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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

March 15, 2025 - 15 mars 2025

Brenda McPhail: Facial Recognition Technology: Rights, Risks and Required Regulation

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 - Facial recognition technology (FRT) carries the risk of annihilating our right to anonymity in public and quasi-public spaces. It sounds alarmist. It sounds hyperbolic. But it’s neither. It’s simply an observation grounded in the promises made by makers of FRT tools themselves. NEC Corporation’s NeoFace Watch technology promises the ability to “process multiple camera feeds extracting and matching thousands of faces per minute.”¹ Clearview AI’s controversial (and, in Canada, illegal²) facial recognition software runs against a database of over 30 billion images scraped from the internet.³

To understand the dangers, it’s essential to understand how facial recognition technologies work. FRT is a type of biometric (that is, body-based) technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and other computational tools to identify individuals through their facial features. FRT functions by extracting biometric information based on key facial characteristics and makes comparisons between live and stored biometric templates in databases. Or more simply, it uses our faces in a technologically-enabled matching process to figure out who we are. Notably, there are a number of studies that indicate that some FRT tools are less accurate on faces that are neither white nor male, leaving everyone who is neither at greater risk of misidentification.⁴

There are different ways this technology may be used. The most extreme version – live facial recognition in the streets of our communities – is not, to the best of our knowledge, currently used by Canadian police; although it has, we know, been tested at Toronto’s Pearson airport.⁵ But FRT to compare so-called “lawfully collected” images against mug- shot databases is increasingly used by police forces across Canada, largely without notice, meaningful consultation, or effective public oversight or accountability.

And of course, it’s not just police or national security forces who want to use it. Facial recognition is emerging in a variety of ways in the private sector, with documented uses ranging from live scanning for alleged shoplifters in the image feed from Canadian Tire security cameras⁶ – a story that hit the news when an Indigenous man was wrongfully identified – to checking student identity for online exams, to potentially paying for groceries with a face scan connected to a payment card.⁷

The use of FRT is a human rights issue that goes well beyond privacy concerns. Privacy is an enabling right—think of it as a gateway. Once the privacy gates are thrown open, once we lose control over information about ourselves (particularly something such as our face which is so fundamental and integral to who we are), the use of that information has impacts on other democratic, Charter-protected rights, most particularly freedom of expression, association, and equality rights. When we’re watched, and known, we may be less likely to speak up on controversial issues. We may be less likely to gather to protest and stand up for causes we believe in. When we’re watched, and known, all the discriminatory impacts of systemic racism, sexism, ableism and socio-economic exclusion built into social systems, particularly security systems, may be exacerbated. FRT makes the surveillant gaze – so often disproportionately directed at those who are racialized or marginalized – more effective, and shifts it from “we saw you” to “we know who you are.”

If residents of Canada become unable to move about their communities as just a face in the crowd, that fundamentally changes the nature of the society in which we live. In a rights-respecting democracy, we expect freedom from routine, indiscriminate observation – never mind identification – by the state; an expectation vindicated by rulings at the Supreme Court of Canada.⁸ Facial recognition has the potential to disrupt if not eliminate that expectation. So too would the presumption of innocence, a core democratic principle, be eroded if FRT were to be used indiscriminately in public spaces. And lest we think the possibility unlikely, something that might only happen in an authoritarian state, our Five Eyes ally, the UK, is actively experimenting with live FRT.⁹

The potentially wide application of FRT, the extensive range of actors who want to use it, and its ability to be secretly implemented using existing security cameras, make it imperative to have the necessary public conversations regarding whether there are uses of FRT that are acceptable in our society. If there are, which ones are we willing to allow, and how should they be regulated to mitigate any risks? The discussion has begun with the recent study and report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI), where the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), ICLMG and others made detailed recommendations. The report’s 19 recommendations reflect some of our concerns, including a call to implement a federal moratorium on using FRT until a regulatory framework concerning uses, prohibitions, oversight and accountability mechanisms, and privacy protections is democratically debated and put in place.¹⁰

That’s the correct course of action, given what is at stake. In February 2023, the government issued its response to the report, which failed to address the severity of the challenges posed by FRT and artificial intelligence. Civil society is rallying to fill that gap. A coalition of groups and individuals from across Canada, led by CCLA and ICLMG among others, has come together under the banner of the “Right 2 Your Face Coalition,” with the goal of crafting impactful advocacy on regulating this dangerous technology and ensuring that a wide range of public-interest perspectives are integrated and promoted before decision-makers. In an open letter, the new coalition highlighted several key concerns with the government’s response: it ignores the calls for a federal moratorium on the use of FRT, it fails to assume a leadership role in responsible tech policy, and it relies heavily on the proposed Bill C-27 (the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022) as the catch-all solution, despite that Bill’s failure to adequately protect individuals’ privacy rights or to rein in artificial intelligence tools.¹¹

Canada needs a rights-based approach to crafting new federal and provincial cross-sector laws for biometric protections, and also needs to update existing laws including the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Privacy Act, to appropriately govern and, in cases of mass surveillance, prohibit FRT use. There are many examples globally where biometric protective legislation has recently been enacted or is under consideration that provide a template, including a Canadian example, in Quebec.¹² To get it right, the process must begin with proactive consultation with those communities most likely to be disproportionately impacted by the technology.

There is a policy window to act, but it’s closing rapidly as FRT gains ground, often quietly and covertly, across the country. People in Canada deserve the freedom to go about their days unidentified. As the ETHI Committee rightly notes in their report: “Without an appropriate [legislative] framework, FRT and other AI tools could cause irreparable harm to some individuals.”¹³ The risks are obvious. The rights engaged are multiple. The time for a social and political response is now. Source

Dr. Brenda McPhail does research and advocacy at the junction of privacy and technology, and is the Director of Executive Education for the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University. Right2yourface.ca

Version française : La technologie de reconnaissance faciale : droits, risques et réglementation nécessaire

David Lyon: The ICLMG and Surveillance Studies at Queen’s University

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 - The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) was founded in response to the aftermath of 9/11, with its global search for terrorists, facilitated in part by massive surveillance initiatives. During the next few years, what was then known as The Surveillance Project, at Queen’s University in Kingston, began a fruitful partnership with the ICLMG, initiated by Roch Tassé, the group’s first National Coordinator. The concern with state and especially security surveillance was maintained throughout several major research projects and ensuing publications.

At Queen’s, we were excited to be working with an organisation devoted to maintaining civil liberties in Canada and to blowing the whistle when such liberties were undermined through inappropriate surveillance activities. The need for such work was patently clear from 2002 when Canadian telecoms engineer Maher Arar was detained at JFK Airport, New York and then transferred to Syria, where he was held in inhuman conditions, interrogated and tortured. Erroneous surveillance information was at the source of the problem.

Roch Tassé, representing the ICLMG, took part in research projects conducted at Queen’s University early on. Workshop contributions by the ICLMG appeared in books such as Global Surveillance and Policing: Borders Security, Identity¹ and in articles such as “Airport screening, surveillance and social sorting: Canadian response to 9/11 in context.”² Other contributions include participation in Colin Bennett and David Lyon’s edited Playing the Identity Card: Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective³ and in Kirstie Ball and Laureen Snider’s edited collection, The Surveillance‑Industrial Complex.⁴ The ICLMG collaborated with Queen’s University’s Surveillance Studies Centre (SSC) which formally opened in 2009.

In 2015, Monia Mazigh, ICLMG’s newly appointed National Coordinator, worked with the Queen’s SSC on the New Transparency project.⁵ In 2016, Tim McSorley, ICLMG’s next National Coordinator, became involved as a partner with the Big Data Surveillance (BDS) Project, and presented in a workshop which later became a chapter in the book Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence: The Canadian Case⁶ published in 2021. The chapter, co-authored by Xan Dagenais, ICLMG’s Communications and Research Coordinator, is entitled “Confronting Big Data: Popular Resistance to Government Surveillance in Canada since 2001”. The ICLMG also presented in the last BDS conference and participated in the final BDS report, which was published in 2022: Beyond Big Data Surveillance: Freedom and Fairness.⁷

The Big Data Surveillance project was the culmination of many years of working with partners like the ICLMG and focused on the massive growth in “dataveillance” in every area of life. We explored together the use of massive troves of data that became available as social media users unwittingly offered details of their lives to platforms such as Google, which quickly realized there was a profit to be made with the data. Today, data is also sought for policing, national security and other government-related purposes, which raises acute civil liberties as well as data justice and digital rights issues. Big Data—now augmented by AI—also plays a significant role in perpetuating social inequalities along familiar lines of class, race and gender.

Our research partnership findings have had a real impact, not only through academic publications and op-eds or media interviews, but also by contributing to the regulation of platform companies, to popular resistance to some of their most negative effects, and to the quest for alternative ways of handling data – not merely data “on” people, but “for” and “with” those whose data is collected, analyzed and acted on. While our research includes international partners, we’ve always worked to bring home the challenge of today’s surveillance to those living in Canada, through freely available and accessible writings.

The most recent report, Beyond Big Data Surveillance: Freedom and Fairness, for example, highlights the lopsided nature of information, whereby organizations “know” more and more about us, while we know less and less about what they are doing. The report refers to this as “tangled surveillance”, where very complex technologies operate in ways that are obscure to most of us and yet are only met with very weak and inadequate instruments that are unable to limit their negative power. Furthermore, the report indicates which groups are most exposed and vulnerable to “big data surveillance.”

But these are just the technical aspects of our partnership between the SSC and the ICLMG. Being involved in common projects, with like-minded people, is what makes this collaboration magical. The SSC is an academic research group; the ICLMG is a politically active coalition of civil liberties organizations. But we share the common goal of understanding and regulating surveillance which is effectively addressed by working together. It is a worthwhile, mutually beneficial relationship to which we each contribute and for which both parties are grateful. We would each be poorer without the other.

While our respective members do academic and advocacy work, together we work towards the same goals with complementary tactics, and this is what makes the partnership so meaningful and so fulfilling. So thank you, Roch, Monia and Tim—along with those who have worked with you at ICLMG— for being willing to partner with us at the SSC. Our work has been all the more grounded for what you’ve taught us, and we believe that your work has been enhanced by the results of our research.

Best wishes for the next 20 years! Source

David Lyon is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Law at Queen’s University, Kingston, and author of many books, most recently Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2024).

Version française: La CSILC et le Centre des études sur la surveillance de l’Université Queen’s

Ronald Deibert: The U.S. Wants Canada to Become A Police State

Appeasing Trump’s border demands only emboldens authoritarians worldwide. Here’s why we must resist.

Maclean's 12/03/2025 - [...] Even before Trump took office, and largely in response to his social media taunts, Canadian officials adopted an aggressive approach to border security. In December of 2024, they committed $1.3 billion in additional spending over six years. So hasty were they to appease Trump that the RCMP quickly procured a fleet of quadcopter surveillance drones—which became unusable because of security risks linked to their manufacture in China. Since Trump took office, Canada has continued these new deployments, adding 15 surveillance towers with high-resolution cameras, alongside new drones, four Black Hawk helicopters and a customized plane for aerial surveillance. Collectively, they deploy infrared, heat-seeking and other advanced detection capabilities. This accelerated shopping spree will bring a raft of risks to populations on both sides of the border.

For example, previous research has raised serious concerns about the widespread use (and abuse) of predictive policing and surveillance technologies by Canada’s security agencies, including those responsible for monitoring the border. Even before Trump was elected, crossing the U.S.–Canada border channelled travellers into a Matrix-like surveillance web of high-tech control systems: biometric profiling, social media monitoring, cellphone data extraction systems, automated licence plate readers. While some of us may waltz through this matrix unimpeded, this type of surveillance web disproportionately ensnares vulnerable travellers, like people of colour and religious minorities, because it’s prone to bias, discrimination and error. Companies may tout AI-powered accuracy, but algorithms are ultimately human creations, embodying all of the discriminatory prejudices that plague modern policing and intelligence practices.

Achieving perfect accuracy is no answer to this problem either. By making those prejudiced surveillance practices more efficient, they become more harmful. It is haunting to consider the U.S. government’s announcement of an AI "catch and revoke" program to search through foreign national students’ social media accounts to find evidence of “support for Hamas or other designated terror groups” as a pretext to revoke their visas and speedily deport them. What will count as support is not defined. It’s likely kept vague to give authorities the widest discretion.

The U.S. government’s use of AI to scour social media raises issues of broader civil liberty that should concern all Canadians. Government officials have said that what they collect through surveillance systems of this sort is mostly “public data” and thus fair game for warrantless acquisition and search. But the tools they use to scrape through social media are highly invasive: they can collect extraordinarily rich and personal information from anyone. I’m the director of the Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based research centre. My team, along with legal experts and human rights advocates, have shown how such uses may violate the Canadian Charter or international human rights law, specifically infringing on the rights to privacy, equality and freedom of expression, among other violations.

Government agencies that will use these tools already operate with limited oversight and records of non-compliance. In Canada, for example, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and its provincial counterparts have repeatedly criticized the RCMP and Canadian Border Services Agency for their uses of commercial surveillance against the public. Recent parliamentary hearings revealed the RCMP secretly used advanced phone hacking for years without public disclosure or privacy assessments, and it had used third-party services to collect personal information from social media, the dark web and other sources. The CBSA, meanwhile, had used digital forensic tools to unlock seized electronic devices at the border.

On the U.S. side, whatever problems there might have been around limited oversight and non-compliance with constitutional safeguards have mushroomed under Trump. The new administration has hacksawed through oversight bodies, including inspectors general and independent government watchdog agencies, in an effort to consolidate executive power and cut federal employees, all the while funnelling billions of new dollars to security agencies to assist in deportation efforts. They have simultaneously expanded Immigrations and Customs Enforcement authority to conduct arrests and detentions while expediting deportation procedures with the help of a new swathe of AI tools. Ominously, the Department of Homeland Security eliminated policies prohibiting personnel from conducting intelligence activities based solely on a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation—in effect, greenlighting discriminatory surveillance practices. [...]

By acquiring surveillance technologies, Western agencies fuel a poorly regulated industry and provide authoritarian regimes with new tools to repress people. Even before Trump took office, my team found case after case of authoritarian and even democratic governments using these highly invasive systems to target journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and legitimate political resisters. Many spyware and surveillance companies have headquarters in Israel and Gulf countries, where Trump has lots of friends. He’s notorious for his chummy relations with dictators and autocrats who most benefit from a poorly regulated surveillance-industrial complex. High-risk individuals, including human rights defenders in exile, will face heightened threats, caught in the crosshairs of two adversaries: the countries that they fled from in fear for their lives and their host countries who first welcomed them, but will now put them under a Kafka-esque spotlight in order to locate and deport them.

Who will be hurt most? As always, immigrants, refugees, political targets, investigative journalists and anyone threatening the new oligarchy’s interests. Support groups, including NGOs, legal aid organizations and academic watchdogs, will also be in danger. [...]

Meanwhile, the Canadian government should avoid hastily dumping resources into our own border and security agencies simply to appease Trump; it’s clear now that whatever we do won’t truly appease him anyway. Nor should we blindly mimic the unrestrained police state that is developing south of the border. If anything, our government should invest in stronger oversight to prevent abuses and discriminatory practices while simultaneously devoting resources to build support systems to migrants and refugees who need them now more than ever.

Persecuted people throughout history have fought and survived the type of doom that many of us are only now feeling for the first time. The world Trump and his coterie of James Bond villains are building is one these groups have spent decades resisting. Joining them in that resistance has been long overdue—but now is better than never. Read more - Lire plus

Launch of the Joint Operational Intelligence Cell

We logged every RCMP Black Hawk flight for 6 weeks. Here's what we found

NEW ACTION Cancel F35 contract. Canada shouldn’t spend billions on US fighter jets

Canada reconsidering F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington, says minister - let's keep up the pressure!

ACTION Amnesty International: Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement

Canada-U.S. Cross-Border Surveillance Negotiations Raise Constitutional and Human Rights Whirlwind under U.S. CLOUD Act

The CitizenLab 24/02/2025 - Since the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, Canada-U.S. relations have become increasingly strained and the subject of public concern. It should thus be of further concern to the public that, since 2022, the Canadian government has been quietly negotiating a bilateral law enforcement data-sharing agreement with the U.S. under a piece of U.S. legislation called the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (“CLOUD Act”). 

These negotiations are ongoing, despite the fact that the U.S. does not recognize human rights obligations beyond its own borders, let alone issues such as the new President openly antagonizing Canada, while minions of tech billionaire Elon Musk have been running amok through sensitive government data. Media reports are also surfacing that the CIA will “use espionage to give Trump extra leverage in his trade negotiations”. These destabilizing events should give grave pause to any notion of entering into any such data-sharing agreement with the U.S. at this, of all, times—especially one with as many issues as the CLOUD Act. [...]

CLOUD Act agreement risks subordinating Canadian constitution to U.S. law

This longstanding schism running alongside the 49th parallel is why Canada submitting to a CLOUD Act agreement would be so disturbing. The move would deeply undermine a key pillar of Canadian privacy law, blocking Canadian court judges from supervising warrantless U.S. law enforcement surveillance, even in circumstances where a Canadian police service would be required to get a Canadian judge to authorize seizure of the exact same data. 

This fundamental shift in our privacy law landscape would strike a major blow for Canada’s sovereignty over its own constitutional guarantees. In Bykovets, a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling again underscoring the critical role of judicial supervision over electronic surveillance, the majority opinion described how the concentration of a “mass of information” in the hands of private corporations has “fundamentally altered the the topography of informational privacy.” In an overwhelmingly digital world, even our IP addresses can betray deeply personal information. There are countless examples of information and data in the hands of technology companies, telecommunications providers, banks, universities, or other entities where law enforcement access is supervised by Canadian courts, given the potential that this information might otherwise be “compiled, dissected and analyzed to lend new insights into who we are as individuals or populations.”

U.S. experts themselves have warned potential CLOUD Act signatories of weaknesses in U.S. surveillance laws, given concerns that the CLOUD Act potentially expands cross-border law enforcement powers to issue orders for real-time surveillance, such as wiretapping. That is the difference between police asking your cell phone provider to send them a block of your chat history from a specific past time period, and asking your cell phone provider to start forwarding to them all of your texts that you send or receive in real-time, going forward. A former U.S. judge noted that the language of the CLOUD Act is vague enough that it may authorize additional cross-border real-time surveillance powers, such as remote location tracking or remotely hacking into a person’s device (to the extent a technology company’s cooperation is involved). On top of all of that, nothing would prevent U.S. authorities from sharing and repurposing personal data collected from Canada for matters that have nothing to do with the CLOUD Act or criminal investigations. [...]

Canadian government should reject CLOUD Act agreement to uphold Canada’s constitutional and human rights

In signing a CLOUD Act agreement, Canada would furthermore make itself vulnerable to additional privacy and national security threats arising from any future bestowing of even broader powers on U.S. law enforcement authorities, by the current or future administrations. This lesson is already being learned painfully by, in fact, the U.S. itself. The Washington Post reported this month that the U.K. government secretly demanded Apple create a way to decrypt its users’ data worldwide for the U.K. government to access. This demand reportedly relied on the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act, a law amended in 2024—a few short years after the U.S. and U.K. reached their own CLOUD Act agreement in 2019. In response to these revelations, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden circulated a draft bill to address major deficiencies in the CLOUD Act—which is cause for sober second thought by any countries considering an agreement under the Act, such as Canada.

To be sure, some of the assessment we provide in this article is drawn from educated guesses and existing CLOUD Act agreements the U.S. has struck with the U.K. and Australia. Much will depend on the actual text of Canada’s own agreement, which has yet to be made public. However, the broad scope of the CLOUD Act means that any agreement is almost certainly to put our fundamental rights at risk, unless and perhaps even if the Canadian government were somehow able to navigate a veritable minefield of incompatibilities and contradictions between Canada’s constitutional and human rights frameworks, and those of the U.S. Wrangling surveillance standards into theoretical compliance with Canada’s Charter would also still provide no answer to the concerns regarding types of crimes investigated, the U.S.’s lack of extraterritorial human rights obligations, potential repurposing of Canadian data after the fact, and the lack of any recourse for individuals whose rights are violated.  

Absent more compelling evidence and justification than it has demonstrated so far, the Canadian government must reconsider and carefully assess its potential bilateral and international data-sharing obligations with foreign partners, such as the United States. Given all of the above, it seems that Canada cannot in good conscience enter into a far-reaching agreement that could result in sharing even more data to help an increasingly rogue administration persecute vulnerable individuals—among other potential consequences— on grounds that would be illegal here and which fly against principles enshrined in our constitutional and human rights laws. Particularly at a time when democratic institutions and courts are struggling to retain integrity and public legitimacy, especially in the U.S., it is more critical than ever that Canada protectively and unwaveringly holds its own constitutional lines. Read more - Lire plus

US Senator Wyden Releases Draft Bill to Secure Americans’ Communications Against Foreign Surveillance Demands

The Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia: For a more inclusive Canada

Note from the ICLMG: The new guide is a crucial tool. It will definitely be a valuable resource in our work addressing systemic Islamophobia including racial and religious profiling in Canada's national security and anti-terror activities. Thank you to Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby and the entire team in her office for putting together this important report!

Canada.ca 03/03/2025 - Chapter Five: Navigating media narratives and stereotypes

Much of what is known about Islam and Muslims in Western societies is derived through media sources and Hollywood.

The overrepresentation of Muslims in narratives about terrorism has been a persistent and concerning trend in media portrayals. In a study of over 900 Hollywood films, Muslim or Arab men were often represented as terrorists or “stock villains.”

A few media examples demonstrate this phenomenon which transcends borders, reaching audiences throughout the West. A study released in 2018 by the Washington-based Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that between 2002 and 2015, the New York Times and the Washington Post gave, on average, 770 percent more coverage to foiled cases of ideologically motivated violence involving Muslim perpetrators than similar cases involving non-Muslim perpetrators.

Between 2008 and 2012, 81 percent of stories about terrorism on 146 network and cable news programs in the United States were about Muslims, while only six percent of domestic terrorism suspects were actually Muslim, leading to a clear over-representation of Muslims as terrorists. Over a 25-year span, Islam garnered more negative headlines in the New York Times than cocaine, cancer and alcohol, according to Canadian researchers. Muslims are constantly under scrutiny, the subject of persistent divisive political rhetoric and fearmongering.

In addition, the findings of the Canadian Association of Journalists’ survey on newsrooms underscore a pressing issue in the form of a significant lack of diverse representation within Canada’s media outlets. The underrepresentation of diverse voices in newsrooms perpetuates a notable disparity between the composition of news teams and the diversity of the Canadian population. This disconnect has repercussions. It limits the range of perspectives and narratives covered in news reporting, resulting in a less comprehensive and inclusive understanding of the issues that impact diverse communities.

Social media and Islamophobia

Social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube and Instagram, among many others, have become integral facets of modern life, shaping trends and captivating users.

However, with this evolution comes certain dangers: the rise of Islamophobic hate speech on social media. This phenomenon poses a growing concern, manifesting in ways that inflict harm on victims, breed fear and exclusion within communities, poison public discourse. It can even incite extremist, hateful and deadly acts.

While the study of social media and its impact on Islamophobia is still an understudied area in Canada, recent research in Europe serves as a stark warning. Far-right groups exploit these digital spaces, employing disinformation and manipulation tactics to vilify Muslims and their faith. Researchers have shed light on the insidious nature of “cloaked” Facebook pages, revealing how individuals or groups feign radical Islamism to sow antipathy against Muslims, successfully inciting anger toward broader Muslim communities.

Several online far-right media channels have also appeared or grown in Canada in the recent years with substantial viewership that target Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments, while perpetuating misinformation and hate. For example, in 2017, a far-right media source posted lamenting that the white population of Canada is being “replaced” by immigrants, particularly from Muslim-majority countries. The consequences of exposure to Islamophobic messages are profound. Sociological studies indicate that portrayals of Muslims as terrorists can fuel support for civil restrictions on Muslims and endorse military actions against Muslim-majority countries and have led to the self-radicalization of individuals who would go on to kill Muslims in Canada and beyond. The role of social media in perpetuating Islamophobia demands scrutiny and awareness, as social media is a powerful force in shaping perceptions and attitudes, influencing policy decisions and potentially leading to deadly violence.

Empowering Muslims to tell their own stories

The relative ease with which people can broadcast their experiences, views and interests means that a more representative range of narratives is more widely available than ever before. Furthermore, a growing number of Muslim filmmakers, journalists, artists, authors, comedians and creative producers are excelling in their fields. They are challenging unidimensional portrayals and telling stories that are both universal and yet also deeply rooted within their own cultural and religious communities. Mainstream culture and media provide an important avenue to counter Islamophobia while demonstrating the presence and vibrancy of Muslim communities. More and more Canadian Muslim creatives are stepping up, as are institutional efforts to document the vibrant history of Muslims in Canada. A commitment to diverse school curricula and university courses, along with community arts programming, will help ensure more Canadians have access to such offerings. Read more - Lire plus

Despite challenging first two years, Canada’s special rep on Islamophobia is undaunted

Electric shock equipment widely abused by law enforcement agencies due to alarming lack of regulation

Amnesty International 06/03/2025 - States and companies are manufacturing, promoting and selling electric shock equipment that is being used for torture and other ill-treatment, said Amnesty International, in a new report calling for a global, legally-binding treaty to regulate the unchecked production of and trade in law enforcement equipment.

“I Still Can’t Sleep at Night” – The Global Abuse of Electric Shock Equipment, documents how law enforcement agencies are using inherently abusive direct contact electric shock weapons – including stun guns and electric shock batons– on the street, at borders, in migrant and refugee detention centres, mental health institutions, police stations, prisons, and other places of detention.

These inherently abusive devices, which deliver painful shocks at the press of a button, have been used against protesters, students, political opponents, women and girls (including pregnant women), children and human rights defenders, among others. Survivors have suffered burns, numbness, miscarriage, urinary dysfunction, insomnia, exhaustion and profound psychological trauma.

The report also looks at the escalating misuse of Projectile Electric Shock Weapons (PESWs), which can have a legitimate role in law enforcement, but are often misused. Cases include the unnecessary and discriminatory use against vulnerable groups resulting in serious injuries and in some cases even death.

“Direct contact electric shock weapons can cause severe suffering, long-lasting physical disability and psychological distress. Prolonged use can even result in death,” said Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s researcher on military, security and policing issues.

“PESWs are being used against individuals who pose no risk of violence, simply for punishment or compliance with orders. They are also being used in direct contact ‘drive stun’ mode, which should be prohibited. Despite the clear human rights risks associated with their use, there are no global regulations controlling the production of and trade in electric shock equipment. Direct contact electric shock weapons need to be banned immediately and PESWs subject to strict human-rights-based trade controls.”

The extensive report draws on research carried out by Amnesty International from 2014 to 2024 in over 40 countries across all regions across the world, where cases involving torture and other ill-treatment using electric shock equipment have been documented. Source

NEW ACTION Take the torture out of protest! Regulate the trade in policing equipment

Activists take protest to the doorstep of Canada’s Defence Minister after repeatedly ignoring calls for action

Ricochet 03/03/2025 - More than a hundred anti-war protesters brought their concerns to the Toronto home of Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Blair last week.

Standing on the public sidewalk on February 23, the demonstrators shouted “war criminal!” at what protester’s say is Blair’s St. Clair Avenue home. They are demanding that Blair impose a full two-way arms embargo on Israel. The protest marked the “Global Day of Action to Close Bases.”

Some of the banner messages read: “Bill Blair, you are a liar, arms embargo or you are fired,” “Made in Canada: Israeli killing machines,” and “Stop arming genocide.” 

The protest was organized by Jews Say No to Genocide, World Beyond War, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Scarborough Southwest for Palestine, who have been demanding an arms embargo on Israel for 16 months from the Canadian government.

“But the opposite has happened. Not only does Canada keep selling weapons to Israel, Blair, as ‘war minister,’ has kept buying Israeli weapons for the Canadian military,” says Rachel Small, an organizer with World Beyond War Canada.

Small said that this is putting Canadian taxpayers’ dollars directly in the hands of the “Israeli war machine.”

“It’s inexcusable,” she added.

In December 2023, Blair announced a new agreement to purchase $43 million worth of Spike LR2 missiles from Rafael, the Israeli state-owned defence manufacturer.

“We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza, period,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said on September 10, 2024.

This explanation came a few weeks after the U.S. announcement that a Quebec-located company would be the principal contractor “possible” $61-million U.S. sale of ammunition to Israel.

Small said that the federal government have cut some arms exports to Israel and stopped issuing new permits, but did not cut the flow of all arms to Israel and did not cancel their contracts to buy weapons from Israel. Read more - Lire plus

ACTION Send an email to Minister Joly and Minister Blair to demand an Arms Embargo Now!

Carney must pivot from Trudeau’s abysmal record on Israel’s genocide in Gaza: CJPME

NEW ACTION Send a letter To Liberal Leader Mark Carney Asking Him to Clarify His Pick on Marco Mendicino

Jailing Canadians just one way government supports Israel

Canada has closed the Gaza temporary visa program after receiving 5,000 applications. Only 645 people have reached Canada after making it out of Gaza on their own.

IJV denounces the National Forum on Combatting Antisemitism for aiming to criminalize Palestine solidarity

NEW ACTION Canada must stand against Trump's repressive regime and plan for Gaza

US, Israel want to displace Palestinians from Gaza to East Africa: Report

Al Jazeera 14/03/2025 - The United States and Israel have discussed with three East African governments the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland, according to US and Israeli officials quoted by The Associated Press news agency.

Friday’s report said officials from Sudan claimed to have rejected overtures from the US, while officials from Somalia and Somaliland told AP they were unaware of any contacts.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials confirmed the contacts with Somalia and Somaliland, while the US officials confirmed Sudan as well. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.

The development comes more than a month after US President Donald Trump floated the idea of forcibly displacing Palestinians and “taking over” the Gaza Strip. It was roundly rejected by Palestinians and countries in the Middle East, with many describing it as ethnic cleansing.

Separate outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan alongside Netanyahu, according to the US officials, who said Israel was taking the lead in the discussions. There was no immediate reaction to the report from the US or Israel.

But Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime advocate of what he calls “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians, said this week that Israel is working to identify countries to take them in. He also said Israel is preparing a “very large emigration department” within its Ministry of Defense.

Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera the forced displacement of Palestinians is “a red line that should not be crossed”. He said governments around the world have a responsibility to stop the “outrageous” proposal and “should not be engaging with Israel on any of these scenarios”, especially the displacement of Palestinians to African countries, “many of which continue to struggle from colonial legacies”. Read more - Lire plus

Israel says 40,000 displaced Palestinians in northern West Bank will not be allowed to return

Israel is arbitrarily jailing Palestinian children in record numbers. This must stop

How Palestine Became the Testing Ground for Israeli Military Exports

Revealed: Israeli military creating ChatGPT-like tool using vast collection of Palestinian surveillance data

B'Tselem : Le gouvernement israélien essaie de détruire les organisations de défense des droits humains

Trump’s “Genocidal” Threat to Gaza: If Hamas Won’t Release Hostages, “You Are DEAD”

“He’s threatening an entire population with death — what else is that other than genocidal?” one expert told The Intercept.

The Intercept 05/03/2025 - As the White House said Wednesday it is holding secret talks with Hamas, President Donald Trump took to social media to threaten not just the Palestinian militant and political group but also the entire population of Gaza. 

“Release all of the Hostages now … or it is OVER for you,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his account on Truth Social.

He then broadened his threats.

“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits,” Trump wrote. “But not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”

Trump has leveled similar threats toward Hamas in the past, such as his promise before taking office in January that “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if the hostages weren’t released — a message he repeated during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. But Trump’s language aimed at the broader Palestinian population stands out as a call for civilian slaughter in a place where at least 48,000 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, with thousands more buried under rubble.

“If he’s addressing the people of Gaza in their collective, and then he follows that up with a threat and says, ‘You’re dead if you don’t do X, Y Z,’ that is genocidal rhetoric,” said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. “He’s threatening an entire population with death — what else is that other than genocidal?” 

Trump’s statement follows the rollout of his “Gaza Riviera” plan for the U.S. to occupy and “take over” Gaza, displacing Palestinians during the rebuilding process. Palestinians, Arab leaders, rights groups, and the United Nations have condemned his call to forcibly expel residents of Gaza as ethnic cleansing. Trump’s latest threats are an outgrowth of this Gaza plan, said Elgindy, who helped negotiate deals between Palestinian leadership and Israel in the past. 

“This is the same president who put forward a plan that amounts to ethnic cleansing and so it is perfectly consistent to continue in that same vein and put forward a policy that amounts to an endorsement of genocidal acts,” Elgindy said.

Israel’s far right similarly advocates for eradicating Palestinians from Gaza, as well as the West Bank, where Israeli military invasions and annexation of Palestinian land have accelerated under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and since October 7, 2023. 

Leaders of Arab nations this week endorsed an alternate plan that would put Palestine on a path toward a two-state solution, keep Palestinians in Gaza during the process of rebuilding, and establish a temporary governing authority made up of independent experts and the deployment of international peacekeepers. The U.S. and Israel both rejected the plan. 

Trump’s statement included a continued pledge to continue “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.” Last week, the Trump administration approved a new weapons deal with Israel worth about $3 billion in arms, including more than 35,500 MK-84 and BLU-117 bombs, also known as 2,000-pound bombs.

However, the White House confirmed Wednesday that U.S. diplomats are engaged with Hamas in talks to release the remaining hostages captured during Hamas’s October 7 attack, according to Axios. Until now, the U.S. had refused to enter diplomacy with Hamas due to long-standing policy against speaking diplomatically with groups it has listed as terrorists (the U.S. listed Hamas as a terror group in 1997). Instead, U.S. officials have communicated through other nations, such as Qatar and Egypt, in the lead-up to the ceasefire agreement.

During the ceasefire’s first stage, Hamas released Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. But last week, Israel refused to enter the second phase of that ceasefire plan, which required the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and further prisoner swaps. Israel had floated a new plan — credited to real estate developer and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff — that would extend the ceasefire’s first stage and allow the Israeli military to operate in Gaza for another 40 days. Hamas rejected the plan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retaliated by restricting humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, a likely war crime violation, just as Ramadan began. 

The timing of Trump’s latest threats prompt further questions on the U.S. position. Is Trump undermining his administration’s own diplomacy, using bluster as a smokescreen, or signaling to Israel that the U.S. is on board with Netanyahu’s demand to cancel the ceasefire? “At a minimum, the Israelis will take it as a license to do whatever they want to do,” Elgindy said. Source

124 Civil Society Organizations Sign Letter to Congress: Restore U.S. Funding for UNRWA

Mahmoud Khalil's Detention Is A War on Terror Milestone

Forever Wars 10/03/2025 - IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE) came for Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday night as he returned home from a post-Ramadan iftar meal. Khalil, who recently graduated from Columbia University's School of Public Affairs and who lived in a Columbia-owned residence, is a Palestinian (with Algerian citizenship) who played a leading role in the Columbia student body's ongoing protests against Israel's genocide of his people. In 2025, that is enough to make him a political prisoner.

Khalil's pregnant wife is a U.S. citizen. He himself holds a green card, making Khalil a lawful permanent resident. On paper, that's supposed to keep Khalil from being the kind of person ICE can lawfully detain and potentially deport.

But everything about the long 9/11 era, which created ICE, tells us that Mahmoud Khalil is exactly the kind of person ICE and its champions want to detain and deport.

Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer, told the Columbia Spectator that the plainclothes ICE agents who snatched Khalil from his home initially claimed Khalil's visa had expired. Again, Khalil isn't in the country on a visa. But his detention is not an innocent mistake or bureaucratic snafu. On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration will revoke "visas and/or green cards" of what he called "Hamas supporters" to expedite their deportation. ICE's bureaucratic parent, the preeminent post-9/11 creation called the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that Khalil was in fact "arrested" for leading "activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."

"Activities aligned to… a designated terrorist organization" is a construction previously unheard of in the generation-long history of tortured official circumlocutions designed to obscure lawlessness in the guise of counterterrorism. When Israel's genocide in Gaza began and accordingly provoked campus protests against it last fall, the Anti-Defamation League urged administrators to investigate protesters for the absurd claim of providing material support to terrorism.

Thinking about this for 10 seconds unravels it: what material thing is a broke college student demanding their university divest from Israel supposed to be providing Hamas, whose funding Israel itself facilitated? But what DHS said Sunday night goes far, far further. Now the detainable/arrestable offense is anything "aligned" to the presumed prerogatives of a designated terrorist organization. In this case, that's a series of protests on behalf of the position that Palestinians have the right to stay alive. And advocacy for Palestinians here is deliberately indistinguishable from "activities aligned to" Hamas. Read more - Lire plus

Noura Erakat: Trump’s Abuses & Mahmoud Khalil’s Arrest Are Products of U.S. Imperialism Coming Home

“This Is All Retaliatory”: Judge Blocks Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation as Trump Vows More Arrests

If Trump Can Deport Mahmoud Khalil, Freedom of Speech Is Dead

“Never Again for Anyone”: 100 Jewish Activists Arrested at Trump Tower Protesting Mahmoud Khalil Arrest

NEW ACTION URGENT: Demand the Immediate Release of Mahmoud Khalil

Trump threatens to pull federal funds for US schools allowing ‘illegal protests’

EXCLUSIVE: Banned Yale Scholar Speaks Out After AI-Generated Accusations of Terror Ties

An All-American Nightmare: How to Build a Deportation Machine in the Age of Trump

Tom Dispatch 11/03/2025 - Though most of those immigrants have since been returned to Venezuela, the Pentagon has pledged to continue using the base for the “temporary detention of illegal aliens who are pending return.”

Back on the mainland, the Department of Defense (DoD) is deploying thousands of troops to “seal the borders”; the Department of Justice (DoJ) is deputizing its agents to round up undocumented immigrants; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is mobilizing to meet its daily quota of 1,200 to 1,500 arrests, armed with target lists, surveillance technology, and “less-lethal” weapons; and immigration detention facilities are to be built on military bases across the country.

And that’s not all either. Entire families are set to be detained, and the grim family-separation policy of the first Trump administration revived. Humanitarian parole is to be revoked, refugees rejected, and asylum seekers returned. And cities, counties, and states that dare to defy the deportation regime are to be punished.

The machinery of mass deportation has been set in motion in a nightmarish fashion. It is meant to be impossible to stop — or at least to appear that way. Still, history teaches us that such a machine, like any other, can be brought to a halt, if only we understand how the apparatus actually works.

Here, then, is a simple, step-by-step guide to how the Trump administration plans to build the machinery necessary to “complete the largest deportation operation in American history.”

1. Declare a state of emergency.

2. Equate immigration with an “invasion.”

3. Expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

4. Draft the Department of Justice.

5. Deputize local law enforcement.

6. Criminalize all immigrants as “criminal aliens.”

7. Hunt for “criminal aliens” everywhere.

8. Collect biometric data.

9. Put immigrants in prisons.

10. Privatize immigrant detention.

11. Bring back family detention.

12. Send asylum seekers to other countries.

13. Designate gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

14. Deport international students and workers who protest U.S. policy.

15. Freeze refugee admissions.

16. Terminate Temporary Protected Status.

17. Undermine the principle of birthright citizenship.

18. Investigate citizens who would defend immigrant rights.

19. Punish “sanctuary” cities, counties, and states.

20. Manipulate the truth. Read more - Lire plus

B.C. woman detained at U.S. border, sent to Arizona detention facility in chains

Alien Enemies Act: Trump Declares War on Migrants

A new Muslim and African ban by Trump can and must be prevented

State Department to Use AI to Revoke Student Visas

Violence Against Guantánamo Detainees, Again: Immigrant prisoners are isolated and mistreated in what a post-9/11 lawyer called a "lawless enclave."

Groups Sue Trump Administration to Halt Transfer of Immigrants from U.S. to Guantánamo Bay

US transfers immigrants out of Guantanamo Bay to Louisiana as court weighs legality

Undeterred: Border Violence Isn’t Stopping Migration

ICE contractor plans for surveillance boom under Trump migrant crackdown

Cuba: 50,000 protest Trump’s plan to imprison migrants at Guantánamo Bay

Tesla Takedown: Protests Grow Across the U.S. as Trump & Musk Brand Activists as Terrorists

DemocracyNow! 13/03/2025 - We speak with Valerie Costa, an organizer behind the grassroots Tesla Takedown movement peacefully protesting outside Tesla showrooms to oppose billionaire owner Elon Musk’s role in government.

Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have led mass firings of federal workers and dismantled entire agencies. As protests against Tesla grow and sales plummet, the company’s stock has lost about 40% of its value since the start of the year.

This week, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of his adviser and held a promotional event with Musk at the White House, where he said he would buy an electric vehicle and declared attacks on Tesla dealerships to be “domestic terrorism.” Meanwhile, Musk personally attacked Costa, falsely accusing her of “committing crimes” in a post on his X social network. “They’re peaceful, nonviolent protests,” says Costa, an activist and organizer in Seattle. “Protesting Tesla … is ultimately about hitting Elon Musk’s bottom line.” Source

Myanmar: Four years after coup, junta increases legal restrictions and continues its persecution of political prisoners

Civicus Monitor 19/02/2025 - Myanmar’s civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Since the 2021 coup, thousands of activists and protesters have been detained on fabricated charges including terrorism, incitement and sedition. Many have been convicted by secret military tribunals in unfair trials and given harsh sentences, including the death penalty. Some have been tortured or killed. There has also been an unrelenting crackdown on the media.

In their January 2025 annual report, Human Rights Watch highlighted that in 2024 the junta severely restricted internet and phone services, with rolling shutdowns around the country, particularly in conflict areas. Junta forces have arbitrarily arrested activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, lawyers, and religious leaders. The use of torture, sexual violence and other ill-treatment is rampant in prisons, interrogation centres, military bases, and other detention sites. About 630,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, subject to persecution, deprivation of liberty and systematic abuses that amount to crimes against humanity reminiscent of apartheid South Africa.

Four years on from the coup, the UN Human Rights Office said that the junta had ramped up violence against civilians to unprecedented levels in 2024. An analysis of the conflict throughout 2024 found that as the military’s grip on power eroded, it launched wave after wave of retaliatory air strikes and artillery shelling on civilians and civilian populated areas, forced thousands of young people into military service, conducted arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, caused mass displacement, and denied access to humanitarians, even in the face of natural disasters.

In October 2024, Myanmar civil society organisations called on ASEAN to end all engagement with the Myanmar military junta; exclude all representatives of the military junta, both political and non-political, from ASEAN’s platforms at all levels; formally engage with and provide political support to the Myanmar people’s legitimate representatives; collaborate with locally led civil society; and support the Myanmar people’s efforts for transitional justice.

A new round of sanctions was imposed in October 2024 by Canada, the EU and UK targeting the military’s sources of funds, arms, equipment and jet fuel. In November 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it had filed a request with the court for an arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of Rohingya.

In February 2024, a court in Argentina ruled that international arrest warrants be issued for junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and 22 other military officials for crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority. As a result of years of work by the CSO Working Group on Independent National Human Rights Institutions (Burma/Myanmar), in January 2025, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) confirmed its decision to remove the accreditation status of the junta-controlled Myanmar National Human Rights Commission. The body has long been a proxy for the military junta to try and whitewash its grave violations.

Five years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a legally binding order to protect the Rohingya in Burma from further harm, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK said that the orders of the court are still being ignored by the junta and other armed groups in Burma.

On 7th February 2025, international election watchdogs urged the international community to deny any kind of support to the junta’s “illegitimate” planned polls. In a joint statement, they reiterated concerns first raised in a 2023 declaration, which dismissed any junta-led election as an attempt to entrench military rule rather than restore democracy. The groups said a genuine election in Myanmar is “impossible under current conditions” where opposition parties remain banned, political leaders and democracy activists languish in jail, and a free press is suppressed.

In recent months, a new draconian cybersecurity law was enacted while a law on films, increases restrictions and sentences was amended. The crackdown on journalists continues, two pro-democracy activists were arrested and at risk of torture and a civil society group reports deaths of political prisoners due to insufficient healthcare and medical treatment. Peaceful protests continue to be documented by a civil society group despite the severe restrictions and attacks on civic space. Read more - Lire plus

Canada announces new sanctions against Myanmar military regime

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Accountability

Responsabilisation

Arrest of former Philippine President Duterte marks critical step for justice

Artificial intelligence

Intelligence artificielle

AI Strategy for the Federal Public Service 2025-2027: Overview

ACLU Leads Coalition Encouraging Trump Administration to Preserve Key AI Safeguards

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence

Canadian Unions Express Deep Concern About Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement

Out of sight: human rights defenders working in isolated, remote and rural contexts - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor

Criminalization of dissent

Criminalisation de la dissidence

NEW ACTION Belarus: Stop repression, free jailed trade unionists

Türkiye: Absurd charges against  human rights defender Nimet Tanrıkulu must be dropped

NIA Arrests Raghu Midiyami, Bastar's Vocal Critic of Militarisation and Extra-Judicial Killings

Federal judges hear arguments in Bayou Bridge pipeline protest case

Criminalization of the opposition

Criminalisation de l'opposition

Judge temporarily blocks Trump order punishing law firm tied to Clinton: Beryl Howell rejects argument that Perkins Coie is national security risk and says tactic ‘sends chills down my spine’

Turkish party leader says his arrest is part of a crackdown on Erdogan's political opponents

Freedom of expression

Liberté d'expression

Face à l’interdiction de la manifestation féministe du 7 mars par la préfecture de police de Paris, front féministe, anticolonialiste et antiraciste !

Germany's Obsession With Defending Israel and Criminalizing Speech Aided AfD's Rise

Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 56

Greenpeace on Trial: $300M Lawsuit over Standing Rock Protests Could Shutter Group & Chill Free Speech

Winona LaDuke: DAPL Pipeline Lawsuit Against Greenpeace Aims to Silence Indigenous Protests, Too

Freedom of religion

Liberté de religion

Québec propose un modèle d’intégration nationale jugé assimilationniste

Quebec could extend religious symbols ban to school staff other than teachers

Freedom of the press

Liberté de la presse

Ugandan anti-terrorism officers brutally assault journalist

Filipino journalists in the crosshairs of anti-terror laws

UN Special Rapporteur raises concerns about Jimmy Lai’s case at the UN Human Rights Council

Gabbard says she is ‘aggressively pursuing’ national security leaks to media

Police

Intelligence Bureau Watchdog Warns of FBI Overreach in NYC

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance

DHS quietly eliminates ban on surveillance based on sexual orientation and gender identity

Podcast: How to keep your data safe when protesting

Miscellaneous

Divers

“A Devastating Tragedy”: 1,000+ People Killed in Syria Amid Reports of Massacres Against Alawites

Canada announces contract award for the construction of the River-class destroyers which will cost $22.2B

Un projet de loi pour contenir le droit de grève

Quebec Is Taking Trudeau’s Lead And Attacking Unions

Rhianan Rudd inquest: MI5 investigation of groomed teen accused of terrorism continued up until her death

Hey Elon: We Found a Place to Cut More Than $2 Trillion in Wasteful Spending

Pentagon Keeps Pouring Cash Into Golf Courses — Even As Trump Slashes Government Spending

Musk meets with head of National Security Agency to ensure it is aligned with Trump, spy agency says

War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge

Tulsi Gabbard pulls security clearances for top Biden officials and those who went after Trump

ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC

Canada: Abolish rights-violating terrorist entities list!

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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Le Canada doit abolir la liste des entités terroristes! & partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

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!

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.

Canada must protect Hassan Diab!

Send an email using ICLMG’s one-click tool and share widely!

Letter in English + Lettre en français

Sign and share the LeadNow petitions to protect Hassan from further injustice

Petition in English + Pétition en français

For more information on the case of Hassan Diab, read our webcomic, watch our animated version of the comic, or visit justiceforhassandiab.org.

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!

December 10, 2023 - ironically Human Rights Day - marked the 21st "anniversary" of the arrest of Mohamed Harkat under Canada's rights-violating security certificate regime. For Mr. Harkat, it's been two decades of fighting deportation to torture, 16 years of harassment and intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, secret trials, PTSD: enough is enough! We call for justice for Moe Harkat now! Watch - Visionnez

TAKE ACTION: Stop Moe Harkat's deportation to torture!

ACTION: Arrêtez la déportation vers la torture de Mohamed Harkat!

Reform Canada's extradition law now!

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!

Version française: Le Canada doit réformer la loi sur l'extradition! + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

Phone PM Justin Trudeau

TAKE ACTION: Justice for Hassan Diab!

Just Peace Advocates' action: Write a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Say “No" to a second extradition of Hassan Diab

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

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.

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
• 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
• 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
• Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
• Fighting for Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
• Monitoring the implementation of the authorization regime for organizations that provide international assistance to vulnerable populations in areas controlled by “terrorist” groups
• 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
• The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
• 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
• And much more! Read more - Lire plus

Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG.