by "Upcoming Events"
Source: NOWAR-PAIX Website
URL: [link]
Date: August 19, 2008
Ottawa Premiere of Taxi to the Dark Side by Alex Gibney
Thursday, September 11, 2008, 7 pm
Bytowne Cinema, 325 Rideau Street
We are selling advance tickets to help pay
the up-front expenses for bringing "Taxi to the Dark Side" to Ottawa.
Please consider buying your tickets now.
How to buy advance tickets
For more information and to view a trailer for Taxi to the Dark Side
www.nowar-paix.ca/taxi
Ottawa's efforts to deport terror suspects to resume this fall
by Andrew Duffy Source: Canwest News Service URL: [link] Date: August 29, 2008
OTTAWA - The federal government is about to resume its epic legal campaign to deport five high-profile terror suspects.
All five of the country's security certificate cases have been scheduled to go before Federal Court judges in November and December - although there is one legal hurdle yet to clear.
The federal judges will be asked to determine the "reasonableness" of the security certificates based largely upon Canadian Security Intelligence Service evidence heard in secret. Reasonableness is a legal standard that is lower than those applied in criminal and civil court.
The five men targeted by the certificates include the Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei of Syria, Egyptians Mahmoud Jaballah and Mahamed Zeki Mahjoub and Algerian refugee Mohamed Harkat.
by SHEEMA KHAN
Source: The Globe and Mail
URL: N/A
Date: August 7, 2008
Canada fully understands and appreciates and shares the United States' concerns with regard to security. However, the Canadian government has every right to go to bat when it believes one of its citizens has been treated unfairly by another government.
- Stephen Harper, Jan. 26, 2007
These words, spoken after settlement of the Maher Arar affair, were crafted to allay suspicions about Mr. Harper's willingness to stand up to the Bush administration on matters of Canadian sovereignty. However, in view of Ottawa's defence of the gulag that is Guantanamo, and its fear of upsetting Washington by allowing Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik to return from Sudan, we can be forgiven for suspecting that our PM is indeed beholden to George W. Bush.
For many immigrants to this great land, the post-9/11 era is one of insecurity, in which they wonder: What value is my Canadian passport when travelling abroad? Will my government stand up for my basic rights, or trade them to curry favour with certain regimes?
Source: TASC Email List URL: N/A Date: July 31, 2008
Join a Public Vigil at Skyservice and write to the executives of a company that is likely to receive the contract to deport Canada’s five secret trial detainees to torture...unless we can persuade them to refuse an act of complicity in torture
Monday, August 11, 12 Noon Skyservice, 31 Fasken Drive (just west of Carlingview)
Rides from Downtown Toronto leave at 11 am Call (416) 651-5800 or email [email] to book a seat or it you can help drive people to the vigil
If you are unable to attend, please email the company executives with a simple message: Please meet with representatives of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture to discuss the serious human rights concerns they have been trying to raise with you since February, 2008. Please let us know if you receive any responses! [email], [email], [email]
par Hugo de Grandpré
Source: La Presse
URL: [link]
Date: 9 juillet 2008
Les coûts liés à la cause de Mohamed Harkat dépassent les 850 000$, selon des documents obtenus par La Presse grâce à la Loi sur l'accès à l'information.
Cette somme, qu'Ottawa a pris soin de ne pas détailler, s'ajoute aux millions dépensés jusqu'ici pour tenter d'expulser les cinq hommes visés par un certificat de sécurité.
Le gouvernement fédéral a arrêté Mohamed Harkat en 2002. Il a été relâché sous des conditions strictes en 2006. On accuse ce résidant d'Ottawa de 36 ans d'être un agent dormant d'Al-Qaeda.
Les 850 000$ dévoilés dans des documents hautement censurés réfèrent à des services fournis par le ministère de la Justice à d'autres entités fédérales, comme le Service canadien de renseignement de sécurité.
On ignore quels services sont visés : le Ministère a invoqué le «secret professionnel des avocats» pour refuser d'en dévoiler même les grandes lignes. On peut cependant présumer qu'ils ne touchent que des actes judiciaires, comme de la recherche juridique ou de la rédaction de procédure, et non de la détention ou de la surveillance, puisqu'elles relèvent d'autres entités fédérales.
«Ça me paraît peu élevé», a tout de même jugé Sophie Harkat, conjointe de l'accusé. Selon cette ancienne fonctionnaire, les avocats du gouvernement sont payés cher et multiplient les représentations. «Cela m'étonnerait que ces 850 000$ incluent toute la préparation de dossiers», a-t-elle ajouté lors d'un entretien téléphonique.
Le comité Justice pour Mohamed Harkat, dont elle fait partie, tente depuis un certain temps d'obtenir tous les coûts liés aux poursuites, à la surveillance et à la détention, mais sans succès. Mme Harkat souligne que son mari faisait l'objet des conditions de mise en liberté les plus strictes, parmi les cinq hommes visés par un certificat de sécurité au Canada. Ces conditions incluent la surveillance constante par deux agents, un couvre-feu entre 8h et 23h, un bracelet GPS et des caméras de sécurité placées à l'avant et à l'arrière de leur résidence.
By Ivan Eland, Consortium News Source: AlterNet Website URL: [link] Date: July 24, 2008
After having begun a series of investigative stories criticizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in May 2008, CNN reporter Drew Griffin reports being placed with more than a million other names on TSA's swollen terrorism watch list.
Although TSA insists Griffin 's name is not on the list and pooh-poohs any possibility of retaliation for Griffin 's negative reporting, the reporter has been hassled by various airlines on 11 flights since May. The airlines insist that Griffin 's name is on the list.
Congress has asked TSA to look into the tribulations of this prominent passenger.
In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, probably responding to the controversy over Griffin, Leonard Boyle, the director of the Terrorist Screening Center, defended the watch list, claiming that because terrorists have multiple aliases, the names on the list boiled down to only about 400,000 actual people.
A Letter to Toronto Star re editorial "Hold CSIS to account"
posted on July 04, 2008 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink
by Matthew Behrens
Source: email fwd
URL: N/A
Date: July 1, 2008
A Letter to Toronto Star re: [link]
To the editor:
While I agree with the Star's editorial supporting the Supreme Court's decision requiring CSIS to share ALL of its information in "security certificate" cases, your editorial nonetheless engages in the very kind of stereotyping that throws out the presumption of innocence and unfairly brands people.
Specifically, you state that the court's ruling "reinforces the credibility of Canadian justice in dealing with those who hold our society in contempt." Why would you assume that those targetted by CSIS hold Canada in contempt, when in fact, it would appear that CSIS practices, such as destroying evidence or using information gleaned from torture, hold the values of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in contempt?
by Press Release
Source: Amnesty International
URL: [link]
Date: June 27, 2008
Amnesty International welcomes the decision by the Slovak Constitutional Court on 26 June 2008 in the case of Mustapha Labsi, which reaffirms the absolute duty on the authorities not to send any person to any place where they face a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment, and underscores the obligation of Slovakia not to rely on diplomatic assurances.
More details here.
[OTTAWA, JULY 3] Open Stage Fundraiser to Send Sophie Harkat to England
Source:
URL:
Date: June 15, 2008
**** PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY ****
Abolition Beyond Borders
Open Stage Fundraiser to
Send Sophie Harkat to England
July 3, The Clocktower Brew Pub, Ottawa
Acoustic Performers
Slam-poets
Live Music Enthusiasts
All Are Welcome
Join us for a night of music! All proceeds generated from the benefit will help send Sophie Harkat to speak about the impacts of Canada’s security certificate regime at the 12th International Conference on Penal Abolition ([link]) in London, England, this July.
Sponsored by:
The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons ( [link] )
Justice for Mohamed Harkat ( [link] )
The Colloquium on the Universal Carceral ( [link] )
Host and Contact: Justin Piché ([link] ).
To learn more, advance purchase tickets, or make a donation to help us to bring Sophie to England, contact Justin at [email], or 613-850-5878.
When:
Thursday, July 3 2008
Doors Open: 8:30pm
Music: 9:00pm – 1:00am
Where:
The Clocktower Brew Pub
575 Bank Street (Glebe), Ottawa
Tickets:
$5 at the door
Advance ticket purchasers will receive a free copy of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
Click on the photo of Mohamed to see all items related to him. JUNE 2017: Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional.
This fight is not over. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee will re-double its efforts to see that justice is done for Mohamed Harkat and that the odious security certificate system of injustice is abolished once and for all.
