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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
March 1st, 2025 - 1er mars 2025
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ICLMG welcomes commitment to tackle prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities in Canada from Liberal leadership contender, calls on others to follow suit | |
ICLMG 21/02/2025 - The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) welcomes today’s commitment by Member of Parliament and Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland to take action to address the serious problem of systemic discrimination in the Canada Revenue Agency’s regulation of charities in Canada, particularly in regard to Muslim-led charities.
“We are calling on all Liberal leadership candidates and the leaders of all Canadian political parties to also commit to decisive action to end discriminatory CRA practices that single out Muslim-led and racialized charities for investigation, audits and penalties under the guise of countering terrorist financing,” said Tim McSorley, ICLMG national coordinator. “It is also long past due that the federal government take concrete action to address this documented history of discrimination by halting investigations by the CRA’s Review and Analysis Division, and to reform the guidelines that are used to justify such practices.”
In 2021, the ICLMG published a ground-breaking report, authored by McSorley, that documented how counter terrorist-financing measures developed post-9/11 have propagated systemic Islamophobia across government departments. This has placed charities that operate in and serve the Muslim community in Canada under undeserved scrutiny because of faulty conflations of religious, racial and political beliefs with support for terrorism. Central to this has been the work of the CRA’s Review and Analysis Division (RAD).
ICLMG research demonstrated how countering terrorist financing policies are guided by anti-Muslim biases, and that as a result, of the charities whose status was revoked by RAD between 2008 and 2015, 75 percent were Muslim-led charities. At least four more Muslim-led charities faced similar repercussions post-2015; secrecy and lack of external review makes it impossible to ascertain how many charities have faced similar repercussions. The report played a key role in Prime Minister Trudeau committing to action on this issue in 2021, the resulting investigation by the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson which found significant issues of bias and secrecy in the CRA’s activities, and the ongoing investigation by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.
In her letter to the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Freeland committed to abolishing the Review and Analysis Division and establishing an independent oversight body for the CRA.
“Taking these actions would be an important step forward in ending these discriminatory practices, and must also be coupled with the elimination of discriminatory policies that extend across government departments,” said McSorley.
As the former Minister of Finance, Freeland would be well aware of the cross-ministry practices – involving Finance, National Revenue (which oversees the CRA) and Public Safety – that have resulted in Muslim-led charities facing prejudiced audits and punitive penalties. The admission from a former finance minister that the Review and Analysis Division must be shuttered is a sign of the depths of this problem and the urgency to act.
“This is a clear signal that beyond commitments from leadership hopefuls and opposition parties, we must see action from the Liberal government itself. Minister of Revenue Élisabeth Brière and Minister of Finance Dominic Leblanc must take immediate action to shut down RAD investigations and bring in lasting policy changes to ensure this problem is addressed once and for all,” said McSorley. Source
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CBSA complaints commission still not up and running - interviews with ICLMG & CCR | Law creating new commission to hear CBSA, RCMP complaints passed months ago | |
CBC News 19/02/2025 - A new independent commission tasked with monitoring, for the very first time, the activities of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has still not been established, almost four months after the adoption of legislation.
The law establishing the new Public Complaints and Review Commission for CBSA and the RCMP was adopted on Oct. 31, 2024, after years of lobbying by numerous groups and human rights experts.
The new law builds on the existing RCMP watchdog who is given the additional responsibility of handling public complaints about the CBSA.
However, the existing RCMP commission has been without a chairperson since the departure of Michelaine Lahaie on Jan. 1. When her term ended, the government did not reappoint her nor replace her. Public Safety Canada would not say when a new chairperson will be appointed.
Public Safety Canada acknowledged that the new commission for both CBSA and RCMP is not up and running but said it is currently working on implementing it "in a timely manner," but without providing a precise timetable.
"It was already important and urgent. But now it's much more urgent with the increase in surveillance at the border," says Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.
In the meantime, the federal government has quickly invested $1.3 billion to intercept, for instance, migrants trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border — an operation aimed at appeasing U.S. President Donald Trump.
"Black Hawk helicopters, mobile surveillance towers, mobilization of personnel, but not a whisper about the creation of this oversight mechanism to ensure that these increased powers of enforcement come with increased responsibility and accountability", says Gauri Sreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
Sreenivasan and McSorley both fear that migrants, in particular, will pay the price.
McSorley said he was particularly saddened by recent photos of migrants taken by thermal imaging systems deployed at
the border.
The government can't just invest in surveillance technology, he says. It must also protect peoples' rights to seek asylum.
In the past, the border agency has been singled out for its treatment of some of the most vulnerable people in society, recalls Sreenivasan.
She cites for example migrants "who have been held in detention in atrocious conditions, deaths in detention, children separated from their family."
"We're very concerned with the deafening silence regarding the creation of the new commission," said Sreenivasan. Read more
Version française de la nouvelle: « Silence total » quant au nouveau chien de garde de l’Agence des services frontaliers
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Patricia Poirier: Information Clearinghouse on Border Controls and Infringements to Travellers’ Rights
| We launched our 20th anniversary publication "Defending Civil Liberties in an Age of Counter-terrorism and National Security" on Sept 11, 2024. You can read the full PDF or get a physical copy here. Over the next few months, we will be sharing two texts from the publication per News Digest to make sure they all get the attention they deserve. | |
ICLMG 2024 - The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) launched the Clearinghouse project on June 18, 2008, which marked the first-year anniversary of the coming into effect of the Canadian no-fly list or the Passenger Protect Program. The aim of the project was to investigate the border control practices used to screen travellers at Canadian airports and Canadian-US border crossings, and their impact on the privacy, civil liberties and human rights of individuals living in Canada, whether citizens, landed immigrants or asylum- seekers.
We had been witnessing a growing number of border incidents, as well as a change in the nature of these incidents, coinciding with the implementation of the no-fly list program and the linking in real-time of Canadian and US law enforcement databases and watchlists. The well-documented racial and religious profiling and targeting of Muslims and members of Arab communities was now expanding to other groups, including academics as well as peace, labour and justice activists.
It could be said that the no-fly list program was the most visible initiative resulting directly from the growing efforts to integrate Canadian and US security systems within the framework of the 2001 Smart Border Declaration, and the subsequent 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership. They included: the Nexus program, the National Risk Assessment Centre, the High-Risk Traveller Identification Initiative and the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams.
In December 2011, Canada and the US unveiled the Beyond the Border agreement and quietly began implementing initiatives towards establishing a North American Security Perimeter. This included expanding trusted traveller programs, as well as enhancing integrated law enforcement and information-sharing cooperation which raised many privacy concerns.
With some of our members and partners – the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Ligue des droits et libertés – we wanted first-hand information that would inform our advocacy work and bring the issues of surveillance and watchlists to the attention of the public at large. The project combined research, policy analysis and first-hand accounts of travellers who were barred from flying, intercepted or detained. Over a two-year period, we filed access to information requests and met with government as well as with federal and some provincial privacy commissioners and their staff.
We found and analyzed countless reports from both sides of the border regarding the dizzying number of agreements, measures, programs or databases of the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the RCMP, Transport Canada and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. To find out how these different programs and regulations were impacting travellers, we set up a website and a toll-free phone number to allow people to report their encounters with airlines, transport and border officials. The information collected was kept confidential unless participants agreed to be identified. Over 70 stories were thus collected.
We released the 55-page final report in February 2010, on the eve of the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics.1 It was particularly timely as there were several reports of visitors who were questioned and detained upon their arrival at the local airport or at the Canada-US border. Free speech activists were especially targeted, including well-known US broadcaster Amy Goodman. Our report listed the growing array of databases and watchlists used to keep tabs on North American travellers, described how information was collected, sifted, cross-referenced, stored and shared with government agencies on both sides of the border, and with other foreign governments.
Since September 11, 2001, identifying, assessing and mitigating risk were central to border management practices. The CBSA had already acknowledged that its goal was to create a “virtual border” that is closest to the possible source of risk, and away from the traditional physical border.
We found that:
- Racial and religious profiling is a fact of life at the Canada-US border
- There was a real potential for abuse and violation of travellers’ rights due to the discretionary and arbitrary powers granted to officials of the CBSA
- Most people will never know why they are targeted
- There was no credible redress mechanism for passengers who were repeatedly questioned, detained and sent to secondary screening at the airport, or for individuals “randomly” stopped or turned back at the border
- Many, especially Muslims, said they no longer travelled outside Canada for fear of being targeted and that Maher Arar’s ordeal was often on their minds
- The lack of any meaningful redress mechanism exacerbated the potential for abuse and violation of Charter rights, notably the rights to privacy, mobility and equality
The ICLMG recommended a number of actions to the government and members of Parliament, who had virtually ignored the issue of the no-fly list since its inception, including the following:
- The Government should acknowledge that racial and religious profiling is a determining factor in the way individuals are treated and caught by no-fly lists and other watchlists. It must review these unconstitutional practices that violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- The no-fly list program (which was expanded by the imposition of the US Secure Flight Program on Canadian airlines planned for December 2010), should be reviewed by Parliament in light of the Charter because of a lack of due process and judicial review.
- An independent watchdog should be set up to monitor the Canada Border Services Agency in light of its discretionary and arbitrary powers, and the lack of any accountability mechanism, as recommended by Justice O’Connor in his 2006 inquiry into the case of Maher Arar.
- Parliament should address concerns over privacy and the deployment of biometrics and other technologies targeting travellers.
Finally, our report rightly predicted that the situation would be made worse by the North American Security Perimeter Agreement (released in December 2009) which for all practical purposes established one harmonized border protection and national security regime for all of Canada and the US.
In August 2022, the Federal Court upheld the constitutionality of the no-fly list, saying it did infringe on mobility rights but that the breach was justified. It ruled: “Ensuring safety in air transportation and limiting air travel for terrorist purposes necessarily involves some infringement of mobility rights.” We disagree.
ICLMG continues to fight to abolish Canada’s no-fly list, end Canadian government compliance with the US Secure Flight program, and establish an independent complaint body for the CBSA. Source
Patricia Poirier is a former journalist who has been involved with human rights, justice and privacy issues as a researcher and communications consultant in Ottawa, Moscow, Jerusalem and Montreal where she volunteers.
Version française : Contrôles et atteintes aux droits et libertés à la frontière
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Alex Neve: Without Effective Review, Human Rights Remain Tenuous
| Le 11 septembre 2024, nous avons lancé notre publication 20e anniversaire « Défendre les libertés civiles à l’ère de la sécurité nationale et de la guerre au terrorisme ». Vous pouvez lire le PDF complet ou obtenir une copie papier ici. Au cours des prochains mois, nous partagerons deux textes de la publication dans chaque Revue de l'actualité pour nous assurer qu'ils reçoivent tous l'attention qu'ils méritent. | |
ICLMG 2024 - Without transparency and accountability, human rights violations are virtually inevitable. And without meaningful review and oversight, transparency and accountability remain elusive. Nowhere is this more acutely so than in the realm of national security, where secrecy pervades.
That is why it was so crucial that, as part of the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry in the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar, established in 2004, Justice Dennis
O’Connor was tasked with making recommendations for an independent, arm’s length review mechanism for the RCMP’s national security activities. In his report, issued in December
2006, he succinctly described why that was so important:
In the national security context, in which much police activity must remain secret for legitimate reasons, the issue of public confidence and trust is especially important. In a free and democratic society, even legitimate claims of secrecy can raise understandable concerns and suspicions. In the national security environment, the public must have confidence that independent and respected people will see what the public cannot see and ask the difficult and informed questions the public cannot ask.1
The issue of national security review had arisen early in the campaigning effort to free Maher Arar from unlawful detention in Syria and, after his release, to address the growing concerns about the role played by Canadian police and national security agencies in the human rights violations he had suffered at the hands of US, Jordanian and Syrian officials.
It became abundantly clear that there was nowhere Mr. Arar’s family could turn to make a complaint and have it effectively and independently addressed while he was still imprisoned and in need of relief. It was equally clear that there was no body that could investigate after the fact, provide reliable answers in satisfaction of Mr. Arar’s right to know, and build public confidence that a similar injustice would not occur again.
As such, the ICLMG and a number of other human rights organizations and advocates found themselves delving into an area they had rarely considered. What national security re- view or oversight bodies or processes were there in Canada? How effective were they? What were the gaps? And most crucially, what could be done to strengthen national security review and oversight in the country.
Certain themes quickly became clear. First, the mandate and powers of the existing review bodies varied considerably and were deficient in many respects. That was certainly so with what was known at the time as the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP (CPC), which had very little power to compel the RCMP to cooperate and comply. Second, there were important gaps, most notably the absence of an independent body reviewing the activities
of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which plays a significant role in national security operations. And third, there was the status quo of agency-specific review bodies – the CPC reviewing the RCMP,2 the Security Intelligence Review Committee reviewing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner reviewing the CSE. This resulted in disconnected siloes of review at a time when the agencies themselves were increasingly operating in a coordinated and even integrated manner.
Justice O’Connor recommended a comprehensive overhaul of national security review in the country, including enhanced powers for review bodies, extension of independent review to all agencies involved in national security operations, and establishment of an integrated committee to bring all review bodies together.
The ICLMG made important contributions to the Arar Inquiry, notably in the examination of options for review of the RCMP’s national security activities. ICLMG made thoughtful submissions and played a lead role in mobilizing the participation of other human rights organizations. Without a doubt, that involvement had an impact on Justice O’Connor’s recommendations.
But the advocacy work was far from over, something that the ICLMG has experienced frequently over these past twenty years. The struggles to uphold human rights in the world of national security are long battles.
Justice O’Connor’s report was issued in December 2006, but it was eleven years before the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) was instituted in 2017, and thirteen years before legislation to establish the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) was passed in 2019.
Importantly, ICLMG did not relent over those years, and played a central role in keeping the issue of reforming national security review processes on the public, media and political agenda.
One unfinished piece of business has remained, however, as there is still no independent review body to oversee the CBSA. It is a glaring gap when it comes to independent review of law enforcement and national security operations in Canada. On this, also, ICLMG has continued to maintain pressure. Bill C-203 is currently before the House of Commons. If passed, it will replace the current Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP with a new body, the Public Complaints and Review Commission, that will have a mandate to review both the RCMP and CBSA.
All of this very much remains a work in progress. NSICOP and NSIRA are still relatively new. Bill C-20 is not yet law. But the ICLMG has undeniably played a key role in strengthening national security review in the country.
Meanwhile, individuals and families who have been wronged in the course of Canadian national security operations are still compelled to turn to the courts and to public advocacy campaigns in order to obtain the answers, accountability and redress to which they are entitled. That is currently the case, for example, with respect to Hassan Diab, Abousfian Abdelarazik and more than 40 Canadians abandoned in detention camps in NE Syria.4 ICLMG’s role in supporting these individuals and their families, and serving as a point of coordination for campaigning by other human rights groups and advocates, has been and continues to be crucial.
Over these past twenty years, there have been notable, albeit far from complete, advances in reinforcing the fundamental principle that human rights should not be sacrificed to national security. Strong, effective and independent review of national security agencies is key to further progress in upholding human rights. The ICLMG has been at the forefront of the gains obtained, and will undoubtedly play an essential role in meeting the many challenges that remain. Source
Alex Neve is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and an adjunct professor of international human rights with the faculties of law at Dalhousie University and the University of Ottawa. He was the Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada between 2000 – 2020.
Version française : Sans examen efficace, les droits de la personne restent fragiles
Minister Joly launches Standing Table on Human Rights
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Internal report urged Canada to counter rhetoric about a 'crisis' at border | |
The Canadian Press 16/02/2025 - An internal government report warned a year ago that allowing "the trend of negative rhetoric" about the security of the Canada-U.S. border could lead to a thickening of the 49th parallel, adversely affecting trade and travel.
The report, written by a diplomat at Canada's embassy in Washington, said that failing to refute U.S. claims about a "crisis at the northern border" would lead to the erosion of Canada's image as a secure neighbour.
The release of the February 2024 analysis through the Access to Information Act comes as the Trump White House threatens Canada with sweeping tariffs, citing concerns about the southbound flow of migrants and illicit drugs like fentanyl.
Those threats prompted Canada to announce a $1.3-billion plan in December to improve security and monitoring of the border and deploy new drones and helicopters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expanded that by $200 million earlier this month to target organized crime.
The report, prepared against the backdrop of the U.S. presidential race, flagged early rumblings in the U.S. about irregular migration and fentanyl from Canada and concluded that the facts were largely being misrepresented. It noted that in the last year, members of Congress -- primarily Republicans -- publicly mentioned the northern border some 1,000 times, mostly in a negative light.
The report was circulated to various federal officials, including Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the United States. Portions of the document were withheld from release under provisions of the access law exempting material related to international relations, advice from officials and accounts of government deliberations.
The report charts the arc of political pronouncements in the U.S., from Donald Trump's promises during the 2016 presidential campaign to build a wall along the border with Mexico to calls from candidates in the 2024 campaign for walls at the southern and northern borders.
Right-wing U.S. lawmakers started talking about a northern border crisis after the November 2022 midterm elections, the report noted. House Republicans formed the Northern Border Security Caucus and used their control of committees to hold a March 2023 hearing on "Death, Drugs, and Disorder on the Northern Border."
"The rhetoric about a crisis at the northern border does not reflect the reality of the situation, which is characterized by good co-operation at all levels," the report said. "There is some truth behind what's being said but it's generally taken out of context and sensationalized."
The report acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a substantial increase in apprehensions and encounters in 2022 along the section of the northern border that includes parts of Vermont, New York and New Hampshire, compared with the same period in 2021.
But it pointed out that these crossings represented a small percentage of the overall number of irregular entries to the U.S., and that the increase did not account for the fact that cross-border travel was largely halted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report stressed that the fentanyl intercepted from Canada represented well under one per cent of the total amount of the synthetic opioid caught coming into the U.S. In addition, fentanyl was entering Canada from the U.S. "The truth is that the Canada-U.S. border functions extremely well," the report said.
Public Safety Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP collaborate hand-in-hand with their U.S. counterparts to ensure the border is safely managed, it added. "When people or drugs are encountered at the border, it's a sign that things are working as they should," the report said.
Despite that rosy assessment, the report underscored the possible implications of U.S. concerns. It noted that New Hampshire's Democratic senators had called for something to be done about the increase in irregular crossings at the northern border. While the construction of a northern border wall was "far from likely," heightened rhetoric could dissuade U.S. lawmakers from enacting policies that promote cross-border movement, the report said.
"Worse, it could actually push them to thicken the border, like in the early 2000s after 9/11."
Canada shouldn't shy away from explaining that the Canada-U.S. border is one of the safest and best-managed in the world, the report said. "Canadian officials should do this at every opportunity, at all levels, and with a variety of interlocutors -- from legislators to commentators in border communities -- to protect the trust businesses and travellers have in the border." Source
NEW ACTION Amnesty International: Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement
Trump’s extremist border policies are part of a global authoritarian moment
Le Canada complice des attaques contre le droit d’asile aux États-Unis
The Right To Seek Asylum Does Not Exist at U.S.-Mexico Border
Blame the system, not the immigrant
The Mass Deportation Handoff: The transition from Biden to Trump through the lens of a booming border industrial complex, bipartisan consensus, and changing climate
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Brandi Morin in Ecuador part 3: Bullets and beatings support Canadian mine | Canada has finalized negotiations on a free trade deal with Ecuador, but claimed human rights protections ring hollow in light of alleged state repression | |
Ricochet 27/02/2025 - The mist rolls through Las Pampas as Juan Carlos Carvajal Silva, president of the ‘collective defenders of water and life’ in this remote community, sits on a wooden stump near the hilltop church, overlooking the village he has sworn to protect. Roosters crow in the distance as he gestures animatedly, his dark hair perfectly slicked back, his clothes crisp and immaculate. His shoulders bear the weight of a dozen criminal accusations, and a price on his head, but his easy laugh punctuates stories of resistance.
"If it’s terrorism to defend the land, if it’s terrorism to be at the head of a community and say no to a foreign extractive company — if that’s terrorism, let them condemn me. I’m here," he says, his voice firm with conviction. At 38, Carvajal Silva leads this community of 1800 in their fight against a new mining project brought to them by a Vancouver-based company.
Silva’s fight is with a series of new mines set to begin operations in the lush landscapes of Ecuador’s northern Cotopaxi province. Canadian company Atico Mining is readying for its La Plata project to come online, and promising that economic prosperity will accompany it.
Criticism of Canada’s role in enabling projects like this came to a head in early February, when Ecuador finalized negotiations on a new trade deal with Canada. The country’s conservative president says this deal will promote local job growth, and hold both countries to the highest of labour and environmental standards. But the Atico endeavour is raising serious questions about environmental protection and human rights in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.
The project, valued at $91 million, aims to extract copper, gold, silver, and zinc from beneath Ecuador’s soil. Every day, approximately 850 tonnes of rock will be excavated — equivalent to the weight of 425 cars — in an operation expected to run for eight years.
While the company has only explored 1.6 per cent of their land holdings, suggesting the potential for expansion, locals are rallying against Atico’s state-backed operation due to concerns about the project’s environmental footprint. Ecuador’s government and military have responded swiftly to quell dissent, resulting in violent clashes.
The mine’s shadow has turned neighbour against neighbour and poisoned daily life in the surrounding rural communities, where farmers who once worked side by side now eye each other with suspicion, and gatherings that used to celebrate harvests now turn tense with arguments over the project’s promises and threats. [...]
Since 2017, the community has successfully stalled the mine’s advance through peaceful resistance. In response, the government has deployed a familiar playbook: criminalization, intimidation, and violence. More than 100 community members – simple farmers and families – now face charges of terrorism and organized crime for defending their land.
Painted as terrorists and organized criminals
"People are being criminalized because there exists no basic guarantee of the right to protest," Carvajal Silva explains. "They are criminalizing small-scale farmers who don’t have the financial resources to access justice and who also don’t have the means to organize and travel far distances. It’s a strategy to wear people down. It’s a burden with economic, physical, emotional, and psychological implications."
In March of 2021, the threats turned terrifyingly real for Carvajal Silva. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants at gunpoint on his way to a community meeting in a neighbouring province. "They surrounded us, pointed guns and pulled us out of the car, threw us into the trunk, and took us to dump us in the bush," he recounts. "Feeling a gun to your head, being told if you move, they will kill you… those were tough moments. I said, ‘if you’re going to kill me, I just want to see where I’m going to die.’ Let me raise my head and then kill me."
He survived, but the dangers continued. He says government authorities attempted to buy his silence with offers of a ministry position. "The state wanted to play me, they wanted to buy me and I didn’t agree," he says. "Above all else I hold my dignity and loyalty to my people. I will not sell my dignity." When bribes failed, threats followed. “We are going to put you in prison. La Roca jail is waiting for you,” he says he was told by local authorities.
The government’s latest weapon is Decree 754, which attempts to fast-track environmental consultations for mining projects. “The decree enables and facilitates the government being able to do what it did with the armed forces," Carvajal Silva explains. "A consultation that should take six to seven years — they want to rush it through."
The executive order was actually struck down as unconstitutional by Ecuador’s highest court in late 2023. Yet in a contradictory move, the court allowed the decree to remain in effect until new laws could be passed — creating what environmental lawyer Mario Melo calls "a legal gray area that hurts not only local communities but many government projects that also need clear rules."
Then in March of 2024, amid the legal chaos created by Decree 754, the clash between community and corporate narratives erupted into violence. After multiple failed attempts to impose an accelerated consultation process in 2023, military and police forces returned with overwhelming force in March of 2024. More than 1,000 heavily armed personnel descended on the nearby town of Palo Quemado and Las Pampas, transforming the peaceful farming communities into what residents describe as a war zone. The confrontation left multiple community members seriously injured from bullets and tear gas canisters fired at close range. Among them, a 40-year-old farmer and father who now lives with permanent disfigurement after being shot in the face and back of the head — left unable to work and support his family. [...]
The family lives day to day, grinding sugar cane for whatever money they can earn. "There are days that we eat, there are days we don’t eat,” says Robayo. When Maspanta was hospitalized in Quito, his parents traveled there with almost nothing, often going a day with just one meal. "I was calm, because I’m not a terrorist," his father, who is also facing charges of terrorism and organized crime, says. "I have a clear conscience. I am a hard-working peasant."
Maspanta’s wife, Marcia Leon, 30, tries to stay strong as she holds their baby, but breaks down showing X-rays of her husband’s skull, the thick chain visible where bone should be. She can’t work because he needs constant care. "It’s very hard to see him. He used to be on his own," she says. "My daughter is small… It’s been eight months and I’m still fighting. I only ask God to give me strength to move forward." The family faces more than just medical challenges.
Maspanta’s sister, Martha Masapanta, 43, says that while he was in a coma, there were attempts on his life. "They even ordered him to be killed," she says, placing the blame on the mining company and government. The family took turns guarding him day and night, checking every medication. Phone calls came from unknown numbers — people claiming to be sergeants, demanding information. "It was scary for us." Now Maspanta’s wife reports what she describes as constant surveillance. "They are always watching… the police or those who work in the Atico mining company. They always know more and they say about me: there she is, what she does, where she goes."
Maspanta has mostly been quiet about what happened, until now. "They don’t want me to speak, nor do they want me to give my version," he says. "They said that I am like this because I have fallen, I have stumbled, but I did not fall. It was the bullets." His sister, herself charged with terrorism and organized crime for opposing the mine, refuses to be silenced. She and other community members take turns working Maspanta’s land one week, their own the next, trying to support the family.
"After all, he gave the only thing he had," she says. "Imagine giving your life for all of us. So we cannot disrespect that."
The community is helping build Maspanta and his family a small house, so they’ll have something of their own. "When this accident happened, when he went out to fight, he had nothing, he was just a working man, just like all of us here,” she says.
Their resistance continues, even as many face charges of terrorism and organized crime. "We are peasant defenders of water and life," Maspanta’s sister declares. "We want our voices to be heard… Please stop this because they are killing us day by day." Maspanta, once a strong farmer who fed his extended family, now struggles through each day. But his spirit remains unbroken. "We want to live in peace like every human being," he says. "That is what I would ask on my part, that our voice is heard." Read more - Lire plus
NEW ACTION URGENT: Attacks on human rights defenders and dozens of land defenders
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RCMP caused 'serious interference' with press freedom in 2020 Wet'suwet'en raid, review body finds | Mounties formally apologize for breaching reporter Jerome Turner's Charter rights | |
CBC News 24/02/2025 - The RCMP seriously interfered with press freedoms, unreasonably blocked media access and arbitrarily detained a reporter during a 2020 raid on Wet'suwet'en-led blockades in northern British Columbia, the force's review body says.
Five years after that operation, the Mounties formally apologized to complainant Ethan Cox, senior editor at independent news outlet Ricochet Media, and Gitxsan reporter Jerome Turner, for breaching Turner's Charter rights.
"I welcome this apology. I think it's tremendous," said Cox, who praised the review's findings as precedent-setting. "I think it's a step in the right direction, but it has to be followed with action, and that action has to trickle down to the officers on the front lines."
Signed by Staff Sgt. Maj. Kent MacNeill, the force's Feb. 19 letter of regret was a welcome surprise for Turner, who accepts the apology — on one condition. "I accept it, with the caveat that they don't do this to journalists ever again," he said.
The rebuke from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission adds to a list of racist or unconstitutional conduct by the RCMP's Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG). Last week, a B.C. judge found C-IRG violated Charter rights by making "grossly offensive, racist and dehumanizing" remarks about First Nations women during another raid on Wet'suwet'en-led blockades against Coastal GasLink pipeline construction in 2021.
Last fall, the review body lambasted C-IRG for its wrongful arrest of hiker Brian Smallshaw, criticizing the unit for its "disproportionately intrusive methods," at the Fairy Creek anti-logging blockades in 2021. Meanwhile, the complaints commission is already conducting a systemic investigation into the unit, which was renamed the Critical Response Unit, or CRU-BC, amid the federal probe last year.
While it's taken years, Cox suggests chickens are coming home to roost for a unit that documents show was created to defend pipelines from Indigenous activists and environmentalists. "The systemic review that comes out later this year is going to be perhaps even more scathing, and I hope that that leads the RCMP to get rid of the C-IRG," said Cox. "I don't think the C-IRG is defensible. I don't think it's redeemable. It is a really bald faced exercise in policing at the service of industry."
Turner was assigned to cover Wet'suwet'en resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in 2020. That February, RCMP swept in to enforce an injunction against blockades interfering with pipeline construction. Turner was previously granted access to the area, the review says, but an RCMP member told him that the "rules had changed." Instead, Mounties excluded Turner, detained him for hours and threatened him with arrest, heavily curtailing his freedom of movement.
'Overreach of police powers'
In the 70-page final report, the commission says the RCMP's use of "access control points and exclusion zones" was unreasonable, calling the threats to arrest Turner groundless and his subsequent detention unjustified. The RCMP's conduct was "imperious, ill-considered, and arguably unlawful," and the report expresses concern that the media barriers were "a feature, not a bug," of the operation's design.
"The RCMP's unreasonable conduct ... caused a substantial and serious interference with the freedom of the press, including Mr. Turner's ability to report on an important Indigenous matter in the public interest, inconsistent with the common law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," the commission says.
The report says the RCMP approached Turner and other reporters with disquiet and distrust, relying on coercive powers to exclude and control rather than constructive dialogue. This distrust was grounded in "vague and speculative" concerns activists may be posing as journalists.
"Officers can deal with such cases when they have reasonable suspicion of specific wrongdoing, but it is unreasonable to treat the media as potential adversaries in blanket fashion," the commission says. "This leads to potential suppression of freedom of the press and an overreach of police powers." The review comes after the RCMP investigated and cleared itself of misconduct in the case, as the commission can only review complaints where the complainant is dissatisfied with the RCMP's investigation.
In response, the RCMP commissioner agreed with all the findings and promised to act. The force supported all the recommendations except one, which calls for a standardized policy for accrediting reporters. "There are operational and logistical barriers in implementing an effective policy for unplanned events such as protests," RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said in a letter to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.
Cox and Turner were also concerned by that recommendation but for a different reason. "That's just a step towards totalitarianism, having the Canadian national police force determine who gets to be a journalist," said Turner. As for Coastal GasLink, the pipeline is now mechanically complete and awaiting completion of an LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat, B.C. Source
Deeper dive: RCMP formally apologize for violating journalist’s rights, commit to changes in wake of explosive oversight report
Judge rules RCMP remarks racist, but Wet’suwet’en land defenders convictions will stand
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A Letter to the Carleton Community in Support of Dr. Hassan Diab | |
CUASA 25/02/2025 - In the adoption of the “Motion in support of Dr. Hassan Diab,” passed on December 19, 2024, the Carleton University Academic Staff Association’s Council have made a firm stand to support Dr. Diab. We thereby urge Carleton to safeguard Dr. Diab’s teaching contract(s) and to take measures to protect him and his family from harassment and threats on campus.
Dr. Hassan Diab, who is a Canadian citizen, a Contract Instructor here at Carleton and a CUPE 4600colleague, has faced renewed threats and harassment on campus in the recent weeks.
In 2014, Dr. Diab was extradited to France in connection with the antisemitic Paris Synagogue Bombing of 1980, detained for over three years, and subsequently released in 2018 unconditionally without charge when the French judicial authorities determined there was no evidence to justify putting Dr. Diab on trial. Upon Dr.Diab’s return to his home in Canada in 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “we have to recognize first of all that what happened to [Hassan Diab] never should have happened” and promised to “make sure that it never happens again”.
A special court in France in 2023 used formerly discredited and withdrawn evidence, in spite of testimonies of the investigative judges, to declare Dr. Diab guilty and sentenced him to life in prison, thereby creating thepossibility of Dr. Diab facing a second wrongful extradition. Dr. Diab’s case has significant implications foracademic freedom, human rights, and the principle of protection against unjust legal persecution.
We join CUPE 4600 and other campus organizations to call on Carleton University to safeguard Dr. Diab’s teaching contract(s) and protect him and his family from further harassment and threats on campus. Carleton should be reminded that Dr. Diab is protected by his Collective Agreement rights and that the University has the responsibility to provide a safe and harassment free environment for all its members.
This letter is written at the direction of CUASA’s Council in accordance with the formal adoption of the following resolution of at the Council meeting of December 19, 2024: BE IT RESOLVED THAT CUASA issues a statement in support of Dr. Hassan Diab and urges Carleton to safeguard Dr. Diab’s teaching contract(s) and to take measures to protect him and his family from harassment and threats on campus. Source
ACTION Canada must take immediate action to end the injustice against Dr. Hassan Diab
ACTION Carleton University: Stand up for Dr. Hassan Diab and Protect him from Harassment and Threats
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Gazan families sue Canada for visa application delays | |
The Toronto Star 07/02/2025 - Eleven families from Gaza are taking the Canadian government to court for prolonging their “exposure to life-threatening and inhumane conditions” by delaying application processing under a program meant to offer relief from the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
The families represent 53 people, including 27 babies and children, who have applied for visas under the temporary resident pathway for Palestinian extended family in Gaza program, launched in January 2024.
The measure provides a temporary haven for Palestinians directly affected by the war in Gaza who have ties to family members here who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents and are willing to support them.
Canadian anchor relatives are required to submit a web form to the Immigration Department with supporting documentation on behalf of their family members in Gaza. Officials then review the forms and documents before providing each applicant in Gaza a unique reference code to begin the visa application process.
All of the litigants’ Canadian relatives say they submitted web forms with the proper documentation within a month of the program’s opening. To date, none have the codes, nor do they have a refusal for incompleteness, or any justification for the delay. The program, which had been expanded from the initial intake of 1,000 applications to 5,000, ends April 22 or when all spots are filled. As of Jan. 4, immigration officials said 4,782 applications were accepted into processing.
“They were afraid that they would lose their opportunity,” said lawyer Damey Lee, who represents the group along with colleagues Hana Marku and Debbie Rachlis. “They are just frustrated and wholly disappointed in the Canadian government for not even providing them an explanation as to where their family members are in the process and why it has taken a year to issue codes.”
According to affidavits submitted to the court, the applicants — all with identities withheld under a court order to protect their safety — have experienced attacks first hand, witnessing airstrikes and bombings, sometimes with “no warning.” One family said they are living in the ruins of their home, with walls demolished and all windows broken, as their home is regularly targeted by bullets, adding that they have narrowly avoided being hit by rockets while out looking for food.
Applicant W.J.A.J. was shot in the foot while out getting food and the bullet is still there. Another applicant, M.T.M.J., has reported seeing human remains lying in the rubble of her neighbourhood. None of the school-age applicants have been in a classroom since the war broke out. The eight elderly members of the group do not have access to medical treatment. While five adults were able to flee to Egypt before the seizure of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing by the Israeli military in last May, they remain there without any valid immigration status.
For comparison, the court submissions referred to the 9,357 visas Ottawa issued within eight months for nationals of Turkey and Syria affected by the 2023 earthquakes in the region; the resettlement of more than 25,000 Syrian refugees in four months during Syria’s civil war; and some 71,000 visas granted under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program in 40 days in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mo, a Palestinian Canadian litigant, applied for the temporary resident visa for his widowed mother, five sisters and nephew. His father died of a heart attack shortly after the war started because he couldn’t access emergency care, he said in an interview.
Frustrated with the slow processing, the Toronto man flew to Egypt with $15,000 (U.S.) in cash last April and managed to get his mother and two sisters out through bribes. Although one sister, a pharmacist, and his mother obtained visas and arrived in Canada, in August and October respectively, they did not have the “codes” and were not admitted under the special program, which would have meant a three-year stay and given direct access to health care or work permits. As a result, they have sought asylum in Canada.
“There wasn’t a system,” said Mo, who spent three months in Cairo and as a result lost his IT job in Canada. “We were just discovering (the process) as we go.” He’s still unsure about the status of his application for the rest of the family.
Citing privacy concerns, the Immigration Department declined to comment on individual cases involved in the lawsuit, but said it’s deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza.
In an email to the Star, it said all people applying for the Gaza program must meet eligibility and admissibility requirements, including security screening, before they can be approved to come to Canada. “We have received a large volume of web form submissions. We are currently reviewing them for completeness,” it said. “Processing times will vary based on the details of each application and available spaces.”
The Gazan families are asking for a court order to compel immigration officials to process their pending “crisis” web forms within five days in the event of a ruling in their favour. Source
NEW This Family Day, let's reunite refugee families!
ACTION Family Reunification February Call to Action: Canada Must Urgently Complete all Gaza Applications and Open the Borders During Ceasefire
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NEW Drop charges against author Yves Engler
NEW "Bubble bylaw": Take action to protect the right to protest in Ottawa
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CJPME joins 230+ organisations in urging F-35 partners to stop arming Israel | |
CJPME 18/02/2025 - On February 17, 2025, CJPME joined 230+ organisations in calling on all F-35 partners -- including Canada -- to immediately halt the direct and indirect transfer of F-35 parts and components to Israel, including through the United States. Here is the Canadian version of the letter:
We write to you as a group of organisations from partner countries to the global F-35 jet programme, and supportive organisations, calling on our Governments to immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel, directly and indirectly, including F-35 fighter jets, components, and spare parts thereof.
After 466 days of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, we welcome the limited ceasefire which came into effect on 19 January, and call on our Governments to support every effort to permanently end the ongoing atrocities. The past 16 months have illustrated with devastating clarity that Israel is not committed to complying with international law. The fragility of the Gaza ceasefire underscores the risk of further violations and the need to halt arms exports to Israel, including F-35s. This is also highlighted by Israel’s continued illegal use of military fighter jets in the occupied West Bank, especially Jenin.
Partners to the F-35 programme have individually and collectively failed to prevent these jets from being used to commit serious violations of international law by Israel, most obviously across the occupied Palestinian territory, including international crimes, despite overwhelming evidence in this respect. States have either been unwilling to observe their international legal obligations and/or claimed that the structure of the F-35 programme means that it is not possible to apply arms controls to any end-user, making the entire programme incompatible with international law.
Israel’s unprecedented bombardment and destruction of Gaza has led to immeasurable human suffering, environmental devastation, and humanitarian catastrophe. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures on Israel to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in January 2024. In December 2024, Amnesty International’s investigation concluded that Israel has committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Human Rights Watch reported that ‘Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide’.
A temporary ceasefire does not signify an end to Israel’s violations of international law or nullify the longstanding risk that arms transfers to Israel might be used to commit or facilitate such violations. This includes, but is not limited to, Israel’s ongoing occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded is unlawful.
Israel has killed more than 46,707 people in Gaza and the remains of an estimated 10,000 more people are still under the rubble. At least 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza have been forcibly displaced, in conditions unfit for human survival. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked civilian objects, including aid distribution sites, tents, hospitals, schools and markets. Around 69 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the bombardment. Despite these devastating realities and crimes on the ground, our governments have continued to supply Israel through the F-35 programme. Read more - Lire plus
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NEW Ottawa car rally: Gaza in not for sale - Sun March 2 at 12pm
ACTION Trudeau must condemn Trump’s insane Gaza plan
ACTION Send an email to Minister Joly and Minister Blair to demand an Arms Embargo Now!
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Detained, Dehumanized, Forgotten: The Endless Cycle of Guantánamo | |
Bridge 18/02/2025 - Twenty-three years have passed, yet the early weeks of Donald Trump’s second administration felt like a return to 2002. On January 29, 2025, the former reality star-turned-president signed an executive order to expand detention facilities at Guantánamo bay, allowing it to detain up to 30,000 migrants. Trump characterized these undocumented migrants as “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”
His Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described them as “the worst of the worst,” echoing the rhetoric of the Bush administration and early 2000s politicians. As the US launched the “War on Terror” in 2001, government officials, including then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, used such dehumanizing rhetoric to justify the imprisonment of hundreds of Muslim boys and men at the military prison—many of whom were held without charge or trial.
The Islamophobic narrative around Guantánamo during the early days of the US-led “War on Terror” served a clear purpose: to strip detainees of the protections guaranteed under US law and international law. By labeling the nearly 800 Muslim boys and men who were detained at Guantánamo “terrorists” and “unlawful enemy combatants” (15 remain today), the US government justified their indefinite detention and torture. The use of phrases like “the worst of the worst” became a rhetorical shield, allowing the government to silence objections and avoid scrutiny.
Much of the discourse surrounding those imprisoned at Guantánamo in the early 2000s was deliberately dehumanizing. In a 2002 press conference, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed these individuals would “chew through the hydraulic brake cables of a jet to try to bring it down if not restrained in transportation.” By portraying the detainees as dangerous predators determined to kill Americans, the government justified torture and the inhumane treatment of prisoners under the pretext of ensuring the safety and security of American citizens.
Today, the Trump administration is employing similar tactics. In addition to “the worst of the worst,” DHS has described detained migrants as “highly dangerous,” while President Trump has claimed, “They are so bad, we don’t even trust their countries to hold them.” On the evening of February 4, 2025, the first flight carrying these so-called “high-threat” migrants arrived at the base.
One key reason as to why multiple administrations have chosen Guantánamo as a site to house and detain individuals as they argue individuals there are not subject to the protections guaranteed under US law. The location has an uncertain legal status, and the government has claimed that individuals held there are not entitled to rights guaranteed under American laws. As Hannah Flamm, the interim senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), told PolitFact, “The U.S. government intentionally uses Guantánamo in hopes of avoiding oversight and the public eye, which makes the facility ripe for abuse.”
Trump even acknowledged the near-impossibility of leaving Guantánamo, noting that it’s “a tough place to get out of.” This is precisely why multiple administrations have time and time again chosen the site to detain and imprison people, largely without charge or trial. As Naureen Shah of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently warned, “history suggests that such a move could enable the government to commit human rights abuses and inflict serious neglect on people detained there, far from lawyers, the media and congressional oversight.”
Beyond the resurgence of discriminatory and dehumanizing rhetoric, rights organizations are raising alarms over the potential legal and human rights violations at the notorious facility. One of the most immediate concerns is the absence of an exit strategy—an issue that has plagued Guantánamo since its establishment in 2002. The prison was created without a clear plan for what would happen to the hundreds of individuals detained there.
Given, there is little oversight and media coverage of the inner workings of Guantánamo, there are real fears that rights violations will occur again, specifically torture. A source familiar with the Trump administration’s plans regarding Guantánamo told CNN that “questions like how long the migrants can legally be held there, and what their rights would be while detained, are still unanswered. It is also unclear whether the migrants will have any access to legal or social services while detained at the base.” [...]
Currently, 15 Muslim men remain imprisoned at Guantánamo, despite repeated calls from human rights groups and UN experts to shut it down. As CAGE International, a human rights group who has represented several individuals illegally imprisoned at Guantánamo, stated, “the enabling and impunity of the US’s War on Terror abuses have paved the way for Trump to now expand rather than abolish Guantanamo!”
President Trump’s decision to send migrants to the base in Cuba is not without precedent. In the 1990s, under Attorney General William Barr (who later served in Trump’s first administration), President George H.W. Bush’s administration sent Haitian refugees fleeing a coup d’état to Guantánamo. At its peak, the camp held around twelve thousand refugees. Harold Hongju Koh, Yale University law professor and former senior State Department official, led a team of Yale students and human rights lawyers in challenging the Haitians’ detention, ultimately securing the release of about 250 people into the United States. Now as President Trump moves to reestablish an immigrant detention center at Guantánamo, Koh has called the initiative “insane,” emphasizing that “This has been a consistent pattern over and over again. Shortsighted policymakers think they found a solution, and they have ended up creating a problem for which they have no exit strategy. That’s exactly what they’re doing again.”
For former Guantánamo detainees, President Trump’s decision to establish a migrant detention facility at the base reopens old wounds. In a personal reflection for the Guardian, Mansoor Adayfi, who was imprisoned at Guantánamo without charge for 14 years, described Trump’s move as “a painful reminder of the facility’s dark history – a history marked by torture, indefinite detention and systemic dehumanization.” He explained that the U.S. government justified the detention of nearly 800 Muslim boys and men by portraying them as “dangerous terrorists,” a narrative that enabled their imprisonment without charge or trial. Adayfi warns that today, “a similar narrative is being constructed,” as “Trump’s rhetoric of labeling undocumented immigrants as “the worst criminal illegal aliens” is a deliberate and dehumanizing tactic that opens the door to further abuses under the guise of national security.”
Twenty-three years later, the same dehumanizing and dangerous narrative of the “worst of the worst” has resurfaced. Twenty-three years later, the same disturbing spectacle of U.S. officials placing individuals in handcuffs and shackles onto planes is unfolding once again. Twenty-three years later, the orange jumpsuits have been replaced with gray tracksuits. A haunting reminder that Guantánamo—a site of egregious human rights violations and a legal black hole —remains a tool for leaders who disregard domestic law and international human rights in their pursuit of power, division, and control. Read more - Lire plus
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UN experts: Belarus government committed crimes against humanity to suppress opposition | |
Jurist.org 15/02/2025 - The UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus reported on Friday that the Belarusian government committed widespread human rights violations, including crimes against humanity against its civilian population to suppress opposition to President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The experts criticized the Belarusian government’s use of widespread measures in 2024 to purge “most potential sources of dissent and opposition.” The new measures led to the dissolving of at least 228 civil society organizations in 2024 and an expansion of prosecutions of individuals for online activities. These policies expanded existing practices such as the misuse of anti-extremism and anti-terrorism laws to suppress dissent by civil society activists, lawyers, and journalists, targeting legitimate exercises of human rights.
The report further noted extensive violations against the rights of detainees by Belarusian security forces. It noted that detainees had faced widespread torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, and threats of rape against themselves and their partners. Vulnerable groups, including LGBTIQ+ individuals and those detained in penal colonies, faced discriminatory treatment from security forces. The expansion of measures against dissent and rights violations has led to hundreds of thousands of Belarusians leaving their country, especially with groups likely to be targeted by the state.
The fair trial rights of Belarusian citizens were also severely impacted. The report indicates that many have been arbitrarily arrested for exercising freedoms of expression, association, or assembly since 2020, and many have been convicted and sentenced under unfair trials where the courts lacked independence and impartiality. The evidence in these trials extensively relied on forced confessions, including those obtained through torture.
Furthermore, the right to representation has been impacted by the Belarusian Bar Association being placed under the control of the Ministry of Justice, which has led to the revoking of licenses and a reduction of lawyers willing to defend those facing politically motivated charges. Lawyers defending those on such charges have faced harassment, detention, and prosecution.
In addition to the use of torture, the group of experts claim that the Belarusian government’s activities amounted to international crimes against humanity of imprisonment and persecution on political grounds using the elements of crimes set out by the International Criminal Court.
The crime against humanity of imprisonment is defined as the arbitrary imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty of one or more persons by a perpetrator who is aware of the factual circumstances that established the gravity of the conduct, and where the deprivation of liberty is “in violation of fundamental rules of international law.” Meanwhile, persecution on political grounds involves the discriminatory, intentional, and severe deprivation “of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity.”
Relatedly in August 2024, the Council of the EU expanded the scope of its sanctions to 28 persons who are allegedly involved in “ongoing internal repression and human rights violations” in Belarus. Lithuania similarly called on the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against humanity in Belarus in October 2024. Source
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Vietnamese government declares human rights organisation as a terrorist group | |
CSW 17/02/2025 - The Vietnamese government has declared the Vietnamese-American human rights organisation Boat People SOS (BPSOS) as a terrorist organisation.
In a press release dated 14 February and issued on state-controlled media, BPSOS and its senior leadership were derided for ‘assisting organisations and individuals participating in anti-Vietnam activities.’
The article went on to explicitly name BPSOS as a terrorist organisation and describe its president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer as terrorists. The article published the home address of BPSOS president Dr Nguyen Dinh Thang.
The authorities justified this by citing legal advice and support BPSOS has provided to one of the co-founders of Montagnards Stand for Justice [a human rights organisation that was founded in Thailand and specialises in defending the rights of the Montagnard minority ethnic group], Y Quynh Bdap. Mr Bdap is currently facing extradition to Vietnam from Thailand after being charged in absentia on terrorism-related charges for which he is facing ten years in prison.
Mr Bdap’s trial has been described by United Nations experts as having occurred in a setting that did not meet fair trial guarantees under international law.
BPSOS is a Vietnamese-American human rights organisation that was founded in the 1980s to assist refugees fleeing Vietnam. BPSOS provides assistance to victims of human rights violations in Vietnam, trains civil society on their protections under international law, protects Vietnamese asylum seekers in neighbouring countries, and supports victims of human trafficking around the globe.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘Dr Nguyen Dinh Thang is a friend of mine. He is no terrorist. He is a champion of human rights, in particular the right to freedom of religion or belief. The fact that he has been targeted like this is a sign that his voice is reaching the ears of the Vietnamese authorities, who are now attempting to silence and intimidate him. This will not work; this designation is a badge of honour; his tireless efforts are getting under the skin of an authoritarian regime that does not allow for dissent or criticism. The international community must hold Vietnam to account.’ Source
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Thailand: ‘Deportation’ of Uyghurs to China ‘unimaginably cruel’ | |
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Amnesty International 27/02/2025 - Responding to reports that a group of about 40 Uyghurs who have been detained in Thailand since 2014 were today deported to China, Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said:
“The forcible return of these men, or indeed any Uyghurs, to China would place them at risk of serious human rights violations. We urge the government of Thailand to clarify their status.
“Their ordeal is already chilling: they fled repression in China, only to find themselves arbitrarily detained in Thailand for more than a decade. The fact that they now may be forcibly returned to a country where Uyghur and other non-Han ethnic groups in Xinjiang have faced torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance is unimaginably cruel.
“The Thai government should have protected these men, but instead it has wilfully exposed them to these grave risks. In doing so it has ignored pleas from Amnesty International and United Nations (UN) experts who urged it not to violate the internationally and domestically recognized principle of non-refoulement. And this just as Thailand has been elected to the UN Human Rights Council.
“We now call on the governments of Thailand and China to disclose the whereabouts of these individuals, and – if they continue to be in custody – to ensure that the full spectrum of their rights is respected, including their right to be free from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
“Many of these men are in extremely poor health after enduring years in detention. They must have access to appropriate and adequate medical care. We call for an end to their ordeal, and urge authorities to uphold their right to freedom of movement. It is past time that they are allowed to safely rejoin their families.”
Background
The men deported today are among about 300 Uyghurs who were apprehended by the Thai authorities on 13 March 2014 after they had fled persecution and discrimination in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. A total of 109 people from the group were deported to China in July 2015.
Amnesty International has documented massive and systematic abuses by the Chinese government against Uyghurs in Xinjiang – including in internment camps, where over a million people have been arbitrarily detained.
In a 2021 report, Amnesty found that the Chinese government has committed at least the crimes against humanity of imprisonment, torture and persecution against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
In a letter to the Thai government in January 2025, a group of UN experts said 23 of 48 men remaining in detention were reportedly suffering from serious health conditions including “diabetes, kidney dysfunction, paralysis of the lower body, skin diseases, gastrointestinal illnesses and heart and lung conditions”.
Thailand is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the transfer of persons to any country or jurisdiction where they would face a real risk of serious human rights violations. Source
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Hong Kong To Tighten Union Rules To 'Protect National Security' | |
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Barron's 17/02/2025 - Hong Kong proposed rules on Wednesday that would require labour unions to seek government approval for nearly all types of foreign funding, saying it must not be used to endanger national security.
Unions in Hong Kong have faced heightened scrutiny since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city in 2020, following huge and often violent pro-democracy protests the year before.
Dozens of trade unions, including the top teacher's union and largest pro-democracy labour coalition, have disbanded and collective actions such as strikes are rare. The government said the official in charge of union registrations should have more powers "to better fulfil the duty of safeguarding national security".
Under the proposed rules, unions must get the registrar's approval before accepting funds from "external forces" -- a broad label that applies to non-Chinese governments, political groups and international organisations. The funds could not be used for local elections. The registrar would also have the power to reject union applications on national security grounds, with the decision not subject to appeal. The proposal will be sent to Hong Kong's opposition-free legislature in April.
Hong Kong has arrested 318 people and convicted 161 under its two national security laws as of the start of this month.
The government said on Wednesday that people convicted of national security crimes should be permanently barred from serving as union officers and promoters. The proposals also made it harder for Hong Kong labour unions and their members to join international groups. The registrar should also be allowed to enter any union-occupied premises to inspect records, conduct examinations and seize evidence, the government said.
The Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor, a UK-based advocacy group, called the proposals a "serious infringement of workers' rights" and said unions would be "subject to strict political surveillance." "The government is deliberately using national security needs as a pretext to suppress dissent," the group said in a statement. Hong Kong had just over 1,400 registered trade unions at the end of last year, official figures show. Source
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Apple removes advanced data protection tool in face of UK government request | |
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The Guardian 21/02/2025 - Apple has taken the unprecedented step of removing its strongest data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded “backdoor” access to user data.
UK users will no longer have access to the advanced data protection (ADP) tool, which uses end-to-end encryption to allow only account holders to view items such as photos or documents they have stored online in the iCloud storage service.
Apple said it was “gravely disappointed” that it would no longer be able to offer the security feature to British customers, after the UK government asked for the right to see the data. It said the removal of the tool would make users more vulnerable to data breaches from bad actors, and other threats to customer privacy. It would also mean all data was accessible by Apple, which could share it with law enforcement if they had a warrant.
Earlier this month the Home Office served Apple a request under the Investigatory Powers Act, which compels firms to provide information to law enforcement agencies, asking for the right to see users’ encrypted data, which currently not even Apple can access. After the change at 3pm on Friday, new users had no access to the ADP tool and existing users would need to disable the security feature at a later date. Messaging services like iMessage and FaceTime would remain end-to-end encrypted by default.
Apple said: “We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy. Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before. “Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the UK. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey, said Apple’s move was “quite an extraordinary development”. The cybersecurity professor said: “It was incredibly naive of the British government to think they could tell Apple what to do.
“Unpleasant a fact of life as it may be, you simply can’t tell a large US technology company what to do. You have to work with them, [practise] diplomacy – that’s what has been tried before and was working. Waving a UK law at them was not going to work.”
He said Apple was sending a message that “you cannot weaken encryption for your enemies without weakening it for your friends”, and that all the government could achieve would be to make its applications less secure for UK users, while obtaining no benefit for intelligence operations.
A cybersecurity expert, Peter Sommer, said technologists had unsuccessfully tried to develop a “foolproof backdoor” for the last 30 years. “Instead of looking for a universal solution, the Home Office should be concentrating on targeted rather than bulk encryption breach”, given that this ensured “warrants are justified as proportionate and leave the innocent with their privacy”, he said. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.” Source
US national security director condemns UK request for Apple data ‘backdoor’
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OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC | |
Canada: Abolish rights-violating terrorist entities list!
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On October 15, 2024, the Canadian government placed the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on Canada’s terrorist entities list. While ostensibly a tool to protect the safety and security of people in Canada and internationally, the list is an arbitrary political tool that undermines freedom of association, of expression and due process in the courts. Its effectiveness as a national security tool has never been demonstrated in a manner that justifies its use.
Due to these deep flaws, and more, the ICLMG has consistently called for the list to be abolished since the Canadian coalition’s founding in 2002. Please join us in urging the Canadian government to abolish the rights-violating terrorist entities list once and for all. Thank you!
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Canada: Do not purchase armed drones | |
The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign | |
In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. | |
CSIS isn't above the law! | |
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In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.
Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | |
Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! | |
On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable.
Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.
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21 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | |
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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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | 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. | |
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Thanks to the support of our members and donors in the second half of 2024 we have been able to work on the following:
- Bill C-20, the Public Complaints and Review Commission Act - which has been adopted and will finally create an independent watchdog for CBSA
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 and the very problematic Artificial Intelligence and Data Act
- Bill C-63: The concerning Online Harms Act
- Bill C-70: The new and highly controversial Foreign Interference law
- Bill C-353: The Foreign Hostage Takers Accountability Act
- Palestine and the right to dissent
- Canada’s terrorist entities list
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Monitoring the implementation and review of the authorization regime for international assistance to vulnerable populations in areas controlled by “terrorist” groups
- Combatting Racism & Islamophobia
- Repatriation of all Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab
- Mohamed Harkat & Security certificates
- Work with the international Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- The UN Counter-terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) Canada assessment
- The UN Cybersecurity Treaty & the EU AI Convention
What we have planned for 2025!
The coming year will present many challenges, old and new. Much of our successes from this past year will continue to need follow-up, as we track the establishment of the new CBSA review body, and push back against new foreign interference laws and attempts to silence protest. There are also the challenges we will face with the incoming US government, which is already playing out its promises to increase the securitization of the US-Canada border with more police, drones and facial recognition surveillance. This will place the rights of all travellers, but especially asylum seekers searching for protection and better living conditions, at risk.
We’ll also have our own election in Canada this year, and ICLMG will be working to both make sure the public is aware of the parties’ track records on civil liberties and national security, as well as to secure commitments to protect our rights from candidates and the new government once it is in office.
We will continue our work on these issues and much more in the next year:
- Pressuring lawmakers and officials to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security as well as opposing the discourse of “countering terrorism” to repress dissent, such as protests in support of Palestinian rights and lives
- Co-creating a mechanism to monitor how the new Countering Foreign Interference law is used, as well as continue pushing back against xenophobic fear-mongering
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Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for good privacy law reform
- Addressing the lack of regulation on the use of AI in national security, including proposed exemptions for national security agencies
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Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
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Fighting for Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
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Monitoring the implementation of the authorization regime for organizations that provide international assistance to vulnerable populations in areas controlled by “terrorist” groups
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Pushing back on the false narrative depicting migrants and refugees as security risks, and advocating for rights protection and accountability for border agencies, including by monitoring the creation of a new CBSA and RCMP watchdog and complaint body
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The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
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The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
- Advocating for the repeal of the terrorist entities list, the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada
- Keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
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And much more! Read more - Lire plus
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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 $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ 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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