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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
September 17, 2022 - 17 septembre 2022
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Watch: Militarizing the Sky: Opposing Canada's Armed Drone Purchase
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ICLMG: Twenty-one years later, the brutal legacy of the War on Terror lives on
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ICLMG 11/09/2022 - Today marks the 21st anniversary of the horrific attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The deaths of more than 3,000 people will always mark our collective consciousness. It also marks the launch of the lethal, global War on Terror. More than two decades later, its brutal legacy continues on, undermining human rights and civil liberties and causing death and destruction. According to the Cost of War project at Brown university, more than 929,000 people have died because of this never-ending war, and millions more have seen their lives uprooted and livelihoods destroyed. The legacy of the War on Terror also lives on in the continued crises in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Libya, amongst others.
The boogeyman of “terrorism” has also granted governments license to crack down on political, religious and ethnic groups around the world. India justifies its brutal assault on Kashmir and Muslims in the country under the guise of fighting terrorism. China claims the same as it undertakes genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. While the history dates back much longer, Israel’s apartheid policies against Palestinians gain credence under the guise of fighting “terrorism.” In Nigeria, human rights groups see their licenses revoked and funding blocked because they supposedly pose a “national security threat.” Turkey is dropping bombs on Kurdistan in Iraq and Syria, saying it is fighting terrorism where in fact it is continuing its campaign of repression against the Kurds and other minorities. The list can go on and on.
Canada has often been viewed as being on the sidelines throughout the worst of the War on Terror because of our decision not to attack Iraq. Even that is misleading, though, as former US ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci remarked: “Ironically, the Canadians indirectly provide more support for us in Iraq than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us.” More directly, perhaps, Canada’s legacy in the war on and occupation of Afghanistan can be traced directly to the humanitarian disaster hitting the country today. This ranges from Canada’s central role in the original invasion and bombardment, in the torture of Afghan prisoners, in its withdrawal without a plan for after the country was torn apart by years of war, and its ongoing role in blocking aid to Afghanistan. Currently, millions of dollars’ worth of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan from Canadian humanitarian organizations cannot be sent because of Canada’s overly broad anti-terrorism laws, hastily adopted in the weeks following 9/11.
The legacy plays out in Canada in other ways too:
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Mohamed Harkat and Mohamed Mahjoub continue to live under the draconian measures of security certificates, facing deportation, imprisonment and torture. Abousfian Abdelrazik continues to fight for redress from Canada’s complicity in his arrest and torture in Sudan.
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Canadian Muslim charities face prejudiced audits from the CRA and losing access to financial services, all because of unproven and unsubstantiated allegations based on Islamophobic tropes.
- Canada’s security and law enforcement agencies have built up vast surveillance systems and continue to argue for more powers that attack our rights to privacy, association, assembly and movement all in the name of fighting the terrorist threat.
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The US and Canadian No Fly Lists continue to prevent individuals who pose no threat to our security from travelling for work, visiting family, or even from returning home.
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It has allowed CSIS cover to engage in unlawful activities, including working with human smugglers placing the lives of minors in danger, and misleading the courts about their actions.
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It underpins why more than 40 Canadians, including two dozen children, continue to be held in indefinite detention in life threatening conditions in Northeastern Syria with no prospect of release or return to Canada.
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And finally, we see it in how Canadian Muslims continue to face hate-based attacks. This includes some of the most deadly mass murders in Canada’s history in Quebec City and London, ON, fuelled by racist and false associations between Muslims and extremism.
Some will argue that these excesses are minor, compared to the benefits of preventing terrorism. Although violence is undoubtedly a societal issue that needs addressing, and anti-terrorism actions have prevented certain acts of violence, the better question is whether the focus on the right against terrorism has actually made us any safer overall? Just as the broader society has begun – ever so slightly – to listen to the long-time assertions from Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities that police do not provide the kind of “security” that actually makes our lives safer, the legacy of the War on Terror shows that we need to turn that lens on intelligence and national security agencies as well. We need to think of other ways, creative ways, that we can envision promoting human safety as opposed to national security, including building structures that empower people to make decisions affecting their lives, and allow everyone to develop their full potential, in a safe and healthy environment. We need to end the legacy of the War on Terror, once and for all. The ICLMG will continue our work towards that goal – join us! Source + Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
Muslim Youth Under Siege Since 9/11 - A Conversation with Dr Jasmin Zine (video)
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Government proposal to fight "online harms" presents dangers of its own | This piece was first published in French in the magazine of la Ligue des droits et libertés. | |
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ICLMG Summer 2022 - Over the past two decades, many of us have come to rely on online platforms for basic necessities, for communication, for education and for entertainment. Online, we see the good – access to otherwise hard to find information, connecting with loved ones – and the bad. It often combines the harms we know so well, including hate speech, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, the sexual exploitation of minors, bullying and incitement to violence, with new forms of harassment and abuse that can happen at a much larger scale, and with new ways to distribute harmful and illegal content.
Many social media sites have committed to addressing these harms. But business models that focus on retention – regardless of the content we’re being fed – have proven ineffective at doing so. When these online platforms do remove content, researchers have documented that it is often those very communities that face harassment that also face the most censorship. Governments around the world have also used the excuse of combating hate speech and online harms to enact censorship and silence opponents, including human rights defenders.
The Canadian government had been promising since 2019 to address this issue, framing it explicitly around fighting “online hate.” The government eventually released its proposal to tackle online harms in late July 2021, alongside a public consultation. There were immediate concerns with the consultation taking place in the dead of summer with an imminent election on the horizon. When the election was called a few weeks later, round tables with government officials who could answer questions about the proposal were cancelled. While the government’s approach was bad, the proposal itself was worse. As cyber policy researcher Daphne Keller described it, Canada’s original proposal was “like a list of the worst ideas around the world – the ones human rights groups… have been fighting in the EU, India, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and elsewhere.”
What were some of those problems?
First, many groups raised concerns about the scope of the proposal. It attempted to create one regime to address five very different forms of harm – hate speech, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, child sexual abuse material, content inciting violence and terrorism content – that in fact require very specific distinct solutions. What is effective for one area may be unnecessary, or even detrimental, to another.
Next, the inclusion of “terrorist content” itself was problematic. Since Canada first joined the “War on Terror” in 2001, we have seen how the enforcement of terrorism laws has led to the violation of human rights, especially because its definition can be twisted to suit political ends. Yet social media companies would be asked to identify it, and on that basis report content and users to the police. It was a recipe for racial and political profiling, particularly of Muslims, Indigenous people and other people of color, and for the violation of their rights and freedoms.
Third, the proposal would have created a vast new surveillance regime, enforced by social media companies. It would require companies to monitor all content posted to their platforms that is visible in Canada, to screen it for online harms, and to take “all reasonable measures” to block the harmful content, including using automated algorithms. Platforms would also need to act on any content reported by users within 24 hours – an incredibly short time frame. Coupled with penalties up to millions of dollars, platforms would be incentivized to take content down first, and then deal with the consequences later. This would create a massive incentive for censorship of controversial – but legal – content.
Fourth, new rules would require platforms to automatically share information with law enforcement and national security agencies, further privatizing the surveillance and criminalization of internet users. This meant that not only would platforms be deciding what content to remove, but who and what needed to be reported to police. As many critics pointed out, further involving the police and intelligence agencies is not a solution when it comes to dealing with harms to groups already facing higher levels of criminalization. The proposal also made the extraordinary argument, with little justification, that CSIS be granted a new form of warrant to “simplify” the process for obtaining basic subscriber information in order to aid with the investigation of online harms. This comes at a time when courts have been criticizing CSIS for violating the more stringent warrant requirements already in place. Read more + Share on Facebook + Twitter
TAKE ACTION: Have your say on harmful online content!
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Monia Mazigh: From Omar Khadr to Shamima Begum: CSIS’s trail of mistakes
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rabble.ca 14/09/2022 - [...] For years, Canada claimed to be an international leader defending child soldiers, particularly in African countries. When it came to rescue one of its own children caught in a war zone, Canada miserably failed the test. Many politicians distanced themselves from Khadr’s case. Worse, many, including then Prime Minister Harper and his public safety minister, refused to use the term child soldier and kept calling him a terrorist, in an effort to deny him any form of justice and further stigmatize him. In 2017, after a decades long ordeal, Omar Khadr received a settlement from the Canadian government for all the damages and trauma he was forced to endure. You’d assume the Canadian government Canada learned from its past mistakes. But that’s clearly not the case.
Brits recruited online by ISIS, trafficked into Syria
Last week, Canadians learned that Shamima Begum, a young British woman, aged 15 in 2015, was smuggled into Syria by a man who worked as a spy for the Canadian Embassy in Jordan. During the height of ISIS recruitment efforts to draw vulnerable Western youth to their ranks, Begum flew to Turkey where she met up with a man who trafficked her into ISIS territory. This news wasn’t a scoop. The Canadian involvement in this case was already established by some media reports as early as 2015. However, nobody cared and it went mostly unnoticed. In fact, some media sources discredited Turkish authorities who revealed the connection between the British teenager and Canada. Former Sunday Times correspondent, Richard Kerbaj, recently published a book and brought this story back to the limelight.
According to Kerbaj’s account and other reports, Mohamed Al Rasheed is a Syrian who asked for asylum status at the Canadian Embassy in Jordan. The Embassy asked him to become an informant and run a ‘counter-intelligence’ operation as part of a mutually beneficial deal. Speaking about the Canadian Embassy in Jordan, Al Rasheed said: “they told me they were going to grant me my Canadian citizenship if I collect information about the activities of ISIS.” From facilitating the travel of young British women, to copying their passports, to driving them around and delivering them to ISIS territory to their prospective ‘husband’s, Al Rasheed did it all. In 2013, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed his personal bodyguard, Bruno Saccomani, as an ambassador to Jordan, despite facing many criticisms about this unusual choice.It is believed that it was under Saccomani that the counter-intelligence operation was conducted. Who ordered and authorized this Canadian operation? It is important to determine Canada’s exact involvement and implication.
Call this what it is: a case of human trafficking
This case lies squarely at the intersection of human trafficking and the unethical actions of intelligence agencies. Years ago, Begum tried to re-enter Britain, but in 2019 she was stripped off her British citizenship. Today, she is still in a Syrian camp waiting to go back to her home country, where she was born and raised and where she should have been protected from online recruiters, intelligence agencies, human traffickers and spy operations. Last week, CSIS refused to comment on this case. Prime Minister Trudeau congratulated CSIS for using “creative” and “flexible” tools to manage the case. As if brainwashing young girls and promising them some sort of a paradise as brides in a war zone is creative or flexible. Shamima Begum isn’t Canadian. Her British lawyers describe her case as one of blatant sex trafficking, and they are trying to convince the British authorities to reinstitute her British citizenship so she can go back and live with her family in Britain.
As Canadians, why should we care?
As a country we claim that our values are to stand against the trafficking of women and girls. We have a national plan to combat human trafficking. So why is it when it comes to Begum, our Prime Minister averts his gaze and praises the operation? Didn’t we learn anything from the mistreatment of Khadr’s case? What CSIS and by extension the entire Canadian government did, is unethical and dangerous. We need answers and accountability.
Begum isn’t the first, or the last
Finally, we shouldn’t forget the 43 Canadians who remain in Northern Eastern Syrian camps of Al Hol and Al Roj. Among them, are 23 Canadian children. What do we know about them? How many of them were enabled by Canadian agents? How many of them were trafficked into those dangerous territories? Canada is still hiding its head under the sand. It is time to repatriate these Canadians and open an investigation into what CSIS has done in the case of Shamima and many others. Read more - Lire plus
CSIS’s cover-up of Islamic State trafficking backfired, says author
Canada Embarrassed: This changes Everything - Interview with Shamima Begum's lawyer (video)
The case for bringing Shamima Begum back is now irrefutable: The so-called Isis bride is a child victim of trafficking, not an international terrorist
Shamima Begum was a victim – but she’s been used as a pawn by this Government
Britain urged to come clean on Shamima Begum after spy revelations
British Muslims’ citizenship reduced to ‘second-class’ status, says thinktank
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UN Accuses Canadian Government of Breach of International Law in the Case of Jack Letts | |
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Free Jack Letts Summer 2022 - Considering the above, we reiterate again that the urgent, voluntary and human rights compliant repatriation of all the citizens of your Excellency’s Government is the only international law-compliant response to the complex and precarious human rights, humanitarian and security situation faced by those detained in inhumane conditions in overcrowded prisons or other detention centres in North-East Syria, with limited access to food and medical care putting detainees' lives at increased risk.
In light of such exposure to extremely dire detention conditions, such as malnutrition and potential infection with diseases without adequate medical care, we wish to emphasize that the right to life, as enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 6 ICCPR, constitutes an international customary law and jus cogens norm from which no derogation may be made by invoking exceptional circumstances such as internal political instability or other public emergency as provided for in Article 4(2) ICCPR. We note that the right to life is accompanied by a positive obligation to ensure access to the basic conditions necessary for the maintenance of life, including access to food and medical care (ICCPR General Comment No. 6, para. 5; ICCPR General Comment No. 36, para. 21). In addition, article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“ICESCR”), ratified in 1976 by Canada to guarantee the right of all people, including prisoners and detainees, to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and article 6(1) ICCPR states that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life.
Accordingly, States parties must also exercise due diligence to protect the lives of
individuals from deprivations caused by persons or entities whose conduct is not
attributable to the State. This obligation requires States to take special measures to
protect individuals in vulnerable situations whose lives are particularly endangered by
specific threats (Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 36, para. 23).
Moreover, we recall that under Article 2 UDHR and Articles 2 and 26 ICCPR, as well
as several other United Nations declarations and conventions, everyone is entitled to
the protection of the right to life without distinction or discrimination of any kind, and
all persons must be guaranteed equal and effective access to remedies for violations of
this right.
As we had already stressed and as recent security developments confirm, given
the geopolitical fluidity of the region currently controlled by various non-State armed
groups, repatriations are key to States’ long-term security interests. Any repatriation
must comply with international law, including with the absolute prohibition of torture,
ill-treatment, and refoulement. The building and support for the maintenance of
prisons designed to keep these individuals in detention are incompatible with your
Excellency’s Government obligations under international law, particularly given the specific nature of the prohibition of arbitrary detention as jus cogens or non-
derogable customary law norm.
Given the presence of international coalition forces and other security agencies
in North-East Syria, the number of civilian and other delegations that have had access
to the camps and the prisons, and the number of successful repatriations including of
men that have taken place, the lack or the difficulties of access to the detainees who
are nationals of your Excellency’s Government should not be put forward as a reason
for not repatriating your nationals. Read more - Lire plus
Canada's response to UN human rights officials on case of overseas detainee Jack Letts
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Will Trudeau’s Liberal government open the door to at-risk Uyghurs? | |
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The Globe and Mail 02/09/2022 - This autumn, the House of Commons will debate a motion from Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi calling on the federal government to accept 10,000 Uyghur refugees who have fled China but are at risk of being deported back, where they would face severe persecution.
That motion achieved greater urgency with the arrival of a United Nations report on Wednesday that states the Chinese government may be guilty of crimes against humanity in its treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities. The question is whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals government will act to protect Uyghurs at risk. On Thursday, the government was sending mixed signals. Mr. Zuberi put forward the motion, which calls on the federal government “to expedite the entry of 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in need of protection, over two years starting in 2024 into Canada.” Motions, if passed, are not binding on the government, but they do represent the will of the House.
“Not only are you dealing with extremely vulnerable people, you are also dealing with the compounding issue of genocide,” Mr. Zuberi told me. “The UN report shows how immediate and concrete action on the part of governments is urgently needed.” The report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights does not use the word “genocide.” But its findings are damning. “Serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang, concludes outgoing commissioner Michelle Bachelet, that “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” These crimes include arbitrary detention, torture, forced medical treatment, sexual offences, forced birth control, forced labour, suppression of religious freedom and family separations.
“We’ve known about these crimes against humanity for quite a number of years,” said Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, who is a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. “Now we have detailed documentation of the crimes, and official confirmation that all of this is happening.” She urged the federal government to swiftly launch a program that would bring government-sponsored Uyghurs into Canada. “I don’t believe they need to wait until 2024.” But when the House unanimously declared last year that “a genocide is currently being carried out by the People’s Republic of China against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims,” Mr. Trudeau and most of the cabinet stayed away from the vote. Marc Garneau, then foreign affairs minister, abstained, “on behalf of the government of Canada.”
In that context, Thursday was typical. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly issued a strong statement of support for the UN report. “The release of this much-anticipated report was critical,” it said. “The findings reflect the credible accounts of grave human rights violations taking place in Xinjiang. This report makes an important contribution to the mounting evidence of serious, systemic human rights abuses and violations occurring in Xinjiang.” However, a statement sent to me by Aiden Strickland, press secretary to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, was far more cautious. “The safety of Uyghur refugees is a high priority,” Ms. Strickland said. “However, we are not in a position to comment more specifically at this time as it could put this vulnerable population at risk.” The statement made no mention of the UN report.
Canada could easily absorb 10,000 Uyghur refugees. And we wouldn’t need to wait until 2024 to bring them here. We could do it right now, and we should. Read more - Lire plus
Human Rights Watch: OHCHR assessment of human rights concerns in the Uyghur region must spur action at the Council’s 51st Session
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Taha Ghayyur: Canada’s foreign policy is at odds with Trudeau’s promise to fight Islamophobia | |
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The Hill Times 07/09/2022 - According to Statistics Canada’s most recent report, hate crimes in Canada increased by an astounding 72 per cent between 2019 and 2021. Religious hate crimes increased by 67 per cent in 2021, with the number of recorded attacks against Muslims increasing from 84 in 2020 to 144 in 2021.
Canada has witnessed some of the most deadly Islamophobic attacks. The 2017Québec City mosque shooting, which killed six Muslims while they worshipped; Mohamed-Aslim Zafis, who was killed in 2020 as he left his job at a Toronto mosque; and four members of the Afzaal family, who were run over by a car in London, Ont., just last year. Each attacker was motivated by far-right extremism and anti-Muslim hate.
Obviously, this isn’t just a localized issue in Canada. There has been a rise in Islamophobia around the world, but sadly Canada has the highest rate of anti-Muslim hate crimes among the G7 countries. Muslims in Canada have been demanding government action since at least 2015. It’s good that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken out against attacks on Muslims, but so far his response has been mostly symbolic. The recent announcement of a Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia may be the beginning of real change. However, its mandate to advise the government on combating Islamophobia and addressing barriers to Muslim communities is complex. Whoever takes on this role must understand not only how Islamophobia is spreading in Canada or how systemic Islamophobia exists in government agencies such as the Canada Revenue Agency, but also the transnational nature of anti-Muslim hatred that affects Canadian Muslims both openly and covertly.
Transnational Islamophobia is apparent in China, India, and Israel, among other countries. China’s government refers to Islam as a “mental illness” that must be “cured,” and state-sanctioned policies have been implemented to suppress its Uyghur Muslim population, including the arbitrary detention of up to three million Uyghurs in concentration camps. India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has intensified its assault on 220 million Indian Muslims by enacting discriminatory citizenship laws that promote an exclusionary Hindu supremacist nation, declaring genocidal threats against India’s Muslim minority. Israel has been defined by decades of occupation and settler colonialism. Growing global indifference to the plight of Palestinians can be attributed to antipathy toward Arabs and Islam.
On Jan. 29, 2022, the first National Day of Remembrance of the Québec City Mosque Attack and Action against Islamophobia, Trudeau stated that “Canada strives to champion human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of belief. The government condemns Islamophobia and all forms of racism and discrimination in our society, and that is why confronting Islamophobia is an important part of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy.”
However, Canadian Muslims feel disenfranchised due to Trudeau’s inability to translate this into policy and mandates across his cabinet.
Canada has effectively remained silent on the international stage in condemning Islamophobia around the world and crackdowns on human rights, democracy, and religious freedom. Instead, Minister of International Trade Mary Ng has been seeking to strengthen trade ties with Israel through modernizing the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and with India by signing a Canada-India Early Progress Trade Agreement.
Global Affairs Canada claims that human rights are central to Canada’s trade policies and engagements, but there is little evidence to back up this claim. In fact, the opposite is true. Canada’s foreign policy, which continues to tolerate transnational Islamophobia that drives persecution of Muslims abroad, is at odds with the prime minister’s commitment to combating Islamophobia.
We have reached an impasse, as Islamophobia continues to rise with no signs of abating.
Given the multifaceted nature of the problem, any viable solution must be cross-government and will require collaboration with a wide range of actors, including governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil societies, religious leaders, and communities. In today’s world, simply addressing online hatred or the failure of our national security regime that views the Muslim community solely through an anti-terrorism and deradicalization lens will not suffice. Equally important, the government needs to understand the impact of state-sponsored Islamophobia and shift our foreign policy to realize Islamophobia as a major contemporary global challenge that intertwines with Canada’s international trade relationships. Source
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Ryan Alford: Hiding behind national security will erode trust in Emergencies Act inquiries | |
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National Post 06/09/2022 - Half a year has gone by since the Trudeau government took the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies Act to deal with protesters in Ottawa and at several border crossings. Yet the question of whether this was an appropriate and measured use of emergency powers or an unconstitutional power grab seems no closer to being answered — and likely won’t be, so long as Ottawa continues to hide behind a veil of secrecy. At both the special joint committee on the declaration of the emergency and in Federal Court, the government has repeatedly invoked cabinet confidentiality to withhold the information that the Incident Response Group (IRG) allegedly relied on to conclude that the Freedom Convoy was a threat to the security of Canada linked to ideologically motivated violent extremism, which is the essential precondition for the lawful use of emergency powers. If the IRG had no reasonable basis for concluding that a threat of this nature existed, the government expanded its own powers contrary to both law and the Constitution. This would be the most serious assault on the rule of law imaginable. Yet it increasingly appears as though the government’s conclusion had been tenuous at best. [...]
Later, it was revealed that the federal government declared an emergency, despite being told of a possible breakthrough in talks between the City of Ottawa and the convoy organizers the day before. That deal would have seen many, if not all, of the trucks leaving residential areas. Since the Windsor, Ont., and Coutts, Alta., blockades had already been lifted, this might have catalyzed a peaceful end to the protests. Despite these revelations, what we might never know looms large over what has come to light, as numerous documents pertaining to the government’s decision that were ordered released by the Federal Court have been so heavily redacted, they now resemble black rectangles with page numbers. To counter the negative impression this lack of transparency created, the government declared with great fanfare that it would waive cabinet confidentiality before the Public Order Emergency Commission, which intends “to examine and assess the basis for the government’s decision to declare a public order emergency.” Unfortunately, this may prove to be yet another empty promise.
While the commission appears to have shamed the government into waiving one form of confidentiality, Ottawa has another, more powerful privilege that it can rely upon to redact documents and shield its witnesses: national security confidentiality (NSC). The government fought hard to ensure NSC provisions were included in the commission’s “rules of practice and procedure,” which suggests that it is intent on using them. This, despite the fact that there have been numerous judicial findings of the overuse and misuse of national security confidentiality, particularly when it has been used to disguise the weaknesses of the government’s conclusions about security risks. As then-Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in Canada v. Harkat, judges “must be vigilant and skeptical with respect to the minister’s claims of confidentiality. Courts have commented on the government’s tendency to exaggerate claims of national security confidentiality.” As Associate Chief Justice of Ontario Dennis O’Connor noted when sitting as the commissioner of the Arar inquiry, the overuse of national security confidentiality “promotes public suspicion and cynicism.… It is very important that, at the outset of proceedings of this kind, every possible effort be made to avoid overclaiming.” The Public Order Emergency Commission is well aware of this problem: in its rules, it states that it “expects the government to take a considered, proportionate and reasonable approach in making assertions of NSC.”
National security confidentiality is dangerous to an inquiry because it can be wielded not only as a shield, but as a sword. It allows for extensive redactions of intelligence reports the government chooses to submit to bolster its case, but the government can also deploy it to place dubious material before commissioner Paul Rouleau, in a manner that bypasses the challenges that are necessary to determine its reliability. Witnesses may testify outside of the presence of the public and the parties, and documents may be admitted but never seen by anyone other than the commissioner and his staff. [...] When it comes to the judgment of whether the Trudeau government abused its emergency powers, justice must not only be done, it must also be seen to be done. Findings in favour of the government on the basis of secret evidence that might never be seen will never be trusted. The preservation of the rule of law requires, to use the Public Order Emergency Commission’s words, a “transparent and thorough review of the circumstances that led to the declaration of a public order emergency.” Read more - Lire plus
RCMP feared that Mounties might leak operational plans to convoy protesters: documents
Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation launches public hearings Sept. 21. Author, activist Monia Mazigh joins team of Commissioners
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Military probe of reported torture videos still silent after more than a year | |
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CBC News 31/08/2022 - More than 14 months after launching an investigation, Canada's military police have yet to report on what — if anything — Canadian commanders did after being confronted by videos showing alleged atrocities involving Iraqi police being trained as part of a multinational program. The slow pace of the investigation troubles the federal New Democrats — while a prominent human rights lawyer says the Department of National Defence (DND) has a history of downplaying or even ignoring acts of torture committed by allies. In the spring of 2021, Postmedia reported that Canadian soldiers were shown videos of possible war crimes shot by their Iraqi students in 2018, soon after arriving at a U.S.-led training base near Mosul, the country's second-largest city. Mosul had been liberated recently from the grip of Islamic State extremists.
The videos allegedly showed Iraqi security forces raping a woman to death, along with multiple gruesome images of Islamic State prisoners being tortured and executed. The trainers, alarmed at the prospect of training possible war criminals, informed the Canadian contingent commander. The commander told the instructors not to look at any such videos and promised to raise the matter with the chain of command. It's not clear if the Canadians on the ground took up the issue with the U.S. commander of the base. It's not known outside of military circles how much military and civilian leaders in Ottawa knew about the matter. In June of last year, sources with knowledge of the case told CBC News that some Canadian soldiers who had trained Iraqi police in the finer points of counter-terrorism had been interviewed by military police. The country's top military commander, Gen. Wayne Eyre, told CBC News at the time that he had ordered an investigation to establish the facts. Asked last week about the progress of the investigation, a DND spokesperson said the file is still open. "The investigation into the matter is ongoing and no further detail can be provided at this time," head of DND media relations Dan Le Bouthillier said in an email.
The troops said they were shown the videos by their Iraqi students on Sept. 18, 2018. While they voiced their concerns immediately, the absence of any action by their commanders prompted more complaints after the trainers arrived home at Garrison Petawawa in Ontario. On Oct. 20, 2020 — over two years after the deployment — the commander of the battalion and the regimental sergeant-major convened a town hall to brief troops on how their reports about the videos were handled and give them a forum to express their concerns. Human rights lawyer Paul Champ — who headed the legal challenge over torture allegations involving Canada's transfer of suspected Taliban fighters during the Afghan war — said the current Iraqi investigation clearly is not a DND priority, is likely incomplete and is probably going nowhere. "The Canadian military has a very troubling history of turning a blind eye to torture," Champ told CBC News. "There's all kinds of examples where Canada just perversely turns a blind eye rather than taking, you know, the proper steps under international law." He said Canada has an obligation to ensure that "torture committed by anyone is properly investigated."
During the Canadian combat deployment in Kandahar, Ottawa initially agreed to hand over captured Taliban suspects to Afghan authorities — and did not retain the right to check on their welfare afterwards to ensure they were not being tortured in the course of interrogation. It was only after reports of abuse surfaced in the media that the Conservative government of the day implemented a monitoring regime. Under international law, Canada has a responsibility to ensure the people it hands over to other nations do not face the threat of torture. Similarly, once the torture videos viewed by Canadian trainers in Iraq were reported up the Canadian chain of command, those commanders had a duty to report any such evidence of torture to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations. It would be up to that agency to determine whether a war crime had been committed. "It wouldn't surprise me if this matter isn't being taken seriously," said Champ. "The big question is how high [up the chain] it went. "You would like to think that whoever learned about those videos reported them up the chain. Back in Ottawa, you know, what level of general did this stop at? And what did that person do or not do?" Read more - Lire plus
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Spy service analyst appeals judge's decision to throw out his discrimination case | |
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The Canadian Press 08/09/2022 - A Canadian Security Intelligence Service employee is appealing a Federal Court judge's decision to toss out his discrimination lawsuit against the spy agency.In a newly filed notice, Sameer Ebadi asks the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the June decision and allow his claim against CSIS to proceed, saying Justice Henry Brown made errors of fact and law. In his ruling, Brown said Ebadi should have followed the internal grievance procedures available to him. Brown said the court therefore lacked jurisdiction to address the statement of claim filed in January 2020 by Ebadi, who uses a pseudonym due to the sensitive nature of his intelligence work.
Ebadi, a practising Muslim who fled to Canada from a repressive Middle Eastern country, began working as a CSIS analyst in the Prairie region 22 years ago. He is now on long-term disability leave. His claim says he was passed over for promotion despite an excellent work record, and that he suffered bullying, emotional and physical abuse, discrimination and religious persecution from fellow employees. Among other things, the claim alleges colleagues would quickly open his office door when he was at prayer, smashing it into his body or head. “They would then feign surprise that Sameer was at prayer, but would laugh outside the door afterwards.”
Ebadi argued that CSIS had a history of protecting harassers from responsibility for their racially or religiously motivated behaviour. He said internal CSIS processes could not be trusted to provide him with a fair hearing and to protect him against reprisals for bringing forward concerns. “I have tried on multiple occasions, with varying levels of CSIS management, to address my well-founded issues of workplace harassment and discrimination,” Ebadi said in an affidavit filed with the Federal Court. “With each effort, I was met with resistance and, what is worse, faced increased discriminatory treatment for blowing the whistle on my fellow employees and managers.” [...]
Ebadi says the judgment also fails to note that he had previously commenced an official harassment complaint and was told that he was “delusional” by CSIS management.
John Kingman Phillips, a lawyer for Ebadi, said in an interview that the lack of a union for CSIS employees like Ebadi means “they're really left to their own devices, pushing back against what we say is systemic racism and systemic prejudice within the organization.”
“And that, in my view, is unfair and needs to be addressed and considered in whether we allow these matters to proceed in Federal Court.”
During the May hearing, Phillips pointed to remarks CSIS director David Vigneault made at a December 2020 meeting of the federal National Security Transparency Advisory Group. Vigneault said he had acknowledged publicly and privately to employees “that, yes, systemic racism does exist here, and yes, there is a level of harassment and fear of reprisal within the organization.” Brown said in his decision that the statement - either alone or in tandem with the rest of the court record - did not constitute an admission that CSIS is systemically racist, or that Ebadi is or was unable to obtain relief by way of grieving or complaining about the matters he alleges. Read more - Lire plus
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Carleton PhD student returns to Canada after imprisonment in Turkey | |
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CBC News 13/09/2022 - For months, Cihan Erdal and his partner Ömer Ongun wrote pages of letters to each other every week, deprived of the instant messaging most couples rely on.
With Erdal held in a Turkish prison for 262 days, and Ongun not recognized as Erdal's spouse, the men needed to find new ways to connect.
The Carleton University PhD candidate — accused by the Turkish government of inciting protests — would write about the conditions of the prison, his visitors and the books he was reading, while Ongun would describe the new stores in Ottawa and the changing seasons. On Friday the two saw each other face to face after Erdal stepped off a plane, free again and ready to continue his research into youth-led social movements in Europe. "It has been too long [since] I was separated from my loved ones, from Ömer, and I was deprived of my freedom," said Erdal, who was first imprisoned in September 2020.
"So I just took a deep breath when I saw him at the airport." Erdal was released from Turkish prison a year ago, but he was forced to stay in the country and report to local police regularly. While he never doubted he'd see Ongun again, he thought it may take years longer. For Ongun, Friday felt surreal. "Your life continues, but it just feels kind of lifeless," he said. "So I just had this shine on my face as soon as I saw him at the airport. And we were like, wow, this is real, right? This is really in person."
Erdal spent the first 26 days of his imprisonment in solitary confinement. "I was shocked and, like, trying to make sense of my Kafkaesque situation in that cell, just alone."
The darkest moment for Ongun was the first 36 hours of Erdal's detainment — knowing Erdal had been taken somewhere, but left waiting for a phone call from lawyers.
Erdal was once a youth member of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish political party that the Turkish government accuses of instigating the protests that left 37 people dead in 2014. He was accused of inciting terror and violence, and faced a life sentence if found guilty.
Last summer Turkish lawyers presented evidence showing that Erdal, a permanent resident in Canada, had nothing to do with the protests because he wasn't in the same city when the HDP executive committee met to discuss its strategy. The Turkish court ultimately released Erdal on bail. Unsure when he'd be able to leave Turkey again, Erdal sought political asylum in a undisclosed third country, walking hours to the border. From a border camp, he was able to alert Canadian officials and arrange his trip home. Read more - Lire plus + Share on Facebook + Twitter
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Customs officials have copied Americans’ phone data at massive scale | |
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The Washington Post 15/09/2022 - U.S. government officials are adding data from as many as 10,000 electronic devices each year to a massive database they’ve compiled from cellphones, iPads and computers seized from travelers at the country’s airports, seaports and border crossings, leaders of Customs and Border Protection told congressional staff in a briefing this summer. The rapid expansion of the database and the ability of 2,700 CBP officers to access it without a warrant — two details not previously known about the database — have raised alarms in Congress about what use the government has made of the information, much of which is captured from people not suspected of any crime. CBP officials told congressional staff the data is maintained for 15 years. Details of the database were revealed Thursday in a letter to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who criticized the agency for “allowing indiscriminate rifling through Americans’ private records” and called for stronger privacy protections.
The revelations add new detail to what’s known about the expanding ways that federal investigators use technology that many Americans may not understand or consent to.
Agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Department of Homeland Security agency, have run facial recognition searches on millions of Americans’ driver’s license photos. They have tapped private databases of people’s financial and utility records to learn where they live. And they have gleaned location data from license-plate reader databases that can be used to track where people drive. CBP’s inspection of people’s phones, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices as they enter the country has long been a controversial practice that the agency has defended as a low-impact way to pursue possible security threats and determine an individual’s “intentions upon entry” into the U.S. But the revelation that thousands of agents have access to a searchable database without public oversight is a new development in what privacy advocates and some lawmakers warn could be an infringement of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. Read more - Lire plus
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Maha Hilal: 9/11 anniversary: When ‘never forget’ is used to justify the ‘forever war’ | |
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MEE 12/09/2022 - Each year on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Americans are urged to #NeverForget that fateful day in 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Centre. Through carefully selected words, US presidents have successively offered consolation to the American people, particularly those who lost loved ones that day. Their speeches, offered as ritual mourning, however, are always part of a larger, political message - one rooted in violence and continually reproducing US claims used to legitimise the war on terror.
Last year, in a video message by US President Joe Biden to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he said: “Unity and service. The 9/11 generation is stepping up to serve and protect in the face of terror, to get those terrorists who are responsible to show everyone seeking to do harm to America that we will hunt you down and we will make you pay. That will never stop today, tomorrow, ever from protecting America.” Biden has stayed true to his word. But rather than targeting the “terrorists”, he maintained the legacy of his predecessors who have made millions of Muslims domestically and across the globe “pay” so that the US could protect its facade of security.
On the 11 September anniversary this year, Biden delivered a speech at a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon in which he explicitly justified the extrajudicial assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri in August. To this end, Biden said, “It took 10 years to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, but we did. And this summer, I authorised a successful strike on Zawahiri, the man who bin Laden - was his deputy on 9/11 and was the leader of al-Qaeda. Because we will not rest. We’ll never forget. We’ll never give up. And now, Zawahiri can never again threaten the American people.” Biden’s words shouldn’t be merely read as a legitimisation of his extrajudicial assassination of al-Zawahiri, but as part of something much larger - the cumulative violence that has led to this moment - including the expansion of executive authority and the wanton and brutal tactics of the war on terror.
This violence has become so normalised that after 21 years these actions are simply par for the course - a course paved with Islamophobia and the dehumanisation and disposability of Muslims. Instead of acknowledging this violence against Muslims who were subjected to profiling, detention, torture, and mass murder for more than two decades since the attacks, US leaders have been gaslighting them while perpetuating policies of collective guilt and punishment. In other words, to “never forget” means to firmly sustain the narrative of US victimhood, and to minimise, justify, and effectively shelter all manifestations of its vengeance under this guise. [...] Bush’s answer to ensuring that those killed in the 9/11 attacks did not die in vain was the war on terror - a war that has sacrificed Muslim life to prove the value of others. Since launching the war on terror, the US has killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims across the globe. The Costs of War project estimates that between 184,382 and 207,156 Iraqi civilians were killed during the US war on Iraq, with a note that the numbers are probably much higher - a result of inaccurate counts by the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition.
The US war on Afghanistan has also led to a massive loss of life - with at least 70,000 civilians killed since 2001. There has been no shortage of violence in countries such as Somalia - a longtime victim of US militarism - and Yemen, a country that the US has participated in destroying by proxy. This is just one of the dimensions of the war on terror that has unleashed colossal state violence on Muslim communities. There are four others that I outline in my book, Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11, which are critical to understanding the totality of the war’s death and destruction. The other dimensions of the war on terror have included and continue to be defined by draconian immigration policies, surveillance, federal terrorism prosecutions, and detention and torture - all of which have created a state of fear - indeed terror - and precarity for Muslims caught in the crosshairs of the war and those witnessing its effects and aftermath. Read more - Lire plus
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The War on Terror’s Detention and Torture Practices Have Not Gone Away | |
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Truthout 11/09/2022 - A report presented earlier this year by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, following up on a 2010 U.N. report on secret detention, found that the “failure to address secret detention” [such as at Guantanamo bay] has allowed similar practices to flourish in North-East Syria and Xinjiang Province in China. [...] Addressing her report to the U.N. in April, Ní Aoláin stated, “It is precisely the lack of access, transparency, accountability and remedy that has enabled and sustained a permissive environment for contemporary large-scale detention and harm to individuals.”
Ní Aoláin expresses concerns in her report over the “lack of a globally agreed definition of terrorism and (violent) extremism, and […] the widespread failure to define acts of terrorism in concrete and precise ways in national legislation.” The vague definition has meant that any form of dissent and resistance against the state can effectively be labelled terrorist activity. The focus on Guantánamo and mass detention of alleged terrorism suspects has drawn the attention away from the carceral practices of states. Torture, lengthy solitary confinement, rape, and other prisoner abuses in federal jails has not prompted the same criticism or action. The focus on ISIS prisoners also draws away attention from the mass detention and abuse of those incarcerated in Syrian prisons.
At the same time, mass arbitrary and secret detention of alleged terrorists has helped to justify the expansion of the prison-industrial complex, with the involvement of private contractors. Over the past two decades, the use of torture has grown worldwide. Perhaps most worrying has been the boom in the mass arbitrary detention and abuse of men, women and children worldwide without due process and few legal rights known as immigration detention, with the reframing of migration and asylum as a security issue over the past two decades. That such reports and monitoring of the situation continue at the highest level and by civil society organizations means that the prisoners have not been obscured and forgotten or their situation normalized as much as the states involved would like them to be. The need for justice for all victims is on the path to any kind of peace, and thus it remains essential to keep pressing and supporting Ní Aoláin’s call for “access, transparency, accountability and remedy.” Read more - Lire plus
Legacy of the ‘Dark Side’: The Costs of Unlawful U.S. Detentions and Interrogations Post-9/11 (video)
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President Biden, release my father from Guantanamo says Ismail, son of Muhammad Rahim | |
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CAGE 02/09/2022 - One year on from the US withdrawal and defeat in Afghanistan, the USA continues to hold innocent Afghan men in the infamous prison camp, Guantanamo Bay. CAGE visited Afghanistan earlier this year to investigate American war crimes and connect with survivors of US imprisonment and torture. We were privileged to meet with Ismail, the son of Muhammad Rahim Al-Afghani, one of only two Afghan’s still held in Guantanamo bay. He exclusively shared his thoughts and reflections with us in a moving appeal to be reunited with his father.
My name is Ismail, I am the son of Muhammad Rahim. I am one of five brothers, and I have two sisters. We grew up in Pakistan. My father was kidnapped in 2007, in Lahore, on Mall Road. We were young when our father was taken. When my father was arrested my mother, elder sister, and elder brother, Hafiz Mohammed Ibrahim, were with him. My father was on the bus when he was arrested, authorities came in and used a device to check everyone to see if they were my father. They tied his hands, covered his mouth with a black cloth and put him inside a car. They then stopped the cars and came out and asked ‘who is with this man?’ My brother told them that he and our mother were with him, so they arrested them too. They tied their hands and taped their mouths. They even picked up my youngest brother from my mother’s lap and covered his mouth!
I feel the absence of my father every day. Even though we are his children, we barely know him because he was taken from us when we were so young.A father is like your teacher. He is key to your growth and development. A father teaches you manners and proper behaviour. He guides you through life. No one can replace a father! This is why when my father was taken, it was very difficult for me. Sometimes, people ask us: “where is your father?” There’s not much to say, so we just tell the truth. We say our father has been taken to Guantanamo. If they ask if he will return or not, we respond: “Insha’Allah, he is coming soon” but we have been waiting for 15 years now. [...]
He was bundled into a jeep, and for 8 months he disappeared into the network of CIA secret prisons where he was subjected to human experimentation, beaten and starved. According to the US Senate "torture report", the torture of Muhammad Rahim produced no intelligence. In 2008, the US announced he had been transferred to Guantanamo bay, and placed him in the secretive "camp 7". The US have stated they have no intention to charge him with a crime, yet declared him a "forever prisoner". Read more - Lire plus
TAKE ACTION: Free Muhammad Rahim: Innocent Afghan with suspected cancer in Guantanamo
Pakistani Guantanamo Prisoner Saifullah Paracha Set To Return Home As ‘Free Citizen’
5 Guantánamo prisoners accused in 9/11 attacks could get plea deals
Prosecutor Who Sought to Use Evidence Derived From Torture Leaves Cole Case
US leant on Britain to jail detainees freed from Guantánamo Bay
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Former Turkish Shelling Claims Life Of Female Student – Syria’s AANES | |
Turkish State Violence and Kurdish Self-Determination: The PKK and the Conundrum of Innocence | |
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Jadaliyya 22/08/2022 - The Turkish state’s treatment of Kurds and the question of the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK) turned into a global discussion in late February when Turkish President Erdoğan threatened to blockade the admittance of Sweden and Finland into NATO unless they agree to crack down on Kurdish militant activity within their borders. The NATO allies, who have long turned a blind eye to Turkey’s persecution of Kurds and occupation and operations across Syrian and Iraqi borders, were quick to appease the Turkish president.
Just before NATO’s annual summit in June, the governments of Sweden, Finland, and Turkey announced a trilateral memorandum, outlining reconsideration of the arms embargo since Turkey’s invasion of Syria in 2019, an end to Nordic support for North and East Syria, the possibility of extraditions, further collaboration on intelligence sharing, and monitoring of Kurdish and pro-Kurdish political movements in Finland and Sweden. The memorandum explicitly states that Finland and Sweden must “commit to prevent activities of the PKK and all other terrorist organizations and their extensions, as well as activities by individuals in affiliated and inspired groups or networks linked to these terrorist organizations.”
In their critiques of NATO’s ongoing appeasement of Turkey, commentators rightfully warned about Turkey’s all-encompassing definition of terrorism and the danger of associating all dissidents, who have escaped Turkish state violence in the first place, as sympathizers of the PKK. It is true that the Turkish state has long criminalized any Kurdish political and cultural activity, or at times even the bare presence of a group of Kurds as a collective, as PKK activity. Turkey’s recent track record of criminalization, where thousands are imprisoned over social media comments, and even for singing in the Kurdish language, prove the paranoid perceptions of the Turkish state and the readily available association of any such dissident as a sympathizer of the PKK.
Yet this line of argumentation falls short of recognizing the historical and contemporary Turkish colonization of Kurdish populations and geographies and, more importantly, of recognizing the legitimacy of different forms of resistance against a colonizer state. It is true that the Kurdish freedom movement has blossomed into various political parties, cultural and community organizations, women’s organizations, media outlets, etc.; a substantial number of these were charged with being related to the PKK, but are completely distinct organizations. It is also true that demarcations between the PKK and these other political actors and organizations are politically and pragmatically useful both to protect the Kurdish migrants in Europe, and to de-carcerate certain individuals or decriminalize “legal” Kurdish political activity, such as that of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey. However, in trying to protect certain organizations and groups from the detrimental state laws of terrorism, this outright separation unintentionally reproduces a notion of legitimate political action from within state-defined boundaries of legality and innocence and (re)criminalizes a politics of anti-colonial self-determination.
This article looks at two foundational instances of colonial state violence and anti-colonial struggles against the Turkish state and illuminates how Kurdish resistance is often analyzed from within state discourse, where self-defense and potential claims to self-determination are readily criminalized. The first is the 1938 genocide in Dersim, which marks the most organized episode of colonial violence in Bakur-Kurdistan, the part of Kurdistan within the borders of colonial Turkey, resulting in the settlement of Turkish rule in the region. The second is the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK), the most organized anti-colonial mass movement against the Turkish state. As the PKK’s guerrilla warfare proved to be long-lasting, and its popularity increased in the region in the 1990s, the Turkish state intensified violence against the Kurdish populations, increasing military surveillance and checkpoints, displacing millions, and burning down thousands of villages. I argue that most discussions of the PKK today, even the supposedly more progressive ones cognizant of state violence against Kurdish populations, ultimately reproduce colonial state discourse, in which violence is recognized only through tamed notions of state-defined legality and human rights without reference to colonial violence and anti-colonial struggles, and all forms of militant self-defense and self-determination are ultimately delegitimized. Read more - Lire plus
Extradition : en Suède et en Finlande, les réfugiés kurdes s'inquiètent d’un accord avec la Turquie
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Inside Fog Data Science, the Secretive Company Selling Mass Surveillance to Local Police | |
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EFF 31/08/2022 - A data broker has been selling raw location data about individual people to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, EFF has learned. This personal data isn’t gathered from cell phone towers or tech giants like Google — it’s obtained by the broker via thousands of different apps on Android and iOS app stores as part of the larger location data marketplace.
The company, Fog Data Science, has claimed in marketing materials that it has “billions” of data points about “over 250 million” devices and that its data can be used to learn about where its subjects work, live, and associate. Fog sells access to this data via a web application, called Fog Reveal, that lets customers point and click to access detailed histories of regular people’s lives. This panoptic surveillance apparatus is offered to state highway patrols, local police departments, and county sheriffs across the country for less than $10,000 per year.
The records received by EFF indicate that Fog has past or ongoing contractual relationships with at least 18 local, state, and federal law enforcement clients; several other agencies took advantage of free trials of Fog’s service. EFF learned about Fog after filing more than 100 public records requests over several months for documents pertaining to government relationships with location data brokers. EFF also shared these records with The Associated Press.
Troublingly, those records show that Fog and some law enforcement did not believe Fog’s surveillance implicated people’s Fourth Amendment rights and required authorities to get a warrant. In this post, we use public records to describe how Fog’s service works, where its data comes from, who is behind the company, and why the service threatens people’s privacy and safety. In a subsequent post, we will dive deeper into how it is used by law enforcement around the country and explore the legal issues with its business model. Read more - Lire plus
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European police facial recognition system must be halted, warns new paper | |
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statewatch 07/09/2022 - A new position paper published today by the European Digital Rights (EDRi) network calls for MEPs to oppose plans to create an EU-wide police facial recognition system that may, in the future, also include the UK. The plans are part of the 'Prüm II' proposals that instrumentalise one of the fundamental principles of the EU – the free movement of people between states – to legitimise the need for even more policing.
More police powers
In December 2021, the European Commission announced plans “to enhance law enforcement cooperation across Member States and give EU police officers more modern tools for information exchange,” and published three proposals:
- a Council Recommendation on operational police cooperation;
- a Directive on information exchange between national law enforcement authorities;
- a Regulation on automated data exchange for police cooperation, also known as ‘Prüm II’.
The first of these (the Council Recommendation) seeks to codify certain rules relating to cross-border police operations. It would be non-binding, but sets out a series of legal and other measures the member states should implement to facilitate “cross-border actions” such as “hot pursuit, surveillance, joint patrols.” The Directive on information exchange replaces a 2006 law known as the ‘Swedish Framework Decision’, which introduced the “principle of availability” for police information, which revolves around the idea that information available to law enforcement authorities in one member state should not be made available to the authorities of another member state on the same terms. It sets out rules on how and when national law enforcement authorities should request and send information to one another.
Prüm II
Like the proposed Directive, the Prüm II proposal also seeks to expand data-sharing between member states and Europol, and covers particularly sensitive forms of personal data. It would build upon an existing data-sharing network, known as Prüm, that interlinks national DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration databases. Law enforcement officials can search one another’s systems and, in case of a match, can request that the state responsible send them the data in question. Under the proposal, the network would require the interconnection of facial image databases and, on a voluntary basis, “police records”. The Council would also like to make driving licence data accessible through the network, including the facial images stored in relation to driving licences. Even so, the proposal seeks to massively extend police powers, as explained in detail in a new briefing published today by European Digital Rights (EDRi), which Statewatch helped to co-author alongside EDRi staff and member organisations: Access Now, Digital Society (Switzerland), Državljan D (Citizen D, Slovenia), the European Center for Not-for-profit Law (ECNL), the IT-Political Association of Denmark (IT-Pol).
The proposal incentivises the creation of facial image databases: although the proposal does not mandate the establishment of a national face database (as the original Prum legislation did with DNA databases), the European Commission is offering to pay to set them up in member states that do not yet have one, further normalising a technology that has no – or, at best, a very limited – place in a democratic society. Under the proposal, these databases would then be interconnected and mutually searchable by authorities across all participating member states. The proposal also ramps up Europol’s data-gathering and exchange powers and extends the EU’s burgeoning ‘interoperability’ architecture, which looks set to continue expand in the years to come without concerted, substantial opposition. The possibility of searching other member states’ police records means that hearsay or rumour can be passed across borders; it also hugely expands the possibilities for overtly political policing. Read more - Lire plus
EU: Police plans for the “future of travel” are for “a future with even more surveillance”
EU: “If you build it, the law will come”: bypassing democracy to boost police powers
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How Israel's 'anti-terror' law is crushing Palestinian civil society | |
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MEE 08/09/2022 - A statement spearheaded by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and signed by more than 200 organisations around the world, called on the international community to take a stand against these measures, expressed solidarity with the seven NGOs, and demanded pressure on Israel to repeal the banning orders and the Anti-Terror Law of 2016. In addition, 53 Israeli organisations declared that "human rights are not terrorism" and condemned the banning orders.
In December 2019, then-Minister of Defence Naftali Bennett issued several administrative detention orders (Nos 56/19, 57/19 and 58/19) based on the anti-terror law to seize money and bank accounts of dozens of families of Palestinian prisoners who are citizens of Israel. Israeli authorities claimed that they receive money from the Palestinian Authority (PA), considering it terrorist money according to the occupation's definition, and claiming that they received it as a reward for carrying out "dangerous terrorist operations" by members of these families. The administrative measures include preventing families from closing their accounts while confiscating funds from their accounts in amounts ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of shekels per family.
Bennet's predecessor, Avigdor Lieberman, announced in 2018 the establishment of the “National Council for Economic Combating of Terrorism”, whose aim, he claimed, was “the economic warfare against 'terrorist organisations' in Israel and abroad”. The bill, passed by the Israeli Knesset in 2018, approved freezing the PA’s funds "related to terrorism" and deducting them from tax funds collected by Israel on behalf of the PA.
In a previous article, I discussed the arrest of and charges against more than 2,000 Palestinians in Israel by Israeli authorities based on the Anti-Terror Law. Many of the detainees were subject to security investigations and interrogations by Israel's security agency, Shin Bet, in May 2021, as a part of the so-called "Law and Order" campaign that Israel launched in order to disrupt the Karamah Uprising. In the same article, I cited statistics from the summary of the state attorney's office during the mass protests - in which Israel began waging a judicial war in parallel to its war on Gaza last year - indicating that it had filed indictments against 545 Palestinians out of a total of 616 accused, including 161 youths.
The indictments included serious charges such as “terrorist acts” based on “racist motivations” and “hate crimes,” which double the sentences for the same charge, and 239 charges were filed on "aggravated" grounds - 85 percent of them against Arabs and 20 percent against children. To date, verdicts have been issued in 80 cases, all of which resulted in conviction and prison sentences of varying lengths. in some of these cases, the public prosecution has appealed, considering the verdict was “light” and demanding harsher punishment. Whether through attacks on Palestinian individuals, families, and NGOs, it is clear that Israeli authorities view the Palestinians and their institutions wherever they exist as a “security threat”. The government continues to wage war on Palestinian life and civil society on multiple fronts through policies such as the Anti-Terror Law and emergency regulations, and tactics such as administrative detention and the use of “secret evidence,” which deny justice, due process, and violates international conventions and laws. Read more - Lire plus
Bachelet deplores Israel’s failure to grant visas for UN Human Rights staff in the occupied Palestinian territory
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Lawmakers seek answers on Pentagon's role in deadly airstrike | |
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The Intercept 23/08/2022 - A new congressional caucus called on Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III Thursday to disclose details of the U.S. role in an airstrike that killed more than 160 Nigerian civilians at a displaced persons’ camp, including many children. The group, known as the Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus, asked Austin to turn over classified documents and answer questions about the U.S. military’s involvement, which was first revealed by The Intercept in July.
While the Nigerian air force expressed regret for carrying out the 2017 strike, which also seriously wounded more than 120 people, the attack was referred to as an instance of “U.S.-Nigerian operations” in a formerly secret U.S. military document. Just days after the attack, U.S. Africa Command secretly commissioned Brig. Gen. Frank J. Stokes to undertake an “investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of a kinetic air strike (‘strike’) conducted by Nigerian military forces in the vicinity of Rann, Nigeria,” according to the document, which The Intercept obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Stokes’s findings were never made public.
The document, reporting by Nigerian journalists, and interviews with experts suggest that the U.S. may have launched this rare internal investigation because it secretly provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian armed forces who carried out the deadly strike. The U.S. inquiry was ordered by the then-top American general overseeing troops in Africa; Stokes was specifically told to avoid questions of wrongdoing or recommendations for disciplinary action, according to the document.
“Given the previously unreported nature of the U.S. military’s involvement in this strike and subsequent investigation, and your recent commitments to transparently responding to civilian harm, we request that the Department make available the investigation and all accompanying documentation to Members of the House Armed Services Committee,” reads the group’s letter to Austin, asking for the information to be furnished within 90 days. Read more - Lire plus
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Since the Taliban takeover of a year ago, Canadian aid organizations have faced barriers in sending aid to Afghanistan due to Canadian sanctions and a restrictive interpretation of the Canadian Criminal Code’s anti-terrorism provisions. This is despite the US, the UK, the EU countries and even the UN taking action to ensure sanctions do not interfere with crucial humanitarian assistance.
ICLMG has teamed up with other Canadian organizations to call on Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to act immediately to remove barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance. This includes ensuring that sanctions and counter-terror finance and criminal law restrictions do not impede the provision of lifesaving humanitarian aid. This issue isn’t limited to Afghanistan, either, which is why we are also asking the government to address the long-standing issue of ensuring that anti-terrorism laws and sanctions do not interfere with humanitarian assistance. Version française
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Protect human rights defenders in Palestine | |
CJPME - Canada’s inaction in the face of Israeli repression must end! Canada must stand up for human rights defenders by condemning Israel’s actions and putting its support behind the work of Palestinian NGOs
+ NCCM action: Canada must denounce the banning and raiding of Palestinian human rights organizations
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Ban facial recognition technology | Amnesty International - Facial recognition technologies are used to stifle protest and harass minority communities around the world – not just in New York City. These technologies are a global threat to the right to privacy, freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to equality and non-discrimination. Call for an end to technologies of mass surveillance. | |
Cuba is Not a Sponsor of Terror! | |
A crucial policy of the Trump administration remains, and that is Cuba’s presence on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. It is critical to Cuba’s ability to pursue economic, trade and humanitarian activities that it be removed immediately from the list - a power well within Biden’s authority.
Please sign CodePink's petition to the White House calling for Cuba to be removed from the list.
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No More F-16’s to Turkey! | We, the undersigned, demand you not approve any more sales of F-16’s or other fighter jets to Turkey. After the release of the report “Civilian Casualties of Turkish Military Operations in Northern Iraq (2015-2021)” we would find it unacceptable that the U.S. would continue selling F-16s to the Turkish military. | |
Tell Biden to Close Guantanamo | |
Now, with growing support in Congress, President Biden has an opportunity to end these ongoing abuses by closing the detention center.
Help us close Guantánamo and ensure the transfer of all cleared detainees to countries where their human rights will be respected.
Act Now to tell President Biden to shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility!
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Protecting water is not terrorism: Free Jessica Reznicek | In 2016, Jessica Reznicek took action to stop the construction of Dakota Access Pipeline by dismantling construction equipment and pipeline valves. In 2021 she was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a domestic terrorism enhancement. In 2022 an appeals court upheld her conviction writing that even if the terrorism enhancement was an error it was "harmless" although it increased a 37 months sentence to a sentence of 96 months. Stop the criminalization of dissent! | |
Stop Mohamed Harkat's deportation to torture | |
For 20 years, Moe and Sophie Harkat have fought against illegal detention, secret hearings, the surveillance state invading their home, and deportation to torture. Enough is enough. For the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Torture, please send a message to end this nightmare (all it takes is two clicks!) | |
LeadNow petition: Protect Hassan Diab from further injustice. Say NO to any future request for Hassan's extradition! | |
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Petition organized by the Hassan Diab Support Committee - Following the return of Dr. Diab to Canada in 2018, PM Trudeau said: “I think for Hassan Diab we have to recognise first of all that what happened to him never should have happened […] and make sure it never happens again.”
Mr. Trudeau must honor his own words and protect Hassan. The unfair political trial of an innocent Canadian citizen cannot be tolerated. PM Trudeau and the Canadian government must:
(a) Put an end to this continuing miscarriage of justice, and
(b) Refuse any future request for Hassan Diab’s extradition.
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Canada must protect encryption! | |
Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.
Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!
Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir
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This is unconscionable. The RCMP are violently harassing Wet’suwet’en land defenders again for fighting against the sovereignty-violating Coastal Gaslink pipeline. We’ve heard reports directly from land defenders that drilling for CGL is imminent — and the RCMP's specialized unit CIRG (Community-Industry Response Group), is ramping up their enforcement. They have a history of using excessive force and violence against Indigenous people — all in the name of profit.
We know that the BC government and high ranking RCMP officials have the power to deploy — and remove the RCMP. If enough of us fill their inboxes with emails demanding they respect Indigenous sovereignty and call off the RCMP, it could be enough to force them to act and halt all construction. Send a message directly to key decision makers asking them to stop the violence.
+ Wanna do more? Join a group
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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
+ Urge China to stop targeting Uyghurs in China and abroad
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Free Jack Letts and all Canadian Detainees in NE Syria | |
Canada must immediately act to free four dozen Canadian men, women and children left to rot in one of a series of notorious Northeastern Syrian prisons and detention camps described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.”
The longest held detainee is Jack Letts, 26, who has been imprisoned for almost 5 years without charge under conditions the United Nations has described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”
Send an email and call!
Mother’s Day to Father’s Day Chain Fast to Free the Canadian Captives
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Write a Letter: Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy | |
Recently, we have witnessed an intensified campaign by the pro-Israel lobby in Canada to smear Palestinian activists and their supporters. Last week, the National Post (NP) ran an online article about Palestinian-Canadian writer Khaled Barakat and the advocacy organization Samidoun. On April 30, the same article was splashed across their front page of their paper and has since been referenced in the Canadian Senate and the Jerusalem Post.
Send your letter to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to tell them that you join with the 80 organizations that have called to “Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy”.
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Urgent Action to Stop the Deportation of Mohamed Ibrahim and his Family | |
Mohamed Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, alongside his wife, Shaimaa, and 5 children - the youngest of whom a toddler who was born in Canada - have been given a removal order by the CBSA and are facing deportation back to Egypt where Mohamed will be facing a high risk of human rights abuses by the current Egyptian regime as a result of his peaceful political activism in Egypt. Mohamed and his family arrived in Canada in 2017 and applied for asylum. However, his claim was rejected due to a legal error of his lawyer.
We call on the Minister of Immigration to give Mohammed Ibrahim and his family protection on humanitarian and compassionate grounds pursuant to section 25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
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Tell Trudeau: Stop Arming Apartheid! | |
As revealed in CJPME's "Arming Apartheid" analysis, Canada is selling almost $20 million in arms to Israel each year – its highest level in 30 years! At the same time, Israeli forces continue to violently raid Al-Aqsa and across occupied Palestine, and human rights organizations – including Amnesty International – have all recently concluded that Israel imposes an apartheid regime against Palestinians!
There is no excuse for Canada to continue exporting arms to a country practicing apartheid and other abuses. Help us push the Canadian government to suspend arms exports to Israel, and investigate whether Canadian-made weapons have been used against Palestinian civilians! Canada must end its complicity now!
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Email your MP – No more weapons to Saudi Arabia | |
Canada has blood on its hands. Now approaching its seventh year, the war in Yemen has killed over a quarter of a million people. Over 4 million people have been displaced because of the war, and 70% of the population, including 11.3 million children, are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. Send a letter now calling on the Canadian government to stop sending weapons to Saudi Arabia and stop arming the horrific war in Yemen.
+ Write letter: Canada’s silence on Saudi mass executions deeply troubling
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Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement | |
The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States puts refugees at risk. Under the STCA, refugees who arrive at official ports of entry to seek protection in Canada are sent back to the US, where some have suffered serious rights violations in detention. This encourages refugee claimants to cross the border into Canada between ports of entry, sometimes in perilous conditions.
Despite the constitutionality of the STCA being in question, reports suggest that the government is attempting to expand this agreement.
Take Action now and send a message to Minister Fraser to respect refugee rights by rescinding the Safe Third Country Agreement.
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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | |
ICLMG - Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place.
Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now.
+ Take action to ban biometric recognition technologies
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Trudeau: 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.
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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
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Check out our biannual summary of activities: What We've Been Up To from January to June 2022. Lisez la version française ici.
Here are the issues we plan to work on for the rest of 2022:
- Monitoring the evolution of Bill S-7 – the electronic device border search bill – as it passes through the Senate and House of Commons;
- Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices online;
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Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for privacy law reform (including monitoring the new Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act);
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Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility;
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Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming the extradition law;
- Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS);
- The return of the 44 Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including 26 children;
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The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities;
- Pushing for Canadian government action on behalf of Iranian Canadians negatively and unjustly impacted by the US terror listing of the IRGC
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism. This includes evaluating and advocating for improvements to the proposed Public Review and Complaints Commission Act (Bill C-20);
- Monitoring the review of the National Security Act, 2017 (Bill C-59);
- Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada for flights that do not land in or fly over the US;
- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest;
- And much more!
Read more + Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
Lire plus + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
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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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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 $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
Bill Ewanick
Mary Ann Higgs
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ 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!
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