Where was I?

So I'm walking home from work yesterday and I came across a protest in front of the Vancouver Art gallery (big surprise). However, when I stopped to chat with a gentleman handing out leaflets I discovered a disturbing issue that until yesterday, I was blissfully unaware of. It seems that Canada has imported US policy - detainment without trial, representation, or defence. I am going to copy the leaflet I received and the info therein, as this issue needs wider attention and publicity. I have added links to relevant sections and areas that may need clarification for those of us who are not well versed in the discourse of immigration/refugee citizenship status. Anything else I've added is contained in square brackets [ ]. It is my hope that ALL Canadians will come together on this one.

The leaflet was provided by: No One Is Illegal - Vancouver.
E-mail: noii-van@resist.ca
Phone: (604) 682-3269 x 7149
Web: noii-van.resist.ca

Cover:
Abolish security certificates & Secret trials

Canada's Secret Trial Five are five Muslim men whose lives have been torn apart by accusations that they are not allowed to fight in a fair and independent trial.

Three men are imprisoned in Toronto: Mohammad Mahjoub, a refugee from Egypt who has been in prison since June 2000; Mahmoud Jaballah, a refugee from Egypt who was arrested in August 2001, and Hassan Almrei, a refugee who has been facing deportation to Syrian torture, just like Maher Arar, since October 2001. The fourth man, Algerian refugee Mohamed Harkat, was arrested in Ottawa in December 2002, ironically on Human Rights Day. The fifth, Adil Charkraoi from Morocco, was arrested in Montreal in May 2003.

Inside:
All five men were arrested under 'Security Certificates," a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) [Full text here] that has been described by Amnesty International as "fundamentally flawed and unfair". They are imprisoned indefinitely without charges on secret evidence and face deportation to their countries of origin, even if there is a substantial risk of torture or death.

Security certificates and secret evidence reverse the fundamental rule of innocent until proven guilty.

Neither the detainee nor his lawyer are informed of the precise allegations or provided with the full information against him. Additional information can be presented at any time to the judge in the absence of the detainee and his lawyer. Normal standards of evidence are explicitly waived. There is no right to cross examine witnesses who have made allegations. The result is that both the original approval of the certificated (by the Minister), and then the judgment on whether it is 'reasonable' (by a Federal Court judge), are based on one-sided arguments.

The court is not given the power to decide on the truth of the allegations. There is no appeal. The detainee can be imprisoned for years without bail. They can be held for years without charge. In the case of Mohammad Mahjoub, this has meant jail for over four years. For permanent residents like Adil Charkaoui, the court is required to conduct a detention review every six months.

The men can be deported, even if their lives are threatened. This is a discriminatory measure. Security certificates only apply to Permanent Residents and Refugees. They thus deny certain classes of people in Canada their fundamental rights - a completely unacceptable discrimination. Human rights are inalienable and do not depend on citizenship status.

The security certificate process is undermining international norms. Amnesty International "is of the view that the security certificate process may very well result in arbitrary detention and thus violate the fundamental right to liberty." Amnesty also believes that the Secret trial Five are "effectively denied their right to prepare a defense and mount a meaningful challenge to the lawfulness of their detention," which puts Canada on the wrong side of articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Amnesty International, 31 March 2004 [Here is the 2004 summary, and the 2005 summary on Canada from Amnesty -each is for the previous year] Canada's position on deportation to torture is despicable.

The Security Certificate dates back to 1993 [to see changes click here] and was reintroduced in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in 2002. It is a tool that has been put to use in the post-9/11 climate of racist hysteria around 'national security' to attack the Muslim and Arab communities, migrants and broader civil liberties. It was used to justify Bill C-18, [a layman summary is available from Family Service Association of Toronto] a failed attempt to introduce a security certificate process for naturalised Canadians (i.e. stripping them of their citizenship and deporting them under a secret trial). With the Anti-Terrorism Act, similar violations of rights are extended to all citizens and more arbitrary powers are put in the hands of police and security forces.

The historical parallels are clear: Japanese-Canadians interned [another site on internment here]and deported from Canada during World War II and the 'red scare' of the McCarthy era. These should stand as warnings to us.

These five men have been held, as of December 2004, a collective total of 178 months in Canadian prisons, much of it in solitary confinement.

Welcome to Canada's own Guantanamo Bay.

Back Side:
The families & supporters of these men demand FOUR things:
1. That the five men be released immediately;or, if any case against them actually exists, that they be allowed to defend themselves in open, fair and independent trials with full disclosure of the case against them.
2. That they not be deported.
3. That the federal government abolish the secret trial security certificate process.
4. That CSIS, RCMP, and CIC end its ongoing harassment and intimidation of individuals and communities of Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian heritage and/or Muslim faith.

Standing up for the rights of the Secret Trial Five is a concrete way to confront the politics of racist fear.

More background information is available at:
- Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada (Toronto):
www.homesnotbombs.ca
-Coalition for Justice for Adil (Montreal):
www.adilinfo.org
-Committee for justice for Mohamed Harkat (Ottawa):
www.zerra.net/freemohamed

Letters supporting the demands can be sent to:

Judy Sgro, P.C., M.P., Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
Fax: 613-947-8319, Tel: 613-992-7774,
E-mail: Minister@cic.gc.ca

Anne McLellan, P.C.,M.P., Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
c/o Solicitor General of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Fax: 613-990-9077, Tel: 613-991-2924,
E-mail: McLellan.A@parl.gc.ca

That is the end of the leaflet but if anyone is up for writing to CSIS regarding the Security Certificate program here is the contact information I acquired from their web page about the Security Certificates.

For comments/enquiries, please contact the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
c/o P.O. Box 9732, Postal Station T,
Ottawa, Ontario, KIG 4G4.
Telephone (613) 231-0100
or fax (613) 231-0612.

I'll probably end up on a list for this - frankly I don't give a damn about their list! My last name is spelled F as in your Fascist government, O as in Out of your minds, R as in Racist policy objector....you get my point!

All I can think of is this quote which I've heard before in other forms:

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up."

- Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1945, Germany


This is a sad day for Canada.