|
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
October 15, 2022 - 15 octobre 2022
| |
New parliamentary report demonstrates urgent need to rein in facial recognition, artificial intelligence to protect the rights of people in Canada
| |
CSIS violated its own rules in smuggling of British teens | |
|
The Globe and Mail 11/10/2022 - An informant working for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who smuggled three British schoolgirls into Syria for the Islamic State in 2015, breached the spy service’s rules that prohibit paid recruits from engaging in illegal activities including human trafficking. Trafficking people is also an offence under the Canadian Criminal Code and an international protocol on the practice of which Ottawa is a signatory.
Informant Mohammed al-Rashed trafficked the British teens into Syria for Islamic State on Feb. 17, 2015. Britain’s Scotland Yard was frantically searching for the missing teens at the time and was unaware that they had been smuggled into Syria by an operative working for Canada. Ottawa’s relations with Turkey were also damaged by running an operative in the country without its knowledge. The rules for CSIS operations that were in place in February, 2015, when the trio of underage girls were trafficked, state: “human sources will carry out their tasks on behalf of the Service without engaging in illegal activities.”
The Ministerial Directions for Operations issued by the Public Safety Minister at that time also said that CSIS must not only observe the rule of law, but that covert operations must consider the impact on ”Canadian foreign-policy interests and objectives.” Steven Blaney, the Conservative public safety minister at the time the girls were trafficked, told The Globe and Mail that he wasn’t aware of the covert operation and that CSIS should have acted within the law. Mr. Blaney said he was never asked and did not authorize CSIS to run an operative who was smuggling Islamic State recruits into Syria, including the underaged girls. “It is sensitive but the truth is the best thing. My office was not aware of that situation,” he said. “We have to act within the law. … I can hardly see how we could have let this happen or authorized it. It is way too dramatic.” He added: “It is a sad story because they [teenage girls] were trafficked.”
Huda Mukbil, a former senior intelligence officer who ran CSIS agents before she left the agency in 2017, said the spy service should have sought the approval of Mr. Blaney to conduct that type of intelligence operation. “The source was bringing in foreign fighters, that in itself is an illegal activity, because you are facilitating terrorism,” Ms. Mukbil said. “So everything he was doing, you needed ministerial approval to do. He was conducting illegal activities on behalf of a terrorist organization.” A heavily redacted Sept. 2015 report by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), an oversight body now known as the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, cited multiple CSIS failings in the handling of human sources working overseas. The report speaks of a case, which two sources say was the al-Rashed operation, where “CSIS should have notified the minister” and where Canadian diplomats “were insufficiently briefed.” The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss national-security issues.
“The temptation to pursue high-value intelligence may have overcome some of the governance and care that should have surrounded such an operation,” said national-security expert Wesley Wark, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. “It was a tantalizing opportunity for CSIS to acquire an inside source on the pipeline that was taking Islamic State recruits into Syria. That was clearly a high-value intelligence target at the time.” CSIS has declined to confirm or deny whether Mr. al-Rashed worked for the agency. But the government says stronger oversight measures have since been put in place to ensure covert activities comply with Canadian laws and the Charter. CSIS is also now required to inform and get ministerial approval for any “high-risk” activity that could cause a “potential public controversy.” “I am unable to discuss specifics without putting sensitive operations at risk,” CSIS spokesman Brandon Champagne said. But he added that “robust” accountability measures were enacted for the spy service after the SIRC report.
It was only after Turkish authorities arrested Mr. al-Rashed on Feb. 28, 2015, that CSIS informed the chief of Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism unit that their operative had transported the British teens into Syria, according to The Secret History of the Five Eyes, a new book by author Richard Kerbaj that recounts parts of the informant’s story. Mr. al-Rashed’s capture threatened to place Canada at the centre of an international incident, after Turkish media reported that he shared the girls’ passport details with CSIS on Feb. 21, 2015, and that he had smuggled other British nationals seeking to join the Islamic State. Turkish media also reported that Mr. al-Rashed told Turkish intelligence that CSIS promised him asylum in Canada. The Globe has reported that Mr. al-Rashed was freed on Aug. 5 after serving seven years in a Turkish prison on terrorism and smuggling charges, including trafficking the trio of British girls, and that CSIS had planned to relocate him to Canada after his release. The government will not say if he has been granted asylum.
The 2015 arrest strained relations with Turkey. The Globe reported last week that Jeffrey Yaworski, who was at the time CSIS’s deputy director of operations, went to Ankara shortly after Mr. al-Rashed’s detention to press Turkey to keep quiet about CSIS’s role in the operation. Turkey eventually agreed to Mr. Yaworski’s request, The Globe reported, but punished Canada by limiting the number of CSIS agents operating at the Canadian embassy in Ankara. CSIS also promised that any further clandestine activities should be joint operations. Around the time Mr. Yaworski was holding secret talks with Turkish authorities, CSIS persuaded British counterterrorism officials to cover up its role in the handling of Mr. al-Rashed, according to discussions revealed in Mr. Kerbaj’s book. Mr. Yaworski and CSIS declined to discuss the matter.
The SIRC report in 2015 recommended CSIS should no longer rely on Crown immunity as a defence against criminal liability and said the service should consider the impact that covert operations have on Canadian foreign policy. CSIS has since accepted those recommendations. In 2017, the government created the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency with stronger oversight powers. In 2019, new ministerial directions were approved for CSIS. Those directions state that all CSIS activities must be “lawful and authorized” and that the service has a duty to inform the public safety minister and his deputy minister of any “high-risk” covert activities. Any potential foreign-policy risk that could harm relations with other countries must also be discussed with Global Affairs, the directions state. The government also set up an independent intelligence commission with quasi-judicial powers to review all federal intelligence agencies, the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency. Read more - Lire plus
CSIS persuaded Turkey to hide recruitment of operative who trafficked teens to Islamic State
| |
Canada's talks with Taliban undercut ban on aid work in Afghanistan, lawyers argue | |
|
The Canadian Press 06/10/2022 - The revelation that Canadian officials have been in frequent talks with the Taliban undercuts Ottawa's argument that humanitarian groups cannot operate in Afghanistan, constitutional lawyers say. "We think the fact Canadian diplomats have correctly and appropriately been interacting with the Taliban on humanitarian issues shows that the government's interpretation needs to be revisited and withdrawn," said University of Toronto professor Sujit Choudhry. "Clearly, the Canadian government can figure out how to engage with the Taliban-led government when it chooses to do so," Choudhry's colleague Audrey Macklin said in an email. "It compels one to ask why the Canadian government insists that there is a legal impediment."
The pair is among four senior lawyers who signed a letter in May to Justice Minister David Lametti, saying humanitarian groups cannot be prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws for working in Afghanistan. Aid groups told members of Parliament this spring that Canadian officials warned them that buying supplies or paying a driver to deliver food in the country would incur taxes for the Taliban, which is listed as a terrorist entity. Several other countries found workarounds in their own anti-terror laws by June, when a parliamentary committee reported on the issue. Yet Lametti said Wednesday that Canada still hasn't sorted out how to deal with the issue. In May, the four lawyers noted that the Taliban is collecting taxes whether or not Canada recognizes it as the government, and the Criminal Code says taxes don't count as contributions to a terrorist group. Even if it did, Choudhry said, "the consequence of the government's argument would be that any Afghan national seeking refuge in Canada would be inadmissible, because they paid taxes to this authority."
This week, a media report revealed Canada has been in regular talks with the Taliban regime since shortly after it took over Afghanistan in August 2021. "While the government was telling us it wouldn't recognize the Taliban as the governing authority of Afghanistan, and therefore wouldn't deal with it, in fact it was doing so," Choudhry said, arguing this "blows apart" Ottawa's logic. "If the government is intent on maintaining this legally incorrect, we would even say, absurd interpretation of Canadian law, it needs to amend Canadian law immediately to establish a carve-out or exception for humanitarian organizations." Lametti said Thursday that the Taliban is indeed the government, despite Ottawa's refusal to recognize it as such. "The Taliban is the government, as much as we disagree with virtually all of their policies," he said. Lametti had no comment on why Ottawa can liaise with the Taliban while barring humanitarian groups from operating in Afghanistan. "The aid group question is a complex one," he said. "We do have to find a way to defend people." Read more - Lire plus
Trudeau has no timeline for unblocking Afghan aid, as humanitarian crisis deepens
Red Cross statement at the United Nations General Assembly: Counter-terrorism measures can impact humanitarian action negatively
| |
Insiders reveal why Canada won’t brand this Iran military group as terrorists | |
|
The Toronto Star 05/10/2022 - The Canadian government hasn't designated Iran’s revolutionary guard corps as terrorists over concerns doing so would be overbroad, difficult to enforce and unfairly target potentially thousands of Iranians in Canada, sources tell the Star. [...] Officials have “for years” looked at the question of putting the IRGC, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, on the terrorist list, sources said. But ministers this week have repeatedly declined to state why Canada has not done so already.
Multiple sources said a terrorist listing of the IRGC would have an impact potentially on Iranian-Canadian citizens and permanent residents drafted into military service in Iran who would no longer be able to travel or send money to family living there.
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces, and therefore a state actor. There's no precedent for listing a state as a terrorist organization. The U.S. under Donald Trump listed the IRGC as terrorists in 2019, a designation retained by Joe Biden. Oliphant said Ottawa also doesn’t want to limit opportunities “for people to get out of Iran in the future who may be trying to escape that tyrannical regime” or limit its already diminished ability to help Canadians in consular emergencies there. Read more - Lire plus
| |
Spy agency oversight committee calls on government to respond to five years' worth of recommendations | |
|
The National Post 30/09/2022 - A parliamentary committee that oversees Canada’s intelligence service wants the Trudeau government to address a “long-standing challenge” and finally respond to all the “critical issues” it has found in the country’s security and spy services. Has it created a clear guide to circumscribe the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to collect, use and retain information on Canadians during intelligence operations abroad? The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) would love to know, and it’s frustrated by the government’s lack of answers. The call-out by the secretive but influential committee is contained in its 2021 annual report made public on Thursday.
Formed in 2017, NSICOP’s role is to provide parliamentary oversight to the 17 federal agencies involved in intelligence activities and operations, such as the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Since it was created, the committee has published eight special reviews or reports, each containing multiple recommendations for the government to improve its intelligence activities and better protect Canadians’ rights and data. But the committee has long been frustrated by the government’s silence vis-à-vis its recommendations every time a review was published. It wasn’t until its eighth review published in 2021, a special report on government cyber defences, that the federal government actually responded with commitments to change.
“This year, the Committee was pleased to note the partial resolution of a long-standing challenge. For the first time, the government provided the Committee with a formal response to the recommendations included in one of its reports,” the committee wrote in its annual report. “The Committee believes that responses to its recommendations are essential to strengthening the operations and accountability of security and intelligence organizations. It welcomes the government’s commitment, which it has cited as an area for improvement in past annual reports,” it continues. But a response to a single review isn’t enough, the committee said. NSICOP, chaired by Liberal MP David McGuinty, wants the government to go back and respond to its seven other published reviews that highlight “critical issues in the security and intelligence community.” Their report pointed out two reviews that it believes require a response and commitments from the government.
The first was a 2020 report on the “collection, use, retention and dissemination of information on Canadians” during intelligence activities conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. The review namely found that DND held the “unjustifiable” belief that the Canadian Privacy Act does not apply to its operations abroad and that the framework the DND and the CAF use to guide the collection, use, retention and dissemination of information on Canadians “needs clarification.” [...] In the absence of a commitment from the government to respond to its many recommendations, NSICOP said it would begin its own review and tracking of progress made (if any) by departments included in its previous reports.
“In the coming year, the Committee will engage with organizations implicated in the Committee’s earlier reviews to determine whether they accept the Committee’s recommendations and what actions have been taken to respond to them,” reads the report. In a statement, PMO spokesperson Cecely Roy said that the prime minister ordered in 2021 that the government must reply to NSICOP reports “going forward.”
The statement did not address responses to the previous seven reviews as requested by NSICOP. Read more - Lire plus
| |
Australia to launch rescue mission for women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps | |
|
The Guardian 02/09/2022 - The Australian government is preparing to launch a mission to rescue dozens of Australian women and children trapped in Syrian detention camps. More than 20 Australian women and more than 40 children – the widows, sons and daughters of slain or jailed Islamic State combatants – remain within the al-Hol and Roj detention camps in north-east Syria.
Australia will repatriate more than 20 of its citizens, most of them children, but will not be able to bring all Australians out of the camps at once. Subsequent operations are expected in coming months. Many of the women held in the camps say they were coerced or tricked into travelling to Syria by husbands who have since died. Most of the Australian children are under six; several were born in the camps. In 2019, Australia launched a secret rescue mission to repatriate eight Australian orphans, including a pregnant teenager, from the camps. But since then the government has refused to bring any more home, citing security concerns.
The Guardian has confirmed with multiple sources that a rescue mission is impending.
A spokesperson for the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, told Guardian Australia on Sunday: “The Australian government’s overriding priority is the protection of Australians and Australia’s national interest, informed by national security advice. Given the sensitive nature of the matters involved, it would not be appropriate to comment further.” Most of the Australians – including 44 children – are held in the Roj camp, closer to the Iraqi border. It is considered safer than al-Hawl, but malnutrition, illness and violence are common. Al-Hawl, where one Australian family group and several children with a right to Australian citizenship are held, is considered exceedingly dangerous, with IS still active. More than 100 murders were reported in the 18 months to June this year. [...]
Other countries with nationals inside the Syrian camps have been steadily repatriating them. Germany has repatriated 91 of its citizens, France 86 and the US 26. Kazakhstan has returned more than 700 of its nationals, Russia and Kosovo more than 200 each. France is running an operation repatriating its citizens, including orphans. The removal of foreign nationals has the support of the Kurdish-led forces which, for now, have control of the camps. The US, which has a significant military presence in north-east Syria, has repeatedly pushed Australia to repatriate its citizens. Australian children have suffered acutely in detention in Syria. In 2021, an 11-year-old Australian girl collapsed due to malnutrition in al-Roj camp. And in 2020, a three-year-old Australian girl suffered severe frostbite to her fingers during a bitterly cold winter. One Australian held in Roj camp was 14 when she was trafficked into Syria and forcibly married to an IS fighter. She has since given birth to four children.
The women in Roj camp have volunteered to be subject to government control orders if they are returned. UN experts, led by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, have told Australia the repatriation of women and children is “entirely feasible”. “The government of Australia has the capacity to do so,” they said. “Many other governments are currently doing it. Australia has an advanced child welfare, education, criminal justice and health system which is eminently capable of addressing the needs of these children and their mothers. “Failure to repatriate is an abdication of Australia’s treaty obligations and their deeper moral obligations to protect Australia’s most vulnerable children.” Read more - Lire plus
Two British nationals repatriated from northeast Syria camps
ISIS infiltrated a refugee camp to recruit fighters. Inside the Biden admin’s plan to stop it by supporting repatriation by other countries.
Belges détenus en Syrie : Cassandra Bodart dans une impasse
TAKE ACTION: Children Forced to Eat Sand: Free Jack Letts & 43 Canadian Kids, Women & Men in Syria
| |
Jasmine Zine: The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia’s Ecosystem in the Great White North | |
|
Islamophobia Studies Center 2022 - Since the 9/11 attacks, Muslims have been more openly vilified and targeted. Statistics Canada data on police-reported hate crimes between 2009 and 2019 revealed a steady increase of anti-Muslim incidents across the country. White nationalist terror in Canada has specifically targeted Canadian Muslims. There have been unprecedented attacks against Muslims first at a mosque in Québec City on January 29, 2017, killing six men after evening prayers and then four years later, on June 6, 2021, in London, Ontario, where four members of a Muslim family were intentionally mowed down by a truck and killed.
Within this context, understanding how Islamophobia manifests and is purveyed is more important than ever. In addition to the impact that state policies and systemic anti-Muslim racism have on perpetuating a climate of Islamophobic animus, Islamophobic networks operate in orchestrated ways to support and sustain an industry of hate. The “Islamophobia industry” is comprised of media outlets; political figures; far-right, White nationalist groups; Islamophobia influencers and ideologues, pro-Israel, fringe-right groups; Muslim dissidents, think tanks, security experts, and the donors who fund their campaigns. These individuals, groups, and institutions comprise a network that supports and engages in activities that demonize and marginalize Islam and Muslims in Canada.
The objectives of this study were to (a) map the political, ideological, institutional, and economic networks that foment Islamophobic fear and moral panic in Canada; (b) examine strategies employed by Islamophobia agents and highlight the ties among players within the Islamophobia industry; (c) create profiles of key public figures, media outlets, and organizations who produce and distribute Islamophobic ideologies and propaganda, and (d) identify the dominant Islamophobic discourses that circulate through these networks. A social network analysis was performed to examine relevant media articles, websites, public commentary, and videos from Islamophobia influencers and ideologues, organizations, media outlets, and other anti-Muslim special-interest groups that promote Islamophobic campaigns. Read more - Lire plus
| |
Report: Unveiling the Chilly Climate – The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada | |
|
IJV Canada 12/10/2022 - IJV has spent the last year gathering research about the repression faced by academics, students and Palestine solidarity activists, collecting approximately 80 testimonies describing the resulting “chilling effect” in Canada. This report is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, utilizing ethnographic methodology and qualitative analysis to describe both the overarching effects of this repression as well as the deeply personal impact it has on activists, artists, students and professors. While focused on Canada, it also holds international ramifications as many of the processes we describe are present in other countries. [...]
Interviewees recounted that their experiences included: political intervention into hiring; attempts to prevent access to event venues and the attempted cancellation of public events on Palestine as well as targeting and doxing, including the inclusion of 128 Canadian academics and activists on the website of Canary Mission, an organization which purports to document “individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the US, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” Threats of violence and genuine acts of violence were experienced by student activists and these often contained racial and sexual slurs including threats of sexual violence. Students were subject to warnings and disciplinary measures by university administrators whom respondents often described as being hostile to Palestine solidarity activism on campus. Faculty respondents reported restrictions on academic freedom, self-censoring of expression on Palestinian human rights, discriminatory treatment by academic publishing platforms, harassment by pro-Israel advocacy groups and media outlets, attacks from colleagues, political interference by university administration, classroom surveillance by pro-Israel student groups, and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism. Indeed, the suppression of speech on Palestine has significant consequences in academia where it threatens principles of academic freedom and encourages surveillance of critical intellectuals and activists and of the oppositional knowledge that they produce.
As our research reveals, the precarious employment conditions of over half of Canada’s university teachers mean that because of the “chilly climate” around speech on Palestine untenured or pre-tenure faculty are reluctant to pursue academic or activist work in this area for fear of endangering contract renewals or future career prospects including access to publishing platforms so central to the academic tenure and promotion process. Unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitic intent and support for terrorism are commonly levelled against pro-Palestine academics and activists. Significantly, Palestinians, Muslims and non-Arab racialized participants appear to have borne the brunt of direct attacks on their scholarship and activism. The emotional impact of harassment and suppression was felt most acutely by Palestinian students and faculty interviewed. Jewish activists were not immune to attack and were often characterized by opponents as “kapos” or “self-hating Jews.”
We also document how both on- and off-campus Israel-advocacy organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to suppress speech and activism on Palestine. As University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick has argued, the pro-Israel organizations have constituted a ‘vigilante’ force which has made it “increasingly difficult to criticize Israel without fear of lawsuits, accusations of anti-Semitism, demands for political balance in staging of events, blacklisting of participants, or other forms of personal or institutional harassment.” Despite the proliferation in recent years of attacks on Palestine solidarity activism, public recognition of the grievous violations of Palestinian human rights has grown. This report signals that an atmosphere of repression and recrimination related to discourse and activism around Israel/Palestine is ubiquitous and insidious and should be unacceptable in a democratic society. Read more - Lire plus
Video: Unveiling the Chilly Climate - The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada (report launch)
Meta’s clampdown on Palestine speech is far from ‘unintentional’
Israel uses Palestine as a lab to test surveillance tech
30 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for 14 days: 900 prisoners return meals in solidarity
| |
Leading human rights groups challenge Safe Third Country Agreement at Supreme Court of Canada | |
|
CCR 05/10/2022 - Three leading Canadian human rights organizations, the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International Canada, and The Canadian Council of Churches, together with eight individual applicants, will appear before the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday, October 6 to call for an end to a policy that cruelly bars many people from seeking refugee protection in Canada.
In effect since 2004, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) prevents most people arriving at Canada’s land ports of entry from claiming refugee protection. However, as the organizations will argue, the practice of barring refugee claimants from seeking protection violates Canada’s human rights obligations under both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and international law. “The Safe Third Country Agreement is built on a false premise,” said Aleks Dughman-Manzur, President of the Canadian Council for Refugees. “The United States is not a safe place for refugee claimants escaping persecution. Despite the change in administration in the U.S., people sent back to the U.S. under the STCA continue to be at high risk of detention in abhorrent conditions. And some, including people facing gender-based persecution, are unfairly denied protection in the U.S. and sent back into danger in their countries of origin – a clear violation of their basic human rights.”
The ban imposed by the STCA applies to refugee claimants entering Canada at official land ports of entry. As a result, scores of people attempt dangerous border crossings into rural and remote areas of Canada. “Because of the STCA, vulnerable migrants are forced to cross into small border communities, at times in the dead of winter, risking frostbite, hypothermia, or worse, simply to have their claims for refugee protection heard,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada (English-Speaking). "Withdrawing from the STCA is one of the most impactful steps Canada can take to end irregular border crossings, allowing people to make refugee claims in a humane, safe, and orderly manner.”
The Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International Canada, and The Canadian Council of Churches have twice challenged the legality of the STCA, once in 2007 and beginning again in 2017. In both cases, the challenges were successful at the Federal Court but were later overturned on technical grounds by the Federal Court of Appeal. It wasn’t until 2021 that the Supreme Court announced it would weigh in on the constitutionality of the STCA – a significant breakthrough in the campaign for the just, compassionate, and orderly treatment of people seeking refuge in Canada. “We are our sister’s and our brother’s keeper,” said Pastor Peter Noteboom, General Secretary of The Canadian Council of Churches. “Canadians want Canada to live up to its human rights responsibilities and to be generous in welcoming refugees.” Supporters of refugee rights will stage rallies on Thursday calling for Canada to withdraw from the Safe Third Country Agreement. Read more - Lire plus
Efrat Arbel and Audrey Macklin: Why the Safe Third Country Agreement does not live up to its name
Ottawa should scrap the logistical and political nightmare that is the Safe Third Country Agreement
| |
|
Lawyered Podcast 12/10/2022 - On this episode, we take a close look at our country’s public safety mechanisms in a conversation about national security law, featuring Yavar Hameed! TOPICS: public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act; civilian oversight of RCMP & CBSA; facial recognition technology; and our Ask-Me-Anything segment.
- What is the legal effect of the government’s response to the 2022 trucker convoy protests? (5:22)
- What are the mechanics of the new oversight legislation related to RCMP and CBSA officers? (15:44)
- What is the practical impact of the recent Senate hearings about the government’s use of facial recognition? (25:30)
- Our Ask-Me-Anything segment, featuring questions submitted by patrons of the Lawyered community (37:03)
- How do/can authorities monitor online behaviour while respecting Canadians’ privacy rights? (37:44)
- How does Canada’s national security law framework compare to other western countries? (42:29)
- How do judges reconcile the “open court” principle with the need for security on national security grounds? (45:50)
- What measures are in place to ensure that our national security bodies are acting with accountability? (48:55)
Listen & read more - Écouter et lire plus
| |
Erica Ifill: Racism rears its ugly head in police’s untested tech | |
|
The Hill Times 12/10/2022 - Now is the time to re-read 1984 and rewatch Minority Report and Demolition Man, because this is where we are right now. On Oct. 4, Edmonton Police tweeted (now-deleted) out a suspect for a sexual assault that occurred in the city in March of 2019, which they called “horrific”—so much so the victim nearly died. There were no witnesses, no CCTV, and no leads. Suffice it to say they were stumped. In their own words, the Edmonton police had little information: “the suspect was Black and about 5’4 with a black toque, pants, and sweater or hoodie and that he had an accent.” In order to save the case, the police turned to a new technique called DNA phenotyping to prepare a sketch of the suspect, after which it was released to the public. (Apparently, they had the suspect’s DNA on file.) The sketch was released on Twitter to much well-deserved criticism. The Edmonton Police had to issue a long apology for the problems with this approach that they should’ve known. Had they done the proper reckoning after George Floyd, they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
We are in the age of artificial intelligence being used in policing, and racial disparities in policing will become a lot more pronounced and prevalent with applications of these technologies. We have a bill that’s circulating around Parliament—Bill C-27—that will exempt what is racial profiling at scale. DNA phenotyping is predicting a human’s appearance from forensic samples, which would contain someone’s DNA. It is used by police to determine suspects and find missing persons. It is also known as molecular identification. The Edmonton Police used a company called Parabon Nanolabs, which has had its own controversies. But the issue is whether or not this application of science is actually useful, or even ethical. Yves Moreau, a biologist at Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, remarked in Nature, that DNA forensic technology is seen as a silver bullet (much like tax cuts), a panacea that will solve all cases and cure all ills. “But law-enforcement agencies are using databases and techniques not designed for solving crimes or generating leads, he says. ‘It’s like a knife—people underestimate just how sharp they can be.’”
And that’s not all. Parabon’s Snapshot DNA Analysis is selling the science beyond its acceptable application and police services are eating it up without government oversight. Manfred Kayser of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, developed a program that predicts eye colour from DNA samples. While individual facial characteristics can be predicted, he insists there is no evidence that a whole face can be reconstructed just using DNA. As Nature pointed out, “Unlike Parabon, Kayser does not attempt to weave together different features to try to recreate a person’s face. Instead, he uses the individual traits (say, auburn hair and hazel eyes) as law-enforcement leads. He finds Snapshot to be problematic because the technology hasn’t been evaluated in the peer-reviewed literature.” In other words, Parabon’s claims have not been verified through a rigorous peer-review process. Kayser said, “It’s pretty bad that they don’t publish how they do this and how they validated this.” The Edmonton Police used a technology that is unregulated and unverified with the potential to put a target on the back of every young Black male in Alberta. It’s frightening and just goes to show that if there is no one in the decision-making space to challenge the use of these technologies, our governments will push their applications, without rigorous oversight and reporting, while using taxpayer dollars to do it. The potential for targeting various racialized groups, women, trans, and non-binary people is limitless. As Nature points out, “these technologies are already being used to target and discriminate against people from minority groups.” Read more - Lire plus
My sons were profiled by a racist predictive policing system — the AI Act must prohibit these systems
| |
Marwan Bishara: The flaws and fantasies of the new Biden doctrine | |
|
Al Jazeera 14/10/2022 - United States President Joe Biden’s newly released National Security Strategy is an amalgam of his predecessors’ doctrines. It claims the role of an indispensable global leader like Bush Sr and embraces a Manichaean view of the world — democracy vs autocracy, good vs evil — like Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. It promotes the gospel of free democracy and open markets like Bill Clinton, and suggests that like, Barack Obama, Biden is ready to cooperate and negotiate with “rogue regimes”. It even underlines an America First approach that prioritises domestic spending and investment — borrowing from the man Biden dismissively refers to as the “former guy”.
No easy feat; no less after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has complicated the NSS final draft and delayed its publication by several months. To paraphrase Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a strategy until they are punched in the face.” So, where this pompous exercise in grandeur falls short on coherence, it makes up with easy cliches about the indispensable nation’s role in the creation of a “prosperous” and “inclusive world”. From the outset, Biden makes a number of fanciful — even delusional — assumptions about US world leadership. “Around the world, the need for American leadership is as great as it has ever been,” the document claims, because “no nation is better positioned to lead with strength and purpose than the United States of America.” Such assumptions may have been true in the post-Cold War period but can no longer be justified — not after three decades of failures and fiascos, overreaction and later overreach; and not after the country’s recent retreat and retrenchment from the global stage.
Yet, the NSS pronounces that “we must proactively shape the international order in line with our interests and values”. There’s no escape from American righteousness, even when those liberal values are backsliding at home and abroad. Every time the United States leads by the example of its power, it compromises the power of its example, alas. At the heart of the newly unveiled strategy lies a paradox in the form of a clearly stated dual challenge to American national security: a geopolitical threat from China and Russia, and global threats — climate change, terrorism, new pandemics and food insecurity, among others. For the long term, the Biden administration is preoccupied mainly with a rising China. In the immediate, it is also focused on the Russian threat to European security. It believes these autocracies are “working overtime to undermine democracy and export a model of governance marked by repression at home and coercion abroad”. All of this, of course, hinders the indispensable multilateral cooperation needed to tackle common transnational dangers that know no borders or geography.
To resolve this paradox, the NSS proposes to “preserve and increase international cooperation in an age of competition … within the rules-based international order and while working to strengthen international institutions”. Hence, Biden claims not to seek “a new Cold War” with China, but rather reaffirms America’s One China policy, and makes clear that Washington does not support Taiwan’s independence. But China and Russia view America’s “rules-based international system” as the incarnation of US imperialism. They pay attention mainly to what the US does — not to what Biden says. They regard US strategic containment, military buildup, and alliance formation and expansion with alarm and hostility that will certainly undermine the cooperation and coordination needed to meet global challenges. Another problem lies with the NSS’s choice of resources and methods to achieve its objectives. It speaks of a desire to build a “free, open, prosperous, and secure international order” where people can “enjoy their basic, universal rights and freedoms”. However, to achieve such a worthy, even noble objective, the US plans to grow its power, amplify its influence through international coalitions, and modernise and strengthen its military. This comes even as the US already spends more on its military than the next nine biggest spenders, all of which — with the exception of China and Russia — are its allies. In other words, the Biden administration speaks as a healer but acts like a hammer, believing the US could and should act as the world’s policeman, despite a long and bloody history. Read more - Lire plus
Five key takeaways from Biden’s National Security Strategy
| |
Spy agency ASIO ‘acquiesced in the use of torture’ when detaining Egyptian refugee, court told | |
|
The Guardian 13/10/2022 - Asio’s willingness to use foreign evidence obtained under torture to detain an Egyptian refugee for more than a decade on security grounds meant Australia’s spy agency had “acquiesced in the use of torture”, the man’s lawyer has told the full bench of the federal court. Sayed Abdellatif, an Egyptian national, has been exiled from his homeland for 26 years after being convicted in absentia in a discredited mass trial in Cairo in 1999 for offences he never committed. He arrived with his family in Australia by boat seeking asylum in 2012 – and they have lived in the Australian community for years. Abdellatif’s claim for protection has been recognised by Australia. He has a well-founded fear of being persecuted and cannot be forced to return to his home country. But he has been denied a visa on the basis of the tainted security assessments and held in immigration detention.
The evidence used to convict Abdellatif of terrorism offences was obtained using torture, submissions to the court have outlined. That fact was known by the Australian government since 2015. In Sydney on Wednesday, the full bench of the federal court heard an appeal lodged by the government against a decision by justice Debra Mortimer in April. That decision found the adverse security assessments made by Asio against Abdellatif – resulting in him being detained for more than a decade – were legally unreasonable and denied him procedural fairness. Mortimer found the Asio officers who interrogated Abdellatif unfairly prejudged him, calling him a “liar” and accusing him of withholding information. In her 133-page judgment, Mortimer found there had been the use by Asio “in a material and significant way, of evidence that had been wholly discredited, including because of the likelihood it was obtained through torture and/or ‘prepared’ by Egyptian authorities”. She ordered the 2018 security assessment made by Asio – the basis of him being denied a protection visa – and a subsequent 2020 security assessment be set aside. The decision brought hope for Abdellatif’s release into the Australian community after more than a decade spent in immigration detention. [...]
On 15 September 2020, Asio officials questioned Abdellatif about his phone and social media use and about people with whom he was communicating. Interrogators labelled him a “liar” and accused him of withholding information. “The primary judge here found the Asio officers who conducted the interview were actually biased in the sense that they had actually prejudged the outcome – they had a predetermined view when they came in. “It is a very serious finding … it’s not simply a finding of apprehended bias, it’s a finding that the officers involved had no interest in finding out if the respondent poses a risk to security.” [...] Justices Michael Wigney, Robert Bromwich and David O’Callaghan heard the appeal lodged by the director-general of security, Mike Burgess, the home affairs minister and the commonwealth. They reserved their decision. Abellatif remains in detention in Sydney. Read more - Lire plus
| |
Urgent action needed to protect civic space against misuse of counter-terrorism, ODIHR event underlines | |
|
OSCE 05/10/2022 - The misuse of counter-terrorism measures against dissenting voices has reached alarming levels in the OSCE region, participants concluded at an event on counter-terrorism and shrinking civic space organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on 4 October 2022. The event took place in the margins of the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. “Civic space is under sustained pressure in many parts of the world, and the OSCE region is no exception,” said Anne Charbord, Senior Legal Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism. “Too often counter-terrorism measures as well as various measures to counter ‘extremism’ are used as weapons to silence civic activists, human rights defenders, journalists and peaceful political opposition.”
The 50 participants included representatives of OSCE participating States’ delegations, international organizations, civil society and academia. They discussed how expanding counter-terrorism legislation and policies lead to the further narrowing of civic space by undermining the ability of civil society to operate freely and without undue interference by authorities. They also shared examples of anti-terrorism measures used in some OSCE participating States to justify repression against social unrest, demonstrations, or simply criticism of the government and its actions. Ways to promote stronger support for civil society, human rights defenders and other critical voices targeted by such measures were also discussed. Using a counter-terrorism narrative as a pretext to justify repressive measures against critical voices is against human rights, fundamental democratic principles, and directly undermines the credibility and legitimacy of genuine counter-terrorism efforts in the OSCE region. Speakers and participants agreed that there is an urgent need to confront this growing trend. Read more - Lire plus
| |
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Alarm by sentencing under national security law | |
|
OHCHR 11/10/2022 - We are alarmed by the sentencing on Saturday of another five people – four of them minors – under the National Security Law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (Hong Kong SAR). The UN Human Rights Office and a number of UN human rights mechanisms have repeatedly expressed concerns over the negative impact of the National Security Law on fundamental rights and freedoms in the Hong Kong SAR. We remind the Hong Kong SAR authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention on the Rights of the Child in Article 37 states that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”.
The UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees implementation of the Covenant, in July this year called on the Government to “take concrete steps to repeal the current National Security Law and, in the meantime, refrain from applying the Law”. We regret the continued application of the National Security Law, including against children, in spite of the clear recommendations of the Human Rights Committee. We urge the authorities to bring the Hong Kong SAR’s legislation and practice fully into compliance with its international human rights obligations. Read more - Lire plus
Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 27
| |
U.S. Supreme Court to rule on protections for social media firms hosting terror content | |
|
The Japan Times 10/10/2022 - The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether social media companies can be sued for hosting and recommending terrorist content, taking up two cases that challenge their liability protections. The cases mark the court’s first test of the broad immunity social media companies have enjoyed under a provision known as Section 230, part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Section 230 has become a target of conservatives, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, who say it lets left-leaning technology companies censor right-wing voices.
In one case, Alphabet Inc.’s Google is trying to defeat a suit involving Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who was among 129 people killed in coordinated attacks by the Islamic State (IS) group in Paris in November 2015. Gonzalez’s family says Google’s YouTube service, through its algorithms, violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by recommending the terrorist group’s videos to other users. Courts have interpreted Section 230 as immunizing computer services when they are engaged in activities traditionally performed by publishers, such as deciding whether to display or edit third-party content. But Gonzalez’s family says recommendations are a different matter.
“Whether Section 230 applies to these algorithm-generated recommendations is of enormous practical importance,” the family argued in the appeal. “Interactive computer services constantly direct such recommendations, in one form or another, at virtually every adult and child in the United States who uses social media.” Google says YouTube at the time of the attack used a sidebar tool to queue up videos based on user inputs including browsing history. The company says the only alleged link between the Paris attacker and YouTube was that one attacker was an active user of the video-sharing service and once appeared in an IS propaganda video.
“This court should not lightly adopt a reading of section 230 that would threaten the basic organizational decisions of the modern internet,” Google argued. Two lower courts, including the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sided with Google and said the lawsuit should be dismissed. The Supreme Court also agreed to hear a related appeal by Twitter Inc. in a case stemming from a 2017 terrorist shooting in an Istanbul nightclub. In same ruling that absolved Google for the Paris attacks, the appeals court said Twitter, Google and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook had to face claims that they played a role in the Istanbul attack by failing to identify and remove IS materials. Twitter contends the appeals court improperly expanded the scope of the Anti-Terrorism Act by letting the suit go forward.
In May 2020, the Supreme Court declined to address a similar case, turning down an appeal on whether Section 230 protected Facebook from a lawsuit brought by US citizens injured in terror attacks in Israel who alleged the social network promoted posts by terrorist group Hamas. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had ruled earlier that Section 230 barred the suit, but the chief judge of the court dissented, criticizing the extensive immunity courts have granted to internet companies and calling on Congress to amend the law. In March, Justice Clarence Thomas urged the court to address “the proper scope of immunity” under the law in a concurrence, writing that if Congress did not step in to clarify Section 230’s scope, the court should do so in an appropriate case.
Trump had also set his sights on Section 230, directing his then Attorney General Bill Barr to send a proposal to Congress for how to impose new requirements on how the companies manage their content policies. Although several legislative proposal were floated, no changes were made to the measure. Barr had highlighted the case as one where courts have granted “virtually limitless immunity” to shield online platforms. The Justice Department reviewed Section 230 as part of its investigation into major online platforms like Google and Facebook, and held a workshop on the issue. The court will hear arguments early next year and will rule by the end of its term in late June. The cases are Gonzalez v. Google, 21-1333 and Twitter v. Taamneh, 21-1496. Read more - Lire plus
| |
Jan. 6 suspects in a D.C. jail think Guantanamo would be better. I’ve got news for them. | |
|
NBC 07/10/2022 - When I saw that 34 Jan. 6 defendants signed a handwritten letter asking to be transferred from a Washington, D.C., jail to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, I raised an eyebrow like everyone else. The letter was submitted in court Friday and started trending on Twitter on Monday. I have represented Guantanamo Bay detainees for almost a decade. The rosy picture painted in that handwritten letter bears no resemblance to the reality of Guantanamo Bay.
One early major controversy was caused by guards’ desecrating Qurans — hardly “being respectful of religious requirements,” as the defendants wrote. Guantanamo Bay also doesn’t have the “centers for exercise/entertainment” the men think it has; I and other lawyers have fought — and lost, for now — a battle to allow them to continue creating and publicly sharing their artwork as a form of therapy for the torture they suffered at U.S. hands. Far from having access to “top-notch medical care,” the men have no meaningful care for their serious medical conditions, many stemming from that torture. It took years of lawsuits to get an MRI machine down to Guantanamo Bay, where it eventually broke permanently — but not before it confirmed one of my clients’ brain damage from his CIA beatings.
But while the Jan. 6 defendants are wrong about conditions at Guantanamo Bay, they are not wrong about their own prison circumstances. Inhumane conditions at Guantanamo Bay are at least partly an extension of prison culture in the U.S. The Washington jail where the Jan. 6 defendants are being held was the subject of a memo from the U.S. Marshals Service last year, which described the denial of food and water “for punitive reasons” and “large amounts of standing human sewage.” Those issues have all been imported to Guantanamo Bay at various points over 20 years. And so has physical violence. Omar Deghayes has spoken about losing an eye after guards assaulted him. Military investigators uncovered that Mohammed al-Qahtani was forced to wear a bra and bark like a dog. When my clients Emad Hassan, Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani, Abu Wa’el Dhiab and Samir Moqbel protested their detention with a hunger strike, they were brutally force-fed while immobilized in restraint chairs. The past few years have seen leaking sewage and failing infrastructure in the camp where my client Ammar al Baluchi was held, creating unsanitary conditions in times of Covid-19. [...]
It should alarm us that the conditions at the Washington jail, where mostly Black people are imprisoned, make national headlines only when predominantly white prisoners complain about the conditions there (and misguidedly ask for transfers to the one place synonymous with torture around the world). And perhaps if the detainees were all white men from Western countries, Guantanamo Bay would have been closed ages ago — if it had ever been opened in the first place. But allyship can take many forms, and fundamental human rights apply equally to those charged with conspiracy, like some of the Jan. 6 defendants, as those charged with nothing at all, like most of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. If the Jan. 6 defendants help us force the U.S. government to reform our ugly culture of inhumane imprisonment, then I welcome their voices on this critical issue and hope for real change in their conditions as my colleagues and I work for real change for the men at Guantanamo Bay. Let’s just all agree that transfer to Guantanamo Bay is no solution. Read more - Lire plus
Guantanamo detainee used as 'prop' for torture training losing battle for medical care
Guantánamo Detainees Ask Biden to Free Their Art
Penn Carey Law professor co-leads report on Guantánamo Bay closure, prompting Congressional meetings
Opinion: Guantanamo has become America’s cage
Asim Qureshi: The silencing of a dangerously flawed film is not censorship
Russian Torture and American (Selective) Memory
| |
Surveillance tech is weaponry | |
|
Context 10/10/2022 - Surveillance technology is weaponry - it targets, tracks, invades, and decimates - and its unbridled use is a far-reaching, destructive violation of human rights. It is an assault rifle in the sustained global offensive on civic space, and we need a global moratorium on its export, sale, transfer, servicing, and use.
When news broke this month of three journalists and human rights activists in Mexico targeted once again by invasive Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group, it was not entirely shocking. This was yet another group of people attacked for fighting for basic human rights. However, the fact that President Obrador had publicly assured the world that his administration was no longer spying on activists, and more specifically that “there is no longer any relationship with the company [Pegasus],” makes this case particularly enraging.
The recent Mexico revelations by digital rights organisation Red en los Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) and The Citizen Lab is far from an isolated case. The relentless unearthing of spyware abuse across the globe — from Hungary and Poland to Thailand, El Salvador to Jordan — drives home the point that while this industry remains unregulated, no entity can fully be trusted to employ this technology while upholding human rights under international law.
Nor can private actors be left to their own devices with human rights policies and opaque ethics boards that fail us all. So we must act now. To stop the proliferation of spyware technology, Access Now, civil society from across the globe, the private sector, and the Government of Catalonia joined together to drive concerted global change through the Geneva Declaration on Targeted Surveillance and Human Rights - a collective commitment to human rights in the digital age. It sets out clear measures for multilateral organisations, governments, and private sector actors, and demands an immediate moratorium.
Despite the growing evidence of its abuse and harms, rules around the acquisition and deployment of spyware remain at the discretion of national governments, who are quick to use the national security card as an overarching justification for the use of this technology, and as pretext to crack down on dissent and critical voices. Governments routinely use vague and ill-defined laws, especially in authoritarian regimes, as gateways to stifle activists and journalists. This technology infringes on our rights in a way that contravenes any alleged benefits. Through their aggressive, rampant use of spyware, governments are violating our fundamental rights to privacy, freedom of expression, assembly, and opinion, when they have the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil them. The false narrative that we have to make a choice between privacy and security must be retired.
Invasive spyware gives all-inclusive access to targets’ devices, and, effectively, to their lives and state-of-mind. Who they call, what they say, what they surf and when, is all available to the perpetrators - usually their own government - thus enabling future abuses. Those who have experienced this violation often come out of the trauma constantly looking over their shoulders. This is what spyware does to its victims, and to the wider community it reverberates through; frightening changemakers into self-censorship. If this industry continues to operate this way, we cannot predict what this technology may be used for next, or how many lives it will destroy. UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that the unchecked use of spyware and surveillance technology adversely affects human rights work. The people attacked lead democratic movements, expose corruption, and represent vulnerable communities. Whether it is to extort, coerce, silence, imprison, or assassinate, spyware is a dangerous weapon.
Wider commitment for a moratorium from stakeholders across the board is both urgent and essential. We need to build on global public and private action to think beyond Pegasus or existing tools, and focus on regulating the surveillance tech industry as a whole. It has been left to facilitate human rights abuses for far too long. The new infection cases in Mexico, despite previous government assurances, show us exactly why we have no option but to implement a global moratorium now. We cannot rely on the good will or promises of governments or companies. This cyber armoury must be locked away, and spyware assembly lines immediately halted. Read more - Lire plus
Massive Leak of Military Docs Reveals Mexico Armed Cartels, Surveilled Journalists & Zapatistas
CitizenLab: New Pegasus Spyware Abuses Identified in Mexico
| |
Inside the Chinese government's growing surveillance state | |
|
The Intercepted 05/10/2022 - Artificial intelligence is making China’s expansive surveillance technologies more efficient. The Chinese government forcibly collects biometric markers like fingerprints, facial images, and DNA of Xinjiang residents, where 12 million Uyghurs live. In recent years, the country has expanded and improved its surveillance capabilities.
This week on Intercepted: investigative reporter Mara Hvistendahl speaks with Josh Chin and Liza Lin, reporters for the Wall Street Journal, about their new book, “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.” In their book, Chin and Lin break down the international implications of the Chinese government’s adoption of surveillance technology. Hvistendahl, Chin, and Lin discuss techno-dystopia in the pandemic era, what happens when there are no checks on algorithms, and how Western companies helped the Chinese government build the surveillance state from day one. Listen - Écoutez
EU Ombudsman opens inquiries into FRONTEX and EEAS on their support to develop surveillance capabilities in non-EU countries
AI Act: EU Parliament’s discussions heat up over facial recognition, scope
The EU wants to put companies on the hook for harmful AI A new bill will allow consumers to sue companies for damages—if they can prove that a company’s AI harmed them.
| |
NEW Allow asylum for Uighur refugees!
| |
The targeting of Uighur migrants across 28 countries demonstrates unprecedented transnational repression. Ask your MP to support Motion M-62. This motion proposes to resettle 10,000 Uighur in Canada by 2024. Send an email which makes 2 demands:
- Increase number of incoming Uighur refugees to 30,000.
- Launch the resettlement plan sooner than 2024.
| |
NEW Save Afghan Women’s Rights Defender! | |
Farzana Denied Entry to Canada! Call/Write for Urgent Permit to Save Afghan Women’s Rights Defender!
Please take 2 minutes to send an urgent email and call (sample messages below) to protest the potentially lethal rejection of Afghan women's rights defender Farzana Adell Ghadiya’s application for protection in Canada.
| |
|
Every year the federal government incarcerates thousands of people seeking safety or a better life.
Between April 2019 and March 2020, almost 9,000 people were in Canadian immigration detention, including 138 infants and children.
The federal government has contracts with provinces across Canada that allows for immigration detainees to be held in provincial jails.
Call on the federal government of Canada to cancel these contracts!
| |
EVENT Off the Hill: Confronting Islamophobia in Canada | |
October 18, 2022 at 7:30PM ET
October is National Islamic History Month. With Islamophobia and racism on the rise in Canada, what cultural responses and political actions are needed?
Join our regular co-hosts Robin Browne and Libby Davies as well as special guests Senator Salma Ataullahjan, rabble columnist Monia Mazigh, and rabble parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg this month.
| |
The Public Order Bill & the UK government's latest crackdown on protest | The Canadian government is moving nearer to obtaining armed drones, worth $5 billion of Canadian taxpayer dollars. Now is the time to say stop the procurement. Armed drones threaten people’s lives around the world. Rather than making the world safer, they are used in extrajudicial executions, surveillance of targeted populations and other violations of human rights. Take one minute to write to the Canadian Minister of Defence. Tell her it is time to stop militarizing the sky. | |
In 2007, Muhammad Rahim was kidnapped in front of wife and children in Lahore, Pakistan. He was bundled into a jeep, and for 8 months he disappeared into the network of CIA secret prisons where he was subjected to toture. According to the US Senate "torture report", the torture of Muhammad Rahim produced no intelligence. In 2008, the US announced he had been transferred to Guantanamo. The US have stated they have no intention to charge him with a crime, yet declared him a "forever prisoner". Now in his mid-50s, a medical examination found several nodules which a specialist has revealed could be indicative of cancer. After 13 years in prison without charge, he longs to be reunited with his 7 children. | |
|
Since the Taliban takeover of a year ago, Canadian aid organizations have faced barriers in sending aid to Afghanistan due to Canadian sanctions and a restrictive interpretation of the Canadian Criminal Code’s anti-terrorism provisions. This is despite the US, the UK, the EU countries and even the UN taking action to ensure sanctions do not interfere with crucial humanitarian assistance.
ICLMG has teamed up with other Canadian organizations to call on Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to act immediately to remove barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance. This includes ensuring that sanctions and counter-terror finance and criminal law restrictions do not impede the provision of lifesaving humanitarian aid. This issue isn’t limited to Afghanistan, either, which is why we are also asking the government to address the long-standing issue of ensuring that anti-terrorism laws and sanctions do not interfere with humanitarian assistance. Version française
| |
Protect human rights defenders in Palestine | |
CJPME - Canada’s inaction in the face of Israeli repression must end! Canada must stand up for human rights defenders by condemning Israel’s actions and putting its support behind the work of Palestinian NGOs
+ NCCM action: Canada must denounce the banning and raiding of Palestinian human rights organizations
| |
Ban facial recognition technology | Amnesty International - Facial recognition technologies are used to stifle protest and harass minority communities around the world – not just in New York City. These technologies are a global threat to the right to privacy, freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to equality and non-discrimination. Call for an end to technologies of mass surveillance. | |
Cuba is Not a Sponsor of Terror! | |
A crucial policy of the Trump administration remains, and that is Cuba’s presence on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. It is critical to Cuba’s ability to pursue economic, trade and humanitarian activities that it be removed immediately from the list - a power well within Biden’s authority.
Please sign CodePink's petition to the White House calling for Cuba to be removed from the list.
| |
No More F-16’s to Turkey! | We, the undersigned, demand you not approve any more sales of F-16’s or other fighter jets to Turkey. After the release of the report “Civilian Casualties of Turkish Military Operations in Northern Iraq (2015-2021)” we would find it unacceptable that the U.S. would continue selling F-16s to the Turkish military. | |
Tell Biden to Close Guantanamo | |
Now, with growing support in Congress, President Biden has an opportunity to end these ongoing abuses by closing the detention center.
Help us close Guantánamo and ensure the transfer of all cleared detainees to countries where their human rights will be respected.
Act Now to tell President Biden to shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility!
| |
Protecting water is not terrorism: Free Jessica Reznicek | In 2016, Jessica Reznicek took action to stop the construction of Dakota Access Pipeline by dismantling construction equipment and pipeline valves. In 2021 she was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a domestic terrorism enhancement. In 2022 an appeals court upheld her conviction writing that even if the terrorism enhancement was an error it was "harmless" although it increased a 37 months sentence to a sentence of 96 months. Stop the criminalization of dissent! | |
Stop Mohamed Harkat's deportation to torture | |
For 20 years, Moe and Sophie Harkat have fought against illegal detention, secret hearings, the surveillance state invading their home, and deportation to torture. Enough is enough. For the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Torture, please send a message to end this nightmare (all it takes is two clicks!) | |
LeadNow petition: Protect Hassan Diab from further injustice. Say NO to any future request for Hassan's extradition! | |
|
Petition organized by the Hassan Diab Support Committee - Following the return of Dr. Diab to Canada in 2018, PM Trudeau said: “I think for Hassan Diab we have to recognise first of all that what happened to him never should have happened […] and make sure it never happens again.”
Mr. Trudeau must honor his own words and protect Hassan. The unfair political trial of an innocent Canadian citizen cannot be tolerated. PM Trudeau and the Canadian government must:
(a) Put an end to this continuing miscarriage of justice, and
(b) Refuse any future request for Hassan Diab’s extradition.
| |
Canada must protect encryption! | |
Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.
Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!
Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir
| |
|
This is unconscionable. The RCMP are violently harassing Wet’suwet’en land defenders again for fighting against the sovereignty-violating Coastal Gaslink pipeline. We’ve heard reports directly from land defenders that drilling for CGL is imminent — and the RCMP's specialized unit CIRG (Community-Industry Response Group), is ramping up their enforcement. They have a history of using excessive force and violence against Indigenous people — all in the name of profit.
We know that the BC government and high ranking RCMP officials have the power to deploy — and remove the RCMP. If enough of us fill their inboxes with emails demanding they respect Indigenous sovereignty and call off the RCMP, it could be enough to force them to act and halt all construction. Send a message directly to key decision makers asking them to stop the violence.
+ Wanna do more? Join a group
| |
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
| |
Free Jack Letts and all Canadian Detainees in NE Syria | |
Canada must immediately act to free four dozen Canadian men, women and children left to rot in one of a series of notorious Northeastern Syrian prisons and detention camps described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.”
The longest held detainee is Jack Letts, 26, who has been imprisoned for almost 5 years without charge under conditions the United Nations has described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”
Send an email and call!
Mother’s Day to Father’s Day Chain Fast to Free the Canadian Captives
| |
Write a Letter: Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy | |
Recently, we have witnessed an intensified campaign by the pro-Israel lobby in Canada to smear Palestinian activists and their supporters. Last week, the National Post (NP) ran an online article about Palestinian-Canadian writer Khaled Barakat and the advocacy organization Samidoun. On April 30, the same article was splashed across their front page of their paper and has since been referenced in the Canadian Senate and the Jerusalem Post.
Send your letter to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to tell them that you join with the 80 organizations that have called to “Stop the Smear Campaigns against Palestinian Advocacy”.
| |
Urgent Action to Stop the Deportation of Mohamed Ibrahim and his Family | |
Mohamed Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, alongside his wife, Shaimaa, and 5 children - the youngest of whom a toddler who was born in Canada - have been given a removal order by the CBSA and are facing deportation back to Egypt where Mohamed will be facing a high risk of human rights abuses by the current Egyptian regime as a result of his peaceful political activism in Egypt. Mohamed and his family arrived in Canada in 2017 and applied for asylum. However, his claim was rejected due to a legal error of his lawyer.
We call on the Minister of Immigration to give Mohammed Ibrahim and his family protection on humanitarian and compassionate grounds pursuant to section 25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
| |
Tell Trudeau: Stop Arming Apartheid! | |
As revealed in CJPME's "Arming Apartheid" analysis, Canada is selling almost $20 million in arms to Israel each year – its highest level in 30 years! At the same time, Israeli forces continue to violently raid Al-Aqsa and across occupied Palestine, and human rights organizations – including Amnesty International – have all recently concluded that Israel imposes an apartheid regime against Palestinians!
There is no excuse for Canada to continue exporting arms to a country practicing apartheid and other abuses. Help us push the Canadian government to suspend arms exports to Israel, and investigate whether Canadian-made weapons have been used against Palestinian civilians! Canada must end its complicity now!
| |
Email your MP – No more weapons to Saudi Arabia | |
Canada has blood on its hands. Now approaching its seventh year, the war in Yemen has killed over a quarter of a million people. Over 4 million people have been displaced because of the war, and 70% of the population, including 11.3 million children, are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. The Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni markets, hospitals, and civilians, and yet Canada has exported over $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia since 2015, the year the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began. Send a letter now calling on the Canadian government to stop sending weapons to Saudi Arabia and stop arming the horrific war in Yemen.
+ Write letter: Canada’s silence on Saudi mass executions deeply troubling
| |
Canada: End the Safe Third Country Agreement | |
The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States puts refugees at risk. Under the STCA, refugees who arrive at official ports of entry to seek protection in Canada are sent back to the US, where some have suffered serious rights violations in detention. This encourages refugee claimants to cross the border into Canada between ports of entry, sometimes in perilous conditions.
Despite the constitutionality of the STCA being in question, reports suggest that the government is attempting to expand this agreement.
Take Action now and send a message to Minister Fraser to respect refugee rights by rescinding the Safe Third Country Agreement.
| |
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.
| |
OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
|
Check out our biannual summary of activities: What We've Been Up To from January to June 2022. Lisez la version française ici.
Here are the issues we plan to work on for the rest of 2022:
- Monitoring the evolution of Bill S-7 – the electronic device border search bill – as it passes through the Senate and House of Commons;
- Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices online;
-
Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for privacy law reform (including monitoring the new Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act);
-
Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility;
-
Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming the extradition law;
- Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS);
- The return of the 44 Canadian citizens indefinitely detained in Syrian camps, including 26 children;
-
The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities;
- Pushing for Canadian government action on behalf of Iranian Canadians negatively and unjustly impacted by the US terror listing of the IRGC
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), including the establishment of a strong, effective and independent review mechanism. This includes evaluating and advocating for improvements to the proposed Public Review and Complaints Commission Act (Bill C-20);
- Monitoring the review of the National Security Act, 2017 (Bill C-59);
- Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada for flights that do not land in or fly over the US;
- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest;
- And much more!
Read more + Share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
Lire plus + Partagez sur Facebook + Twitter + Instagram
| |
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 $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
Bill Ewanick
Mary Ann Higgs
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!
| | | | |
