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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
October 13, 2023 - 13 octobre 2023
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Mémoire sur le projet de loi C-27, la Loi de 2022 sur la mise en œuvre de la Charte du numérique | |
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ICLMG 03/10/2023 - C-27 a été introduit par le gouvernement fédéral avec la promesse qu’il améliorerait la protection de la vie privée, réglementerait adéquatement l’intelligence artificielle (IA) et protégerait les droits de la personne. Mais le projet de loi n’est pas à la hauteur.
Nous avons récemment publié une lettre ouverte conjointe avec 45 organisations de la société civile, expert.es et universitaires de premier plan soulignant les principales préoccupations concernant le projet de loi.
Nous avons également envoyé un mémoire au Comité permanent de l’industrie et de la technologie de la Chambre des communes pour sa présente étude du projet de loi. Notre mémoire couvre plusieurs domaines et recommandations générales mais, conformément à notre mandat, nous avons partagé 2 sérieuses préoccupations spécifiques concernant les exemptions liées à la sécurité nationale :
1. Nous sommes profondément préoccupé.es par le fait que le projet de loi C-27 permet des exceptions au consentement lorsqu’il s’agit de la collecte, de la conservation, de l’utilisation et de la divulgation de renseignements personnels pour des raisons de sécurité nationale. Nous croyons que ces dispositions (articles 47 et 48) doivent être supprimées. Toutefois, si elles demeurent, de telles activités ne devraient être possibles, en vertu de la loi, que s’il existe « des motifs raisonnables de croire que l’information se rapporte à une menace imminente à la sécurité nationale, à la défense du Canada ou à la conduite des affaires internationales ».
2. Malgré l’intérêt croissant pour l’utilisation des outils d’intelligence artificielle par les gouvernements à des fins de lutte contre le terrorisme et de sécurité nationale, ainsi que leurs graves risques pour les droits de la personne, le projet de loi C-27 exclut de manière choquante l’application de la Loi sur l’intelligence artificielle et les données (LIAD) aux :
[…] produits, services ou activités qui relèvent de la compétence ou de l’autorité des personnes suivantes :
a. le ministre de la Défense nationale;
b. le directeur du Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité;
c. le chef du Centre de la sécurité des télécommunications;
d. toute autre personne qui est responsable d’un ministère ou d’un organisme fédéral ou provincial et qui est désignée par règlement.
Cette exclusion des technologies liées à la sécurité nationale doit être annulée.
Lisez le reste de notre sommaire et/ou le mémoire complet
ICYMI English version: ICLMG’s Brief on Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act
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‘The devil’s in the details, and we don’t have any’: critics, civil liberties groups decry feds’ lack of clarity on changes to privacy and AI bill | |
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The Hill Times 04/10/23 - The Liberals’ failure to produce details on suggested changes to their privacy and artificial intelligence legislation (Bill C-27) before the start of a House committee study is “the worst thing they could have done” if the government is serious about quickly passing its latest attempt to update Canada’s privacy laws and regulate the emerging technology, says NDP MP Brian Masse. [...]
Daniel Konikoff, interim director of the privacy, technology, and surveillance program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) said he is "pretty thrilled that our first key recommendation on recognizing privacy as a fundamental human right is something that Champagne came right out the gate to say the government is going to include that amendment." However "introducing a bunch of amendments that possibly aren’t even written up and only showing this willingness essentially right before witnesses are set to testify has really thrown a wrench into that process. The devil is in the details, and we don’t have any details for the kind of minute and rigorous attention that these amendments merit.”
Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), told The Hill Times that despite the amendments proposed by Champagne at the committee, ICLMG’s view that AIDA needs to be “withdrawn, reworked and reintroduced” as a separate piece of legislation from C-27 has not changed. On Sept. 25, the CCLA and ICLMG, alongside more than 40 other Canadian civil liberties organizations, experts, and academics, released an open letter addressed to Champagne outlining their main concerns with the current draft of AIDA. Specifically, the signatories say they are concerned that “shoehorning” AI regulation into Bill C-27 will not allow for adequate study of the AIDA, and will take time and attention away from the bill’s privacy provisions.
The signatories also provided “bottom-line” changes to AIDA they believe will be needed, including recognizing privacy as a fundamental human right; a commitment to more active consultation with stakeholders “beyond industry leaders”; expanding AI regulation to apply to both the public and private sector, including government security agencies; and removing AI regulation from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) Canada’s sole jurisdiction.
While McSorley said he understands why AI regulation would be included in the innovation minister’s portfolio, the concerns civil liberties groups have with its current formulation are a symptom of the conflict between ISED’s mandate to promote industry, and the mandate to regulate it. That conflict is one of the reasons those groups have called for AI regulation to be removed from ISED’s sole jurisdiction, and for the proposed AI and data commissioner to be kept at “arm’s length” from the department and given independent powers of investigation and enforcement, rather than being appointed and having those powers delegated by the minister. Source
Webinar: What Will AI Mean for Free Expression? (video)
EVENT: What would governing AI democratically in Canada look like? on Nov 2
Freedom House New Report: Advances in Artificial Intelligence Are Amplifying a Crisis for Human Rights Online
EU: Civil society calls on legislators to ensure the AI Act upholds the rule of law
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Confront 9/11 Politics And They Can Be Defeated | |
If this is Israel's 9/11, be Susan Sontag. Apartheid is what has gotten over 1200 Israelis killed and may soon "pretty much ethnically cleanse the northern part of the Gaza Strip" | |
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Forever Wars 13/10/2023 - My friend David Klion wrote an excellent piece for N+1 on the return to 9/11 politics now that it's open war again in Israel/Palestine, and perhaps soon Lebanon. David gives REIGN OF TERROR a shout and zeroes in on the parable of canceling Susan Sontag:
As Spencer Ackerman recalls in Reign of Terror, his grim accounting of the disastrous twenty years that followed 9/11, Susan Sontag was the rare public intellectual who tried to express a degree of nuance and historical context in the days following the attacks; for this, she was accused of “moral obtuseness” by the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer and “self-flagellation” by the New Republic’s Lawrence F. Kaplan. Andrew Sullivan named a snarky “award” for moral equivalence after Sontag and continued handing it out long after her death in 2004. It took years for Sontag’s posthumous reputation to fully recover and for her warnings to seem like retroactive common sense—years during which America launched two catastrophic full-scale invasions, established ongoing secret wars spanning a dozen countries, set up a transnational network of torture camps and a prison in Cuba that exists outside the reach of the Constitution, built a dystopian digital panopticon to spy on literally everyone, and killed orders of magnitude more civilians than died on 9/11 itself.
Leave the Israelis aside for a moment. American politicians and journalists are comfortable again referring to Palestinians as animals to be exterminated before they savagely kill again. Sure as the sun rises in the east, the anti-government-weaponization Sen. Josh Hawley, who saluted the January 6 rioters, somehow found dissenters he wants to sic the Justice Department on. Afghanistan veteran and U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, an evangelical Christian who apparently volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces, wore an IDF uniform to work just as the IDF is about to escalate the daily violence strangling Gaza to unthinkable levels. New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov—don't think for a second MAGA doesn't grow in Brooklyn—took her gun to counterprotest a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Brooklyn College.
That's just on the right. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said statements from progressive lawmakers calling for deescalation before the IDF reinvades were "repugnant" and "disgraceful." President Biden—alongside every other Western leader—has decided that the history of Israel/Palestine started on Saturday. Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported for Huff Post that the State Department is telling diplomats to refrain from any diplomatic language of restraint. The USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group, centered around the world's largest aircraft carrier, is in the eastern Mediterranean right now, as if the U.S. ammunition shipments to the IDF don't already make it clear to Palestinians which superpower actively participates in their deaths.
It should be clear that the politics of the War on Terror have not ended. They only go into abeyance from time to time, or find new outlets for their bloodthirst, before returning. That is a measure of how insufficiently we have confronted these politics. Confronted, they can be overwhelmed and defeated, because they lead only deeper into the disaster—that is, terror—they're predicated on destroying. There's even a whole book whose themes include how liberals decide that it's safer not to confront these politics, and how well that decision works out for everyone.
Not a week into this excruciating reality and we already have nostalgia for the old-time War on Terror. Axios desks rose by a few inches in describing a video by George W. Bush hailing Benjamin Netanyahu's imminent revenge. The news outlet reminisced about "the Texas twang and… the Bushian posture that takes viewers back 20 years." Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, appearing next to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, referred to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran as "an axis of evil."
It's been more than half a day since Israel demanded more than one million Palestinians flee imminent and massive aerial bombardment, a terrifying impossibility given the realities of Gaza's enclosure, to say nothing of basic logistics. Hours ago I was on a Zoom call set up by Peter Beinart that featured the left-wing former Knesset speaker Avrum Burg and Sally Abed, a Palestinian activist with the Israeli peace group Standing Together. (Subscribe to Peter's newsletter, especially in this moment of crisis in Israel/Palestine.) Abed described how the Israeli demand for mass displacement prompted widespread fear that Israel will "pretty much ethnically cleanse the northern part of the Gaza Strip."
And she expressed justified bitterness at having to begin every media interview with a condemnation of Hamas—which she unreservedly condemns—while "generals of the Israeli army… openly [talk] about wiping out whole areas of civilians. …[but] we're not expected to talk about the context of the oppressive Israeli regime." And that is 9/11 politics distilled to its essence: to make scandalous the presentation of context. In the spirit of Susan Sontag: fuck that.
I and every other Jew alive have been terrified for my friends in Israel—as far as I know, I don't have family in Israel, but do I have people I love there—as well as for my friends in Palestine. The suffering they are experiencing—the deaths they are enduring—may be the work of the IDF, they may be the work of West Bank settlers, they may be the work of Hamas. But in every case, they are the result of an Israeli apparatus of apartheid. That apparatus strengthens Hamas. I can't say this loudly enough. The Washington Post:
“The modus vivendi was that Hamas takes care of Gaza, Israel allows it to prosper, with the relatively small price that Israel paid every so often, with a round of violence in which Israel would kill thousands of Palestinians and Palestinians would kill dozens of Israelis — that was considered the best Israel could hope for,” said Eran Etzion, former deputy head of Israel’s national security council. “Now that strategic equation has been completely violated.”
If you want this to stop, and you should, there is only one way it can stop, and that is to end the apartheid. What Burg described as the "Russian military strategy" employed by the IDF, which is to say the aerial bombardment of Gaza so as to minimize the dangers of urban warfare for an invasion force, will not stop it. The IDF won't destroy Hamas, it can only destroy Palestinians, and those Palestinians who survive will never forget it. From Israel's perspective, the day after will look like the day before. From Fallujah to Tarek Kolache, the War on Terror could not have made this more clear. When Lloyd Austin, former CENTCOM commander, calls Hamas ISIS-like, he seems to forget how ISIS came to exist in the first place. Israel intensifying the conditions of Palestinian destruction can have no effect but to catalyze the next wave of resistance. Perhaps deliberate Israeli policy will cultivate that wave as well.
When anyone wields 9/11 politics against the marginalized, solidarity has to be the full-throated response. 9/11 politics seek to make solidarity look like surrender, so as to disguise the fate to which their bloodthirsty condemns so many. But these politics have a glass jaw. There was no left-wing government in Israel before Saturday, just the furthest-right-wing government in its history. The "Iron Wall failing," as my friend Jonathan Katz wrote, is the result of the right's preferences and the left's marginalization. 9/11 politics are meant to distract from the accumulated devastation of those preferences, and it is all those politics can ever produce—except, that is, the strangulation of democracy. These politics can be defeated if confronted forthrightly, because their works are self-discrediting. In America, the wreckage they created has been on display for an entire generation. Read more - Lire plus
Resistance to Ukraine occupation good, Palestine bad: politicians
Hamas Killed His Friend, But Knesset Member Cassif Says End the Occupation Now, All “Pay the Price”
Noura Erakat: Western Leaders & Media Are Justifying Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” Against Palestinians
L'Union Juive Française pour la Paix dénonce le parti pris de la France pour Israël et l'interdiction des manifestations propalestiniennes
Statement: Germany announces ban on Samidoun Network — we remain steadfast!
George W. Bush Is Building a Memorial to the War on Terror. He Wants Your Feedback.
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Independent Jewish Voices Calls for a Ceasefire and Systemic Change in Palestine-Israel | |
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IJV 08/10/2023 - With [many hundreds of] casualties so far, the pain felt by those of us both in the region and connected to it cannot be overstated. The lives cut short in the past 48 hours are a tragedy, evidence of the need for an immediate ceasefire, not an escalation of violence.
Attacks against civilians are in violation of international law, regardless of the perpetrator and whether by immediate violent force or by long-term structural oppression. The civilian deaths caused by the Hamas offensive are an unacceptable consequence of 75 years of unacceptable conditions, part of an attack that is neither unprovoked nor justifiable. Israel needs to be held accountable for its decades of crimes against humanity, crimes that have put Palestinians in a position where violent retribution and death feels like justice.
For decades, civilians in Gaza have been subjected to routine massacres, restrictions on electricity, medical attention and water, faced bombings and lived under a suffocating blockade. In the past year, Palestinians have been targeted by Israel’s most right-wing government in its history, which has escalated its attacks against them. Now, Israeli civilians are being abducted and killed in the deadliest attack on the state in years.
IJV calls on Canada to demand a ceasefire immediately. But that is not enough to guarantee a more hopeful future for everyone in occupied Palestine – Israeli apartheid, occupation and settler colonialism are the underlying issues that must be addressed in order to move towards a future for the region where all can thrive. If these issues remain unaddressed, we fear that Israel will not be satisfied until it has satisfied a bottomless desire for disproportionate revenge, as has been proven time and time again.
The Canadian government has opposed Palestinian attempts at non-violent resistance, whether through efforts to boycott, divest and impose sanctions or through appeals to international courts and the UN. When non-violent resistance is seen as unacceptable, labelled antisemitic or terroristic, Palestinians are thus stripped of the tools to advocate for their lives, liberties and livelihoods. The conditions under which Palestinians have been forced to live in the Gaza Strip are unconscionable. The only solution to this ongoing violence is to address its root causes, and that requires supporting Palestinian-led movements to confront and resist Israeli apartheid, as well as pushing governments like Canada to oppose Israeli crimes against humanity.
Canada’s ritual and vacuous endorsement of Israel’s “right to self-defence” gives the right-wing Israeli government cover to continue destroying Gaza, committing further violence against Palestinians under occupation. We must remind everyone that Palestinians, like any occupied people, ultimately have the right, by international law, to resort to armed violence to resist their occupation – so long as that violence distinguishes between civilians and combatants. Canada must call for a ceasefire, condemn Israeli apartheid and work towards a peaceful resolution that upholds the rights to life and freedom of both Palestinians and Israelis. Read more - Lire plus
Israel warns half of Gaza's population to move south ahead of ground raids; UN warns such a movement is “impossible without devastating humanitarian consequences"
Record-breaking Spike in Countries Buying Israeli Arms and Cyber
Uncomplicating The "Complicated" Palestine/Israel Conflict - Some More News video
ACTION: Gaza au bord du précipice : Cessez le feu maintenant!
ACTION: Tell Trudeau: Push for end to bloodshed in Gaza
ACTION: Support Israeli refusers
ACTION: No More Weapons Shipments
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Global calls for immediate action to halt Turkey’s ‘war against humanity’ in North and East Syria | |
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Medya News 12/10/2023 - Turkey’s “war against humanity” in North and East Syria has been condemned in an international statement signed by a diverse group of academics, activists and organisations, who urged immediate international intervention to address the crisis.
The statement, signed by 35 collectives and 183 individuals, including sociologist and philosopher John Holloway, journalist and author Debbie Bookchin, and journalist and researcher Kamal Chomani, detailed that since 4 October, Turkish forces have been systematically bombarding various districts in North and East Syria. Their statement highlighted that “Turkish warplanes, armed drones, artillery and mortars have been targeting civilian settlements and vehicles, electric power stations, gas stations, water resources and energy supplies.” It added that these attacks have left about two million people without access to electricity, sufficient energy or water supplies and have no access to healthcare.
“We are facing a new dimension of Turkey’s invasive war that is aimed at occupying, ‘ethnically cleansing’, and destroying more areas of North Syria,” the signatories said. They accused the Turkish government of aiming to wipe out “all infrastructure, superstructure, and energy facilities” in order to depopulate the region. The communique called on the international community to establish a No-Flight-Zone for the Turkish Air Force over Syrian and Iraqi airspace and demanded that Turkey ends its “politics of occupation and systematic killings”.
The statement includes links to several recent reports that corroborate the signatories claims and demands, such as the Rojava Information Centre‘s summary report on Turkey’s aerial assaults on North and East Syria, and reports by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and Kongra Star detailing Turkey’s drone war in the region. Read more - Lire plus
Turkey indicts 2 Kurdish journalists on terrorism charges
UK police targeted me because I told the truth about Turkey's attacks on the Kurds
UK - Swansea woman quizzed under terror laws after holiday
European court rules Turkish teacher’s rights were violated by conviction based on phone app use
PEN Norway project: Indictment of Şebnem Korur Fincancı found incompatible with international human rights law standards
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EVENT: When Political and Judicial Factors Collide: Dr. Hassan Diab tells his story | |
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Justice for Hassan Diab - In 2008, Dr. Diab, a sociologist teaching at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, was unjustly accused of being the perpetrator of a horrendous antisemitic bombing outside a synagogue in Paris in 1980.
In 2014, Dr. Diab was extradited from Canada to France, where he spent over three years in prison. In 2018, Hassan was released after two French investigative judges, who thoroughly examined the case, concluded that there is no evidence to justify a trial. They dropped all charges and released Hassan unconditionally.
Dr. Hassan Diab will talk about how political realities in France subsequently resulted in a wrongful conviction. A 3-week trial in April 2023, that brought forward no new evidence and relied on secret intelligence, declared Hassan guilty. He is at risk of being extradited a second time to France for a crime he did not commit. Hassan's case has been instrumental in prompting a Parliamentary review of Canada's Extradition Law.
ACTION: Phone-in Campaign on October 17th: Tell Trudeau: Canada must say NO to any request from France for Hassan's extradition
Canadian Civil Liberties Association: Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and Justice Minister Virani calling on the Canadian government not to subject Dr. Diab to a second extradition
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Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs march in Vancouver to demand the dismantling of controversial RCMP C-IRG unit | |
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PBI 12/10/2023 - The National Observer reports: “Hereditary chiefs from the Gitxsan First Nation marched to BC Supreme Court in Vancouver on Wednesday morning [October 11], demanding an end to RCMP suppression of Indigenous-led protests against development.”
The article continues: “Met by a crowd of about 40 people at the steps of the courthouse, the leaders denounced court injunctions that stopped Indigenous land defenders from protesting development and called for the dismantling of the RCMP’s contentious Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) and its presence on Indigenous land.”
Gitxsan Hereditary Chief Clifford Sampare says: “There’s no consideration for our traditional laws, and our law is to protect the land. When we try to go and protect our territories, they call a militia on us.” Hereditary Chief Gordon Sebastian adds: “We told them the deployment of the RCMP is not allowed on the Gitxsan territory.”
Radio-Canada also reports (in French): “The protesters are calling for the dismantling of the Community and Industry Safety Task Force…In a letter sent to the Supreme Court, the Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Gitxsan Nation [stated] ‘We believe that the continued use of terror by the [C-IRG] will eventually result in an accident or intentional death of an Aboriginal person, potentially a woman or a child. This is not acceptable.’”
Prior to the rally, CFNR reported: “In addition, the rally will call for the RCMP to sign an armistice agreement presented by the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs in April. It would limit the C-IRG’s access to their territory, calls for the cessation of hostile acts, and reduces the number of RCMP allowed on their territory to 9.” Read more - Lire plus
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BCCLA at Ontario Court of Appeal to intervene in Canada v Alford to promote accountability and transparency in national security oversight | |
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BCCLA 29/09/2023 - On October 3, 2023, the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) will present oral arguments as an intervener at the Ontario Court of Appeal in its hearing of Canada v Alford. This is an appeal of a successful constitutional challenge to s. 12 of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act (“NSICPA”), which limits the application of parliamentary privilege related to offences under the NSICPA.
The NSICPA was passed in 2017, creating a committee of parliamentarians who would review national security issues. The law also made it an offence for committee members to reveal secret information they would receive to carry out their duties and stipulated that parliamentary privilege cannot be used as a defence if charged. Ryan Alford, a law professor at Lakehead University, challenged the law on the basis that it was not within Parliament’s jurisdiction to limit the constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech and debate in Parliament without using the amending provisions of the Constitution. His challenge was successful, and Canada appealed that decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal.
The BCCLA argues that accountability and transparency are at the core of the constitutional protection of parliamentary privilege, and that these purposes should inform the Court’s decision in this case, especially given the context of national security review and oversight. Members of Parliament should not face potential imprisonment for acting as whistleblowers if they expose serious wrongdoing on the part of Canada’s national security apparatus. Read more - Lire plus
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Joint call by the UN Secretary-General & the Red Cross for States to establish new prohibitions and restrictions on Autonomous Weapon Systems | |
In a joint appeal today, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, are calling on political leaders to urgently establish new international rules on autonomous weapon systems, to protect humanity. | |
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ICRC 05/10/23 - Today we are joining our voices to address an urgent humanitarian priority. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) call on States to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems, to shield present and future generations from the consequences of their use. In the current security landscape, setting clear international red lines will benefit all States.
Autonomous weapon systems – generally understood as weapon systems that select targets and apply force without human intervention – pose serious humanitarian, legal, ethical and security concerns. Their development and proliferation have the potential to significantly change the way wars are fought and contribute to global instability and heightened international tensions. By creating a perception of reduced risk to military forces and to civilians, they may lower the threshold for engaging in conflicts, inadvertently escalating violence.
Our concerns have only been heightened by the increasing availability and accessibility of sophisticated new and emerging technologies, such as in robotics and Artificial Intelligence technologies, that could be integrated into autonomous weapons. The very scientists and industry leaders responsible for such technological advances have also been sounding the alarm. If we are to harness new technologies for the good of humanity, we must first address the most urgent risks and avoid irreparable consequences. This means prohibiting autonomous weapon systems which function in such a way that their effects cannot be predicted. For example, allowing autonomous weapons to be controlled by machine learning algorithms – fundamentally unpredictable software which writes itself – is an unacceptably dangerous proposition. Read more - Lire plus
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Somalia: US’s hidden and forgotten forever war | |
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Asia Times 06/10/23 - Thirty years after the infamous Battle of Mogadishu, the US military is still conducting operations in Somalia.
Popularized in the US by the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down,” the Battle of Mogadishu occurred on October 3, 1993, and saw the downing of two US helicopters and the deaths of 18 American soldiers. Some of their bodies were dragged along city streets by Somali militants. The battle was considered one of the worst fiascoes in US military history. [...]
Between 2007 and 2020, the US spent at least US$2.5 billion on counterterrorism operations in Somalia, according to Costs of War, a 2023 Brown University study. This amount was largely spent by the US Department of State and does not include the unknown expenditures of the US Central Intelligence Agency and US Defense Department. [...]
In 2005, under the Bush administration, the CIA backed an unpopular and violent attempt to overthrow the Union of Islamic Courts. The group comprised about a dozen local Islamic courts in southern Somalia that solved social disputes, reopened schools and ended roadblocks erected by violent warlords. The Union of Islamic Courts was generally popular among the Somali people living within their jurisdiction and seen by many residents as a welcomed alternative to the prior decade of civil war that decimated the region.
In the post-9/11 era, US government officials were wary of an Islamic government coming to power in Somalia and were fearful of the Union of Islamic Courts. When the CIA’s effort failed to topple the group, the US government then backed an Ethiopian military invasion of Somalia in late 2006. During this brutal two-year invasion, many members of the Union of Islamic Courts were killed or chased out of Mogadishu, and a small group of youth began a recruitment campaign using the slogan “al-Shabaab,” or “the youth” in Arabic.
In my view, this US-supported Ethiopian invasion was largely responsible for creating the conditions of political uncertainty and violence that prevail today.
Al-Shabaab portrayed the US-backed Ethiopian invasion in religious and nationalist terms and painted the US and Ethiopia as Christian invaders of a Muslim country. After two years of war, Ethiopia withdrew its troops, claiming their mission to rid the extremist threat was accomplished. This assertion proved to be false, as al-Shabaab insurgents recaptured nearly all territory lost by the UIC. The economic harm and social devastation caused by the US government is extensive, and there is little reason to believe the US approach to Somalia will change in the near future.
On September 6, 2023, for instance, the US military reportedly provided “remote assistance” to an aerial strike operation conducted by the Somali government that killed five civilians. Besides devastating the families left behind in the wake of violence, the lack of transparency and accountability has created an enduring tragedy for the Somali victims of the US’s covert activities. The US role in Somalia does not absolve al-Shabaab of its crimes, as the militant group continues to recruit from socially and economically disenfranchised communities in Somalia. Among those crimes are bombings of civilian targets throughout Africa and the Middle East, resulting in hundreds of deaths. But in my view, a demand for reparations from the Somali government before an international tribunal may force a US reckoning on its global war against terrorism that nevertheless still rages on in Somalia. Read more - Lire plus
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‘Newburgh Four’ Terrorism Case Releases Show Dire Need for FBI Reforms | |
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BC 10/10/2023 - A judge eviscerated the government for inventing a terror plot, declaring that “the real lead conspirator was the United States.”
Over the summer, a federal judge in Manhattan granted compassionate release for three of the four men convicted in the “Newburgh Four” terrorism case. Judge Colleen McMahon’s decision helped rectify the injustice of the decades-long prison sentences in a case where, as noted by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, an FBI informant, not the defendants, “inspired the crime, provoked it, planned it, financed it, equipped it, and furnished the time and targets.” But the FBI rules that allowed this conduct remain in place and must be reformed. [...]
The sting operation against the Newburgh Four was enabled by FBI rules that allow investigations to proceed without a reasonable indication of criminal activities or a factual basis to suspect wrongdoing. First issued in the 1970s after congressional investigations into the FBI and its abuses of power, the FBI guidelines, which are set by the attorney general, delineate the bureau’s counterintelligence powers. But the guidelines loosened over subsequent decades, and after 9/11, both Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Michael Mukasey issued guidelines that established unreasonably low criteria for opening investigations into individuals not suspected of criminal activity. The bureau’s post-9/11 guidelines allow agents to investigate people whenever they claim to have an “authorized purpose,” which is broadly defined as protecting national security. Combined with law enforcement’s intense suspicion of American Muslims, this overbroad authorization led to the Newburgh fishing expedition.
Because of the loosened guidelines, the FBI could investigate Cromitie without checking the veracity of his claims that he had an extensive and violent criminal history and that his father was Afghan. Verifying these claims would have revealed that Cromitie was a liar and desperate grifter, not an aspiring terrorist. But the post-9/11 guidelines, which reduced both the standards for opening investigations and the supervisory approval required, are further weakened by the bureau’s documented failure to comply with them. Given all this, the pursuit of Cromitie continued unabated.
The Newburgh Four sting operation is not an anomaly. For years, the FBI has constructed fake terrorist plots, incriminating young Muslim men who seem to lack the capacity and motivation to carry out attacks, then using the “spoiled plots” to justify and demonstrate the “success” of its expansive counterterrorism budget. In the Newburgh Four case, as in so many others, the FBI prevented no attack and caught no terrorists. Instead, it created criminals from four men desperate for cash.
The real victims in this case were the innocent people implicated in the government’s scheme: the Muslim community, again depicted as likely terrorists; the Jewish community, who experienced palpable fear from a government-staged “attempted” attack on their synagogue; the Newburgh community, targeted by the FBI for their demographic makeup and economic struggles; and, of course, the four men, who have served over 14 years for a crime invented, developed, and urged on by an unreliable informant and their own government. And if not for the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, which organized the motion for three of the men’s early releases, these men would have likely served another decade in jail.
To ensure that the FBI’s rules are properly proscribed through changing administrations and attorneys general, Congress should pass a legislative charter that codifies reformed guidelines into law. Until Congress does so, the Biden administration should instruct Attorney General Merrick Garland to restore reasonable criminal predicates to all investigative activity. Read more - Lire plus
EVENTS: Manufacturing the Threat screenings at Vancouver Film Fest Oct 15-20
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Gitmo detainees continue to be tortured by CIA physically, mentally: Attorney | |
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PressTV 04/10/2023 - Torture has always existed at Guantanamo Bay in different forms and the inmates there continue to be tortured physically and psychologically, says a US-based human rights attorney. In an interview with the Press TV website, Alka Pradhan, who has represented Guantanamo Bay detainees as well as victims of US drone strikes, described various forms of torture prevalent at the notorious American detention facility, also known as Gitmo, in southeastern Cuba.
“In the early days, it took the form of beatings and forced nudity, starvation and force-feedings, and other terrible techniques,” said Pradhan, referring to the institutionalizing of torture at Gitmo. “Now, decades of arbitrary detention, and lack of family visits and medical care – including botched or substandard procedures carried out by poorly qualified staff - continue to torture these men psychologically and physically.”
Pradhan, one of the leading human rights lawyers in the US, is currently Human Rights Counsel at the Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions. She was previously Counter-Terrorism Counsel at Reprieve US, where she represented several Guantanamo Bay detainees. She also conducted advocacy and litigation on behalf of civilian victims of US drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan and has advised the US government on compliance with international legal obligations. Last week, Pradhan was invited to the European Parliament to speak on Gitmo human rights abuses amid growing calls from human rights advocates to shut down the notorious US detention center. She is an attorney representing Ammar al-Baluchi, an Iranian citizen, who has suffered high-degree torture at the hands of the CIA and even denied medical care by the White House.
“Ammar, an Iranian citizen, was brutally tortured for 3.5 years at the “black sites” - the CIA’s secret prisons all over the world - before he was rendered to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006,” Pradhan told the Press TV website. “According to CIA records, CIA personnel used him as a human experiment, bashing his head against a wall over and over again for hours, to obtain their interrogator certifications. They also tortured him using water, shackling his wrists over his head, beatings, forced nudity, and forced starvation. For most of his time at the black sites, he was sleep-deprived, first with ear-splitting music, and then with 24/7 fluorescent lights,” she hastened to add.
Ammar, the American human rights attorney, said is 46 years old today and suffers from multiple brain injuries because of CIA torture as well as severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), inability to sleep normally and cognitive decline, denied proper medical care by the US government. “They will not allow medical histories to be taken that discuss the causes of his ailments (torture), the DoD (US Department of Defense) will not allow independent doctors to treat him, and according to the Chief Medical Officer, they do not have the ability to provide complex medical care or do proper surgeries here,” she said.” Read more - Lire plus
New York Times prematurely cleared Gov. Ron DeSantis of abusing Guantanamo detainees when he was a Naval officer
The Mystery of What Happened to a 9/11 Suspect’s Sons
Guantanamo: A constitutional debacle
Karen Greenberg: Closing Guantánamo?
Lawyers Expand Legal Fight for Longest-Held Prisoner of War on Terrorism: Abu Zubaydah was the first prisoner waterboarded by the C.I.A. He has never faced charges at Guantánamo Bay
The family of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee wants to stop the United Arab Emirates from forcibly repatriating him to Russia in violation of international law
A Curious Censorship Issue at the Guantánamo Court: A prisoner’s PTSD was discussed in open court, and was central to a ruling that he was unfit for trial. National security censors redacted it.
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Iraq: Torture Survivors Await US Redress, Accountability | |
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HRW 25/09/23 - The United States government has apparently failed to provide compensation or other redress to Iraqis who suffered torture and other abuse two decades after evidence emerged of US forces mistreating detainees at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US and its coalition allies held about 100,000 Iraqis between 2003 and 2009. Human Rights Watch and others have documented torture and other ill-treatment by US forces in Iraq. Survivors of abuse have come forward for years to give their accounts of their treatment, but received little recognition from the US government and no redress. Prohibitions against torture under US domestic law, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture, as well as customary international law, are absolute.
Here are the Human Rights Watch investigation's main conclusions:
- The US government has apparently failed to provide compensation or other redress to Iraqis who suffered torture and other abuse by US forces at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq two decades ago.
- Iraqis tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for receiving redress or recognition from the US government though the effects of torture are a daily reality for many Iraqi survivors and their families.
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In August 2022, the Pentagon released an action plan to reduce harm to civilians in US military operations, but it doesn’t include any way to receive compensation for past instances of civilian harm. Read more - Lire plus
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Indian police arrest a news site's editor and administrator after raiding homes of journalists | |
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The Associated press 04/10/2023 - Police in New Delhi have arrested the editor of a news website and one of its administrators after raiding the homes of journalists working for the site, which has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist-led government.
NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha and human resources chief Amit Chakravarty were arrested late Tuesday. Earlier, some journalists associated with the site were detained and had their digital devices seized during extensive raids that were part of an investigation into whether the news outlet had received funds from China. NewsClick denied any financial misconduct.
Suman Nalwa, a police spokesperson, said the arrests were made under an anti-terrorism law. The government has used the wide-ranging law to stifle dissent and to jail activists, journalists and Modi's critics, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial.
Nalwa said at least 46 people were questioned during the raids and their devices, including laptops and cellphones, and documents were taken away for examination.
They included current and former employees, freelance contributors and cartoonists.
NewsClick was founded in 2009 and is seen as a rare Indian news outlet willing to criticize Modi. It was also raided by Indian financial enforcement officials in 2021, after which a court blocked the authorities from taking any "coercive measures" against the website.
Indian authorities brought a case against the site and its journalists on Aug. 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that it had received funds from an American millionaire who had funded the spread of "Chinese propaganda." That same month, India's junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, accused NewsClick of spreading an "anti-India agenda," citing the New York Times report, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.
On Wednesday, hundreds of journalists and activists in New Delhi held protests against the raids on NewsClick and the broader crackdown on independent media under Modi. Some carried placards with slogans such as, "Stop attacks on media. Stop threatening media." "Anybody who speaks against the regime is deemed to be anti-national. This has been a long-term strategy, and these events are the latest in this," Manini Chatterjee, a journalist who was part of one protest. Media watchdogs such as the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the arrests and raids. Read more - Lire plus
Author Arundhati Roy may face prosecution in India over 2010 speech
Indian Nationalists Cite Inspiration for Foreign Assassinations: U.S. “Targeted Killing” Spree
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UN human rights experts ‘troubled’ over Hong Kong’s 47 democrats trial under national security law | |
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HKFP 10/10/2023 - A group of United Nations (UN) experts have said they were “very troubled” over the trial relating to 47 pro-democracy figures under the national security law. They called on China to review the legislation to ensure it adhered to its human rights commitments to the city.
The use of mass trials in national security cases in Hong Kong may undermine the practices for ensuring due process and the right to fair trial, four UN special rapporteurs said in a statement released on Monday. Their remarks came as the independent experts raised concern over the closely-watched national security case, in which 47 democrats stand accused of taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion. Read more - Lire plus
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France - Affaire du 8 décembre : L’antiterrorisme à l’assaut des luttes sociales
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Marseille Infos Autonomes 02/10/2023 - Militant·es des Soulèvements de la Terre détenues par la Sous-Direction-Antiterroriste (SDAT), unités antiterroristes mobilisées contre des militant.e.s antinucléaire, syndicalistes CGT arrêtés par la DGSI, unités du RAID déployées lors des révoltes urbaines... La mobilisation récurrente des moyens d’enquête antiterroriste pour réprimer les mouvements sociaux associée à la diffusion d’éléments de langage sans équivoque - « écoterrorisme », « terrorisme intellectuel » - ne laissent aucun doute.
Il s’agit d’installer l’amalgame entre terrorisme et luttes sociales afin de préparer l’opinion publique à ce que les auteurices d’illégalismes politiques soient, bientôt, inculpées pour terrorisme. Et donner ainsi libre cours à la répression politique en lui faisant bénéficier de l’arsenal répressif le plus complet que le droit offre aujourd’hui : la législation antiterroriste.
C’est dans ce contexte que se tiendra, en octobre, le premier procès pour« terrorisme » de militant.es de gauche depuis l’affaire Tarnac [1]. L’enjeu est majeur. Une condamnation viendrait légitimer le glissement répressif souhaité par le gouvernement. C’est la ligne de partage symbolique entre ce qui peut être, ou non, qualifié de terrorisme que le pouvoir cherche dans ce procès à déplacer. Car, du côté du droit, rien ne protège les luttes sociales de l’antiterrorisme. Comme le rappelle Olivier Cahn [2], « le flou de la notion de terroriste » - associé à la nature préventive de la justice antiterroriste - aboutit à une situation où « on a mis le droit en état de permettre à un régime autoritaire de se débarrasser de ces opposants sans avoir à changer la loi ».
C’est cet avertissement que vient illustrer de manière caricaturale l’affaire du 8 décembre dans laquelle sept personnes, sélectionné·es sur la base de leurs opinions politiques, doivent se défendre d’avoir participé à un projet... inconnu. Face à cette situation kafkaïenne, il s’agit de revenir sur la façon dont est construit un dossier antiterroriste. Il s’agit de montrer à quel point la place offerte au récit policier rend toute défense compliquée et ouvre la voie à une répression politique débridée. Il s’agit, enfin, de rappeler pourquoi la justice antiterroriste est un monstre juridique qui doit être combattu en soi. Read more - Lire plus
Affaire du 8 décembre: Le droit au chiffrement et à la vie privee en procès
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UN: Human rights concerns over two draft laws in Sri Lanka | |
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UN 13/10/2023 - We have serious concerns over two bills under consideration in the Sri Lankan Parliament - the revised Anti-Terrorism Bill and the Online Safety Bill - which give the authorities a range of expansive powers and can impose restrictions on human rights, not in line with international human rights law.
The Anti-Terrorism Bill is intended to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has long been of concern to the UN human rights mechanisms. While some positive revisions have been made in the draft, including the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, there are still major concerns about the scope and discriminatory effects of many provisions in the revised draft. Restrictions to the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are very likely to fail to meet requirements of necessity and proportionality.
The Bill still includes an overly broad definition of terrorism and grants wide powers to the police - and to the military - to stop, question and search, and to arrest and detain people, with inadequate judicial oversight. Other issues remain over the imposition of curfews, restriction orders and the designation of prohibited places, all of which raise concerns about the scope of powers granted to the executive without sufficient checks and balances. Read more - Lire plus
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Why your data might already be on a Europol list | |
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EU Observer 09/10/2023 - You don't have to be a civil rights defender or even an opposition voice to end up on a police list. You don't even have to commit a crime.
In today's EU, innocent people are being swept up in a police digital dragnet that risks eroding the very basis of democracy.
Police forces around Europe seem hooked on the habit of collecting information on a massive scale and forwarding it to the EU's police agency, Europol. This undermines privacy, fair trial rights and the presumption of innocence. Once the police have your data, you may inadvertently become a suspect in an open investigation. In defence of hard-fought freedoms, the public needs to curb police overreach.
It shouldn't be the case, but the national police and the EU's police agency Europol are having a hard time getting the memo. At Statewatch, we teamed up with European Digital Rights (EDRi), a Brussels-based network of European network of experts defending human rights in the digital era. Together we published a guide encouraging individuals to request the data held on them by Europol.
Why worry?
In November 2022, Extinction Rebellion in the Netherlands broke into Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to prevent private jets from taking off. The protest helped usher in an official ban on private jets at the airport. Yet months later, the police sent out a letter to 176 people allegedly present at the Schiphol protest. Some faced criminal charges despite being somewhere else on that day. The police, according to the NGO Bits of Freedom, "cross-referenced pictures taken during the protest with 'open sources' such as Facebook and Twitter in order to identify protestors". Although in most cases people successfully rebutted the accusation, the police still kept their personal data on file. Dissent and resistance are hallmarks of any functioning democracy. Yet these individuals are being increasingly targeted.
One example involves Dutch peace activist Frank van der Linde, who was flagged as a terrorist suspect on a technicality, in order for the Dutch police to alert their German counterparts. Europol had been looped in. Van der Linde filed a request for access to the data held about him by Europol. While the case is still ongoing, Europol has already been caught in the act of obstructing the right to access by trying to delete information about the case.
And Van der Linde's case is far from unique. Europol, in its Terrorism Situation and Trend Report of 2023, states that "the line between environmental activism and environmental extremism is often a blurred one, yet some of environmental activists' narratives might have the potential to incite violence among extremists". The last change in the Europol regulation has only increased the power of the agency to receive and process massive amounts of data about individuals — with little (if any) monitoring.
A recent investigation also shows that Europol has been pushing EU lawmakers to grant it unfiltered access to data from private messaging apps in order to detect child sexual abuse. The sharing of information about a suspect should only happen on a case-by-case basis for individuals accused of a serious crime. In any case, individuals are not informed when their data is shared with Europol. Yet, they can learn about it by asking the agency. EDRi's guide offers people around Europe a clear roadmap on why and how it should be done. It provides an efficient way to challenge police's abusive use of data and hold them accountable for it. Read more - Lire plus
How to request access to your personal data stored by Europol: a guide
Frontex shared personal data of NGO staff with Europol six times
Webinar "Activists and NGOs under watch! Are you in Europol's databases?" on Nov 7
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‘Predator Files’ spyware scandal reveals brazen targeting of civil society, politicians and officials | |
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Amnesty International 09/10/2023 - Shocking spyware attacks have been attempted against civil society, journalists, politicians and academics in the European Union (EU), USA and Asia, according to a major new investigation by Amnesty International. Among the targets of Predator spyware are United Nations (UN) officials, a Senator and Congressman in the USA and even the Presidents of the European Parliament and Taiwan. The investigation is part of the ‘Predator Files’ project, in partnership with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) and backed by additional in-depth reporting by Mediapart and Der Spiegel.
Between February and June 2023, social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook were used to publicly target at least 50 accounts belonging to 27 individuals and 23 institutions. The cyber-surveillance weapon used for targeting was an invasive spyware tool called Predator, which was developed and sold by the Intellexa alliance. This alliance, which has advertised itself as “EU based and regulated”, is a complex and often changing group of companies that develops and sells surveillance products, including Predator spyware.
Predator is a type of highly invasive spyware. This means that once it has infiltrated a device it has unfettered access to its microphone and camera and all its data such as contacts, messages, photos and videos, while the user is entirely unaware. Such spyware cannot, at present, be independently audited or limited in its functionality to only those functions that are necessary and proportionate to a specific use.
“Yet again, we have evidence of powerful surveillance tools being used in brazen attacks. The targets this time around are journalists in exile, public figures and intergovernmental officials. But let’s make no mistake: the victims are all of us, our societies, good governance and everyone’s human rights,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International. Read more - Lire plus
Open letter to Members of the European Parliament calling for the absolute prohibition of spyware against journalists
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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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20 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. | |
OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
January to June 2023 - Janvier à juin 2023 | |
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Here is what we worked on so far this year thanks to the support of our members and donors:
- Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
- Bill C-26, An Act respecting cyber security and amending the Telecommunications Act
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
- Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
- Combatting Islamophobia
- Countering terrorist financing & prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
- National Security and Intelligence Review Agency
- CSIS accountability and duty of candour
- CSE, surveillance and cyberwarfare
- Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
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“Online harms” proposal
- Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- UN Counterterrorism Executive Directorate Canada assessment
- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global survey on counterterrorism and civic space
For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.
What we have planned for the rest of 2023!
- Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices
- 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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Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
- 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 Canada Border Services Agency
- Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
- 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
- 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
- Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
- And much more!
Version française: Ce que nous avons fait jusqu'à présent en 2023
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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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