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Remembering December 6, 1989 Montreal massacre
ICLMG 06/12/2012 - Today, 23 years ago, 14 women were shot and killed at École Polytechnique in Montréal because they  were women. In our eyes, this was a clear act of terror. It was an act of violence with political and ideological motives perpetrated against a specific group, women and feminists, which contributed to the climate of fear, violence and hostility that many women have to navigate through in their daily lives. As a coalition focused on monitoring the government actions around counter-terrorism, we also condemn terrorist violence and support actions against it respectful of human rights and civil liberties. We thus remember the Montreal massacre and support the struggle of women to achieve equality and a life without fear. To commemorate the National Day of Remembrance and Action to End Violence against Women, there is a vigil today at 6pm at the Women's Monument at Minto Park (Elgin & Gilmour) and a ceremony at 7:30pm at the First United & All Saints Westboro Church (347 Richmond Rd).
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Internet surveillance and privacy
Ann Cavoukian: Police need to get behind privacy
National Post 02/12/2012 - As Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, I have a deep respect for law enforcement.  I frequently work closely with the police to help them succeed in fulfilling their important functions without sacrificing our vital right to privacy. That is why I am perplexed by the ongoing disagreement between law enforcement and Canada's privacy commissioners over the federal government's highly intrusive surveillance legislation, Bill C-30. Repeatedly, privacy commissioners have identified a pragmatic and principled approach to fixing the flawed aspects of the Bill. Time and again, members of the law enforcement community have insisted they need overly broad powers, while failing to recognize that they can have both new and effective law enforcement powers, while still protecting the privacy of individual Canadians.
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Charlie Angus, MP: Vic Toews is snooping in your data again
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Rule of law
Reining in Obama and his drones
Common Dreams 30/11/2012 - On October 18, President Obama told John Stewart, and his audience, that "one of the things we've got to do is put a legal architecture in place, and we need Congressional help in order to do that, to  make sure that not only am I reined in but any president is reined in terms of some of the decisions that we're making." So in the absence of "a legal architecture" of accountability, do presidents knock off whomever they want to target (along with bystanders or family members), whether or not the targeted person is actually plotting an attack against the United States? It seems that way, in spite of what is already in place legally, called the Constitution, separation of powers and due process of law. What more legal architecture does Mr. Obama need? Mr. Obama wants, in Mr. Fein's view, to have "his secret and unaccountable predator drone assassinations become permanent fixtures of the nation's national security complex." Were Obama to remember his constitutional law, such actions would have to be constitutionally authorized by Congress and subject to judicial review.
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Rules for targeted killings
Revealed: US and Britain launched 1,200 drone strikes in recent wars
US - Kucinich calls on Congress to vote on return to rule of law
Iran claims American drone capture; US Navy says all craft 'accounted for'
Dronestagram - the website exposing the US's secret drone war
America's mindless killer robots must be stopped
Drone crashes mount at civilian airports
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State secrecy
How does the US treat its whistleblowers?
Al Jazeera 04/12/2012 - Bradley Manning's trial is once again postponed. A US military judge says more time is needed to determine whether the US soldier's treatment while in custody was too harsh. On Thursday, during a pre-trial proceeding, he described the harsh conditions and the  psychological trauma he endured while in military custody. During his time in a military prison in Quantico, Virginia he said he was constantly monitored in his six by eight foot cell, forced to stand or sit on the bunk with his feet on the ground and without any support for his back for most of the day. Last week, the administration quietly signed new whistleblower protections into law. "The new whistleblower protection act does a lot of good things but specifically excludes national security and intelligence whistleblowers .... And they are the category of people who are being prosecuted for blowing the whistle and exposing fraud, waste, abuse and patent illegality," says Jesselyn Radack, the National Security and Human Rights director at Government Accountability Project.
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Julian Assange: Two years of cablegate and Bradley Manning still awaits trial
WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning gives evidence for first time
Federal plan calls for overhauling US secrecy policies
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War on terror
'Tipping point': Obama lawyer talks about ending 'endless' US war
Common Dreams 30/11/12 - Today at a speech given at Oxford University, Jeh Johnson, a Pentagon lawyer  and one of President Obama's top legal advisors, spoke openly about what it might mean for the US government to declare an end to its seemingly endless war against - what critics have sharply pointed out is a "tactic" - "terrorism". Though Johnson is an official spokesperson for the Defense Department and an aggressive defender of the controversial policies ensconced within the US war against al Qaeda, he also said that these policies would not, and should not, continue indefinitely.
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Decade of US 'war on terror' yields more 'terrorism'
Common Dreams 04/12/2012 - After more than eleven years of the US waging wars abroad in the name of "fighting terrorism"  a new report released Tuesday shows that the number of global terror attacks has dramatically increased during the post-9/11 era, not decreased. The new Global Terrorism Index (GTI) found that while the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere generated huge spikes in terrorist activity and civilian deaths in those countries, it is North America which has been most insulated from the growth in violence. The glaring fault of the study, which demands note, is that it employs a very narrow definition of the term "terrorism"-a word that Glenn Greenwald says "simultaneously means nothing and justifies everything." Within the scope of GTI report, the term excludes the violence of state or government-based actors like the US armed forces or NATO's military regime.
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Reflection on Israel and Palestine
Canada's UN vote against Palestinian statehood only empowers extremists
Toronto Star Op-Ed 04/12/2012 - "This resolution will not advance the cause of peace or spur a return to negotiations. On the  contrary, this unilateral step will harden positions and raise unrealistic expectations while doing nothing to improve the lives of the Palestinian people." Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird delivered this message in a strident speech from the podium of the UN General Assembly before the historic Thursday vote that affirmed Palestine statehood. Canada traditionally played a much more even-handed role in the conflict, realizing the need to support both Israel's security and Palestinian aspirations for statehood. But over the last decade Canadian policy on the Middle East conflict has become increasingly one-sided in its affinity for Israel. At the UN, Baird asserted that the resolution did not serve the interests of peace. Yet rather than promoting peace, the lonely Canadian UN vote only empowered extremists on both sides and could contribute to increased violence.
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The National Assembly of Quebec for the first time recognized the right of Palestinians to self-determination
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Anti-terror laws
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Aviation security
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Biometrics
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Border security
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Guantanamo
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Immigration and refugee rights
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National security
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Privacy
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Repression of dissent
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Surveillance
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Terrorism
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Torture
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War on terror
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Miscellaneous
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About us
The ICLMG is a national coalition of forty Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. You will find in this News Digest news articles, events, calls to action and much more regarding national security, anti-terrorism, civil liberties and other issues related to the mandate and concerns of ICLMG and its member organizations. 
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Take action
Tell you MP to stand against Bill C-30 and warrantless online spying
OpenMedia.ca 07/11/2012 - Last week, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police called on the government to revive the invasive Online Spying Bill C-30 - legislation that would grant them warrantless access into the private lives of each and every one of us. Call on your MP to stand against invasive warrantless Online Spying.
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Take action
Harkat: 10 years of injustice
December 10, 2012 will mark the 10th anniversary of Mohamed Harkat's arrest under a Security Certificate. Many refer to Security Certificates as Secret Trials in Canada. Individuals are detained for indefinite periods of time, normally for years, without being charged or granted access to information used against them. They can be deported to face imprisonment, torture or death after being labelled terrorists. It's time for justice. Please click below to learn the many ways you can support Mohammed Harkat and his fight against Secret Trials!
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