International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
June 14, 2019
ICLMG update on Bill C-59, the National Security Act, 2017
After being adopted by the Senate, Bill C-59 had to go back to the House of Commons so MPs could vote on amendments made by Senators - here's how it went down: On May 31st, the government announced its position on the amendments passed by the Senate. Ralph Goodale moved that the house accept amendments 3 & 4, but reject amendments 1 & 2.

  1. Amendment 1 was to change the Intelligence Commissioner Act so that, in situations where the IC declines to approve an authorization, they would be able to refer conditions to the Minister that would satisfy their concerns.
  2. Amendment 2 is the change to counselling a terrorism offence that the Conservatives proposed and passed, that add a string of sub-clauses, including that the person counselling does not need to know the person who commits the offence.
  3. Amendment 3 is to start the review of the Act at 3 years instead of 5 years (with the report being tabled in year 4, instead of year 6).
  4. Amendment 4 is to add a schedule to the Avoiding Complicity in Foreign Mistreatment Act that would list any head of department who has been given a ministerial direction on avoiding complicity in mistreatment (ie, regarding the use or sharing of information that could lead to, or is derived from, mistreatment). [...]

The shorter review time, and the new schedule to the Avoiding Complicity act are good, but minor, changes. It's probably a net positive that the Conservatives' proposed changes to "counselling" won't be adopted. And the Intelligence commissioner already needs to set out the reasons for why an authorization isn't approved so referring conditions to the Minister doesn't add much to the process. Again these changes are highly insufficient to fix Bill C-59 and protect our civil liberties.

On Tuesday, the House voted in favour of the government's proposal on the Senate's amendments, and C-59 went back to the Senate on Wednesday night but ran out of time for a vote. The government has also moved time allocation, so it will most likely be adopted by the Senate next week at the latest. Read more - Lire plus
Jim Bronskill: Canada's military spies can collect, share info on Canadians, directive says
Canadian Press 09/09/2019 - Canada’s military spies can collect and share information about Canadian citizens — including material gathered by chance — as long as it supports a legitimate investigation, says a newly disclosed federal directive. The Canadian Press recently obtained a copy of the eight-page, August 2018 directive, “Guidance on the Collection of Canadian Citizen Information,” through the Access to Information Act. […]

Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator for the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, finds that troubling given the vast amount of information that swirls daily through the digital sphere. “We’re worried about what it means when they collect inadvertent information,” he said in an interview. “We don’t know the scope or the degree to which Canadians’ information is being captured.” As a result, there should be stronger legislative control and review of the military’s intelligence collection and sharing to ensure it isn’t straying beyond the bounds of privacy law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he said. “There can always be instances of over-reach, and that needs to be kept in check.” Read more - Lire plus
Sunday school teacher says she was strip-searched at Vancouver airport after angry guard failed to find drugs
CBC 09/06/2019 - A former Sunday school teacher who was falsely accused of being a drug smuggler, detained at Vancouver International Airport and eventually strip searched says she is still traumatized by the treatment and is calling for greater oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency. Jill Knapp’s run-in with CBSA agents took place on Jan. 9, 2016, on her way home to Calgary, after visiting her husband in Mexico City. The 39-year-old says she is only now speaking out about her experience because she was diagnosed with anxiety after her airport ordeal. […]

A request under the Access to Information Act by the CBC reveals other airline travellers have officially complained about mistreatment by border agents including screaming, using foul language, belittling them, using racial profiling and physical force. A civil liberties advocate says the complaints point to the need for independent oversight of the CBSA, the only major law enforcement agency in Canada that doesn’t have external review of employee conduct. “When border agents operate — either at land crossings, at airports — there is very little oversight,” says Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, based in Ottawa. […] “It’s completely unacceptable and … kind of repulsive that people go through this when they’re simply trying to travel to their destination,” says McSorley, who reviewed the complaints. […] McSorley’s organization has been pushing for years for external oversight of the CBSA. Read more

Rubin: Why was new centre for intelligence expertise kept so secret?
Jacobin 13/06/2019 - Public Safety Canada has quietly set up a centre for expertise to assist security and intelligence departments in the responsible use of the Security of Canada Information Disclosure Act, known as SCIDA. Yet virtually no one knows about the centre, or what it is doing. This is worrisome.

SCIDA allows for Canadians’ personal information to be shared by security intelligence agencies as part of national security Bill C-59. My interest in the expertise centre came about after I recently received a Public Safety briefing note marked “secret.” It turns out the privacy commissioner, who, under the terms of Bill C-59, is to be consulted by security intelligence agencies and can review SCIDA’s personal-data-sharing processes, has not heard of this centre either, nor has the public, MPs or the news media.

A Public Safety official confirmed that the centre exists, and noted the concept for it was briefly mentioned in the government’s 2017 national security green paper. The centre has been renamed the Strategic Coordination Centre for Information Sharing and is housed internally under Public Safety’s National Security Policy Directorate. [...]

The centre could be a positive entity – both a training and restraining centre that would limit and report on what personal information security intelligence and law enforcement agencies can collect, keep and use. Another possibility, however, is that the centre will become a negative, none-too-accountable, secretive centre that helps control information about Canadians gathered by security intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Read more - Lire plus
How the RCMP Dealt With the Media During a Suspected Terror Attack
Vice 10/06/2019 - Canadian federal police scrambled to control the narrative around the death of suspected terrorist Aaron Driver, who was shot and killed by RCMP officers in 2016, documents obtained by VICE show.

Hundreds of documents obtained through an Access to Information request provide a behind-the-scenes look at police efforts to shape the story around the killing of Driver, a 24-year-old Islamic State sympathizer who was under a peace bond with the RCMP at the time of his death. (A peace bond is an order issued by a judge requiring a person to adhere to certain conditions, and is often used where someone shows signs of radicalization, but hasn’t committed any crime.)

Driver was shot and killed after setting off an explosive device in the back of a taxi outside his home in Strathroy, Ontario in August 2016. Based on a tip from the FBI, police believed Driver—who had been on the radar of the RCMP and CSIS since 2014 for posting pro-ISIS messages online—was on his way to set off the explosive device in a public place when they confronted him. As tactical officers moved in, Driver set off the device, injuring himself and the taxi driver before being shot dead by police.

Internal RCMP briefings produced in the hours following the event contain different versions of the events that led to Driver’s killing. Draft press releases and internal emails from during and after the event show police managing the language and characterizations used to describe the operation that preceded his death, shedding light on how police work hard to control the narrative during sensitive events. [...]

Briefing notes prepared by RCMP Inspector Peter Koersvelt for Commissioner Paulson describe different versions of the events that led to Driver’s death.
A briefing circulated internally by Koersvelt the night of August 10 mostly aligns with the official version of events, stating that Driver exited his house, “put something in a garbage can” and put another item into the taxi before getting in himself, at which point police moved in. But in a second briefing note circulated internally the night of August 11, Koersvelt wrote that police confronted Driver as he walked toward the taxi.

Amarasingam said that in his view it’s “bizarre” that police wrote up several different versions of Driver’s death. He pointed out that the most reliable reporting would come from those on the ground and cited Terry Duffield , the taxi driver who believed he was put in danger by the RCMP’s actions that day. (Duffield says Driver was in the taxi when police approached.) Read more - Lire plus
Saudi Arabia: Authorities must not resort to use of death penalty against protester arrested aged 13
Amnesty International 07/06/2019 - Saudi Arabia must not use the death penalty to punish a young man who was arrested at the age of 13 for participating in anti-government protests, said Amnesty International today.

The organization has confirmed that Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution sought the death penalty for Murtaja Qureiris in August 2018 for a series of offences, some of which date back to when he was just 10 years old. CNN this week revealed he was facing the death penalty and published video footage showing him participating in bike protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province as a young boy in 2011.

“There should be no doubt that the Saudi Arabian authorities are ready to go to any length to crack down on dissent against their own citizens, including by resorting to the death penalty for men who were merely boys at the time of their arrest,” said Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director Lynn Maalouf. “It is appalling that Murtaja Qureiris is facing execution for offences that include taking part in protests while he was just 10 years old.” The use of the death penalty for offences committed by people below 18 years of age is strictly prohibited by international law.

Mainly populated by Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority, the Eastern Province saw waves of protests in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings which the authorities have cracked down over the years, including through prosecutions. Murtaja Qureiris, now aged 18, was arrested in September 2014 and detained at Dar al-Mulahaza at the juvenile detention centre in al-Dammam city. He was held in solitary confinement for a month and subjected to beatings and intimidation during his interrogation. His interrogators promised to release him if he confessed to the charges against him.

In May 2017 he was moved to al-Mabaheth prison in al-Dammam, an adult prison, even though he was just 16 years old. Throughout his detention he was denied access to a lawyer until after his first court session in August 2018 at the Specialized Criminal Court, an anti-terror court set up in 2008, that has increasingly been used for cases involving human rights activists and protesters. [...]

In April, Amnesty International confirmed the execution of  Abdulkareem al-Hawaj , another Shi’a young man arrested aged 16 and convicted of offences related to his involvement in anti-government protests. He was among  37 men put to death in one day as part of a gruesome execution spree earlier this year. Read more - Lire plus
The FBI Admits Black Lives Matter Was Never a Threat. It’s White People You Should Be Worried About
The Root 11/06/2019 - Last week, as Donald Trump curtsied before the Queen; as Congressional Democrats continued to cower from their constitutional obligations; while we took our horses down to Old Town Road, mounted Megan Thee Stallion’s bandwagon and watched what happens When They See Us, the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted that prejudiced assumptions against the Black Lives Matter movement, Muslim Americans and black identity extremists was all a lie. Intelligence officials sat in front of lawmakers and openly admitted that white supremacists and right-wing violence are the biggest domestic terror threat but also admitted that federal agencies aren’t really doing anything about it.

On Tuesday, June 4, the House Oversight subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties held the second session in a series of hearings titled: “ Confronting White Supremacy .” Among those testifying before the subcommittee was Michael C. McGarrity, the director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. [...] Not only did McGarrity concede that people labeled as “black identity extremists” had nothing in common except their skin color, but Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s (D-Mass.) question about the FBI’s “black Identity extremist” designation prompted a startling revelation from McGarrity.

When Pressley pressed McGarrity on the secret “ race paper ” and the black identity extremist designation first uncovered in the 12-page FBI document called “ Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers ,” the counterterrorism director revealed that the FBI no longer uses the term. “The designation no longer exists?” Pressley asked. “It hasn’t existed since I’ve been here for 17 months,” McGarrity replied. “We are not using ‘black identity extremists’ as a term or for a group.” [...] “To recap: The FBI created a new category of threat,” NPR’s Hannah Allam noted. “[A]nd two years later quietly abandoned it without explanation.” Read more - Lire plus
Press Freedom Under Attack: Australian Police Raid Network for Exposing War Crimes in Afghanistan
Democracy Now! 11/06/2019 - Press freedom groups are sounding the alarm over a pair of police raids on journalists. On Wednesday, Australian Federal Police swept into the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, reviewing thousands of documents for information about a 2017 report that found Australian special forces soldiers may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

The raid came one day after police in Melbourne raided the home of Annika Smethurst, a reporter with the Herald Sun newspaper. We speak to Australian professor Joseph Fernandez and Peter Greste, founding director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom. Greste was imprisoned for 400 days in 2013 to 2014 while covering the political crisis in Egypt. Read more - Lire plus
Media group demands release of jailed Al Jazeera journalist
Al Jazeera 06/06/2019 - An international media group has demanded that  Egypt  release all jailed journalists and put an end to what it described as "the harassment of critical news sites". The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) issued a statement on Wednesday after the Egyptian authorities returned Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein to the notorious Tora prison in Egypt - despite a court ordering his release in late May. An Egyptian court order  upheld an earlier ruling  ordering the release of Hussein, who has been held for more than two years in prison. Al Jazeera responded at the time by accusing Egypt of becoming "a lawless country with no respect for journalists", while Hussein's family said a new investigation has been opened against the Egyptian.

In its statement, IPI urged the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Hussein as well as other journalists currently being held, including Ismail Al Sayed Mohamed Omar Toufic, also known as Ismail Alexandrani, who has been held since November 2015. It also called on Egypt to "cease the harassment" of nearly two dozen independent news outlet, including Mada Masr, which have been blocked by the government for allegedly "spreading lies and supporting terrorism", said the media group. Hussein, an Egyptian national who works for the Al Jazeera Arabic television channel based in Qatar , was arrested on arrival on December 20, 2016, while travelling to Egypt to visit his family. He has since spent nearly 900 days in detention without charge. Read more - Lire plus
Stephen Breyer Is Worried About the Forever War’s Permanent Prisoners. He’s 15 Years Too Late.
Slate 10/06/2019 - In 2004, Justice Stephen Breyer cast the decisive vote in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld , allowing the government to detain alleged terrorists indefinitely without trial. Hamdi interpreted the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a boundless grant of power to the president, permitting the executive to imprison anyone deemed an “enemy combatant” without bona fide due process. The Supreme Court’s sweeping decision allowed Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump to keep these “combatants” locked up at Guantanamo Bay, deprived of fundamental constitutional safeguards. Trump is eager to hold them there for years to come.

On Monday, Breyer announced his desire to “confront the difficult question left open by Hamdi”—and, implicitly, his growing discomfort with the decision’s impact. But it’s almost certainly too late. The Supreme Court has lost its swing votes and conservative skeptics of executive power. Until Congress and the president decide otherwise, the courts will permit this suspension of due process with no end in sight. [...]

The Bush administration construed the AUMF to permit, among other things, the detention of anyone the president labeled an enemy combatant—citizens and aliens alike. Hamdi involved a challenge to this alleged power. Yaser Esam Hamdi was a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan, taken to Guantanamo, then transferred to a naval brig in the United States. Accused of joining the Taliban, Hamdi was deemed an enemy combatant, and the government asserted a right to hold him indefinitely without even bringing formal charges, let alone giving him a trial. [...]

A plurality opinion by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Breyer, endorsed a key part of the Bush administration’s AUMF theory: It agreed that the law allowed the president to detain those he determines to be an enemy combatant. The plurality also agreed that these individuals are not owed full due process, even if they’re U.S. citizens. [...] Scalia noted, the AUMF does not actually confer the broad detention powers the government claimed. Thus, Hamdi should either have been given a fair trial or released.

By equating the power to use “necessary and appropriate force” with the power of indefinite detention, the Hamdi court handed the executive branch a blank check to keep alleged terrorists imprisoned without trial forever. And that is exactly what they have done. Today, there are about 40 men at Guantanamo, and the federal courts keep rejecting their efforts to leave. Why? Because of Hamdi. Now Breyer seems to have his regrets. In 2014, he raised the possibility that the government had stretched the AUMF too thin by applying the law to a succession of conflicts untethered from its original purpose. And on Monday, when the court refused to hear a new case involving another combatant, he voiced an even stronger objection to the AUMF’s continued rein.

To drive home his point, Breyer noted that the detainee challenging his confinement in the case at hand, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, has been held in Guantanamo for 17 years. “Al-Alwi,” he concluded, “faces the real prospect that he will spend the rest of his life in detention based on his status as an enemy combatant a generation ago, even though today’s conflict may differ substantially from the one Congress anticipated when it passed the AUMF.” Curiously, Breyer voted with his colleagues not to take al-Alwi’s appeal, instead preferring to wait for “an appropriate case” to revisit Hamdi. (Why isn’t al-Alwi’s case appropriate? Breyer didn’t say.) [...]

Since Hamdi, in fact, the Supreme Court has allowed an expansion of indefinite detention beyond so-called enemy combatants. In two recent cases , the conservative majority has allowed the Trump administration to detain certain immigrants indefinitely—a development that Breyer decried as betrayal of “our basic values.” With the court’s assent, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is creating an archipelago of Guantanamos where due process has been suspended for immigrants. “I would find it alarming,” Breyer wrote in a 2018 dissent, “to believe that Congress” intended this result.

There is a lesson to be gleaned from these awful cases: The power of indefinite detention is a weapon that presidents can wield recklessly and brutally. In Hamdi, the Supreme Court turned over this weapon to the executive branch, which continues to use it in a predictably appalling and arbitrary manner. Congress must repeal the AUMF, as well as any statute—particularly immigration laws—that can arguably be read to allow endless imprisonment. The Supreme Court can no longer be trusted to enforce due process, despite Breyer’s pleas. If Congress doesn’t put a stop to this unconstitutional cruelty, no one will. Read more - Lire plus
House panel bans new detainees from entering Gitmo, blocks new construction
The Washington Times 10/06/2019 - House defense lawmakers are banning the Pentagon from accepting any new detainees to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba , and denying the White House’s $88 million request to build a new detainee prison at the naval base.

Along with blocking the Trump administration of admitting new terror detainees captured during the war against the Islamic State, House Armed Services Committee members are also looking to allow current detainees — some of whom have been in U.S. custody since 2002 — to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment, according to the committee’s draft of the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2020 budget plan.

“The operation of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has, for years, been exceedingly costly and mired in controversy,” with the new legislative proposals designed to curb and ultimately end its operations, committee members said in a statement accompanying the bill proposal, released late Sunday night. Read more - Lire plus 



Mauritania: Allow Ex-Guantanamo Detainee to Travel
Human Rights Watch 13/05/2019 - Mauritanian authorities should issue a passport without delay to a former Guantanamo Bay detainee or explain the legal grounds for denying his right to travel, Human Rights Watch said today.
 
The United States released Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the author of a renowned prison memoir, after he was detained for more than 14 years in Jordan, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo, and returned him to his native Mauritania. The authorities now appear to be arbitrarily restricting his rights.
 
“It is not enough that the United States held Mohamedou Ould Slahi without charges for 14 years,” said Lama Fakih , acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Now his own government is depriving him of his rights without filing a single charge against him.”
 
Ould Slahi told Human Rights Watch that he suffers from back pain and pain resulting from an operation at Guantanamo to remove his gall bladder. Without a passport, Ould Slahi, who holds no other nationality, cannot travel abroad for medical treatment that he says is unavailable in Mauritania. Read more - Lire plus 
OMCT ‏calls on Turkish gov’t to investigate ‘credible’ torture allegations ‘across the country’
Turkey Purge 11/06/2019 - World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has called on Turkish government to investigate the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment happening across the country. The letter came days after the Şanlıurfa Bar Association claimed that 38 people who were detained on May 20 were subjected to ill treatment and torture.

One police officer died in a skirmish with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants on May 18 in the Halfeti district of Şanlıurfa. Following the incident police accused some residents of helping the terrorist group. Police operations on Monday drew criticism on social media from human rights defenders as some photos showed that the detainees were handcuffed from behind and laid down on the ground side by side.

The Şanlurfa Bar Association’s Human Rights Center on Tuesday reported that the detainees were subjected to ill treatment and torture during interrogation and forced under duress to sign false testimonies. According to the Mezopotamya news agency, detainee Mehmet Alakuş admitted in testimony submitted to the prosecutor’s office that he had helped the terrorists. Later his lawyers told the agency that Alakuş was forced to sign the false testimony and threatened with harm to his family. Read more - Lire plus
The Impact of "Extremist" Speech Regulations on Human Rights Content
EFF 03/06/2019 - Today, EFF is publishing a new white paper, " Caught in the Net: The Impact of 'Extremist' Speech Regulations on Human Rights Content ." The paper is a joint effort of EFF, Syrian Archive , and Witness  and was written in response to the Christchurch Call to Action . This paper analyzes the impact of platform rules and content moderation practices related to "extremist" speech on human rights defenders.

The key audiences for this paper are governments and companies, particularly those that endorsed the Christchurch Call. As we wrote last month , the Call contains several important ideas, but also advocates for measures that would undoubtedly have a negative impact on freedom of expression online. The paper details several concrete instances in which content moderation has resulted in the removal of content under anti-extremism provisions, including speech advocating for Chechen and Kurdish self-determination; satirical speech about a key Hezbollah figure; and documentation of the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine. We also hope that our allies will find these examples useful for their ongoing advocacy.

As more governments move to impose regulatory measures that would require the removal of extremist speech or privatize enforcement of existing laws, it's imperative that they consider the potential for collateral damage that such censorship imposes, and consider more holistic measures to combat extremism. Read more - Lire plus
Soudan : quatre personnes tuées au premier jour d’un mouvement de désobéissance civile
Le Monde 09/06/2019 - Quatre personnes ont été tuées, dimanche 9 juin, au Soudan, où le mouvement de contestation a entamé un mouvement de désobéissance civile pour pousser le Conseil militaire à remettre le pouvoir aux civils.

Deux des quatre personnes décédées dimanche ont été tuées par balles à Khartoum et dans la ville voisine d’Omdourman, tandis que les deux autres ont été « battues et poignardées » et sont mortes dans un hôpital d’Omdourman, selon des communiqués d’un comité des médecins proche de la contestation.

Ces personnes ont été victimes « du Conseil militaire de transition » et de ses « milices », a accusé le comité. Plus généralement, les manifestants accusent les RSF (Forces de soutien rapide) d’être à l’origine de la violente dispersion, lundi 3 juin, du campement installé depuis le 6 avril devant le quartier général de l’armée à Khartoum, et de la répression qui a suivi. Le bilan de celle-ci s’élève désormais à 118 morts et plus de 500 blessés, selon le même comité. Read more - Lire plus


ACTIONS & EVENTS
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.
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.
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.
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.
Free Ahmed Mansoor
Ahmed is an award winning human rights defender and blogger. The UAE has said Ahmed 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.
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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