par Presse Canadienne
Source: La Presse
URL: [link]
Date: 15 mai 2008


Un homme soupçonné de terrorisme s'est vu refuser le droit de déménager parce que sa nouvelle demeure rendrait sa surveillance difficile.

Mohamed Harkat a été arrêté en décembre 2002 en vertu d'un certificat de sécurité, en raison de ses liens présumés avec Al-Qaïda. Il fait face à la déportation, mais est actuellement en libération surveillée.

Harkat a demandé la permission de quitter l'appartement où il habite actuellement avec sa femme. La juge Eleanor Dawson de la Cour fédérale a toutefois refusé sa demande, parce que l'installation de caméras de surveillance n'a pas été permise dans le condo où le couple souhaitait s'installer et que les équipes de surveillance n'ont pas eu la permission de se stationner tout près.

Le Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité affirme que Harkat, un réfugié algérien, est un extrémiste islamiste membre du réseau terroriste d'Osama ben Laden. L'ancien livreur de pizza et préposé dans une station-service nie tout lien avec le terrorisme.

Copyright © 2000-2008 Cyberpresse Inc., une filiale de Gesca. Tous droits réservés.

by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: May 15, 2008


OTTAWA - Ottawa terror suspect Mohamed Harkat will not be leaving his unhappy basement apartment anytime soon. A Federal Court judge ruled Thursday that Mr. Harkat cannot move to a new condominium townhouse until he meets the security concerns raised by government officials.

It means that, at least for the immediate future, Mr. Harkat and his wife, Sophie, will continue to live in the basement of a home that belongs mostly to Alois Weidemann, a retired Citizen employee, and the former romantic partner of Ms. Harkat's mother, Pierrette Brunette.

Ms. Brunette moved out of the house last November after the acrimonious collapse of that relationship, leaving Mr. Weidemann with the Harkats in his basement.

"I've been trying to get out of this situation since last fall," Mr. Weidemann said in an interview. "How are things going? Terrible. I want to get on with with my life." Mr. Weidemann, who reluctantly acts as one of Mr. Harkat's sureties, wants to sell his house, but he cannot do that without Ms. Brunette's approval since she owns 10 per cent of the property. Ms. Brunette, however, doesn't want to sell yet because her daughter and son-in-law are still in the house along with her grand piano.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Source: Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui
[link]

justiceforadil©riseup.net



!!!!UPDATED with programme details (see below)!!!!

PEOPLE'S CAMP in Park Extension, Montreal

Friday, 23 May 2008, from 12 to 7pm
Parc de la place de la gare Jean Talon
(corner Jean Talon & Parc, Parc Metro)
...........................................................
12 to 1:30 Workshops, videos, art exhibits
1:30 - 2:30 RALLY
3:00 to 6pm Workshops, videos, art exhibits
6:00 Solidarity across Borders PICNIC
...........................................................

The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui presents the "People's Camp", which
will take place on Friday, 23 May in the working class, immigrant
neighbourhood of Parc Extension. The half-day, multi-media info-fair is
organized in solidarity with the five security certificate detainees -
Hassan Almrei (coming up to seven years in prison), Adil Charkaoui, Mohamed
Harkat, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub - and their families. Consisting
of art displays, info-tables, videos, a mini-workshop series and a
speak-out, the People's Camp will arm people with knowledge about
immigration 'security' measures, racial profiling and how to fight them.


[ Read the rest ... ]

by Amy Husser
Source: Canwest News Service
URL: N/A
Date: May 13, 2008


OTTAWA -- The federal government's refusal to return Omar Khadr to Canada for trial should be likened to the terrorist activities that Mr. Khadr is alleged to have committed, Senator Romeo Dallaire said Tuesday.

Testifying before a parliamentary subcommittee on human rights, the Liberal senator said the United States -- and by association, Canada -- were ignoring international law by not recognizing Mr. Khadr as a child soldier. He argued the Canadian citizen was a victim who should have been swiftly rehabilitated and reintegrated into society instead of being tried in what he called an illegal court.

Mr. Dallaire is best known for leading the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, an experience that he said gave him expertise on child soldiers.

The senator said the United States "panicked" following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and began using unfair legal practices that made the superpower "no better than the other guy," referring to al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Press Release By "Liberte pour Ivan" - libertepourivan©gmail.com
Source: Fwd. to secrettrials-org listserv
URL: [link]
Date: May 13, 2008


UPDATE: IRB ISSUES DEPORTATION ORDER AGAINST
IVAN APAOLAZA SANCHO

Montreal, 13 May 2008 - This morning, IRB Board member Louis Dubé rendered his decision in Ivan Apaolaza Sancho's case, accepting that a key declaration in the case was provided under torture but nevertheless issuing a deportation order against him.

Mr. Apaolaza Sancho, a refugee claimant of Basque origin, has been detained at the Rivière-des-Prairies prison since June 2007. He was arrested by the RCMP, acting at the behest of the Spanish authorities, who alleged that he was a member of the Basque nationalist group ETA, a "listed entity" under Canada's Antiterrorism Act. Mr. Sancho vigorously denies the allegations. Nevertheless, the Minister has argued that Mr. Apaolaza Sancho is inadmissible to Canada on these grounds.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by News Release
Source: International Criminal Defense Attorneys Association
URL: [link]
Date:


Chères / Chers Membres,

L’AIAD a le plaisir d’annoncer son endossement d’une lettre conjointe au Premier Ministre du Canada, M. Stephen Harper. Les signataires demandent le rapatriement d’Omar Khadr vers le Canada et l’application des standards internationaux relatifs aux enfants soldats et au procès juste et équitable dans cette affaire.

Veuillez trouver la lettre, envoyée le 9 mai 2008 au Premier Ministre Harper et diffusée aux médias, en cliquant ici [PDF].+++

Dear Members,

The ICDAA is pleased to anounce its endorsement of a joint letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper. The undersigned request that Omar Khadr be repatriated to Canada and the application of international standards with regards to child soldiers and fair trial rights in this case.

The letter, which was sent on the 9th of May 2008 to Prime Minister Harper and the media is available here {pdf}.

by Colin Freeze
Source: The Globe and Mail
URL: [link]
Date: May 12, 2008


A U.S. intelligence agency paid a bounty of $500,000 (U.S.) to Pakistani military officials who arrested a Canadian citizen wanted for links to al-Qaeda, according to a new Federal Court ruling.

Mr. Justice Richard Mosley ordered an Oct. 19, 2004, RCMP memo released yesterday after lawyers for The Globe and Mail fought for its disclosure. The newspaper obtained the document more than a year ago, but chose not to publish it after Crown lawyers warned that the release of the information could illegally reveal a state secret.

U.S. officials - likely from the Central Intelligence Agency - had regarded the bounty as sensitive information passed along to Canada in confidence, prompting officials to fight to keep it secret.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Source: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: May 13, 2008


It is costing Canadian taxpayers about $2 million a year to house the only prisoner at a special federal facility for foreign nationals who pose an alleged security risk to Canada, federal documents show.

The documents, obtained under an access-to-information request by Michael Larsen, a researcher at York University's Centre for International and Security Studies, show up to 17 employees are caring for and supervising Hassan Almrei at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre.

Almrei, 34, is a refugee claimant from Syria who was arrested in Toronto in 2001 and subsequently held under a security certificate after being accused of having terrorist ties. He has not been charged with a crime.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by Matthew Behrens
Source: The Caravan to End Canadian Involvement in Torture
URL: N/A
Date: May 12, 2008


The Caravan visits CSIS Headquarters in Ottawa, May 2008.
Photo by Murray Lumley.

Breaking the Silence: Reflections from the Road on the Caravan to End Canadian Involvement in Torture

(A selection of photos from the Caravan appear at
[link] )

At the bottom of this article are four links to video footage of the Caravan, including an interview with Muayyed Nureddin, as well as information on follow-up actions to end Canadian complicity in torture)

May 10, 2008 -- As members of the Caravan to End Canadian Involvement in Torture reached their final stopping point May 7 at the national headquarters of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), agitated spies in the massive architorture structure in east-end Ottawa simply pulled the blinds.

It was a fitting symbolic gesture consistent with the thematic continuum that greeted Caravan members during their eight day journey through Central and Eastern Ontario as they confronted sites of Canadian complicity in torture. A combination of denial and transfer of responsibility to some other party typified responses of government and corporate officials who refused dialogue and met caravan members with lines of police and RCMP, surveillance cameras, and locked office doors.

While not surprising -- who wants to admit that they are complicit in torture? -- the closed-door response seemed to prove one of the points of the Caravan: the hallmarks of openness, transparency, and accountability that serve as the foundation of democracy get shut down when infected by such noxious practices as torture and complicity in human rights abuses.

The Caravan sought to break the silence around such complicity, including the training and teaching relationship the Canadian government holds with the U.S.-based “School of the Assassins”, ongoing efforts to deport refugees to torture from Canada, the government’s refusal to condemn the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, Canada’s role in hosting potential CIA rendition to torture flights, the Canadian rendition to torture of Algerian refugee Benamar Benatta on September 12, 2001, and Canada’s subcontracting the torture of Canadian citizens in Syria, Egypt, and Sudan, among many other issues.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by "NOII Vancouver"
Source: No One Is Illegal Vancouver
URL: [link]
Date: May 11, 2008

refuse to be invisible
join the fight
against racist immigration laws

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TAKE ACTION AGAINST BILL C-50
NO TO REPRESSIVE IMMIGRATION CONTROLS!

TUESDAY, MAY 13TH @ 5 P.M.
meet outside BURRARD SKYTRAIN STATION
(corner Burrard and Dunsmuir)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WHAT IS BILL C50?

/arbitrarily reject/ an immigration application, even if it meets
criteria/ have the power to issue restriction quotas on the category and
the country of origin of people/ control the order in which applications
are processed/ simply hold on to, return or throw out a visa application.

[ Read the rest ... ]