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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
November 8, 2025 - 8 novembre 2025
| | Stop C-9: ICLMG testifies at the Justice Committee | |
ICLMG - On October 30, 2025, ICLMG’s National Coordinator Tim McSorley testified on behalf of the coalition, opposing Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, regarding concerns over the criminalization of peaceful protest and restriction of free speech. You can read the transcription below:
[...] We believe that greater measures must be taken to address instances of hate-based violence. But such measures must be targeted and specific, and ensure that they do not unduly impact civil liberties or Charter rights, including of those who the measures are ostensibly meant to protect.
Unfortunately, several measures in Bill C-9 fail that test. We share the concerns of the 37 other signatories of an open letter, led by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, that pointed to detailed and substantial problems in Bill C-9, and ultimately called for it to be withdrawn.
While we share overall concerns expressed by our colleagues, today I would like to focus on one particular area of the bill.
We are concerned with the provisions in Clause 4 of the bill that would create a new offence of wilfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in public.
These new provisions pose a significant threat to freedom of expression by granting broad and discretionary powers to police, and by basing the determination of which symbols are included on a flawed terrorist listing process. Moreover, the provisions are redundant, and therefore unnecessary.
To begin with that last point: The wilful promotion of hatred is already a Criminal Code offense. It is understood that the determination of wilfully promoting hatred can already include the use of particular symbols, including those of a listed entity. The only difference will be that the wording will place greater emphasis on the use of a symbol in the commission of a hate offence.
This leads to our second concern: that the wording of this new offense creates the serious risk of police making discretionary decisions related to what constitutes a symbol “associated with” or “used by” a listed terrorist entity.
Over the past several months, we have seen heated arguments and accusations that certain symbols associated with protests in support of Palestinian human rights are either hateful, are associated with a terrorist entity, or both. Peaceful and lawful protests have been unjustly accused of fomenting hate based on the signs and slogans that they carry or chant.
Under this new legislation, police could make a determination, in the middle of a march or protest, not just of what constitutes a symbol associated with a terrorist entity, but that it is being used to wilfully promote hatred. There will continue to be pressure on police to stop and arrest anybody carrying a symbol that they may believe is used by or associated with a terrorist entity – whether that be a Hamas or Hezbollah flag, a keffiyeh or a disputed slogan on a sign.
This is made more complicated by the fact that police would be empowered to make the decision that a symbol so nearly resembles the symbol associated with a terrorist entity. For example, would Arabic writing on a sign that a police officer believes is similar enough to writing found on imagery used by a listed terrorist entity be enough to arrest an individual? And this confusion would of course apply to all listed entities, and could impact protests from a broad range of communities.
These issues raise important questions of “guilt by association” or the tarring of entire movements with suspicion. We have seen this throughout the last twenty years of anti-terrorism measures, and acutely over the last two years during protests or rallies, in academic settings, or even in parliamentary committee meetings.
Given the severe potential for overreach, along with the stigma of being accused of committing a hate crime, we believe that this law will create a significant chill on free expression and dissent.
Finally, we are also troubled by the fact that the symbols in question are based on the Terrorist Entities List, which itself is a problematic tool.
Serious issues with Canada’s terrorist listing procedure include: the imposition of serious financial and possibly criminal consequences on the basis of unaccountable, secret executive listing decisions; the use of secret evidence; and the absence of adequate avenues for challenging listings and obtaining redress. Decisions to list or not list can also be political in nature.
New criminal offenses, especially those that themselves invite discretionary decision-making, should not be founded on a process already demonstrated to raise significant constitutional concerns.
As mentioned above, this is simply one of the many concerns with Bill C-9. Beyond removing this section, we agree that the bill should be withdrawn and the government’s approach revisited. Source
ACTION Withdraw Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act: a threat to our rights and freedoms!
ACTION Retirez C-9, la Loi visant à lutter contre la haine : une menace à nos droits et libertés!
Projet de loi C-9 visant à lutter contre la haine : La Ligue des droits et libertés exhorte la Chambre à ne pas adopter ce texte liberticide
Independent Jewish Voices Canada: Bill C-9 Fights Dissent, Not Hate
IJV Ottawa: Silencing Dissent in the Name of Safety: Policy Brief on the Proposed Ottawa “Bubble Zone” Bylaw
| | Tim McSorley of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group speaks at 2025 CCU Convention | |
CCU 03/11/2025 - Tim McSorley (he/him) spoke at the Labour School of the Confederation of Canadian Unions in October 2025 about the state of civil liberties in Canada. Tim spoke about some of the work the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group has been doing recently, including challenging Bill C-2, the so-called “Strong Borders Act” introduced by the federal government of Mark Carney, which will pose serious threats to the individual rights of all Canadians.
The Act was brought forth because of pressure from the Trump Administration, but will cost the federal government enormous sums of money that could be spent elsewhere on important services for Canadians.
McSorley joined the ICLMG as the coalition’s National Coordinator in November 2016. Combining his passion for civil liberties and social justice with his background in journalism, policy analysis and communications, Tim digs into the impact of government policies and works with allies and partners to fight for change. Source
ACTION Stop Bill C-2, Bill C-12 and protect our rights!
ACTION Non aux projets de loi C-2 et C-12 : protégez nos droits!
| | Mapping the Threat: How Recent Federal Bills Would Erode Our Rights and Freedoms | |
CFE TMU - In a series of its first proposed laws, the Carney government seems to be targeting essential rights and freedoms long valued in Canada -- Strong Boarders Act (Bill C-2), Act respecting Cybersecurity (C-8), Combatting Hate Act (C-9), and Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act (C-12). What may appear as isolated legislative changes form a broader picture of creeping restrictions on privacy, expression and civic participation essential in a democratic society. Why is the government doing this? Are there better alternatives? Join a panel of leading experts exploring these questions. Cosponsored by PEN Canada.
Tuesday November 25, 2025
7pm - 8:30pm EST
Panelists:
- Karen Cocq, Co-Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
- Tamir Israel, Director, Privacy, Surveillance and Technology Program, Canadian Civil Liberties Association
- Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, Director, Fundamental Freedoms Program, Canadian Civil Liberties Association
- Tim McSorley, National Coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
- Rizwan Mohammad, Senior Advocacy Officer, Government Affairs & Public Policy, National Council of Canadian Muslims
Moderator:
- Matt Hatfield, Executive Director, OpenMedia
Zoom link to event torontomu.zoom.us/j/91941276567 - This is a free event and no registration is required.
Please contact cfe@torontomu.ca if you require accommodation to ensure inclusion in this event. Source + Facebook event
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Open letter: Civil Society and Human Rights Groups Reject “National Sprint” on AI Strategy
| ICLMG has signed this open letter alongside 160+ individuals and organizations, and counting. | |
BCCLA 31/10/2025 - We, the undersigned civil society, human rights, and civil liberties organizations, academics, advocates, and representatives of equity-seeking communities, write to protest and reject the deeply misguided and wrongheaded approach to public consultation demonstrated by the government’s thirty-day “national sprint” on Canada’s artificial intelligence (“AI”) strategy.
We call on Minister Joly, Minister Solomon, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (“ISED”) to do the following:
- Extend the consultation deadline to February 2, 2026;
- Reconstitute the Task Force into a more equitably representative one that is equipped to confront the ongoing threats of AI to people and communities; and
- Rewrite the survey into a more legitimate and unbiased consultation instrument.
The current consultation process suggests serious disregard for the Canadian public’s known and wide-ranging concerns about the demonstrated risks and harms of technologies currently classified as AI. This impression arises from the contrived urgency imposed by the short timeline for submitting informed views on a topic as complex and consequential as AI; the leading language, predetermined framing, and prioritization of business and economic interests in the associated survey; and the lack of human rights, civil liberties, and similar representatives on the AI Strategy Task Force (the “Task Force”).
Not all signatories of this letter may agree on every point below or share identical positions regarding AI-related issues or how such issues should be tackled; however, we are united in opposition to this consultation process. We jointly refuse to participate in and validate what appears to be a disingenuous attempt to claim public legitimacy for an outcome already decided from behind closed doors.
Minister Solomon has stated he intends to depart from “over-indexing” on harm prevention when it comes to AI. This suggests a troubling lack of understanding of the wide-ranging and well documented harms these technologies pose, which any meaningful national strategy would need to take into account.
While AI may have beneficial impacts in specific use cases, the question is not whether a particular technology has any use at all, but whether its deployment justifies the cost—whether human, environmental, or democratic. That is a complex, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary question, responding to which with meaningful written input requires more than a thirty-day window on short notice.
Specifically, below is a non-exhaustive list of some of the many known negative impacts, human rights violations, human psychological costs, and society-wide risks of unregulated deployment of various AI-based technologies that have already emerged to date, with particular focus on generative AI and algorithmic decision-making systems:
- Compounding socioeconomic inequality and erosion of labour rights
- Grave environmental and climate impacts
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Colonization, dispossession, and erasure of Indigenous peoples and their rights
- Automated racism across society
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Intensified misogyny and gender-based violence, abuse and harassment
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Marginalization and exclusion of LGBTQ2SIA+ individuals
- Fundamental threats to mental health and cognitive well-being
- Privacy risks, mass surveillance, and security vulnerabilities
- Implicit promotion of eugenics and disability exclusion
- Collapse of functional information environment [...]
In the meantime, Canadian civil society rejects this pseudo-consultation as a facade for manufacturing consent for a harmful preordained agenda, and declines to participate.
We will instead be hosting an independent and separate process: the People’s Consultation on AI. If the Ministers, Task Force, and the rest of the Canadian government are truly invested in integrating informed and substantive views on AI from the public, submissions from participating organizations and/or individuals will be made available on February 2, 2026, on a publicly available website (the specific location of which will be announced in the upcoming months). Read more - Lire plus
Lettre ouverte : Des groupes de la société civile et des groupes de défense des droits de la personne s’opposent au « sprint national » sur la stratégie en matière d’IA
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ACTION Stop Silencing Survivors: Ban National Security Secrecy in Violence Against Women Cases
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Women Who Choose to Live Canada 30/10/2025 - The case against a Canadian soldier charged with the catastrophic assault of his spouse was shockingly shut down in May 2025 for undisclosed "national security" reasons, silencing the survivor and setting a dangerous precedent. Canada must bar the use of national security confidentiality in cases of male violence against women before it becomes yet one more barrier to women seeking justice and accountability for abuses committed against them. And like any institution, Canada’s military is incapable of impartially and fairly investigating itself. Therefore, any such cases must be handled by independent, specially trained, trauma-informed civilian authorities.
A New and Very Dangerous Precedent
In May 2025, Canada’s Department of Justice (DOJ) invoked the often misused shield of “national security” confidentiality to defend a member of Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) — an elite special forces military unit — charged with aggravated assault, choking, and assault causing bodily harm after he violently attacked his partner, causing a shattered jaw and traumatic brain injury. (More details Background section below).
Instead of ensuring transparency and accountability, the DOJ employed Section 38 of the Canada Evidence Act – a cone of silence to prevent disclosure of allegedly “sensitive information or potentially injurious information…for the purpose of protecting national defence or national security” – to render key evidence classified and suppress open court testimony, effectively silencing the assault survivor and obstructing justice.
When the full details of such a devastating assault on a woman’s personal security can be disappeared from the public record in the name of Canada’s “national security,” it poses yet another obstacle to women coming forward to report such heinous crimes and seek justice.
A Precarious, Slippery Slope
The imposition of national security confidentiality (NSC) is a precarious, slippery slope. Canadian courts, commissions of inquiry, and legal experts have consistently documented how NSC is constantly over-claimed to hide from possible embarrassment and to cover up incompetence, malfeasance and criminality:
- If the devastating May 2025 precedent is allowed to stand, a survivor in court would find herself up against the full power of state institutions employing limitless resources to argue that the case against an abuser should be significantly constrained, if not thrown out, for “national security” reasons that cannot be disclosed.
- The May 2025 precedent could also be viewed as a “get out of jail free card” by abusers working in federal government agencies, police departments, “sensitive” academic positions, and corporations deemed by Canada to be working in the national interest, all of whom could claim NSC protection to avoid transparency and accountability.
- A survivor challenging the use of state security secrecy would also face an extended wait for trial that involves a separate, protracted Federal Court proceeding to examine the merits of the secrecy application. This would add to trial delays that would allow an abuser to seek dismissal of charges by taking advantage of the Jordan ruling (the right to a speedy trial), under which hundreds of cases of violence against women have been thrown out.
Canada must urgently legislate a ban against the use of state secrecy privilege/national security confidentiality in criminal, family, and civil court proceedings involving male violence against women (and extending to any cases involving harassment, mistreatment, and abuse in family, “intimate partner”, workplace and any other settings). It must also end the biased role of military police in investigating or managing intimate partner violence cases involving Canadian Armed Forces members, and transfer that responsibility to civilian authorities. This can be done via amendments to the Fall 2025 Military Justice System Modernization Act and a bill codifying femicide as a criminal code offence. Take action - Passez à l'action
| | Open letter: 200+ Muslim organizations across Canada are calling for systemic change at the Canada Revenue Agency | |
NCCM 30/10/2025 - This week, over 200 Muslim organizations across Canada have signed on to a joint open letter to the Government of Canada and PM Mark Carney: It is time for systemic change at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Specifically, the CRA’s Review and Analysis Division (RAD) has been found by government watchdog NSIRA to be systemically flawed in its disproportionate targeting of Muslim charities, particularly from 2009-2022.
In short, the RAD does not have a credible and accountable process for targeting various charities in the name of national security, and has not fulfilled its obligations in terms of justifying their audits with real evidence and intelligence.
It is time to dismantle the RAD and implement real oversight at the CRA, built into the upcoming federal budget next month.
There is no room for systemic Islamophobia in our government agencies. We need change now. Read more - Lire plus
Canadian Muslim Groups Raise Alarm Over CRA Audits in Press Conference
| | Canada's Plan to Take in Palestinians from Gaza Is a "PR Show," Families Say | |
Drop Site 04/11/2025 - For nearly two years, Canadian citizen Najlaa Alzaanin, who lives and works in Halifax, has been trying to evacuate her family from Gaza to Canada under the government’s special visa program, but with no success and no action from government officials.
Alzaanin is especially worried for her mother who now lives in a tent in central Gaza, and she has been struggling with health complications due to her diabetes and lack of medication. The family was forced to flee Gaza City on foot last month amid Israel’s military offensive on the city, walking for 16 hours to reach Deir el-Balah. Most of Alzaanin’s 23 family members that she applied to evacuate to Canada are children: 11 of them are 12 years and younger. Two of the newborns have been at the hospital due to malnutrition. Her mother has lost around 50 pounds since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, and her condition has worsened with constant forced displacement and starvation.
Alzaanin’s mother and sister had already applied for the visitor visa and submitted their security biometrics in Cairo a week before Israel’s war on Gaza started in October 2023, as they had planned to travel to Canada to attend Alzaanin’s university graduation later in 2024.
When the Temporary Residence Visa Program (TRV) for Palestinians in Gaza with Canadian family ties was launched by the Canadian government in January 2024, Alzaanin then transferred their applications to the TRV program.
The TRV was initiated after Palestinian-Canadian citizens and permanent residents spent months advocating to bring their families to safety in Canada. The “special measures for extended family” program was initially capped at 1,000 applications, but later expanded to 5,000 individuals, which closed in March 2025 having received the maximum number of applications.
“Canada is not helping,” the 39-year-old told Drop Site News, speaking of her attempts to save her family. “There’s no progress,” Alzaanin added. “We already have people who have biometrics (fingerprints and ID registered). So, if this is the case [that they have met all visa requirements], why are you not evacuating them?” [...]
Working with asylum seekers at a refugee clinic in Halifax, Alzaanin also said she witnessed the “double standards” when the Ukraine-Russia war broke out. “I saw how Canada responded, and how they rushed to bring them in, but when it comes to us Palestinians, no.”
More than 300 patients in need of critical medical attention have passed Canadian security clearance and eligibility, according to the Gazan Canadians Families League, but there is still no evacuation. More than 700 people have died, including almost 140 children, while waiting for medical evacuation since the war began, the World Health Organization says.
The application process is complicated, and requires Palestinians to even include the origin of every scar and injury on their body, a request that was never used before for other programs, Mansour said. If the applicants later end up with more scars or injuries not included in the original application, this may also invalidate their application.
Toronto immigration lawyer Debbie Rachlis who represents dozens of applicants under the program told Drop Site News that she has never seen this level of securitisation and scrutiny of applicants in all her professional years.
“There’s no way [this program] could ever work,” she said, noting that even her clients who submitted biometrics are still waiting to move forward with their visa status a year or more later.
The Gazan Canadians Families League says appeals to Canadian MPs and to Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab have gone unanswered. The advocacy group has been organizing sit-ins at IRCC offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Nova Scotia over the past few months, demanding the government to take action.
Alzaanin said she confronted Diab at a barbeque in July—to ask her why there have been very few evacuations. In a video posted on Instagram, Diab responded: “There is no Canadian military presence” in Gaza to evacuate them, before turning around and hurrying away. An email sent to Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab also did not receive a response.
Alzaanin has now resorted to working with lawyers to file a case to the federal court for her mother due to her medical condition. Alzaanin discovered that her mother and sister had initially passed the security check through an information request made with her lawyers. In February 2025, however, both were again placed under a security check for the second time for unknown reasons. “There is no excuse for delaying her application,” Alzaanin said.
“Canada should do the job, fulfill the promise that they made, save our families, and see us as humans. What Canada is doing makes us feel that we don’t matter—our families’ lives in Gaza also don’t matter to them. Stop being complicit in this genocide, either in a direct or indirect way.” Read more - Lire plus
ACTION Reunite Palestinian Families Now
Global Affairs says Canada exploring possible "postwar" role in Gaza Strip
Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations are part of its strategy to keep waging war on Gaza
REMINDER The Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility, Nov 14-15 in Ottawa and livestreamed
ACTION Canada is Complicit, It's Time to Address It
| | Gaza genocide: A crime Israel did not commit alone, says Special Rapporteur | |
OHCHR 28/10/2025 - Israel’s genocide in Gaza is part of an international system of complicity, a UN expert warned today.
“International law is clear: States must neither aid nor assist in the internationally wrongful acts of others, and must prevent and punish international crimes,” Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 told the General Assembly. “This requires immediately suspending all military, economic, and diplomatic ties with Israel until its crimes cease, and pursuing justice for the survivors by holding perpetrators and accomplices accountable.”
Albanese addressed the General Assembly from Cape Town, South Africa — after US sanctions prevented her from presenting her report in New York. The Special Rapporteur’s new report, “Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,” reveals how influential Third States — with the acquiescence of many others — have provided diplomatic, military, economic and ideological support to Israel, entrenching, rather than dismantling Israel’s settler colonial apartheid, now turned genocidal.
“No State can credibly claim to uphold international law while arming, supporting, or shielding a genocidal regime,” Albanese said. The report shows how Third States are breaching their duty to prevent genocide, apartheid, and territorial conquest by supplying Israel with aid, arms, and political cover despite clear evidence of genocidal intent. Citing rulings from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, Albanese said that the world has been on notice since at least 2004 — yet impunity has only deepened.
“States knew. States had the means to act,” the Special Rapporteur said. “International law does not allow the luxury of feigned ignorance, delay or rhetorical acrobatics.” Instead, the report claims, States have obscured, ignored, and even profited from Israel’s violations of international law, through military, economic, diplomatic and even “humanitarian” channels.
Albanese’s report showed how military cooperation—through arms trade and intelligence sharing—has fuelled Israel’s war machine including during the genocide. While the US and Germany alone have provided over 90 per cent of Israel’s arms imports, at least 26 States [including Canada] have supplied or facilitated arms and components, and many others bought weapons tested on Palestinians.
“Trade and investment have sustained—and profited from—Israel’s economy,” the Special Rapporteur said. Between 2022 and 2024, exports of electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy, minerals, and dual-use items, totalling $474 billion, helped Israel finance its military operations. About one-third of this trade is with the EU, while North America and several Arab States continue deepening economic ties. Only a handful of States have marginally reduced trade during the genocide, as indirect commercial flows persist largely undisturbed.
“One of the most sadistic aspects I have witnessed,” the Special Rapporteur said”, “is the weaponisation of aid.” “What began with the blockade and attacks on UNRWA has become the full subjugation of aid to Israeli and US diktats, stripping the UN of its protective role,” she said. “These measures, aided or endorsed by some States, deliberately worsened Gaza’s living conditions.”
“The problem is also deeply ideological,” Albanese said. “Western leaders have echoed Israel’s propaganda — repeating the ‘self-defence’ mantra, reviving colonial tropes that cast Palestinians as less than human. By framing Gaza’s destruction as a battle of civilisation against barbarism, they have helped Israel erase the distinction between civilians and combatants, and with it, Palestinian rights and humanity.”
“I am also surprised by how little too many in the Global Majority — including across the African continent, once liberated from colonial oppression — have done to confront this genocide,” the Special Rapporteur said. While most Western governments have denied the genocide and shielded Israel through vetoes and diluted resolutions, only 14 States have joined South Africa’s landmark case before the ICJ, and the Hague Group — the main diplomatic forum seeking to end the genocide — counts merely 13 members.
“This is not only about Palestine,” Albanese said. “It is about the survival of the United Nations according to its core values and norms. From the ruins of oppression, a new multilateralism must emerge: not a façade, but a living architecture of rights and dignity for the many, not the few.” Read more - Lire plus
Thousands of Unexploded Bombs Dropped by Israel Have Turned Gaza into a Minefield
This 16-Year-Old American Is Among Hundreds of Palestinian Children Jailed in Israel
Palestinian civil society reacts to the Trump-Netanyahu genocidal plan
| | CCLA at the Supreme Court of Canada to Defend Freedom of Speech and Debate in Parliament | |
CCLA 05/11/2025 - People in Canada need their representatives to remain free and unfettered in their ability to hold the executive to account. To that end, freedom of speech and debate in Parliament is the most important right accorded to parliamentarians. Complete immunity from prosecution for parliamentary speech empowers independent and minority-party parliamentarians to proceed fearlessly and without interference in acting as a meaningful check on executive power.
The Alford v Canada case raises technical questions about parliamentary privilege and Canada’s national security regime. Under normal circumstances, statements made by members of parliament in the House of Commons or Senate would not be subject to prosecution because they are protected by parliamentary privilege. Section 12 of Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act (NSICOP Act) eliminates this privilege in certain circumstances. Professor Ryan Alford, a law professor at Lakehead University’s Faculty of Law, is challenging the Act. He argues that section 12 improperly removes parliamentary privilege from members of the NSICOP and that this can only be done with a constitutional amendment.
The question is whether Parliament’s authority to “define” parliamentary privilege under section 18 of the Constitution Act, 1867 permits legislation that exposes the exercise of parliamentary privilege to judicial review, thereby exposing parliamentary minorities to external pressure that could silence their voices in Parliament. CCLA is intervening to highlight the urgent need to safeguard the purpose and function of parliamentary privilege, and to protect the ability of parliamentary minorities to discharge their constitutional duty of holding executive power to account. Our elected representatives on a committee to oversee our national security agencies should have the ability to “blow the whistle” in parliament if they find glaring problems or illegality. Read more - Lire plus
BCCLA at Supreme Court of Canada to Promote Accountability and Transparency in National Security Oversight
| | RCMP watchdog without senior leadership for months, stalling investigations | A year after passing Bill C-20, still no word on when new agency will be functional | |
CBC News 30/10/2025 - The watchdog body meant to investigate Mounties’ conduct has been without a chairperson for months, stalling investigations and weakening transparency about how the country’s police force interacts with Canadians across the country.
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) has for decades been the body overseeing the national police force. But it has been unable to issue decisions for nearly a year now.
It’s slated to be rolled into a new organization, the Public Complaints and Review Commission (PCRC), which will review claims against both RCMP and border officers. Parliament passed legislation creating that agency last Halloween. But the government still hasn’t given any indication when the PCRC will be up and running.
Further complicating matters, the CRCC's chair left the agency in January after her term was up and in the wake of a troubling internal report into the commission's “toxic workplace.” Other senior roles, including vice-chairperson, are also vacant according to the CRCC’s website.
While teams of investigators and lawyers are still working, a spokesperson for the CRCC said the review body is unable to issue any decisions in the absence of a chair or other senior decision-makers. As of Oct. 21, the CRCC said it had 235 review and investigation files awaiting a decision.
“Justice delayed is justice denied and that applies here,” said Tom Engel, a lawyer and chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association's policing committee. He’s spent years advocating for changes to the process meant to keep RCMP members accountable and has helped clients file complaints to the CRCC.
“I imagine a lot of people just throw up, throw their hands up in the air and figure, well, what can I do?” he said of the delays. “It basically undermines confidence in the RCMP accountability system.”
The reviews in the logjam are on par with the number of reports the CRCC has released annually. During the last fiscal year, it issued 203 reports.
In 2023-24, the CRCC issued 246 review reports, with 381 findings and 184 recommendations. In the name of transparency, the watchdog makes depersonalized summaries of those findings public.
While most reports are triggered by complaints from the public, the chairperson can also initiate reviews.
Over the years the CRCC’s findings and recommendations have touched on key policing issues, like the Mounties’ handling of protests, use of force and abuse of power.
For example, the review body found the RCMP seriously interfered with press freedoms, unreasonably blocked media access and arbitrarily detained a reporter during the 2020 raid on Wet'suwet'en-led blockades in northern British Columbia.
It also has called out what it calls "unreasonable" use of force during wellness checks and has repeatedly found Mounties are not properly investigating sexual assault allegations. Read more - Lire plus
| | Administrative measures to counter terrorism must respect human rights: UN expert | |
OHCHR 22/10/2025 - Governments must stop the rampant abuse of administrative counter-terrorism measures, including where they are weaponised to stifle civil society, human rights defenders, journalists and political opponents, a UN expert warned today.
“Administrative measures, from security detention to listing individuals and groups as “terrorist”, are proliferating globally. They profoundly affect many human rights and often have fewer due process and judicial protections than under the criminal law,” said Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
“Without essential safeguards, they are ripe for abuse in democratic and authoritarian States alike. Their abuse also counter-productively undermines national security by fuelling grievances and alienation.”
In his report to the General Assembly this week, Saul recommended best practices to protect human rights while using administrative measures.
The report sets out general principles to guide their responsible use before focusing on four common measures: (1) restrictive orders, such as limits on movement, communication and association, (2) listing of individuals and organisations as terrorist, to seize assets or criminalise behaviour, (3) administrative security detention, and (4) compulsory preventive interventions to reform behaviour.
“Given the risks involved, such measures should be only used exceptionally and where strictly necessary to prevent terrorism and proportionate to that aim, and applied on a non-discriminatory basis,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“The grounds for issuing them must be clearly defined in law and based on an underlying definition of terrorism that meets international standards. Measures must also be time limited,” he said.
The report calls for rigorous procedural safeguards, including adequate disclosure of evidence, accessible judicial review, and prompt and effective remedies, including compensation where rights have been violated.
“Administrative measures should not normally substitute for criminal prosecution where feasible or be misused to circumvent the stronger protections of criminal trials,” Saul said.
The Special Rapporteur cautioned against imposing administrative measures based on unreliable risk assessment tools, including those powered by artificial intelligence.
The special needs of vulnerable groups must be taken into account, including persons with disabilities or mental health conditions, victims of terrorist groups and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Measures should only be exceptionally applied to children.
“Administrative security detention is particularly dangerous, since it can too easily enable arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and arbitrary deprivation of life,” the expert said.
“Recent abuses of administrative detention in armed conflicts are testament to these risks.”
The Special Rapporteur stands ready to offer technical assistance to ensure administrative measures under national law comply with international standards. Source
ACTION Canada: Abolish rights-violating terrorist entities list!
Did TSA Rely on Controversial “Counter-Extremism” Group to Put Names on a Secret Watchlist?
How Anti-Terror Laws Became a Tool to Silence Dissent in Balochistan
Algeria: Report reveals widespread and arbitrary use of travel bans as a tool of repression
| | Spencer Ackerman: Three Hops To Your Doom | |
As Pete Hegseth pledges to treat South America like al-Qaeda, the administration's targeting rules accordingly permit indiscriminate killing
Forever Wars 03/11/2025 - "SECRETARY OF WAR" PETE HEGSETH—and I happen to think the War Department appellation appropriately strips the veneer off the enterprise, though if we wanted to go all the way, he would be Secretary of Imperial Policing, since that's what the U.S. means by war—posted the following on Saturday:
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Beneath Hegseth's lies and propaganda is this truth: treating Venezuelans, Colombians, maybe Mexicans and others "EXACTLY how we treated al-Qaeda" is a pledge to kill them indiscriminately. The War on Terror that shaped Hegseth's adult life and career has as a distinguishing characteristic a willingness to target, detain and kill huge numbers of people who were never al-Qaeda, secure in the political knowledge that elite opposition would never assert the humanity of the people whom successive administrations branded terrorists. Abolition is the only answer for the War on Terror, for its alternative is the expansion we are currently seeing, whether at home from ICE/CBP, or abroad with Trump's Caribbean naval buildup.
Elite outlets that deplore Trump were happy to accept and promote the big lies of the War on Terror that operated as proof of concept for the big lies of Trump. They derided the now-manifested reality that the War on Terror would expand to include many new targets, including some unimaginable in the fall of 2001. What Trump has done, they enabled, and I hope they enjoy the fruits of the world they made during the War on Terror. I know John Yoo is looking for the guy that did this.
Trump, recognizing on some level that the War on Terror made the president into an elected king, isn't going to bother with what little remains of Congress' constitutional grant of warmaking powers. While Hegseth enthuses about the war his department is waging, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel's T. Elliott Gaiser told a congressional briefing last week that it's not war at all, since doing so invites legislative authority over it. And while I recognize that the lesson of the Iraq "debate" in 2002 is that Democrats will turn a demand for the constitutional order into empty proceduralism that results in approval for an illegal and disastrous war, I, for one, think the constitutional order still matters, if only as a measurement of how far away we are from constitutional governance. Say what you will about the tenets of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, dude, at least it's an authorization. It was a real bad idea to have the OLC usurp the powers of the judiciary while the White House usurped the warmaking powers of Congress!
Exactly how many people will be targeted as Trump launches an unambiguous military aggression to overthrow the socialist regime in resource-rich Venezuela (And maybe the left-wing regime in Colombia as a stretch goal! Who knows? Certainly not Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard) is unknown. A Democratic lawmaker described a Pentagon briefer asserting that the military "did not need to know the identities of those being targeted in the attacks or whether those killed had been trafficking drugs," in the Washington Post's paraphrase. Whatever the briefer's protests, those are the rules of the Signature Strikes that the CIA conducted in Pakistan and elsewhere during Obama's presidency: killing without needing a positive identification of a specific target, only an observed "pattern of life" commensurate, according to some bureaucratic formula, with militancy. And there is another heritage of the War on Terror at work:
"What they told us is they have to show a connection to a designated terrorist organization or their affiliate, and as long as they can show that connection, they believe they are authorized to strike," Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-California) said in an interview.
But such connections could be as much as "three hops away" from a known drug trafficker, Jacobs told reporters after the briefing.
"Three hops away" borrows from surveillance terminology that I became intimately familiar with when working on the Edward Snowden NSA trove. It's a dragnet that attempts to masquerade as painstaking discrimination in choosing targets.
Imagine you're a "known drug trafficker." You order DoorDash one evening. Your message with your driver is one hop. Everyone that driver messages or receives a message from is a second hop. Everyone they message or receive a message from is a third hop. All of those people, per Jacobs' summary of this briefing, can be marked for death, and you'll notice that's a huge number of people. Those on the second or the third hop, and often the first, have no meaningful connection to the alleged target. A war predicated on this degree of targeting does so in order to preemptively launder indiscriminate killing into the rigorous result of metadata analysis.
We're watching in real time as the wages of the War on Terror are paid to one of the U.S.' longest-claimed spheres of influence. History is not merely repeating, it's folding in on itself to compound its atrocities. If this is normalized, what next?
***
404 MEDIA REVEALS there is no opting out of ICE and CBP's facial-recognition app Mobile Fortify. They're not content to monitor your social media for "deportable" speech, they need to retain your face for 15 years once they scan it at traffic stops and protests. All this will be done by a cohort recruited using white-nationalist messaging and flush with more cash than most militaries.
***
THE FORMER TOP ISRAELI MILITARY LAWYER, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, has been detained in connection with the leak, of IDF personnel raping Palestinians in the Sde Teiman military prison. Haaretz further reports that Tomer-Yerushalmi was permissive in her oversight of the myriad war crimes that IDF soldiers themselves posted. Nevertheless, the present Israeli government considers the leak worse than the rape. I will have much more to say about this in THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN, but sexual violence is all over the War on Terror and its Israeli-occupation uncle.
Meanwhile, Democracy Now! Tallies 236 Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israel during the "ceasefire." Source
Trump Administration Admits It Doesn’t Know Who Exactly It’s Killing in Boat Strikes
UN Human Rights Chief: US attacks on boats in Caribbean and Pacific violate international human rights law – Over 60 people have reportedly been killed by US armed forces since early September
Trump calls alleged smugglers 'unlawful combatants'. That term has a history.
Inside Marco Rubio's Push for Regime Change in Venezuela: Little to no fentanyl is coming from Venezuela, according to U.S. intelligence.
U.S. Senate Republicans veto legislation to limit Trump's ability to attack Venezuela: Vote comes amid large U.S. military buildup in region
Internal Report Shows the Military Always Wanted to Join the Drug War
ACTION for US residents: Tell Congress: Stop illegal military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific
| | Yemen: US air strike on migrant detention centre must be investigated as a war crime | Trump’s Yemen Strike Killed 61 Immigrants and No Combatants | |
Amnesty International 29/10/2025 - A new, in-depth investigation by Amnesty International concludes that a US air strike on a migrant detention centre in Sa’ada, north-western Yemen, on 28 April 2025 that killed and injured dozens of African migrants amounted to an indiscriminate attack. US authorities must promptly and transparently investigate it as a war crime.
The attack, carried out by the US military during “Operation Rough Rider,” inflicted catastrophic civilian harm on vulnerable migrants, many of whom were held by the Huthi de facto authorities in the detention centre solely for their irregular immigration status.
‘It is a miracle we survived’: US air strike on civilians held in Sa’ada detention centre is based on interviews with 15 survivors, all of whom were Ethiopian migrants detained in Sa’ada, and analysis of digital evidence, including satellite imagery, photos and videos. The report provides compelling evidence that, in carrying out this attack, the US failed to abide by its obligation under international humanitarian law to distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives.
The strike killed and injured dozens of the migrants held at the detention centre at the time of the attack. Survivors who spoke to Amnesty International were able to identify by name and approximate age 16 of the people – all Ethiopian migrants, all men and most in their twenties – who had been killed.
“The harrowing testimonies from survivors paint a clear picture of a civilian building, packed with detainees, being bombed without distinction. This was a lethal failure by the US to comply with one of its core obligations under international humanitarian law: to do everything feasible to verify whether the object attacked was a military objective,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Victims and their families should receive full reparation, including financial compensation. Given the air strike killed and injured civilians, the US authorities should investigate this attack as a war crime. Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should prosecute any person suspected of criminal responsibility, including under the doctrine of command responsibility.”
Amnesty International formally requested information from US Central Command (CENTCOM) and US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) on 27 August 2025, detailing its findings and seeking clarification on the military objective attacked and the precautions taken. CENTCOM provided only a brief response, on the same day the request was sent, stating that it was still “assessing all reports of civilian harm”, that it was taking all of them “seriously” and reviewing them “thoroughly”. Read more - Lire plus
Trump Threatens to Bomb Nigeria over “Killing of Christians”
| | Are You on Trump’s List of Domestic Terrorists? There’s No Way to Know. | |
The Intercept 04/11/2025 - The U.S. government has long maintained lists of terrorist organizations. Groups classified as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” or “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” have been hit with financial penalties, immigration restrictions, or other sanctions. Groups on the FTO list, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, have been targeted with lethal strikes.
But these designations aren’t enough for President Donald Trump. The U.S. government has instead begun drawing up new lists of terrorist organizations without disclosing the identities of the groups to Congress or the American people.
One of these lists is tied to Trump’s undeclared war in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, where the U.S. military is summarily executing alleged drug traffickers. There are reportedly dozens of groups on the list, but only two organizations — the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Colombian guerrilla group Ejército de Liberación Nacional — are publicly known.
Trump has also ordered his administration to compile a domestic terrorist list made up of his political foes, despite the fact there is no legal mechanism for labeling exclusively domestic organizations as terrorist groups. Under Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, he instructed his administration to target U.S. progressive groups and their donors as well as political activists who profess undefined anti-American, anti-fascist, or anti-Christian sentiments.
Unlike with prior lists, such as the State Department’s register of FTOs, it’s currently impossible to know if you are a member of a domestic terrorist group and what the penalties might include.
“By claiming this authority and by defining a wide range of political views—from anti-Christianity to anti-Americanism—as markers of domestic terrorism, the president has essentially created an enemies list and directed federal agencies to go after them. It is a classic authoritarian move, designed to sow fear and silence opposition to the administration’s policies,” Faiza Patel, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program told The Intercept. [...]
Lawmakers see Trump’s push to build secret terrorist lists as an authoritarian overreach that could result in government violence — or even deadly force — against American citizens exercising their constitutional rights in the United States.
“You can easily see a world where the president of the United States labels protest groups ‘terrorists,’ doesn’t tell anyone, and creates an excuse to unilaterally use the military inside our cities, similar to the way he’s used them in the Caribbean,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said in a Senate floor speech last month. [...]
“I don’t think that’s an irrational fear to have,” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said of the possibility of Trump expanding his war on supposed terrorists in the Caribbean and the Pacific to the United States. “I represent a border community. I have a lot of fears about what this will mean for my community and what they’ll try to use these so-called authorities to do domestically.
The Department of War, Department of Justice, and the White House all failed to provide lists of the groups being targeted to The Intercept. The White House did not respond to repeated requests to clarify whether those on the administration’s domestic enemies list are subject to summary execution. Read more - Lire plus
ACLU: Governors and Mayors Can Protect Nonprofits from Trump's NSPM-7 by refusing to cooperate with politically motivated federal investigations
| | How Designating Antifa as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Could Threaten Civil Liberties | |
Just Security 27/10/2025 - Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designations are one of the most powerful legal instruments in America’s counterterrorism arsenal. Originally conceived to combat international terrorist networks like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS), these designations trigger sweeping financial sanctions, severe criminal penalties, and extensive surveillance authorities. President Donald Trump’s comments at a White House roundtable on “Antifa” earlier this month make it likely that his administration will designate this decentralized anti-fascist movement as an FTO — a move that would create an unprecedented expansion of counterterrorism authorities into the domestic political space.
During the roundtable, Trump was asked directly whether he would designate Antifa as an FTO. The president’s response was unambiguous: “I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do. If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done.” This was not casual political rhetoric. It was a directive from the Commander-in-Chief to his national security apparatus, witnessed by millions of Americans. It is also something the first Trump administration took steps toward enacting near the end of the president’s first term in office. (For example, see section 2 of the Executive Order issued on Jan. 5, 2021.) The implications could extend far beyond anti-fascist activists to the entire architecture of American civil society and constitutional governance.
The FTO Framework: Powerful by Design
To understand why an Antifa FTO designation would be so consequential, one must first grasp the extraordinary scope of authorities that such designations unleash. The FTO system was deliberately constructed to maximize governmental power against international terrorist threats. Created by the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the framework provides the executive branch with extraordinary authorities that are designed to dismantle terrorist networks quickly and comprehensively.
Once an organization is designated as an FTO, providing “material support” to it becomes a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, or life if the support results in death. The statutory definition of “material support” is intentionally expansive and includes providing: “currency or monetary instruments, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, personnel, and transportation.” Only medicine and religious materials are explicitly exempted.
The breadth of this definition reflects Congress’s determination to eliminate all forms of assistance to designated organizations. The statute applies to U.S. persons regardless of where the prohibited conduct occurs, creating global reach for American terrorism prosecutions. The Supreme Court’s decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project clarified that even speech intended to promote peaceful conflict resolution may constitute material support if provided to a designated organization.
Financial consequences activate automatically upon designation. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requires all U.S. financial institutions to freeze assets within ten business days and report the frozen funds to the government. This financial disruption is designed to immediately sever designated organizations from the global financial system, preventing them from accessing resources needed for operations. [...]
Immigration Consequences and the Specter of Denaturalization
Beyond criminal prosecution and financial sanctions, FTO designation triggers severe immigration consequences that could create an underclass of vulnerable individuals subject to expulsion. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, any non-citizen who is a member or representative of a designated FTO is automatically inadmissible to the United States and subject to removal proceedings. The State Department may immediately revoke visas of any foreign nationals deemed to be members, representatives, or supporters of the designated organization. This authority extends to individuals who have “endorsed or espoused terrorist activity” or provided any form of material support, creating an exceptionally broad basis for visa revocation and deportation. (That said, similar provisions for removal of foreign nationals lawfully in the United States are currently being challenged in court on First Amendment grounds.)
The consequences reach even further for naturalized American citizens. Federal law permits denaturalization of individuals who were members of or affiliated with a “terrorist organization” within five years immediately following naturalization. Once Antifa receives FTO designation, any naturalized citizen who attended a counter-protest, donated to a legal defense fund, or expressed support for anti-fascist principles during their first five years as a citizen could face citizenship revocation proceedings.
The recent expansion of denaturalization enforcement, with the Department of Justice announcing in June 2025 that denaturalization cases would become one of its top five enforcement priorities, creates a particularly acute vulnerability for many of the estimated 25 million naturalized Americans. Consider a German immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 2023 and maintained connections with anti-fascist groups in her home country, or a French national who was naturalized in 2024 after years of participating in counter-demonstrations against far-right movements in Europe. Both could face potential citizenship revocation and deportation based on activities that were entirely legal when undertaken.
The denaturalization standard requires only “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence” in civil proceedings — a lower threshold than criminal conviction — and carries no statute of limitations. This creates a permanent cloud of legal jeopardy hanging over millions of naturalized Americans whose past political associations could be reinterpreted as terrorism support under an expansive FTO designation. Read more - Lire plus
| | ‘US counterterrorism laws make it increasingly difficult for civil society organisations to fulfil their missions’ | |
CIVICUS 20/10/2025 - CIVICUS speaks about US counterterrorism laws and their impact on civil society with Poorvika Mehra, Howard S. Brembeck Fellow at the Charity & Security Network (C&SN). C&SN seeks to reform these laws and increase the operational space for civil society organisations (CSOs) working on peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and human rights.
US counterterrorism laws, such as the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, are making it increasingly difficult for CSOs to operate in conflict and disaster-affected areas. Broad definitions of ‘material support’ mean that even humanitarian and peacebuilding work can be treated as illegal if it involves groups on terror lists. Limited exemptions, unclear guidelines and complex licensing processes create legal and practical hurdles, while asset freezes and designations put organisations at serious risk. Grassroots and women-led groups are particularly affected. Without reform and stronger international backing, the ability of CSOs to reach vulnerable communities and do essential work remains under threat.
How do US counterterrorism laws affect the operations of CSOs today?
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the USA has built one of the world’s most extensive counterterrorism systems. It has blurred the line between security and civic life, pulling humanitarian, human rights and peacebuilding work into the same space as armed conflict. What began as an effort to isolate terrorism now isolates those working for peace by criminalising their work, cutting off their access to funds and spreading fear.
At the heart of this framework are two laws: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which was strengthened by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. Together, under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A & B, they created the federal offence of providing ‘material support’ to a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), a term so broad it can include giving money, services, personnel and training. Violations can lead to up to 20 years in prison, or life if a death results. Prosecutors need prove someone knowingly provided support, not that they intended to break the law. That distinction can make humanitarian work in areas controlled by FTOs legally perilous.
CSOs can face prosecution even when their work saves lives. One example is the Holy Land Foundation, once the largest Muslim-American charity providing food and medicine to Palestinians through local zakat committees. None were listed as terrorist entities, but prosecutors claimed they were controlled by Hamas and the charity’s leaders were convicted. The case had a chilling effect on civil society.
Another key law is the Bank Secrecy Act, which was amended after 9/11 to make banks the first line of defence against terrorism financing. To avoid penalties, banks began cutting ties with civil society as a whole, a process known as de-risking. Because most global transactions use US dollars and pass through the US banking system, these rules reach far beyond US borders and allow US counterterrorism policies to shape how civil society operates and manages its finances worldwide. [...]
Are international bodies doing enough to protect civil society and humanitarian work?
Some progress has been made, but not nearly enough. UN Security Council Resolutions 2664 and 2761 exempted humanitarian activities from UN asset freezes. This was the result of a decade of civil society advocacy led by the 1267 Renewal Coalition, coordinated by C&SN. These have made it easier for humanitarian organisations and donors to operate in sanctioned areas.
The Financial Action Task Force has also updated its Recommendation 8 on nonprofit oversight. It’s urged governments to apply proportionate and risk-based measures to CSOs. Some countries are starting to follow, but many still apply a zero-risk approach and restrict civic space.
This has serious consequences. For instance, the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-terrorism and Human Rights, Ben Saul, has warned that over-compliance and weaponisation of counterterrorism laws has contributed to Gaza’s banking collapse, blocking humanitarian funds. The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy faces a similar problem: strong language but limited implementation. States committed to combating discrimination and gender disparity, but Islamophobia and antisemitism keep rising and women continue to suffer the worst effects of both terrorism and counterterrorism.
At this rate, the UN and its member states risk becoming complicit in the harms they were built to prevent. If we really want to ameliorate the terrible harms of the international counterterrorism framework, we don’t need more rules but need to make the existing ones work. This means enforcing Resolutions 2664 and 2761 uniformly, codifying humanitarian exemptions in national laws and embedding accountability within administrative measures. This helps treat financial access as a human rights standard.
Counterterrorism is not just a technical issue; it is political and ethical. International institutions must choose whether they will simply administer legality or act as custodians of humanity. The future of human rights depends on that choice. Read more - Lire plus
| | Pentagon Pete Orders Establishment of New Army of Goons | |
MSN 30/10/2025 - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the National Guard to create “quick reaction” forces in every state and territory in the next several months, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
These forces will be trained and equipped to respond to riots and civil unrest, and each unit will be composed of approximately 500 soldiers. These forces will be trained to deploy on short notice, and according to the Journal‘s report, will be trained in nonlethal crowd control, the handling of detainees and the use of batons, stun guns and body shields.
President Donald Trump ordered Hegseth to establish the specialized units in August, and a September memo from Hegseth shows the Pentagon chief ordering the creation of a “National Guard Response Force” designed for “rapid mobilization as the circumstances require.”
“The Department of War will be prepared to immediately provide support to federal, state and local law enforcement to address threats of civil disturbance,” the memo read. The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
The forces, which will be established in all 50 states as well as Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will be “prepared to deploy with 25% of the force in hours, 50% of the force in 12 hours and 100% of the force in 24 hours,” according to a memo seen by the Journal.
The president has repeatedly sought to mobilize the National Guard against American citizens, particularly in Democrat-controlled cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, where residents have protested ICE raids in their areas.
Trump also sent the National Guard into Washington D.C. to combat what he argued was out-of-control crime in the capital, only for troops to occupy their time participating in beautification projects after finding themselves with nothing to do.
Speaking to Jen Psaki on MSNBC, Illinois National Guard captain Dylan Blaha, who has said he would defy orders if deployed in Chicago, called the quick reaction forces “something we don’t need in our communities” and urged other soldiers to disobey future unlawful orders.
Blaha called the establishment of these forces a “power grab,” telling Psaki, “Ultimately, we’re seeing an increased militarization of our American cities in a time when we don’t need it. People are struggling economically, and what they need is relief from that.”
In addition to the quick response forces, Trump has also argued that he would be within his rights to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to justify military takeover of American cities. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president said, “If I want to enact a certain act, I’m allowed to do it.”
“We haven’t chosen to do that because we’re doing very well without it, but I’d be allowed to do that, you know that, right? And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I could send anybody I wanted.”
The legality Trump’s attempted deployment of the National Guard to both Portland and Chicago is still being argued in the courts. While Blaha acknowledged that resisting unlawful orders is difficult considering “illegality is always determined after the fact by a court of law,” he still urged his fellow soldiers to resist following unlawful orders.
“I’ve had a lot of members reach out to me in private... asking me for advice on what to do if they’re called to deploy, and I always tell them, ‘Don’t go against the American people, and don’t do anything that you know for certain is unlawful.‘“ Read more - Lire plus
“My Community Is Under Invasion from Our Own Federal Gov’t”: Evanston Mayor Decries ICE Raids in Illinois
Federal Agent Pointed Gun at My Head: Illinois Lawmaker Hoan Huynh Denounces ICE Raids in Chicago
Chicago’s Militarized Immigration Raids “Coming to Other Cities” as Trump Plans 10,000-Bed Jails
Trump's sweeping overhaul of ICE is creating a Frankenstein force
ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship
Ghana and Trump are bargaining with lives. Ghanaians are pushing back
| | OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | | ICLMG ACTIONS DE LA CSILC | | |
UPDATED: The government has now introduced Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. This new bill simply copies over C-2's anti-migrant and anti-refugee provisions. At the same time, Bill C-2 - with its privacy-violating measures absent in C-12 - will continue through Parliament.
Please send a quick email to your MP, the Public Safety Minister, the Justice Minister, the Immigration Minister and the Prime Minister urging them to withdraw these dangerous bills. Thank you!
| |
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!
| | 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 the Public Safety Minister demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable. Your message will also be sent to your MP and to the Minister of Justice.
| | Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | | Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! | Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts. 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 and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay. | | 22 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | | 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 the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and your MP to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. Thank you!
Version française: Le Canada doit réformer la loi sur l'extradition!
| | Canada must protect encryption! | |
Canada, with other G7 nations, continues to push to weaken our access to strong, reliable encryption, after decades of being supportive of strong encryption. We need encryption to safeguard our data, our online transactions, our communications, and to protect the lives of journalists and human rights activists.
Please send a message to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Minister of Public Safety, as well as your Member of Parliament, to urge them to reverse course and once again commit to protecting encryption.
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 the Prime Minister and the Public Safety Minister calling for a ban now. | | What we’ve been up to from January to May 2025 and our plan for the rest of the year | |
ICLMG 30/05/2025 - Thanks to the support of our members and donors, here is what we were able to work on so far in 2025 :
- Open letter to the new Prime Minister and government
- 2025 federal election and National Security Info Card
- C-20: First independent watchdog for the CBSA
- C-27: Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Online Harms
- Foreign Interference
- Combatting Racism & Islamophobia
- Canada’s terrorist entities list
- Palestine and the right to dissent
- Impacts of Counter terrorism financing
- Hassan Diab & Extradition
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- And more!
What we have planned for the rest of 2025!
We have our work cut out for us! In response to threats of tariffs and annexation from the Trump administration, the Canadian government has problematically committed to the rapid expansion of border security, surveillance and information sharing with the US, and expanded the use of rights violating anti-terrorism tools. We also cannot ignore the US crackdown on protesters and migrants under the guise of fighting terrorism and protecting national security. We need to ensure that Canada disentangles itself from the US national security regime, resists US pressure to expand surveillance and counter-terror powers and tools at the expense of our civil liberties, and increases protections for privacy, dissent, migrants and asylum seekers.
We will continue our work on these issues and much more:
- 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
- Advocating for restrictions on Canadian information sharing with the US, including the application of the US No Fly List in Canada
- Campaigning for the repeal of secretive and rights violating national security lists, such as the Terrorist Entities List and the Canadian No Fly List
- Halting the rapid expansion of new security measures at the border and continuing to push back against 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 agency
- Advocating with lawmakers and officials to protect civil liberties from the overall negative impact of national security
- Countering the escalating repression of free expression, dissent and protest in the name of “countering terrorism,” including the crackdown on protests in support of Palestinian human rights and against the genocide in Gaza. This includes countering new “bubble zone” laws at the municipal and federal levels
- 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
- Addressing the impacts of measures to counter terrorism financing on civil society groups, including the CRA’s targeting of Muslim-led charities and restrictions and criminalization of the provision of international assistance and humanitarian aid
- Calling for the return of Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children, who remain indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
- Pushing for restrictions on the implementation of new foreign interference laws
- Keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
- And much more! Read more - Lire plus
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| | Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG. | | |
THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
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Colin Stuart
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James Turk
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Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!
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