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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

November 6, 2021

How Canadian Taxpayers Helped Murder an Afghan Family

Homes Not Bombs 25/10/2021 - Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for the US Aid organization Nutrition and Education International and had applied for refugee resettlement in the US, was the target of the lethal August 29 MQ-9 Reaper “hunter-killer” drone attack. The surveillance and targeting drone cameras that had been used to follow his every move that deadly day are made by L-3 Wescam, a Canadian-subsidized war manufacturer about to expand from its long-time Burlington, Ontario facility to a 330,000 square foot location in nearby Waterdown.

Initially described by Joint Chief Chairman General Mark Milley as a “righteous strike,” the Pentagon claimed its Hellfire missile attack on a residential street was justified because of an alleged “imminent threat” to evacuation operations, even though the airport was 3 km away. Those killed were Mr. Ahmadi and three of his children (Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10); Mr. Ahmadi’s cousin Naser, 30; three of Romal’s children (Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Hayat, 2); and two 3-year-old girls, Malika and Somaya.

Most of those killed were completely “shredded,” leaving behind only “fragments of human remains.” We only know this because, unlike most drone strikes – which tend to take place in rural areas where fact checking Pentagon claims about the victims’ identities can prove difficult – this one occurred in a densely populated Kabul neighbourhood. While the U.S. military continued to spin its baseless justification for the attack based on so-called evidence of terrorist threats, a New York Times investigation countered Pentagon claims that the driving and behaviour of Mr. Ahmadi were suspicious, noting “the evidence suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.”

The MQ-9 Reaper (using the Canadian-produced Wescam MX-20 Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) tracking and targeting system) allowed the hunter-killer drone operators maneuvering joysticks from remote bases in the U.S. to track Mr. Ahmadi’s vehicle as it drove around Kabul. The Americans claimed that he had stopped at an ISIS safe house, but their own footage revealed that in fact, it was where he worked, the long-established office of Nutrition and Education International. The Pentagon says it decided to strike because of the “reasonable certainty” that no women, children or noncombatants would be killed as Ahmadi returned home. Yet relatives of Mr. Ahmadi said as soon as they saw him pulling into his driveway, family members came out to welcome him home. They would have been seen clearly by the drone operators via the Wescam system, but the order to fire went ahead regardless. Because of a deadly airport attack the previous week, Joe Biden reverted to the old stand-by of flexing muscles, no matter the civilian cost, and the apparent “America won’t be pushed around” counter-action was to fire first and respond to questions later.

Half a world away in the Golden Horseshoe area that Wescam has long called home, it is unlikely that company executives gave a second thought to the fact that their products had once again proven their efficacy in bloodshed. For 20 years, protesters have gathered at the entrance to Wescam, setting up graveyards with the names of hundreds of drone strike victims, illustrating in vivid detail their parent company’s connections to torture, and ending up being hauled off in handcuffs for trying to conduct citizens’ weapons inspections of the facility. For two decades, drone strikes have been the  face of long-distance, “over the horizon” warfare waged by soldiers who go to work at video terminals, push buttons to fire Hellfire missiles as effortlessly as making a move on Playstation, and return home in time for dinner and taking the kids to soccer practice.

Wescam prides itself on being a world leader in drone technology, and Ottawa is only too pleased to keep them awash in federal tax dollars. In 2015, Wescam received a $75 million “repayable contribution” (they call it a contribution because it’s almost never repaid) to continue supplying technology used not only in overseas war zones, but also by domestic police forces and border agents. There is no clearer Canadian example of a company that profits from the intersectionality of state violence than Wescam. Indeed, their systems are used by border agents to prevent migrants from gaining asylum, by police to terrorize the racialized communities they occupy, by militaries as a low-cost kill-chain alternative, and by Hollywood movies that celebrate this violence. As then federal Industry minister James Moore said in distributing the cash, “WESCAM surveillance and targeting technology has been used to help police forces conduct manhunts and track marijuana grow ops here in Canada. Abroad, Canadian armed forces have used similar aerial systems during Canada’s 10-year mission in Afghanistan to capture high-value targets.”

Among numerous other contracts, in July 2020, the blood-stained Crown entity Canadian Commercial Corporation announced a $380-million contract to supply an “indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity” of the MX-Series of Wescam’s surveillance and targeting products for the U.S. army. Wescam is also a proud supporter of the brutal Saudi regime, announcing a deal in 2019 where “we can significantly broaden our support for Saudi government and military forces.” Part of that arranged entailed the opening of a maintenance centre by L-3 Wescam in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The CEO of Taqnia Defense and Security Technology Co., enthused: “We look forward to maintaining L3 WESCAM’s portfolio of products while providing exceptional service to its regional customers.” Wescam  technology has been used as part of the unending war crimes campaign led by the Saudis against the people of Yemen, as documented by the likes of researcher Antony Fenton. Canada is now considering a new, $5 billion purchase of armed drones. There is little doubt that this will be a slam dunk for Wescam to receive the contract. That inside knowledge is perhaps why they have busy preparing a 330,000 square foot factory just north of Hamilton. But even if they failed to win the Ottawa tender, they should have no trouble keeping a positive balance sheet, with their products being exported to over 80 countries. Read more - Lire plus

Canadian fighter jets purchase fuels racism

U.S. Absolves Drone Killers and Persecutes Whistleblowers

No accountability in military probe of Kabul drone strike — but intelligence failures laid bare

The Psychological Tolls and Moral Hazards of Drone Warfare

Monia Mazigh: How PM Trudeau can prove that he is serious about fighting Islamophobia

rabble.ca 26/10/21 - One of the issue that I didn’t hear during the Islamophobia summit was the strong link between the Canadian national security laws and Islamophobia. As if the two past decades of war on terror with what they brought as new anti-terrorism legislation, war in Afghanistan, spying and arrests of Muslim Canadians had no impact on shaping the narrative about the “dangerous nature” of Muslim Canadians and thus the banalization of their physical harm. This link is key in understanding the state of Islamophobia in Canada. We can’t claim to fight Islamophobia while in the imaginations of many Canadians, (prompted by some media and some politicians), Muslims still represent a threat to “us.”

To fight this narrative and break the false premise that Muslims represent a threat to our national security, concrete actions should be undertaken by the new government. I consider the three following cases to be litmus tests for Prime Minister Trudeau to prove he is serious about his statement at the Islamophobia summit about what he said “next steps should be to continue building a country where everyone is welcome, safe, and respected.”

[1. Reform our extradition laws, commit not to extradite Hassan Diab a 2nd time, and urge France to abandon its Islamophobic persecution of Dr Diab.

2. Pressure China to release Canadian Huseyin Celil and to stop its persecution of Uyghurs.

3. Bring back the Canadians detained in Syria - prosecute those who have committed crimes, release the others.]

Leaving the Canadians detained in Syria to rot in camps is not proof of political leadership. Keeping quiet about Huseyin Celil isn’t a sign that Trudeau is serious about Islamophobia. Avoiding the case of Hassan Diab and not changing the extradition laws will only help to continue the normalization of Islamophobia in Canada. Read more - Lire plus

Deif: Four dozen Canadians are imprisoned in Syrian camps. Why is our government ignoring their plight?

Ottawa Citizen 25/10/2021 - “This place guarantees you lose your sanity, your dignity, your humanity one way or another … It’s exhausting trying to protect myself all day, all night. I can’t do it anymore.” Kimberly Polman, a 49-year-old Canadian, wrote these words in late September in a locked desert camp in northeast Syria. A week earlier, she began a hunger strike to protest her lack of adequate medical care. She is unlikely to live much longer without immediate assistance.

Polman is among nearly four dozen Canadian men, women and children who have been detained for more than two years in northeast Syria in camps and prisons for Islamic State (ISIL) suspects and their families. They are among more than 40,000 foreigners rounded up after the fall of the group’s self-declared caliphate in 2019. They are held in deeply degrading, life-threatening and often inhuman conditions. They have never been charged with any crime. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration, the de facto government in northeast Syria, has not even brought them before a judge. It didn’t have to come to this. The Kurdish authorities have been pleading with Canada and other states to take responsibility and repatriate their nationals. But for more than two years, the Trudeau government has dragged its feet, allowing the return of only two nationals, an orphaned girl in October 2020 and another young girl in March. The government refused to allow the Canadian mother of the second child to come home with her.

The Canadians include more than 20 children, most six and under, who never chose to live under ISIL. Abandoned by their government, these Canadians’ desperation and helplessness has now reached a breaking point as another Canadian woman, a mother of three, reportedly began a hunger strike this month. According to her sister, Polman, an adult convert to Islam, headed to Syria in 2015 after she met and married an ISIL member online who persuaded her to join him with promises of love and a career in nursing. Her sister said she was easy prey, having grown up in a dysfunctional household with an abusive father. Polman lost her public housing shortly before going to Syria when her then-adult children moved out. Soon after she arrived, she contacted her family, confessed that she had travelled to Syria, and told them that she wanted out. But she said her husband abused her and wouldn’t let her leave. Her family didn’t hear from her again for many months. When she finally resurfaced, she told them that her husband had put her in an ISIL prison in Raqqa for 10 months for being a “disobedient wife.” She said her captors raped her and gave her so little food that her weight plummeted.

Since then and over the course of her detention by the Kurdish-led authorities, she described grappling with numerous health problems including kidney and lung infections, and repeated bouts of hepatitis. In her Sept. 20 letter, Polman describes her health in harrowing terms. “I am continually bleeding,” she writes. “My teeth are all broken … my legs cannot walk or stand. “I am dying a slow death here and I have done everything I can think of to get help. Nothing has worked.” A recent medical assessment from a humanitarian group concluded that it is “unlikely that she is going to survive if she remains in the camp without access to both medical and psychological care for much longer.”

Family members in Canada say consular officials have made no effort to establish direct contact with their detained loved ones, much less improve the conditions of their detention. Nor has the government officially verified the citizenship of the detained children born in Syria to Canadian parents, leaving them essentially stateless. It is hard to believe that Canada, a champion on children in armed conflict on the international stage that launched a global declaration against arbitrary detention just this year, continues to turn a blind eye to the plight of its own nationals. The government’s inaction stands in stark contrast to the actions of about 25 other countries, including Canadian allies, who have brought home some or many of their nationals from these same camps. Just weeks ago, aided by the U.S., Germany and Denmark evacuated 11 women and 37 children from the same camps holding Canadian women and children.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has repeatedly called for countries to repatriate their nationals from northeast Syria and in March called it “absolutely essential” for Canada to do so. In February, the UN’s top expert on human rights and counterterrorism placed Canada on a “list of shame” for its failure to repatriate Canadian children from these camps. In June, a parliamentary committee called on the government to “pursue all options possible” to repatriate Canadian children detained in northeast Syria. In October 2019, Polman wrote a letter to the United Nations, co-signed by 10 other detained women, expressing remorse and offering to describe the horrors of their time in Syria to deter others from joining extremist armed groups. “We survived (ISIL), we were the lucky ones … But can we survive the camps?” she said. The answer to that question lies squarely with the prime minister. He has the power to bring these Canadians home. They can be rehabilitated, reintegrated and prosecuted if necessary. Their lives are in his hands. Read more - Lire plus

Leaving British Isis members in Syrian camps is a ‘coward’s Guantanamo’, says former chief prosecutor

Canadian extradition system in need of significant overhaul, legal experts says

The Lawyer's Daily 26/10/2021 - A group of legal experts is calling for the federal government to overhaul Canada’s extradition system, saying it is unfair to people being detained and needs to reflect a better balance between administrative efficiency and constitutional rights. The report from the Halifax Colloquium on Extradition Law Reform, which was released Oct. 21, argued that the committal process conducted by the courts is inherently unfair and permits extradition on the basis of unreliable material. It also said surrender decisions made by the minister of justice are the product of a process under which legal issues are dealt with through a highly discretionary political process, which is unfairly weighted toward extradition and against the rights of the person sought.

The colloquium is recommending the Extradition Act be amended to follow three general principles: fundamental fairness, transparency and a rebalancing of roles, both between the courts and the government and between constitutional protections and administrative efficiency. It added that there should not be a presumption in law that the states with which Canada has extradition treaties will act in good faith and the committal process should incorporate the presumption of innocence, as well as some legal tools that would allow the person being sought a meaningful opportunity to challenge the reliability of the case against them. Surrender decisions by the minister of justice should be subject to a more exacting standard of review, the report also said.

Robert Currie, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law and author of the report, said he hoped its release was the beginning of a process of dialogue on reforming the system which involves the participation of government, parliamentarians and regular Canadians “because that is what has sadly been lacking from Canada’s entire international criminal co-operation system for decades.”

“What is most pressing is that Parliament look seriously at what extradition actually looks like in Canada and what it should look like in the future,” he said. “Canadians should have a say in this, and it is long past time that happens.” [...] Donald Bayne, who served as Diab’s counsel, said the current extradition system is “unworthy of a modern constitutional Canada.” “Extradition involves a deprivation of the liberty of Canadians without any sworn evidence at all,” he said. “And extradition involves a loss of liberty even more acute than a loss of liberty in Canada because it involves sending a detained person to a foreign country where they may have no contacts or support of friends and family.” Read more - Lire plus

Experts urge Lametti to reform extradition regime

Canadian Dimension 28/10/2021 - While attending a recent international conference in Sweden devoted to “Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism,” Justin Trudeau took the opportunity to put forward his views on political extremism. He deplored the role of social media in “enabling harmful content like hate speech” and expressed dismay that “some of the most open, liberal democracies in the world” are “seeing a rise in intolerance.” The host government for this conference issued pledges that included the promotion of the infamous IHRA definition of antisemitism. Given this emphasis on a document that is widely used to falsely conflate Palestine solidarity with the promotion of anti-Jewish hatred, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that Trudeau was ready to take a creative approach in considering the question of ‘extremism.’ He told his audience that “We see the organizations of extremist groups on the far-right and the far-left that are pushing white supremacy, intolerance, radicalization, promoting hatred, fear and mistrust across borders but within borders, as well.”

It is likely that Trudeau would have some difficulty identifying left-wing organizations that are “pushing white supremacy” and, were this just a question of his shortcomings as a political theorist, these remarks would be of no great importance. However, this readiness to equate hate-filled racists and fascists with those who want a society free of exploitation is more than cloudy thinking on the part of the prime minister. Sadly, such accusations are far from unique and examples of this approach are easy to find. Last year, for example, it was reported that the British government’s “independent adviser on political violence and disruption” would be conducting an “investigation into the extreme fringes on both ends of the political spectrum.” This adviser, Lord Walney, suggested that there was evidence of those on the left “overstepping the mark into antisocial behaviour.” His view was entirely in line with the thinking of the home secretary, Priti Patel, who had earlier described environmental activists in Extinction Rebellion as “so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals.” She presented the civil disobedience tactics they had employed as “a shameful attack on our way of life, our economy and the livelihoods of the hard-working majority.”

We shouldn’t be surprised if the zeal to contain the far-right is more than matched by eagerness to move against the left. Trudeau’s comments raise many of the same issues as did the decision of his government, at the beginning of this year, to designate the far-right Proud Boys a “terrorist entity.” I was among those who, at the time, suggested that calling for the use of anti-terrorism legislation was a big mistake. Without for a moment supporting any supposed ‘right’ of fascists and hate-mongers to spread their poison, I suggested that such legal initiatives (and state repression) were far more likely to be directed against the political left and working-class resistance than to be wielded against the right with any consistency. The ugly antics of the Proud Boys and others like them, came to a head at that time because of their role in the Capitol Riot. Certainly, the forces the erratic and dangerous Trump set in motion at that time greatly alarmed the US establishment and some fairly decisive action was taken by police and prosecutors. However, even in the midst of a crackdown on the far-right, we see evidence of the state’s instinctive sense that the real threat comes from the left. Recently, a judge in Florida sentenced Daniel Baker, an anti-fascist activist, to 44 months in federal prison, as The Intercept reported, for “social media posts that called for armed defense against possible far-right attacks on the state’s Capitol in the wake of the January 6 riots.”

Baker, who had already spent 10 months behind bars, had been arrested for putting up some rather unwise social media posts. However, he “never brought a weapon near a government building; he amassed no armed anti-fascist forces; he made no threats on a single individual.” This can be compared to a January 6 defendant who drove to Washington with guns and ammunition and sent texts threatening to shoot Nancy Pelosi in the head, yet he only faces a sentence of between six months and two years. As a representative of the People’s Law Office put it, “Dan’s case speaks volumes about how the state represses the left much differently than it treats the far-right.” [...] The readiness to include the left in any crackdown on political extremism and, indeed, the tendency to focus on the left more fixedly than on the far-right, is not simply a question of reactionary police attitudes or a readiness to blur lines on the part of the conservative right. There are very real reasons why even a liberal capitalist politician like Justin Trudeau would see left wing “extremism” as an existential danger to everything he cherishes.

In the end, the racism and violence of the far-right, while they may be problematic and inconvenient, are not directed against the fundamental interests of the capitalist class. The left, on the other hand, even if it uses the most peaceful and democratic methods, is challenging systems of exploitation and sources of profit. If this goes over to an effort to create a society based on equality and collective ownership of productive capacities, the progressive pretensions of people like Trudeau go out the window and the lines are starkly drawn. This is a time of very considerable crisis with the need for bold and radical initiatives by working class movements. Whether workers take strike action or people take to the streets to demand that the needs of their hard-pressed communities be met, we can expect efforts to suppress such struggles. We may also expect efforts by the left to encourage and sustain such social resistance to be considered by those in power as, to borrow a phrase from the British home secretary, “a shameful attack on our way of life.” Trudeau’s comments to the Swedish conference were as revealing as they were dangerous. The struggles for justice that the left takes up must never be compared to the poison that comes from the fascist right. We must reject and challenge this false equivalence powerfully and without hesitation. Read more - Lire plus

The Tyee 03/11/2021 - Recently, starkly contrasting news images have been circulating of two significant conflicts in Canada. One is the ongoing land defence against forestry companies in Fairy Creek, B.C. Those protests have been met with extensive police repression. The others are a series of anti-vax protests across Canada. Conversely, they look like they’ve been met with laissez-faire police responses. While the contexts are significantly different, with many diverse factors, the contrast in police responses says much about the way certain types of protesters are treated and viewed in Canada. Surveillance practices have much to do with this.

Surveillance is the collection of information for future ends. Information gathered structures how future police operations unfold. Some have defined surveillance as the “systematic focus on personal information with the intention to influence, manage, entitle or control those whose information is collected.” In recent years, Indigenous land defenders have lived under increasing police and state surveillance while far-right, conspiratorial movements have not. Police have a long history of surveilling social movements in Canada, especially leftist, Indigenous, queer, Black, feminist and other marginalized groups. Information collected by state and police is central in producing a picture of the people they are trying to control or influence. It shapes how the subjects of surveillance are understood, characterized and then intervened upon.

Police surveillance invariably constructs an image of deviance and criminality, characterizing the subjects of surveillance as threats to public order and civic values. For example, police have characterized Indigenous land defenders as “extremists” and have used national security resources to amplify and distort land claims conflicts as security threats. Constructing groups or individuals as criminal or security threats creates a negative cycle, reproducing a need for further surveillance and police intervention. Over the past 20 years, protest policing tools have experienced a significant professionalization and standardization that rely on surveillance for pre-emptive interventions. Some scholars have named this police-management approach as strategic incapacitation. [...]

Without surveillance, the control of protests and protest space becomes much more reactive and far less organized. This is the precise imagery witnessed in the policing of anti-vax conflicts. Fairy Creek, on the other hand, has been structured by a history of surveillance of land defenders and Indigenous groups and, because of the pre-existing knowledge and categories produced by police surveillance, has been the site of a far more violent policing response. [...] This broader factor can help explain the zeal and excessive force enacted by police at Fairy Creek: land defenders were not only characterized as criminal but also represented a symbolic threat to Canadian identity. Indeed, the conflict is highly representative of settler-colonial policing where the police are not only a vehicle for “law and order” but also a frontline in the defence of society’s values. [...] If the police feel they have the right and duty to protect notions of Canada’s “social values” in the forests of Pacheedaht territory, there are significant — potentially unsurpassable — organizational practices that shape, enculture and grow a deeply colonial belief system sustaining these police operations. Read more - Lire plus

The Toronto Star 01/11/2021 - When someone such as Kanesamoorthy is ruled inadmissible to Canada, they can seek out a very special exemption. It’s known as ministerial relief, a power endowed to the public safety minister under the immigration law to grant exceptions to otherwise banned migrants. The problem, critics say, is that the requests for the so-called ministerial relief are processed at such a glacial pace that the remedial measure is essentially non-existent.

Through a lawyer, Kanesamoorthy, now 46, applied for a ministerial relief in late 2009 under then public safety minister Peter VanLoan. Since then, the file would have been passed along to four more public safety ministers — two Conservatives and two Liberals. Now, it falls on the lap of the newly appointed Marco Mendicino, who was most recently Canada’s immigration minister. Kanesamoorthy is far from the only one who finds himself waiting.There were 209 ministerial relief applications received by the federal government between Jan. 1, 2010, and May 14, 2021 — a span of more than 11 years — but during that time only eight of those applications received a decision, with two granted, according to data released by the Canada Border Services Agency under an access-to-information request. That same period saw 89 decisions rendered in applications received prior to 2010. The agency said there are currently 294 outstanding ministerial relief applications — including 77 that were received between 2000 and 2009; the rest were made after 2010.

Independent public interest researcher Ken Rubin made the data request earlier this year after he first heard about the ministerial relief process and says he was surprised how little public information was available about it. He said he is not necessarily sympathetic to all the people caught up in the delay but feels officials should process these cases diligently, given there’s a mechanism in place to serve the purpose.“This whole system is designed not to work. That’s my conclusion. It’s an unaccountable system,” said Rubin, an Ottawa-based advocate for the right to information and critic of secrecy practices in Canada. “Why remove some of these people or deal with them if you can just keep them in limbo forever and ever? So, that to me is very troublesome.” For Kirupa Kanesamoorthy, separated from her husband and raising their daughters alone, it’s much more visceral. “We’ll be married for 18 years (on Nov. 15). We’ve been waiting for an exemption for my husband for more than 10 years. Every birthday, my daughters keep asking, ‘When are you coming to Canada, Dad?’” said Kirupakaran, a school bus driver. “It makes me so sad.”

Immigration lawyer Barbara Jackman, who has made numerous relief requests for her clients in the system, said the problem with the inadmissibility provision is border officials do not need proof and that all it takes is the “reasonable grounds” to decide the person was a member of a group that poses a threat to Canada. Sometimes, bizarrely, it’s a situation that traps a person in this country, with no pathway to gaining status. That’s because asylum seekers can be barred from proceeding with a refugee claim if deemed inadmissible on “reasonable grounds”— yet be stuck in Canada if they are also determined to be at risk if sent back to their homeland. “If we can’t deport them, they can just stay here without permanent status. And if they don’t like it, they’ll leave. That’s what (the government) wants,” said Jackman.

“So if you make life difficult for them, they’ll find some other place, notwithstanding that many of them have family members, husbands, children or wives that have become citizens in Canada.” Jackman said she’s not surprised by how few ministerial reliefs have been granted, calling the inadmissibility bar one of the cruellest pieces of legislation in terms of “leaving people in limbo.” “They can’t leave to visit their families. They can’t bring their families here. They can’t settle. Some of them have been here for a long time. Two of my clients are now seniors. They’re retiring,” she said. “They are saying that there people are threats to national security. This is after someone who’s been in the country for almost 20 years with no problem. And in some cases, the organizations like the Tamil Tigers aren’t even around anymore.”

Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees said the slow processing of the ministerial relief request has been a long-standing problem that’s rooted in the broad definition in the law about the membership in these alleged groups posing threats to Canada. Recognizing the inadmissibility net could be cast too wide to capture those who have done or will do no harm, the relief process is supposed to be that “escape hatch,” she said, for those who are barred from proceeding with an asylum claim or applications for temporary or permanent residence in Canada. “This inadmissibility provision basically says if you are a member of an organization that has engaged in terrorism or subversion, is engaging in terrorism or subversion or might engage in it in the future, then you are inadmissible to Canada on security grounds,”Dench explained. “And that applies even if you weren’t a member at the same time as these events were happening that you didn’t even know they were happening. It is incredibly broad.” At the end of the day, Dench said, whether to reprieve an inadmissible person or not is a political decision to be made by a politician, who is generally risk-averse to making a wrong decision. “So there’s been a relief, but there’s no promise when you’re going to get the necessary relief, (or) when we’re going to make a decision on it,” she explained. “So people are forced to live in this extreme excruciating situation of limbo where they have very limited rights. They don’t know what their future holds. It’s absolutely devastating.”

Aviva Basman, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, says not only is the relief decision inherently political, the actual mechanism is fundamentally flawed. That’s because it’s the same ministry being responsible for both labelling someone inadmissible and being asked to assess a request for relief. An independent decision maker should be charged with the job to assess those requests instead, she said. Kirupakaran, who came to Canada in 2000 as a permanent resident under family reunification, said she doesn’t know anything about Canadian immigration law and policy. All she knows is she has worked hard to support her two daughters and husband in Jaffna on her own. She had worked at Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet before starting as a school bus driver six years ago. Until recently, she rented a small room at her brother’s house so her mother can help babysit while she’s at work.“My daughters talk to their dad twice a day and they are missing him a lot,” said Kirupakaran. “Everyday, we just hope that some miracles will happen.” Read more - Lire plus

G7: Still coming after encryption, plans to reinforce Interpol and global travel surveillance

statewatch 14/10/2021 - The recent meeting of G7 interior and security ministers in London resulted in a detailed set of commitments, including reassertion of the need to undermine encrypted communications, reinforce Interpol, and to enforce new international standards on Passenger Name Record (PNR) travel surveillance and passenger profiling systems.

G7 London interior commitments

1. We, the G7 Interior and Security Ministers and senior officials, along with representatives from the European Union and the Secretary General of INTERPOL, met on 7 to 9 September 2021 in Lancaster House, London. Under the chairmanship of the Rt. Hon. Priti Patel, United Kingdom Secretary of State for the Home Department, we discussed the complex challenges facing our nations. [...]

19. Online privacy and security safeguards, such as strong encryption, are critical to protecting our citizens online and serve a vital purpose in repressive states to protect journalists, human rights defenders and vulnerable people. But citizens should also be able to go about their lives safely, and internet technology companies who design and deliver services without considering the implications for the safety of our citizens risk enabling or exacerbating other harms, online and offline.

20. We believe that it is right to expect internet technology companies to make decisions that reflect and take into account public safety protections; and that such decisions should be informed by consultation with representatives of Government in democratic societies.

21. We believe that services should take steps both to secure and protect the confidentiality of digital communications and individuals’ online activities and to protect public safety. We reject that, in democratic societies with strong human rights laws and procedural safeguards, there is inevitably a choice to be made between either protecting the confidentiality of digital communications and other activities or protecting our citizens from harm.

22. We will work together to maintain tightly controlled lawful access to communications content that is vital to the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes including terrorism and child abuse.

23. We will work in partnership with internet technology companies to do this to protect the safety of our citizens, and we call upon such companies to recognise and act upon this responsibility." Read more - Lire plus

Secret Israeli document offers no proof to justify terror label for Palestinian groups

The Intercept 04/11/2021 - A secret document distributed by Israel to justify its terrorist designations of six prominent Palestinian human rights groups shows no concrete evidence of involvement in violent activities by any of the groups.

The designation of the Palestinians groups, which was met by international outrage from defenders of human rights, was announced on October 22 by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Gantz cited alleged links between the groups and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a left-wing Palestinian political party with its own military wing. Despite the severity of the declaration, Israel has yet to publicly present any documents directly or indirectly linking the six groups to the PFLP or to any violent activity.

The secret document, a dossier containing the purported justifications were obtained by +972, Local Call, and The Intercept along with a raft of ancillary documents. The dossier, which was prepared by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security force, was marked as classified by the Israeli government but widely distributed. The dossier is largely based on interrogations of two accountants working for a seventh Palestinian civil society group that was declared a terrorist organization last year; a lawyer for one of the accountants said the testimonies were gathered under duress. Since May, before Gantz’s declaration, Israeli Foreign Ministry envoys repeatedly appealed to the international community, particularly European nations, to make the case that the six Palestinian organizations — Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center, Defense For Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees — are closely linked to the PFLP and are involved in the financing of terrorist activities. The 74-page dossier, or nearly identical documents, were distributed internationally to other governments both before and after the terror designations, in apparent hopes of rallying support to the cause of discrediting, defunding, and dismantling the groups. The Israeli Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.

The Palestinian groups, some of which are highly respected by the international community, draw funding from several European governments. In May, Israeli emissaries sent the dossier to European countries in a bid to persuade the governments to cut funding. The dossier, however, failed to convince the foreign governments; officials from at least five of the European countries said that the dossier did not contain any “concrete evidence” and decided to continue their financial support. “Since the Europeans didn’t buy the allegations, they” — Israeli authorities — “used unconventional warfare: declaring the organizations terrorist groups,” said Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer representing Al-Haq in the matter of the terror designation.

The effort to shutter the Palestinian rights groups is widely seen as part of a yearslong campaign to silence criticisms of Israel by getting European donors to withdraw funding. Sfard noted that the six groups had been classified as organizations involved in efforts to “delegitimize” Israel. “It all starts and ends with the fact that these organizations are seen as promoting a boycott of Israel and the investigation of war crimes at the International Criminal Court,” Sfard said. “The attack on them is a political one under the guise of security.” Read more - Lire plus

UN experts condemn Israel’s designation of Palestine rights defenders as terrorist organisations

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet: Israel’s “terrorism” designation an unjustified attack on Palestinian civil society

Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch: Israel/OPT: Designation of Palestinian civil society groups as terrorists a brazen attack on human rights

CJPME urges Canada to Act as Israel outlaws 6 prominent Palestinian civil society groups

TAKE ACTION: Urge Canadian Leadership to Condemn Israeli Silencing of Palestinian Groups

“Stain on the Moral Fiber of America”: Military Jurors Decry Majid Khan’s Torture at CIA Black Sites

CBC News 08/10/2021 - In a major development, a Guantánamo Bay detainee described his torture at CIA black sites for the first time in court last week, prompting military jurors to call his treatment a “stain on the moral fiber of America.” On Thursday, Majid Khan became the first Guantánamo prisoner to describe publicly the torture he experienced after being detained in Pakistan and then being held at CIA black sites, including forced feedings, waterboarding and other physical and sexual abuse.

Khan was sentenced Friday to 26 years but under a previous deal is scheduled for release in February 2022. His unprecedented testimony only represents the “top part of the iceberg,” says Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center of Constitutional Rights, which has helped represent Majid Khan. “We need more meaningful accountability for what the United States government did to Majid and many dozens of other detainees in the so-called global war on terror.” Read more - Lire plus

Taxi driver freed from Guantanamo Bay after 17 years of brutal torture with no charges

Lawyer: Guantanamo case should be put on hold at high court

UAE sends 12 former Guantanamo detainees to Yemen - lawyer, official

Sorry, Biden: There Is No “National Security” Solution to the Climate Crisis

In these Times 28/10/2021 - On October 21, the Biden administration released a suite of reports aimed at showing how climate change poses a ​“national security” threat, and how institutions like the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security plan to respond. The analyses are meant to demonstrate a commitment to action: A statement from the White House proclaims that the reports will ​“serve as a foundation for our critical work on climate and security moving forward.” As the president’s own civilian climate change provisions in the Build Back Better package were being gutted, the report sent the message that national security institutions can still move a climate agenda forward — a message timed for just 10 days before the United Nations climate negotiations known as COP26.

Yet, a close read of the reports shows exactly why we should never turn to ​“national security” institutions to address a crisis that is fundamentally global, requiring solidaristic action that transcends nationalism. Taken together, the analyses paint a grim picture of a future where, in the face of mass displacement, water shortages, hunger and death, the U.S. response amounts to hunkering down and protecting its military mission, its dominance and its alliances against geopolitical foes. While the reports call for some liberal reforms to migration policy in light of climate displacement, those reforms are relatively small-scale, and fail to fully grapple with the climate harms the United States has inflicted — and the reparations it owes. Most troubling, the reports take the ravages of climate change as a given, and merely focus on how to protect U.S. ​“national security” in light of that inevitability. This finding gives more evidence that the institutions which oversee wars and deportations will never be the ones to take on the fossil fuel industry — and, as a result, a militarized climate response is no replacement for a civilian one.

Significant sections of the report from the Department of Defense are classified, so it is difficult to know the full scope of the Pentagon’s climate plans. But what was released is an eerie description of how droughts, famines and water shortages will affect the world — and how the U.S. military must take steps to continue its mission amid these hazards. ​“The risks of climate change to Department of Defense (DoD) strategies, plans, capabilities, missions, and equipment, as well as those of U.S. allies and partners, are growing,” the report warns. (Never mind the people who happen to live in countries that are not allies of the United States — and are often subject to brutal sanctions — who are being hit hard by climate change, from Iran to Venezuela to North Korea.) Rather than looking at how climate change affects humanity on a global scale, a map aimed at illustrating these coming challenges instead examines how it affects the global U.S. military presence.

“The DoD response is almost entirely concerned with maintaining the ability to do everything the DoD has always done, likely in all the same places it has always been,” Lindsay Koshgarian, the program director of the National Priorities Project, a research organization, tells In These Times. To achieve this continuity of mission, the report says the Pentagon needs funding ​“in support of exercises, wargames, analyses, and studies of climate change impacts on DoD missions, operations, and global stability.” Left unsaid is that further entrenchment of U.S. military institutions will only worsen the impacts of the climate crisis. Not only is the U.S. military a worse carbon polluter than 140 countries, but it is also the inflictor of global violence, which should be opposed in its own right. [...]

What is owed, right now, is every effort to stem the climate crisis. While a certain amount of climate change is already irreversible, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released in August, says the worst-case scenarios can still be prevented by dramatically curbing carbon emissions through an immediate stop to fossil fuel extraction. Anything over a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius will bring extreme and severe storms, droughts, famines, starvation and death. It is still possible to keep warming below this threshold, a reality that is not acknowledged in the reports. Read more - Lire plus

ICYMI: Primer on climate security: The dangers of militarising the climate crisis

Dutch PM supports Canada's plan to establish NATO centre for climate security

ICYMI: ICLMG: Five reasons to ditch anti-terrorism and national security

BBC 25/10/2021 - Amnesty International will shut its offices in Hong Kong over a recently-imposed national security law. The human rights group said the law, imposed by China, makes it "effectively impossible" for them to operate. Amnesty has had a presence in Hong Kong for more than 40 years, and now runs two offices there - one focused on the city and another on the wider region.

The local office will close by 31 October, and the regional office will move out by the end of the year. The broadly worded national security law in Hong Kong criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Critics say it is aimed at crushing dissent but China says it is meant to maintain stability. Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, chair of Amnesty's international board, said in a statement that a crackdown under the law has forced at least 35 groups to disband this year.

"This decision, made with a heavy heart, has been driven by Hong Kong's national security law, which has made it effectively impossible for human rights organisations in Hong Kong to work freely and without fear of serious reprisals," she said. "The environment of repression and perpetual uncertainty created by the national security law makes it impossible to know what activities might lead to criminal sanctions." Among the groups to have disbanded this year were several leading trade unions, NGOs and professional groups. Several other NGOs, including the New School for Democracy, have relocated to Taiwan. Read more - Lire plus

Hong Kong passes film censorship law to 'safeguard national security'

National security law: Hong Kong leader orders removal of Tiananmen vigil alliance from Companies Registry

National security law: Hong Kong man convicted of inciting secession with pro-independence slogans

Hong Kong civil service applicants to be quizzed on national security law

Hong Kong activist becomes youngest convict under security law

ACTIONS

Urge Canada to Condemn Israeli Silencing of Palestinian Groups

Send an email to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging his administration to:

1) Condemn Israel’s wrongful designation of these human rights groups, and

2) Formally and immediately demand Israel to rescind such labels over the Palestinian human rights organizations

Canada must Repatriate Canadians from Syria

We, the undersigned, Canadian citizens, call upon the Government of Canada to immediately begin the process to repatriate the 26 Canadian citizens (14 children, 8 women and 4 men) currently being detained in North East Syria.

Canada must reform its extradition system 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!

No More Attacks on Afghanistan

World Beyond War - In response to a bombing at the Kabul airport, the US president authorized 2 drone strikes on August 27 and 29 that killed several Afghan civilians, including a family of ten. Official counts indicate that at least 241,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan and Pakistan war zones. We oppose any further attacks on Afghanistan, “over the horizon” or by troops on the ground.

How to Help Afghans in Afghanistan and Canada

Muslim Link - The people of Afghanistan are in dire need of humanitarian aid and Canada has committed to accepting 20,000 Afghan refugees.

How can you help? Click below for a list of ways you can support the people of Afghanistan at home and abroad.

Protect our rights from facial recognition!

ICLMG - Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place.

Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now.

+ Take action to ban biometric recognition technologies

Trudeau: Ensure justice for Abousfian Abdelrazik

In September 2003, Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik was arrested in Sudan, while he was back in the country visiting his ailing mother. Over the next three years he was imprisoned for nearly 20 months and was held under house arrest for 12 months. 

He was denied a lawyer, and was never charged or brought before a judge. During that time he was badly tortured in three different prisons. Not only did Canada fail to take steps to protect him, CSIS officials frequently obstructed efforts to secure his release.

Stop Mohamed Harkat's Deportation to Torture

No one should be deported to torture. Ever. For nearly 19 years, Mohamed Harkat has faced the ordeal of being place under a kafkaesque security certificate based on secret evidence and accusations he cannot challenge, and facing deportation to torture in Algeria.

Please join us and send the letter below to Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino, urging them to stop the deportation to torture of Mr. Harkat.



• Your letter will also go to your Member of Parliament, along with the ministers of Justice & of Immigration.
• And don't hesitate to also sign and share this petition!

China: Free Canadian Huseyin Celil

The Chinese authorities accused Huseyin of offences related to his activities in support of Uighur rights. They held Huseyin in a secret place. They gave him no access to a lawyer, to his family, or to Canadian officials. They threatened him and forced him to sign a confession. They refused to recognize Huseyin’s status as a Canadian citizen, and they did not allow Canadian officials to attend his trial. It was not conducted fairly, and resulted in a sentence of life in prison in China. His life sentence was reduced to 20 years in February 2016. Huseyin has spent much of his time in solitary confinement. He lacks healthy food and is in poor health. Kamila needs her husband, and the boys need their father back

+ Urge China to stop targeting Uyghurs in China and abroad

OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES

Anti-terrorism laws

Législation antiterroriste

Turkey: the new anti-terrorism law worries civil organizations

Egypt’s parliament approves amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Law

Attacks on dissent

Attaques contre la dissidence

Nouveau site de la Ligue des Droits et Libertés sur le Droit de Manifester

Allan Inquiry Clears Enviro Groups, but Blasts Kenney’s War Room

The Globe and Mail Editorial board: Jason Kenney keeps picking the wrong fights, and he keeps losing

USA: Joint letter to US Attorney General re. Steven Donziger

Facing months in prison, Indigenous activist goes to trial for protesting Trump's wall

Turkey: No release in Kobanî trial

Freedom of speech

Liberté d'expression

Kashmir students who cheered for Pakistan booked under terror law

Freedom of the press

Liberté de la presse

Myanmar: Junta files terrorism charges against three detained journalists - lawyers

Migrants and Refugee Rights

Droits des migrant.es et des réfugié.es

Amira Elghawaby: Why are some asylum seekers and migrants still held behind bars?

Human Rights Watch: Alternatives to Immigration Detention

“Shadow Units”: How Secretive Border Patrol Teams Shield Agents from Accountability

Privacy and surveillance

Vie privée et surveillance

Data-protection bill needs to be on parliamentary agenda this session, says privacy-law expert

RCMP wants to use AI to learn passwords in investigations, but experts warn of privacy risks

Governing Big Tech in Canada (podcast)

India: State Won't Get A Free Pass By Mere Mention Of "National Security". Supreme Court In Pegasus Case

NSO Group: US blacklists Israeli firms for harming 'national security interests'

Google said it had successfully ‘slowed down’ European privacy rules, according to lawsuit.

Police

Ligue des Droits et Libertés: Encore plus de caméras de surveillance du SPVM – La sécurité publique ne doit pas passer par la sur-surveillance des populations

Signal unveils how far US law enforcement will go to get information about people

Whistleblowers

Lanceur.ses d'alertes

Free Julian Assange: Snowden, Varoufakis, Corbyn & Tariq Ali Speak Out Ahead of Extradition Hearing

Tariq Ali: WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Must Not Be Extradited for Exposing War Crimes in Afghanistan

Miscellaneous

Divers

We Can’t Trust the Prevent Review to be Honest About Counter-Terrorism Failings

"A Thumb in the Eye of Transparency": CAJ denounces BC's proposed FOI amendments

Myanmar military uses systematic torture across country

Fox News Fearmongers With Wild Claim About Protesting Parents And Guantanamo Bay

January - June 2021

What we've been up to so far in 2021:

• We called on the government to not expand anti-terror laws to fight racism
• We met with many MPs, agencies, policy staff from the Offices of the Minister of Public Safety and Minister of Justice, etc.
• We published a report exposing CRA's Prejudiced Audits against Muslim Charities
• We continue to call for Justice for Dr Hassan Diab and his family!
• We were featured in 85+ news media articles, op-eds and podcasts
• We co-organized and presented in various online events
• We published op-eds, articles & statements ...and much more! More details

During the second half of the year, we will organize activities around the 20th "anniversary" of the beginning of the so-called "War on Terror" and the rushed adoption of Canada's Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, as well as the problematic laws passed and human rights abuses inflicted since in the name of national security.

And we will continue fighting:

• against facial recognition technology, governments' attacks on encryption, and online mass surveillance
• for a review mechanism for the Canada Border Services Agency
• to abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture
• to repeal the Canadian No Fly List
• for justice for Hassan Diab & the reform of the Extradition Act Read more

Version française: Ce que nous avons fait à date en 2021. Aidez-nous à protéger les libertés civiles pour le reste de l'année!

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