organisations de la société civile, qui ont des points de vue différents de ceux des promoteurs et développeurs de ces outils, de se faire entendre, eux aussi », conclut le porte-parole. Lire plus - Read more + Signez la déclaration de la Ligue: Le traçage numérique n'est pas un remède à la crise de santé publique









Featuring ICLMG: CSIS says proposed federal privacy reforms could hinder spy operations
The Canadian Press 17/05/2020 - Canada's spy agency has warned the Trudeau government that proposed changes to bolster privacy could undermine the ability of intelligence agents to collect and use information about citizens. The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain a copy of CSIS's September 2019 submission, which responds to possible changes to the Privacy Act outlined in federal discussion papers. CSIS expresses particular concern about defining personal information in the law in an overly broad way, potentially making the intelligence service's job more difficult.

Defining publicly available information in the Privacy Act as it relates to CSIS would be welcome given a current lack of clarity, said Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. When citing what constitutes publicly available information, CSIS often uses the example of a telephone directory. McSorley argues the scope is actually much wider, including social media posts and other data found online that can reveal details about someone's travels, where they work, who they spend time with and even their religious beliefs.

"The notion that once information is collected, that there should be a broad exception for security agencies to use it in other manners, raises serious concerns," he said. CSIS also says privacy law should ensure the intelligence service:
  • not be required to disclose the identity of foreign agencies with whom it shares information or the nature of the data exchanges;
  • be exempt, in some cases, from informing people their data has been stolen or inadvertently leaked, since that could signal they are under investigation.
Spy databases may hold information about people who do not necessarily pose a threat to security, and a breach of their data should not be hidden from them, McSorley said. "The idea that it could remain secret -- it's really troubling," he said. Read more

BCCLA Reacts: CBSA officers investigated for hundreds of misconduct complaints
BCCLA 12/05/2020 - The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is horrified at the revelations of gross misconduct by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers uncovered through an access to information request by CBC news.Media reports reveal that CBSA conducted over five hundred investigations of its officers between Jan 1, 2018 and early 2020. Allegations and investigations into CBSA officer misconduct included improper search, sexual harassment, bribery, theft, excessive use of force, abuse of authority, collecting women’s personal phone numbers, and more. Though many details from the access to information documents are redacted, those that have emerged paint a horrifying picture of officers gloating and boasting about harassment, abuse of authority, and sexual violence.

According to Meghan McDermott, Senior Staff Counsel at the BC Civil Liberties Association, “These complaints reveal what happens when we give unchecked power to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers, who have wider powers than police agencies. Every major police agency in Canada has some form of independent oversight, yet, despite its immense powers, there is no independent civilian oversight body to investigate CBSA officer misconduct or review CBSA policies. We urgently need robust CBSA accountability and external oversight, and more needs to be done to tackle the marginalization of migrants and refugees created by our immigration enforcement policies.”

For the past several years, BCCLA has been advocating and campaigning for independent civilian oversight of CBSA. CBSA officers have vast powers of arrest, detention, search and seizure, and questioning of travellers, migrants, and refugees. CBSA has even wider powers than police agencies and their enforcement of Canadian customs and immigration laws has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable migrants and refugees. In February 2020, Parliament tabled Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act and the Canada Border Services Agency Act. Bill C-3 proposes the establishment of an independent and civilian review and complaints function overseeing CBSA. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), which currently oversees the RCMP, would take on additional responsibilities of oversight over CBSA and be renamed the Public Complaints and Review Commission. Read more - Lire plus

Canada urged to repatriate orphaned five-year-old girl held in Syrian camp
OHCHR 20/05/2020 - UN experts today called on Canada to secure the urgent release and repatriation of a five-year-old orphaned girl being held in inhuman conditions in north-eastern Syria’s overcrowded Al-Hol camp. “Canada has an obligation to intervene in favour of its nationals abroad, particularly if there are reasonable grounds to believe that their non-derogable human rights have been violated,” said the experts. “Within this context, special care must be taken for children, particularly if their parents are dead,” the experts emphasized.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic in play, and thus in a time of new vulnerabilities for children, the return of this orphaned child to Canada and reunion with her family/relatives is even more urgent.” After her parents – suspected of affiliation with ISIL – were reportedly killed in a 2019 airstrike, she was taken to Al-Hol camp, which houses an estimated 70,000 people, including more than 40,000 children. “Living conditions of children in Al-Hol camp are inhumane. Deprived of liberty, lacking of basic care, of sufficient food, of shelter from the elements, of safe water, of adequate sanitation, of medical care and of education, they are exposed to harassment, violence and exploitation,” the experts said. “All of these realities pose extreme harm to her.”

“Children like her should be regarded primarily as victims and treated as such. Their best interest should be the primary concern in all actions affecting them. They should not be punished because of the presumed behaviour or affiliation of their parents,” they added.
The human rights experts reminded the Canadian government that children enjoy special protection in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “The child finds herself in a situation that fails to comply with the most basic standards of humanity. She is in a situation unfit for children and urgently in need of adequate care and protection,” said the experts.

Canada has “primary responsibility” for ensuring that she is treated with humanity and respect of her dignity and human rights. The child has relatives in Canada who have already gone to extreme lengths to bring her back from Syria, the Canadian government should consolidate and deepen its efforts to enable her safe return. “Partnerships can be optimised and assistance obtained from other State partners and non-State actors which have direct control over territory, to extract individuals from camps, including Al-Hol. Canada’s practical challenges, including lack of consular representation on site, should not obstruct her return. Returning children is a humanitarian and human rights imperative,” the UN experts concluded. Read more - Lire plus

If Only the US Had That $6.4 Trillion It Wasted on Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to Fight Covid-19 Pandemic
Common Dreams 11/05/2020 - Wouldn’t it be nice if the richest country in the world had some resources stored up to deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the worst health crisis since the 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed 600,000 Americans? I mean, we had a $21 trillion a year economy.

George W. Bush and his administration squandered $6.4 trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. With regard to Iraq, that was a war of choice. Iraq had not attacked the United States. Iraq’s secular government feared and hunted down al-Qaeda. Bush just didn’t like the looks of Iraq and decided to whack it. The US was in a rare moment of global ascendancy. We had won the Cold War. The former Soviet Union was supine. There were no peer rivals in the whole world. The US could have wound down its arms industries, slashed the Pentagon budget, and invested in science and technology and educating the American public in creativity and critical thinking. Late in the Clinton administration we even had a slight budget surplus.

And then Bush pissed it all away. He actually borrowed a lot of the money for his wars, so you and I had to pay interest on their costs. It was sort of like being forced to buy a burned out building and pay interest on the mortgage for the rest of your life. Then he had the bright idea to lift financial regulation, allowing banks and even General Motors (?) to wrap up bad mortgages into securities and sell them like pigs in a poke to unsuspecting investors until that little ponzi scheme collapsed big time. We was had. The September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC, took a high toll in innocent American lives. But they turn out to have been a flukey success by a small terrorist organization that spent $500,000 on them. Putting in locks on the doors of jetliner cockpits and implementing some basic security measures forestalled further such attacks (it turns out that airliners were all along big bombs heavy with explosive fuel, and they used to be relatively unguarded). But that was mostly what you needed to do. Improve travel security, and conduct some targeted counter-terrorism operations against the small al-Qaeda terrorist group.

You did not need to make Afghanistan into an American colony and try to change the lifeways of its 37 million people. You did not need to invade and occupy Iraq (pop. 38 million) and try to rule it as though the United States were a sort of steampunk Imperial Britain under PM David Lloyd George. You did not need to have 2.7 million American service members serve 5.4 million military deployments. We did not need to drop an average of 3,500 bombs on Afghanistan yearly since 2006. (Quite apart from the death toll, can you imagine how much those bombs and rockets and missiles cost, each, and how much it cost to deliver them? Who was making money off all that? Not you and me.) You did not need to kill 800,000 people (the angry relatives of which also started taking potshots of you, requiring you to bomb and kill more people).

[...] And now when we need [the money], we don’t have it. Trump put up the Pentagon budget to $721.5 billion. It was $524 billion in 2016. What is the new military threat that we need $200 billion a year extra to fight in 2020? So not only did we waste $6.4 trillion, we continue to wast trillions more on war industries that don’t actually do us any good or make us perceptibly safer. Read more - Lire plus
The Senate voted to let the government keep surveilling your online life without a warrant
Ars technica 14/05/2020 - An effort to protect Americans' browsing and search histories from warrantless government surveillance failed by a single vote in the Senate on Wednesday. The privacy measure, sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) got 59 votes, one vote fewer than was needed to overcome a filibuster.

The vote was over a section of federal surveillance law that was originally part of the USA Patriot Act in 2001. That provision, known as Section 215, gave the FBI the power to obtain "any tangible thing," including "books, records, papers, documents, and other items," without a warrant. The provision was only supposed to be used for foreign intelligence investigations, not ordinary criminal investigations. Civil liberties groups have long criticized it for its breadth and weak judicial oversight. Section 215  expired back in March , and the Senate is working on legislation to re-authorize it. The current Senate draft prohibits the FBI from using the provision to obtain cell phone location data—though the Supreme Court has already ruled that this information is constitutionally protected, so this may have little practical impact. Read more - Lire plus
Unconvicted terrorism suspects face indefinite controls under UK bill
The Guardian 20/05/2020 - Terrorism suspects who have not been convicted of any offence face expanded and potentially never-ending measures to control their lives under proposed counter-terrorism laws unveiled by the UK government. Ministers want to weaken the burden of proof for terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPIMs) to be imposed on people suspected of terrorist activityand remove the two-year cap on their use. TPIMs are controversial and resource-heavy measures – usually based on secret intelligence – for controlling the risk presented by terrorism suspects at large where criminal prosecution is not an option.

Civil liberties campaigners said the changes posed “a threat to fundamental pillars of our justice system”. The changes to TPIMs come under the counter-terrorism and sentencing bill, which includes a new “serious terrorism sentence” with a 14-year minimum jail term and up to 25 years on licence for the most dangerous offences, broadly defined as featuring a likelihood of multiple deaths. The bill scraps the statutory deadline for the independent review of Prevent, the government’s divisive anti-radicalisation programme, in a move likely to anger human rights campaigners. And the legislation will allow judges to consider if any serious offence is terror-related, such as an offence involving firearms where there is a proven terrorist link, and allow tougher sentences to be imposed. There are already 14 measures that can be imposed, including overnight residence requirements, relocation to another part of the UK, police reporting, an electronic monitoring tag, exclusion from specific places, limits on association, limits on the use of financial services, and use of telephones and computers, and a ban on holding travel documents. New measures may include requirements for mandatory drug-testing and attendance of drug-treatment programmes, as well as accounting for all electronic devices in a household, not just their own.

Breach of any TPIM measure is a criminal offence and can be punished with a prison term. The maximum length for which a TPIM can be imposed is currently two years but the bill will remove this limit so it can be renewed indefinitely. Jonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said he was uncomfortable with the “big changes” to TPIMs. Rosalind Comyn, Liberty’s policy and campaigns officer, said the proposed changes to TPIMs would see the return in all but name of control orders, the more restrictive predecessor that was abolished by the coalition government. She said: “Control orders allow people to be placed on indefinite house arrest without trial and this can happen based on suspicion rather than charges, evidence and proof. Control orders were abolished by the coalition government as a stain on our human rights record and that’s where they should remain.

“This bill also threatens our safety. Without an evidence-based approach, the government is failing to address the root causes of these incidents and therefore failing to stop them. The fact this bill is being issued during a pandemic, when parliament is not operating at full capacity or able to deliver normal levels of scrutiny, should be a cause of concern for all who care about the future of our democracy and justice.” The legislation will end early release for terrorism offenders who receive a specific type of jail term, known as an extended determinate sentence, where the maximum penalty was life, and force them to serve their whole term in jail. The bill will also increase the maximum penalty from 10 to 14 years for a number of terror offences, including membership of a proscribed organisation, supporting a proscribed organisation and attending a place used for terrorist training.

Rachel Logan, Amnesty International UK’s legal expert, said: “It was never right to drastically curtail people’s liberty on the basis of secret, untested evidence using control orders or TPIMS – and we seem to be diving headlong into that territory where the standard of proof is extremely flimsy and people’s liberties can be curtailed on an indefinite basis. “Rushing this bill out while parliament is still operating under Covid-19 constraints suggests the government could be trying to minimise scrutiny for significant legal changes. We’ll scrutinise the bill in full as soon as possible, and we’ll be urging the government to adhere to the tried and tested principle that people reasonably suspected of involvement in terrorism-related activities should – if the evidence is there – be prosecuted in a court of law.” Read more - Lire plus
Australia doesn’t need more anti-terror laws that aren’t necessary – or even used
The Conversation 19/05/2020 - Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has introduced a new bill that will amend the controversial questioning and detention powers held by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). While some changes are welcome, others are a cause for concern. One major change is that the legislation will allow ASIO officers to coercively question children as young as 14. For this bill to be passed, Home Affairs must offer a stronger justification as to why the expanded powers are needed in the current security climate. Calls for new counter-terrorism powers have become commonplace in Australia, to the point where we now have more than 80 laws directed at the threat of terrorism. Any call for additional powers should be met with careful scrutiny, particularly when the rights of children are at stake.

One of the biggest changes in the bill is that it would repeal ASIO’s power to detain people for questioning. Currently, ASIO has the power to seek a questioning and detention warrant (QDW) that allows people to be detained for up to one week . Detention can be approved if a person is likely to fail to appear for questioning, alert someone involved in terrorism, or tamper with evidence. During that period, a person can be questioned in eight-hour blocks up to a maximum of 24 hours . This is purely an intelligence-gathering exercise, and is not related to any investigation for a criminal offence. The questioning is coercive, in that a person faces five years in prison for failing to answer any of ASIO’s questions. The powers are also highly secretive: it’s five years in prison for anyone who reveals anything about a warrant.

These powers are some of Australia’s most controversial anti-terror laws, as no democratic country has granted its domestic intelligence agency the same power to detain people for questioning. Reviews by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor , the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the COAG review of counter-terrorism legislation have all recommended this power be repealed. Such a move would be welcome. At the same time, the bill will expand ASIO’s power to seek questioning warrants (QWs). These trigger all the same questioning processes and criminal offences as QDWs, they just don’t allow ASIO to detain the person outside the questioning period. If the bill passes, QWs will be split into “adult questioning warrants” and “minor questioning warrants”. Minor questioning warrants will be available for children as young as 14 who are “likely to engage in” politically motivated violence. Read more - Lire plus
U.S. Senate approves Uyghur human rights bill
CNN 13/05/2020 - The Senate on Thursday afternoon approved a bill to sanction Chinese government officials responsible for forced labor camps in the region of Xinjiang, where up to 2 million ethnic Muslims have been forcibly detained, in the latest congressional move to strengthen the US stance toward China. The legislation, titled the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, condemns the Chinese Communist Party for the camps and recommends a tougher response to the human rights abuses suffered by Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in the region.

If enacted, President Donald Trump would have 180 days to submit a report to Congress identifying Chinese officials and any other individuals who are responsible for carrying out torture; prolonged detention without charges and a trial; abduction; cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of Muslim minority groups; and other flagrant denials of the "right to life, liberty, or the security of persons" in Xinjiang. The individuals identified in the report would then be subject to sanctions but the legislation gives the White House room to opt against imposing sanctions on the officials if the President determines and certifies to Congress that holding back on sanctions is in the national interest of the United States.
The bill would also require the State Department to assemble a report on human rights violations in Xinjiang, including estimates of how many people are confined in the camps and information on the conditions they face. The State Department currently details the abuses in its annual Human Rights and International Religious Freedom reports.

A bipartisan coalition of more than 50 senators cosponsored the legislation, which was introduced by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Uyghur Human Rights Project welcomed the Senate passage of the legislation, saying in a statement Thursday that it was "an important first step to a more comprehensive policy response." The World Uyghur Congress said on Twitter that the passage "gives great hope for all of us" and urged the House of Representatives to act quickly on the bill. Members of the House overwhelmingly passed an amended version of the bill last December, with a vote of 407-1. The Senate's passage of the legislation is certain to invoke Beijing's ire -- the Chinese government reacted with fury to the House version, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying saying it "wantonly smeared" what China claims are counterterrorism efforts.

Senators had hoped to approve the legislation by the end of 2019, but Republicans took issue with some of the provisions the House had added to the measure. The matter was also put on hold during impeachment proceedings. The House will have to vote again on the legislation now that the Senate has passed its version. In floor remarks last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell connected the Senate's movement on the legislation to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the United States "is going to be asking tough questions about our relationship with the Chinese Communist Party." The Kentucky Republican added that he expects the Senate's passage of the Uyghur human rights bill to bring "more attention to the plight of this mistreated minority." The bill passed under unanimous consent, a process used for expedited passage of uncontroversial legislation. Read more - Lire plus

Egypt: Court arbitrarily extends the pre-trial detention of over 1,600 defendants
Amnesty International 07/05/2020 - The decisions by a “terrorism circuit” judges at the Cairo Criminal Court to extend – without respect for basic due process guarantees – the pre-trial detention of over 1,600 detainees, many of whom are prisoners of conscience, must be immediately overturned, Amnesty International said. The organization also called on the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those detained for peacefully exercising their rights.

Judges issued these decisions between 4 and 6 May, without the presence of any of the defendants in court. Their lawyers were prevented from presenting their defence. The defendants have been held in prolonged pre-trial detention, in some cases reaching over two years, pending investigations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). “The Egyptian authorities must immediately rescind the recent string of decisions to extend pre-trial detention and ensure that all those in this situation are able to challenge the legality of their detention and to communicate with their lawyers privately,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Many should not have been detained in the first place, as they only ended up behind bars for peacefully exercising their rights. Others have been held for years in proceedings marred by serious breaches of international fair trial standards.” The mass court orders came after a decision by the Cairo Appeals Court on 28 April which stipulated that courts could decide on the releasing or extending the detention of defendants, without the presence of defendants in courts. Read more - Lire plus
Breach of Clearview AI Source Code Renews Concerns About Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Programs
CPO magazine 29/04/2020 - Increasingly widespread adoption of facial recognition technology for law enforcement purposes has sparked a heated global debate over the past year or two. Clearview AI has been one of the central points of contention, becoming something of a poster child for potential abuses and lack of transparency in such programs. The embattled facial recognition startup’s road is becoming no easier as an exposed server has been found that contained the source code for the company’s facial recognition database along with confidential keys and credentials that would grant a disturbing level of access to the company’s internal network.

Clearview AI attempts to sell acceptance of its product to the public by promising that only vetted law enforcement agencies are given access to it. A breach just two months ago revealed that to not be the case. The company’s client list was exposed, revealing that it has also been doing business with retail chains such as Best Buy and Macy’s. Retailers have an interest in facial recognition technology for everything from collecting marketing data to tracking potential shoplifters; customers would likely not be comfortable with just about any of these uses, but are also by and large not aware that some stores have been doing this for at least a couple of years now . The software is now available to anyone who happened upon the exposed server during the breach window. The breach was discovered by Dubai-based cybersecurity firm SpiderSilk. As is common with these sorts of breaches, the culprit was a misconfigured cloud-based database. The server was allowing anyone who registered as a new user to access it.

In addition to the facial recognition source code, the security researchers found credentials and keys that provided access to other cloud storage buckets maintained by the company. These buckets contained complete copies of the retail apps that Clearview AI provides to its customers along with earlier versions meant for developer testing. As if that wasn’t enough, the database also contained Slack tokens that would allow anyone to access the company’s internal communications without a password. And it contained 70,000 security camera videos from an apparent facial recognition trial program run in the lobby of a residential building in New York, showing residents entering and leaving the premises. [...] The facial recognition app was already under heavy fire prior to this data breach. Though Clearview AI began operating in 2017, the notoriously secretive company only came to widespread public attention in 2019 when it was found to be scraping major social media sites for names and photos in violation of their terms of service. The collecting and processing of the images of children in the midst of this dragnet may have caused numerous violations of COPPA . The attorney general of Vermont has filed a lawsuit against the company to prevent it from collecting the photos of residents of the state, and a number of state and city police departments (New Jersey and San Diego among them) have ordered that officers not use it. Read more - Lire plus

ACTIONS & EVENTS
NEW Sign the declaration: Digital tracing is not a cure for the public health crisis
La Ligue des droits et libertés 11/05/2020 - For the past few weeks, the governements of Quebec and Canada have been considering - behind closed doors - the use of digital tracing tools to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

Quebec and Ottawa must not use the health emergency to implement such measures without public debate! The Ligue des droits et libertés calls on all individuals and organizations concerned about the use of digital tracing tools to sign this declaration and to share it widely!

The are many of us, both here and around the world, telling governments that digital tracing is not a solution to the public health crisis. Please sign this statement now!
Stop CSIS from targeting everyday citizens & community groups
A recent report revealed that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, collected over 8,000 pages of documents, spying on citizens like you, people who exercise their democratic rights by attending a community meeting at a local church or taking peaceful action for what they believe in. And CSIS shared this info with Big Oil corporations.

Sign this petition to tell the govt to stop using taxpayer money to unconstitutionally spy on Canadians part of peaceful community groups.
Stop Facial Recognition in Canada
Facial recognition is invasive, biased and unreliable. But Canadian law enforcement and agencies have started using the tech despite its dangers. Canada’s out-of-date privacy laws don’t yet cover facial recognition tech, leaving our government free to experiment on us with no oversight or regulations. We need to slam the brakes on this dangerous technology before it’s too late. Demand a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technologies and a full review of our privacy laws now.

Release Yasser Albaz from arbitrary detention in Egypt
It's been more than a year since Yasser has been detained without charge - take action now!

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 to do everything in their power to bring this Canadian citizen home to his family.

Canada must act to end Islamophobia in Xinjiang, China
There is credible evidence that up to one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other mainly Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are being detained in secret internment camps. Detainees are brainwashed, tortured and are forced to renounce their religion and culture.


And send a message to Chrystia Freeland demanding that Canada actively support an independent and unrestricted international fact-finding initiative to Xinjiang.

Saudi Arabia: Free jailed activists
In Saudi Arabia, human rights violations are legitimized through the ‘Specialized Criminal Court’. The past 2 years have seen an unprecedented crackdown on Saudi activists, and this court acts to legitimize this oppression. Now is our chance to put pressure on King Salman to end grave human rights violations.

Sign the petition and demand that the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman immediately and unconditionally releases all those who have been imprisoned for peacefully protesting.
All-in-one action page: Stop Mohamed Harkat's Deportation to Torture
Call PM Trudeau, write a letter to Public Safety Minister & your MP, and sign Sophie Harkat's petition to stop the deportation of Moe Harkat.

If sent back to Algeria, Moe faces detention, torture and death.

No one should be deported to torture. Ever.
Send a letter opposing cameras in the ByWard Market
Send a letter in support of CAMS Ottawa's response to Mayor Watson. While we share concerns about ongoing violence in the Market, installing surveillance cameras is not an appropriate solution. The very premise that CCTV can deter violent crime is highly doubtful. Video surveillance also raise significant concerns regarding the treatment of marginalized members of our community. We urge you to take the above problems and the following evidence into consideration and reconsider implementing such an ineffective, costly, and intrusive system.
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”. The UN Committee against Torture called on Canada to launch a thorough and impartial review to ensure accountability.
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.
Call on Justin Trudeau to ensure justice for Abousfian Abdelrazik
In September 2003, Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan, while he was back in the country visiting his ailing mother. Over the next three years he was imprisoned for nearly 20 months and was held under house arrest for 12 months. He was denied a lawyer, and was never charged or brought before a judge. During that time he was badly tortured in three different prisons. Not only did Canada fail to take steps to protect him, CSIS officials frequently obstructed efforts to secure his release.
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 .
MORE NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES
WHAT WE'VE DONE IN 2019
2019 has been very busy, and we are looking at a busy year 2020! Before giving you the summary of what we've been up to in the second half of 2019, here are a few things we will do in 2020:

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


  • We will monitor the implementation of the National Security Act, 2017 (formerly Bill C-59), especially around mass surveillance and immunity for CSIS employees, in order to protect our civil liberties.

  • We will continue to push for a strong and effective review mechanism for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

  • We will continue advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, as it violates mobility rights and due process, 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, as it violates both our rights and Canada’s sovereignty.


Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG.
THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
We would like to thank all our member organizations, and our patrons who are supporting ICLMG on Patreon ! As a reward, we are listing our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without you, our work wouldn't be possible!

Kathryn Dingle
Mary Ann Higgs
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Karen Seabrooke
Colin Stuart
James Turk
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson

Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres et toutes les personnes qui soutiennent la CSILC sur Patreon ! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois directement dans le News Digest. Sans vous, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
 
Merci!