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posted on January 16, 2013 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkCBC: Harkat deportation process underway
posted on January 23, 2011 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkCopyright © CBC 2011
If CSIS Comes Knocking
posted on May 19, 2010 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkSince the fall of 2009 there have been ongoing visits by members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to various local social justice organizers and activists. These visits are in addition to CSIS’ ongoing harassment of targeted communities. This community advisory is in response to those visits. Visits by CSIS and the RCMP to activists are nothing new; they have taken place before around specific events or projects. In general, these visits can have different purposes: they are not only about information-gathering but can also be attempts to create or exploit divisions between activists, plant misinformation, intimidate, develop psychological profiles, and recruit informers. If CSIS comes knocking, we strongly encourage total and complete non-cooperation. A CSIS visit to your home or workplace will be a surprise, but we encourage you to be ready to not cooperate with them in any way, which means not speaking with them or listening to them. If you are in a precarious position -- due to your immigration status, pending criminal charges, probation, parole, or any other reason – we strongly encourage you to NEVER EVER talk to CSIS alone. Instead, tell them to contact a trusted lawyer that you have chosen, and then refuse to say anything else. You can contact the People's Commission Network for references to lawyers who can act diligently against CSIS intimidation tactics. If you are comfortable doing so, ask for the names, telephone numbers and cards of the CSIS agents who want to talk to you. Insist they provide their names, and don't say, or listen to, anything else. You are under no legal obligation, ever, to confirm your identity with CSIS. Sometimes CSIS agents might begin speaking to you and only later identify themselves. In that case, if you are taken by surprise, we encourage you to refuse to continue speaking with CSIS. You can always default back to being silent. In dealing with security services, silence is the golden rule. In all cases, you are encouraged to tell CSIS to leave your home or workplace or cease following you. Tell CSIS clearly to leave, in whatever fashion you feel is appropriate. You can insist they leave, to the point of closing doors in their face. Remember, although CSIS can act in very ugly ways, it has no arrest or policing powers. We encourage you to get in touch with the People's Commission Network to report any CSIS visits or related incidents. These visits can be de-stabilizing and stressful. That’s why it is important to not remain isolated in this situation; and the People’s Commission Network would like to offer concrete support to overcome the feeling of isolation these visits can create. Your correspondence with the People's Commission Network will be considered confidential. Consider any unannounced CSIS visit to be harassment against you. If possible, we encourage you to write down your experience so that you have the facts clearly noted. The People’s Commission Network can support you in documenting this harassment with the aid of a lawyer. CSIS' job is to gather information for the state and to disrupt movements of social justice. Their broad mandate includes monitoring any activities they deem to threaten the current political and economic order. Their intimidation focuses on indigenous peoples, immigrants, racialized communities, radical political organizations, labour unions, as well as the allies of these groups. CSIS' actions, which show clear evidence of gross incompetence, racism, as well as complicity in torture, are all the more reason why they deserve no cooperation whatsoever by anyone involved in movements for social justice. Total non-cooperation with CSIS and other security agencies by the entire social justice community - broadly and inclusively defined - is our best way of maintaining unity and solidarity, as well as keeping our focus on our important day-to-day organizing and activism. To recap: Do not talk to CSIS or share any information with them, no matter how harmless you think it is. Do not listen to CSIS agents. Do consider reporting the visit to the People's Commission Network.
Please share this community advisory within your networks, and with members of your organizations and groups, so we can encourage collective non-cooperation with CSIS.
In solidarity,
The People's Commission Network (Montreal)
514-848-7583 - [email] - [link]
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[ Read the rest ... ]
Legal aid cuts funding for civil cases
posted on April 12, 2010 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkSource: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: April 9, 2010
Lawyers representing low-income Ontarians found out by chance this week the province’s legal aid plan has stopped funding civil cases and is urging lawyers to take cases for free in the hope their fees will come from any money a court awards to clients.
The development comes during a time of upheaval at Legal Aid Ontario, with tensions also escalating over the future of Ontario’s 80 legal clinics, which serve the disabled, the elderly, immigrants and aboriginals, among others.
A March 30 memo sent to clinics from the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario said Bob Ward, chief executive officer of Legal Aid Ontario, has indicated it would “make more sense” if there were only 40 to 50 clinics and feels the clinic system has grown stale, with too much money spent on administration.
Kristian Justesen, a Legal Aid spokesperson, told the Star Friday there is “no plan or idea” to reduce the number of clinics, but noted mergers of some clinics, including two in northern Ontario, have improved services and reduced costs.
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Judge loosens bail conditions for Harkat
posted on March 06, 2009 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkSource: The Ottawa Sun
URL: [link]
Date: March 6, 2009
OTTAWA — A federal judge has loosened the shackles — at least somewhat — on Mohamed Harkat, saying the passage of time has made the suspected al-Qaida collaborator less of a security threat.
The Ottawa man, long detained under strict bail conditions amounting to house arrest, can now be home alone during the day and early evening.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service contends Harkat, a refugee from Algeria, is an Islamic extremist and member of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.
He was arrested in December 2002 and faces deportation under a national security certificate.
In a ruling Friday, Federal Court Justice Simon Noel said Harkat and wife Sophie must give the Canada Border Services Agency officials who keep watch over him 36-hour notice of any occasion on which Harkat will be home alone.
Sophie Harkat must also telephone the border services agency when she leaves and upon her return to the residence. While unsupervised, Mohamed Harkat must phone the border agency every hour on the hour.
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Is Bill C-3 the security way to go?
posted on February 09, 2008 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkGovernments make mistakes. Our government made a mistake in telling the United States that Maher Arar was a security threat. Does history repeat itself? Are those individuals subjected to Canada's immigration "security certificates," for example, true security threats, or victims of misplaced suspicions?
Only a handful of people can answer this question, because only a handful see the information the government says justifies its concerns. Indeed, even those against whom the certificates have been issued are left to meet an unknown case against them. If they fail to do so, they will be removed from Canada, possibly even to countries that might torture them. If they fight this fate, they are detained or subjected to stringent conditions that may last a lifetime.
A year ago, the Supreme Court said this system is unconstitutional in its operation but did not reject the concept as a whole. The fix, for the court, is some approach that gives us more hope that the government's evidence is being carefully probed. Parliament was given a year - until Feb. 23 - to devise this system.
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A response from Marlene Jennings to an email from Sophie Harkat Re: Bill C-3
posted on December 15, 2007 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkDate: December 14, 2007
Subject: RE: Say NO to Bill C3 !
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007
From: [email]
To: [email]
Ottawa, December 14th, 2007
Dear Sophie Lamarche:
Thank you for your recent correspondence in which you express your views and concerns on Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate) and to make a consequential amendment to another Act. I have duly taken note of your correspondence and please be assured that your views and comments have been carefully considered.
Last February, the Supreme Court ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and gave the government one year to replace certain sections dealing with security certificates.
Liberals have been instrumental in making critical changes to the security certificates process so that the rights of foreign nationals and permanent residents are better protected and the national security of all Canadians is strengthened.
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[DEC 10, OTTAWA] Vigil for International Human Rights Day
posted on December 06, 2007 | in Category Misc | PermaLinkFrom: [email]
To: [email]; [email];
[email]; [email]
Subject: [NOWAR/PAIX] Vigil for International Human Rights Day
VIGIL FOR 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY.
On Monday, Dec. 10, Religions for Peace and the Capital Region Peace
Council are organizing an interfaith vigil to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights and International Human
Rights Day. It will take place at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin St.
beginning at 4:30 p.m. Everyone is asked to bring candles.