International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
January 29, 2021
ICLMG 28/01/2021 - It is outrageous that a French court of appeal has decided to overturn the dismissal of the case against Hassan Diab and to order a trial. There has been no new evidence introduced, and nothing that changes the decision from three years ago when the investigating judges released him without charge.

“This decision is a travesty of justice that points to a politicized process, hunting for a guilty party at all cost under the guise of ‘justice,’” said Tim McSorley, ICLMG national coordinator.

“The victims and survivors of the Rue Copernic bombing deserve justice. But justice cannot be achieved by dragging an innocent person through a drawn out trial when the main evidence has been discredited time and again, when multiple judges have said that the French case does not support a trial, and when evidence also shows Dr. Diab was not even in France at the time of the bombing,” added McSorley.

For three years, Dr. Diab languished in a French prison, away from his family, in near solitary confinement, while the French prosecution investigated. Three years, and the French prosecution could not make a case for even charging him, let alone going to trial.

We are calling on the Canadian government to take three actions: First, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau must intervene with their French counterparts to put a stop to this endless, Kafkaesque affair. Second, the Prime Minister must put into action his statement of June 20, 2018, that what happened to Dr. Diab should never happen again, and commit to not extraditing him to France a second time. Finally, it is also long past due that Canada reform its extradition laws to ensure that no person is forced to go through what Dr. Diab has. Read more - Lire plus




The federal government declares January 29th National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia
NCCM 28/01/2020 - Today, the federal government officially designated January 29 as a National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia.

Since the Quebec City mosque shooting on January 29th 2017 there has been a groundswell of support across the country to designate January 29 as a national day of action against Islamophobia, hate, and racism. Several municipalities and provinces have designated the day.

Over the years we at NCCM have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with community organizations of many faiths and backgrounds to call for this designation so that we are always reminded of the monumental task of eradicating Islamophobia, hate, and racism from our country.

We thank the government for taking this step to officially mark this day in the hearts and minds of all Quebecers and Canadians as a reminder of the innocent lives lost and the work ahead of us to eradicate Islamophobia, hate and racism from our country. Source & action + Read more - Lire plus
ICLMG remembers the victims of the January 29, 2017 Quebec City Mosque Shooting
ICLMG 26/01/2021 - We remember the victims of the Quebec City Mosque shooting. We also want to acknowledge the harm done to the victims' families and the Muslim community as a whole.

We commit to continue educating and fighting against Islamophobia in its many forms, especially by fighting the security state and the "War on Terror" narratives which are heavily responsible for Islamophobia in general and the Quebec City Mosque massacre in particular. Source

We invite you to wear the green square this week as well as to do your part to fight Islamophobia all year long. Here are some things you can do right now:




Educate yourself with the Noor Cultural Centre's new Resource list + ICLMG's Resources against Islamophobia

Watch the Noor Cultural Centre's video of their event: Islamophobia in Canada: Four Years After the Quebec Mosque Shooting
Canada urged to formally label China’s Uyghur persecution as genocide
The Globe and Mail 22/01/2021 - The Conservatives are calling on the federal government to declare that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity through its use of internment camps and forced sterilization for Muslim Uyghurs. Conservative Party MPs note that not only did the U.S. State Department under former secretary of state Michael Pompeo declare on Jan. 19 that China is perpetrating genocide but new U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said later that he concurs.

Canada under the minority Liberal government has so far declined to take an official position on the matter. A House of Commons subcommittee in which the majority of members are from the governing Liberal Party released a statement last October declaring the persecution of the Uyghurs to be genocide, but this does not carry the official stamp of the Canadian government. The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as acts that include “imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a] group,” as well as “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of [a] group.” [...]

Birth rates in Hotan and Kashgar, Uyghur-majority areas of Xinjiang fell more than 60 per cent between 2015 and 2018, the Associated Press has reported. The Xinjiang Health Commission has publicly called for population growth rates in some areas with large Uyghur communities to be brought considerably below 2016 levels, according to research by Adrian Zenz, a U.S.-based scholar and senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. “In Guma [Pishan] County, the 2019 family planning budget plan specifically called for 8,064 female sterilizations,” Mr. Zenz wrote in a report last summer. More than one million Uyghurs are in detention camps in Xinjiang province, facilities the Chinese government calls vocational and education training centres. Beijing defends its conduct by saying it’s trying to stamp out extremism. Tens of thousands of Uyghurs are also working under coercive conditions at Chinese factories, a mass use of forced labour that has been condemned by foreign governments around the word including Canada. Read more - Lire plus
CJPME outraged by racist smear against Muslim and Arab-Canadian Minister
CJPME 14/01/2021 - Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is outraged by vague criticisms made by the Bloc Québécois (BQ) against new Transport Minister Omar Alghabra which amount to anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia. As reported by the Canadian Press, BQ leader Yves-François Blanchet said on Wednesday that “questions arise” from Mr. Alghabra’s former role as president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF). Blanchet reportedly suggested that Alghabra was associated with "the political Islamic movement," but declined to accuse Alghabra of any specific wrongdoing. The CAF is a secular organization. CJPME considers such vague aspersions to be racist and Islamophobic against Alghabra, a Syrian-Canadian and Muslim.

“It would seem that Mr. Blanchet’s only criticism of Mr. Alghabra is that he is Arab and Muslim,” protested Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “When our political leaders decide to criticize a colleague, it should be based on substance – not innuendo,” continued Woodley. CJPME notes that inciting mistrust of racialized people by means of hearsay is a textbook example of systemic racism. Alghabra immigrated to Canada at age 19 and earned an engineering degree from Ryerson University before launching a successful career and getting involved in Canadian civic life.

In a statement to the Canadian Press, BQ spokesman Julien Coulombe-Bonnafous expanded on the hearsay against Alghabra by saying, “It’s really questions about his past … and also the separation of church and state, which is a profound value for the Bloc.” The BQ statement made reference to a 2016 article in the Journal de Montréal by right-wing columnist Lise Ravary, in which she too uses mere association to cast aspersions on Alghabra. CJPME is unaware of any verified statement by Alghabra at any point in his career in which he undermines the secular nature of Canadian society. Instead, CJPME believes that the allusion is nothing more than a cheap stunt to stir up Islamophobic sentiments against a political rival. Read more - Lire plus

ICLMG 19/01/2021 - The Terrorist Entities List, like so many of Canada’s anti-terrorism laws, is a deeply problematic and rights-violating provision, the use of which undermines some of the most basic principles of our justice system.

The process to add a group to the Terrorist Entities List is in section 83.05 of the Criminal Code. The listing process takes place in secret: The Minister of Public Safety, based on advice from Canada’s security agencies, makes a recommendation to the Governor in Council, who then approves the listing. Groups who are added are not informed in advance, nor given the chance to address the accusations levelled against them. While the decision must meet the standard of “reasonable grounds to believe,” the decision is based on secret information, including information that would be inadmissible in court. For example, it may include anonymous intelligence that could be inaccurate or obtained through mistreatment and/or torture. Only once a group is added does the listing become public, and they are in a position to challenge their listing.

Even then, though, they are not granted access to all the information used against them, which can be withheld based on several exceptions, including national security grounds. This makes it incredibly difficult to mount a defense. The allowance of secret evidence is common in anti-terrorism laws, and goes directly against the expectation Canadians have that someone faced with such a serious accusation would be able to know the entire case against them, and be able to fully challenge it.

Beyond these procedural problems, the placement of an organization on the list is up to the discretion of the government. There is no rule that if an entity engages in terrorism that it must be listed. Terrorism, under Canadian law, is any act that is politically, religiously or ideologically motivated, which aims to intimidate or compel an action, and which intentionally causes death, serious bodily harm, endangers a person’s life, causes substantial property damage or disrupts essential systems. This includes any conspiracy, attempt or threat to commit any of these acts. There are multiple right-wing groups that could fit this description, ranging from Golden Dawn, to Aryan Guard, to the Bugaloo, to 09A, to the Base. Even more, acts of right-wing violence, such as the horrific attacks on the Centre culturel islamique de Québec in 2017, on two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand in 2019, and on the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh in 2019 could be included, but because they are ostensibly “lone wolf” actions, the groups that influenced them are not themselves pursued.

However, the government’s discretionary powers has meant that of the 60 groups currently on the Terrorist Entities List, only two are white supremacist groups, both added in summer 2019. The government has and continues to ignore white supremacist violence, adding to the false and harmful narrative that terrorism is overwhelmingly committed by non-white/non-Western/non-Christian people, and reinforcing racist associations between violence and racialized people in general. To date, the Terrorist Entities List has helped perpetuate the idea that white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations do not need to be taken as seriously.

Why not right that wrong now, by adding the Proud Boys and others like them to the list? The problem is that by supporting the use of the list now, we legitimize its past and future use. Adding white supremacist groups does not address the rights-violating issues of secret evidence and decision-making (which seeps into other areas of law), and will not prevent future use of the list to political ends.

Expanding the use of the list now erodes our ability to fight its use in the future. We have already seen politicians and their supporters label Indigenous activists and Black Lives Matter organizers as “radicals” and “terrorists;” in the US, outgoing president Donald Trump moved to designate antifa activists as terrorists, with two weeks left to his term. Future Canadian governments could easily take advantage of a growing acceptance of the Terrorist Entities List to add those fighting for justice – but against their political interests – to the list. And we would be left without credibility to challenge them.

The answer instead lays in the calls that have gone out from civil liberties, anti-racist and legal experts since 2001: there are tools in Canada’s criminal code that can be used to protect our safety and address organized violence without needing to resort to anti-terrorism laws which undermine due process and violate our rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. [...] It is easier said than done, but we do not need to use rights-violating laws to fight against groups like the Proud Boys. We need lawmakers to have the political will and courage to devote the resources necessary to take on these groups, and counter violence and hate in general. That does not mean that we can’t improve Canada’s laws to address this real and growing threat. But using the Terrorist Entities List isn’t one of them. Read more - Lire plus


135 Civil Rights Groups Oppose New Domestic Terrorism Statutes, Say Tackle Far-Right Violence With Existing Laws
Common Dreams 21/01/2021 - Echoing the concerns expressed by many activists and several Democratic lawmakers worried that the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob will be used as an excuse to enlarge the national security state at the expense of civil liberties, 135 rights groups on Thursday wrote a letter to Congress voicing their opposition to the "proposed expansion of terrorism-related legal authority."

The letter was spearheaded by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a diverse coalition of more than 220 national organizations committed to promoting and protecting the rights of the American public; 134 additional groups supported the effort.
"We must meet the challenge of addressing white nationalist and far-right militia violence without causing further harm to communities already disproportionately impacted by the criminal-legal system," the letter states. Arguing that law enforcement already has more than enough power to hold right-wing extremists accountable if the federal government prioritizes combatting white supremacist violence, the Leadership Conference wrote:

The Justice Department (DOJ), including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has over 50 terrorism-related statutes it can use to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct, including white supremacist violence, as well as dozens of other federal statutes relating to hate crimes, organized crime, and violent crimes. The failure to confront and hold accountable white nationalist violence is not a question of not having appropriate tools to employ, but a failure to use those on hand. To date, DOJ has simply decided as a matter of policy and practice not to prioritize white nationalist crimes. Congress should use its oversight and appropriations authorities to ensure that law enforcement appropriately focuses investigative and prosecutorial resources on white nationalist crimes.

Congress should use its oversight and appropriations authorities to ensure that law enforcement appropriately focuses investigative and prosecutorial resources on white nationalist crimes. "We urge you to oppose any new domestic terrorism charge, the creation of a list of designated domestic terrorist organizations, or other expansion of existing terrorism-related authorities," the letter continues. Reiterating that "federal prosecutors have many existing laws at their disposal to hold violent white supremacists accountable," the Leadership Conference warned that "a new federal domestic terrorism statute or list would adversely impact civil rights." "As our nation's long and disturbing history of targeting Black activists, Muslims, Arabs, and movements for social and racial justice has shown," the letter notes, "this new authority could be used to expand racial profiling or be wielded to surveil and investigate communities of color and political opponents in the name of national security." Read more - Lire plus

Did the RCMP attend a university book launch to stop a crime?
NB Media Co-Op 22/01/2021 - It was not your typical book launch. Now, a formal information request of the RCMP has revealed that police intended to “stop a crime” when they attended a book launch at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick on October 23, 2019. Two RCMP officers made their presence known at the event, at which the author discussed how communities can defend themselves from mining companies. According to the information request, the RCMP officers were Joanne Spacek and Sebastien LeBlanc.

Dave Thomas is a Mount Allison professor in the politics and international relations department. He organized the book launch of Unearthing Justice: How to Protect Your Community from the Mining Industry with author Joan Kuyek. The RCMP visit to the book launch where they introduced themselves to Kuyek at the end of the event prompted Thomas to file an information request on the nature of the visit. “The information revealed through the access to information request is startling, especially the fact that they cited an exemption to providing the information because the information pertained to the detection, prevention or suppression of crime,” said Thomas.

“On the one hand it is totally absurd to frame an academic discussion of a book as in some way being connected to criminal activity,” said Thomas. “On the other hand, this conforms to existing patterns of police surveillance directed at activists, land defenders, and others who might be opposed to resource extraction.” For author Kuyek, the visit was not entirely surprising. The seasoned activist says she was told in the 1960s by Ian Adams, who was researching a book on police surveillance of activists at the time, that the RCMP had a file on her. Kuyek helped co-found and establish the Ontario Tenants Association and MiningWatch Canada, an organization that supports communities affected by mining. [...]

Thomas calls the RCMP presence on campus a threat to academic freedom: “The RCMP showing up to the event was an unwelcome intrusion into an academic space on our campus, and constitutes a serious threat to our academic freedom. Students and faculty need to feel comfortable engaging with all kinds of ideas, even those that challenge dominant paradigms, without fear of being watched by police.” Kuyek’s book tour in New Brunswick occurred the same week that New Brunswick announced it was giving a conditional approval to a J.D. Irving-owned gypsum mine near the Hammond River in rural Upham. The project was criticized by local residents who feared the mine would affect their well water and roads. Earlier that year, Sarah Blenis and her neighbours were dismayed to learn that their opposition to the mine had made them targets of RCMP surveillance. Previously, in 2017, Wolastoq Grand Council Chief Ron Tremblay and activists against the Energy East pipeline expressed concern over RCMP Constable Joanne Spacek’s presence at meetings. [...]

Governments in Canada have a long history of using the RCMP to attack critics of the state and capital and of violating the civil rights of Canadians. The RCMP spied on Tommy Douglas, Canada’s father of Medicare, for three decades. In 1999, activists were blamed for bombing an Alberta oil site but it was later revealed that the RCMP had bombed the site on the instructions of Alberta Energy Company. Miles Howe, a journalist arrested three times during his coverage of the anti-shale protests near Elsipogtog in 2013, is currently researching the surveillance of Indigenous rights activists and Project SITKA, an RCMP investigation carried out between 2014-2015.

According to Howe, 313 people were originally put on Project Sitka’s list of “suspects, persons of interest or associates of someone who may have committed a crime.” The list of 313 was run through the RCMP’s ‘socio-psychological profiling matrix,’ and further reduced to 89 Indigenous rights activists who were classified as ‘volatile’ or ‘disruptive.’ Forty-five of the 89 Indigenous rights activists were linked to the Elsipogtog protests against shale gas in 2013 and 35 were from New Brunswick. As documented in the 2018 book, Policing Indigenous Movements, by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, the RCMP is monitoring environmental groups and Indigenous land defenders and communities across Canada. Read more - Lire plus
Some snooping from Canadian spies needs better justification: commissioner
CBC 28/01/2021 - The defence minister's reasons for allowing Canada's foreign signals intelligence agency to perform otherwise illegal activities were sometimes "insufficient," according to the new intelligence commissioner in a first-of-its-kind report. Jean-Pierre Plouffe, the man who helps review the activities of Canada's two spy agencies, said the linkages used by the minister to justify his conclusions were sometimes lacking, although in the end the commissioner ultimately gave spying requests the green light. 

While many of the details about what clandestine activities actually involved are omitted from the report, it offers a glimpse into the back-and-fourth in deciding when Canada's cyber spies can intercept private communications. "In some instances, the [information commissioner] determined that the ministerial conclusions were insufficient or non-existent," reads the report, tabled in the House of Commons this week. The position of intelligence commissioner is relatively new to Canada and was created to offer an independent, quasi-judicial review of the justification used to clear intelligence agencies' of otherwise illegal activity. The position was born out of the Liberal's national security overhaul legislation in 2019. The first report looked at a small window: just nine authorization requests from Aug. 1, 2019 to the end of that year. [...]

With a special authorization in hand, CSE can then, despite Canadian law or laws of any foreign states, carry out "any activity specified in the authorization to further its foreign intelligence mandate." The intelligence commissioner, a retired superior court judge, is responsible for reviewing the reasons behind why the defence minister issued this kind of special authorization. Plouffe's report found that while all of the minister's authorizations for CSE's activities, five during the short time period, were reasonable, there were issues in the applications. "The intelligence commissioner found some inconsistencies in the application records for foreign intelligence authorizations. Notably, the minister's conclusions did not address certain authorized activities and some authorized activities were not supported by facts in the chief of CSE's written application," it reads. "In addition, a condition imposed by the minister in one of the authorizations was neither addressed in his conclusions nor rationalized elsewhere in the application record."
The 23-page report did not include details of the activities or what the intelligence commissioner felt was missing from the original applications. [...]

The review also looked at the datasets — electronic archives of information — the Canadian Security Intelligence Service can maintain. CSIS has the authority to "collect, by investigation or otherwise," analyze and retain information regarding activities that could pose a threat to national security. The commissioner reviewed four authorizations and found two were reasonable. In one case, he determined that the minister's decision to authorize certain unlawful conduct by CSIS to carry out its intelligence collection mandate was unreasonable. In another case, he only partially approved the conduct. In those two cases, CSIS will have to resubmit its paperwork to the commissioner. Read more - Lire plus
Biden and Congress must clost Guantanamo Bay detention center, not bring new charges in unlawful military commissions
Amnesty USA 25/01/2021 - The Department of Defense announced last week that the Convening Authority of the Guantánamo Military Commissions will charge three Guantanamo detainees for alleged involvement in bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003. They are Encep Nurjaman, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin. Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, released the following statement:

“The military commissions at Guantánamo Bay are a human rights calamity and a complete failure. For almost two decades, the United States has denied justice to the dozens of men the country has kept detained at Guantánamo Bay indefinitely, without charge or trial. It’s time to give up the illusion that either true justice or any semblance of a fair trial will result from these fundamentally unfair proceedings. The only just path forward is to close down the detention center and the military commissions once and for all. If the United States has admissible evidence that internationally cognizable crimes were committed, it can bring those claims in a civilian court, if a fair trial is even possible after nearly two decades of unlawful detention and ill-treatment.

“The Pentagon’s actions here are shameful. It’s time to mark a new path for United States national security policy and close down Guantánamo. The detention center that has come to symbolize around the world the United States’ use of torture, rendition and indefinite detention without charge or trial – in complete violation of internationally agreed-upon standards of justice and human rights. President Biden must close down the Guantánamo detention center and the military commissions, once and for all.” Read more - Lire plus

CIA Whistleblower: Biden Intel Pick Avril Haines Approved Obama Drone Strike Kill List, Hid Torture
DemocracyNow! 20/01/2021 - Avril Haines, Biden’s nominee for director of national intelligence, began her confirmation hearing Tuesday. She was President Obama’s top lawyer on the National Security Council from 2010 to 2013 and CIA deputy director from 2013 to 2015, where she authorized using drone strikes to carry out targeted extrajudicial assassinations.

“We know that in almost all cases that she said it was legal to put these names on the kill list, and people were subsequently killed by drone, including American citizens,” says CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the Bush-era torture program and was the only official jailed in connection to it. He also discusses Haines’s handling of CIA agents who illegally hacked the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee to thwart its investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program that used torture methods like waterboarding. Read more - Lire plus

More than 1,000 Extinction Rebellion activists taken to court
The Guardian 08/01/2021 - More than 1,000 people who took part in environmental direct action organised by Extinction Rebellion have been taken to court in what experts say is one of the biggest crackdowns on protest in British legal history. Hundreds of cases are ongoing and lawyers say that despite the pandemic, some defendants may still be asked to travel to court in London from across the UK to appear in person.

Lawyers for the defendants say the scale of the prosecutions and the decision to press ahead with trials during the pandemic is unprecedented, and putting people’s health at risk. Raj Chada, a solicitor from Hodge Jones and Allen, which is representing many of the defendants, said: “These clients come from across the country, and the court system is just getting to grips with remote attendances. The Covid crisis is at its height, yet the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] are continuing these cases at great financial cost.”

XR have staged three major “rebellions” over the past two years to highlight the escalating climate and ecological emergency and demand urgent action from the government. The peaceful protests brought large parts of London to a standstill for days, with printing presses of rightwing newspapers blockaded and fossil fuel companies targeted. XR says more than 3,400 people have been arrested, with about 1,700 charged, almost all for minor public order offences such as obstructing the highway. About 900 people have pleaded guilty and another 800 have either been tried or are awaiting their day in court. [...]

Chada said the decision to press ahead with the prosecutions was not in the public interest. “One wonders who is making these decisions and what pressure they are under,” he said. Graeme Hayes, a sociologist from Aston University, who is part of a team of researchers following the XR court cases, agreed the decision to prosecute so many people for minor offences was highly unusual. “What we are seeing looks very much like political decisions to charge people and to take them to court for very minor offences, and that is extraordinary. I can not think of a precedent [in the UK] where that has happened before on anything like this scale.” Hayes said it appeared to be the result of political pressure, possibly from the home secretary, Priti Patel, who labelled XR as criminals who threatened the “UK way of life”, and from the police, who were criticised after the April 2019 protests. Read more - Lire plus
ACTIONS & EVENTS
Panel in commemoration of the Quebec mosque shooting

Saturday February 6, 2021 from 2 PM to 3:30 PM EST

Speakers:
Shady Hafez | Algonquin & Syrian Indigenous rights advocate & Yellowhead Institute fellow
El Jones | poet, academic, and prisoners’ justice advocate
Dr Arun Kundnani | author and critical scholar of the “war on terror”

Moderated by: Azeezah Kanji, legal academic and journalist
Co-sponsored by ICLMG
RSVP & share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
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.
Read our full statement on the issue here for more information. Please share it on:
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.
Repatriate Canadian Children from Syria
Official Parliamentary petition to the Canadian government:

We, the undersigned citizens of Canada , call upon the Government of Canada to immediately repatriate the 25 innocent Canadian children living in inhumane conditions in the camps of northeast Syria.
Reject Dr. Carvin's Offensive Actions and Promote Anti-Racism
On September 3, 2020, Dr. Stephanie Carvin, Assistant Professor at Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University, proudly shared on her Twitter account gruesome depictions of killings of Muslim and Brown bodies as terrorists on cakes. As members and allies of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) community, we are denouncing her actions and we are calling on Carleton University and NPSIA to publicly denounce Dr. Carvin's actions and to commit to an anti-racist environment by offering the necessary training and resources to its faculty members.
#FreeCihanErdal #LiberezCihanErdal
Cihan Erdal, a queer youth activist and a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, was detained in Istanbul, Turkey on September 25, 2020 along with 81 other politicians, academics and activists.

We call on Canadian and Turkish authorities to take urgent action and demand Cihan’s immediate release and Cihan’s safe return to Canada!
Pardon Edward Snowden for exposing the government's illegal surveillance
Edward Snowden exposed the U.S. government’s illegal mass surveillance programs, along with shocking collusion between large technology companies and spy agencies. He risked everything to blow the whistle and help protect all of our basic human rights. He’s been in exile for long enough. It’s time to bring him home. Everyone from the ACLU to Senator Rand Paul has spoken out in support of the embattled whistleblower, and now even President Trump has indicated his potential support for a pardon. The administration is testing the waters. If we show overwhelming support to #PardonSnowden right now, we could finally get justice for him, and set a precedent that protects whistleblowers, journalists, and defenders of human rights in the future.
Reunite Ayub, Khalil, and Salahidin with their families
Ayub Mohammed, Salahidin Abdulahad, and Khalil Mamut are three Uyghur men who left China after childhoods of discrimination, persecution, and hopelessness.

They were sold by Pakistani bounty hunters to the US military in 2001 and taken with 19 other Uyghurs to Guantanamo Bay. Despite being exonerated as early as 2003, they were kept in Guantanamo for years.

Now in forced exile - Ayub in Albania, and Salahidin and Khalil in Bermuda - their families are here in Canada; and their kids growing up without their fathers.

Despite posing no threat to Canadian national security, these men have been waiting over five years to reunite with their families and find a safe place to live.
China: Free Canadian Huseyin Celil
The Chinese authorities accused Huseyin of offences related to his activities in support of Uighur rights. They held Huseyin in a secret place. They gave him no access to a lawyer, to his family, or to Canadian officials. They threatened him and forced him to sign a confession. They refused to recognize Huseyin’s status as a Canadian citizen, and they did not allow Canadian officials to attend his trial. It was not conducted fairly, and resulted in a sentence of life in prison in China. His life sentence was reduced to 20 years in February 2016. Huseyin has spent much of his time in solitary confinement. He lacks healthy food and is in poor health. Kamila needs her husband, and the boys need their father back.
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.
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.
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.
Defund the police & the RCMP
More and more people are calling on their city councils to reduce and eliminate budgets for policing. We are no longer going to pay for police to harm our communities. These funds can be re-directed to support the recovery and provide much need improvements to public housing, transit, and food security programs among other basic needs. Please use this e-mail tool to tell your City Councillor to act now to defund the police in your communities. Together we keep each other safe.


Philippines: Junk the terror bill and uphold human rights!
The Anti-Terrorism bill is a clear and direct attack against our academic freedom, right to organize, and freedom of expression to air out our grievances towards the inefficiencies and deficiencies of the government's mandate to serve its people through government services.

This positions the government to silence the any dissenter or organizer and given the rich history of harassment of law enforcement agencies and military personnel, harassment and terror-tagging has been a step further for even more killings and silencing.
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.
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.
MORE NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES
From July to December 2020
ICLMG - 2020 has been BUSY! Click below to see what we’ve accomplished in the second half of 2020, but first here is our plan for the next year.

In 2021, we will continue fighting:
  • against facial recognition technology, governments' attacks on encryption, and online mass surveillance
  • for a review mechanism for the Canada Border Services Agency
  • to abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture
  • to repeal of the Canadian No Fly List
  • for justice for Hassan Diab & the reform of the Extradition Act

and much more! Find out how you can help here and see what we did in 2020 below:


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 the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!

Mary Ann Higgs
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson

Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!