News Digest - January 31, 2013
Torture
 
Canada and torture in Afghanistan: The truth is still waiting to be heard  

rabble.ca 24/01/2013 - The critics may love it, but Zero Dark Thirty has made U.S. senators John McCain, Carl Levin and Dianne Feinstein very angry. The trio of politicians says that, contrary to the movie's allegedly true portrayal, torture was never used to gain information on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. But let it not be forgotten that torture was used in the hunt for countless other terror suspects. It turns out that Afghan security services were beating information out of prisoners all throughout the war, prisoners that the Canadian Forces had captured and were turning over to them on a regular basis. There's more. According to a man named Richard Colvin, Canada's political, diplomatic and military leaders knew about this practice for years and did nothing.

Criminalization of dissent
 
Environmentalists, public enemies?  

Le Journal des Alternatives 16/01/2013 - This resentment directed against social movements in place by the elite did not start yesterday.   From the outset, the criminalization of dissent is growing in our society, and some 1100 arrests at the G20 in Toronto or the 3150 arrests during the Quebec Maple Spring  are salient evidence. But associating ecology and terrorism is a distinct phenomenon, the Green Scare. The Green Scare refers to the sweeping police crackdown against environmentalists since the 1990s. The term is a nod to the Red Scare - the two anticommunism waves of the 1920s and 1950s, recognized as two great exercises in paranoia and attacks against human rights and freedoms. We can trace its beginnings in 1985, when the secret services of France sank the famous Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. Environmental groups, internationally abandoning lobbying in favor of direct action, considered more effective (e.g., blocking and civil disobedience) are more numerous and increasing in importance. Other than Greenpeace, we know of Sea Shepherd, Earthfirst!, and since 1992, the Front for the Liberation of Earth (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

Surveillance
 
Not just for modern warfare: RCMP to expand use of drone mini-helicopters   

The National Post 27/01/2013 - The RCMP are planning to expand their fleet of remote-controlled "eyes in the sky," and for the first time, they're looking south of the border to a company that has been a major supplier of unmanned aerial vehicles for the U.S. military. Southern California-based AeroVironment Inc. builds tiny fixed-wing drones, which have been a staple of the U.S. Defense Department's arsenal in the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. But it also produces a line of four-rotor helicopters - called Qubes - that are tailor-made for use by police. Small enough to fit in the trunk of a car and controlled using touch-screen tablets, these toy-like machines are equipped with live-stream video cameras and thermal-imaging technology to give police a bird's eye view of an accident scene and aid in search-and-rescue operations.

War in Mali

From the Algerian terror to Al Qaeda meets Mali: West's hidden agenda and one big mess
 
Common Dreams 25/01/2013 - When it comes to unfamiliar, far-off places, we trust our mainstream media to tell us what is going on with interminable conflicts raging through much of the world, and why-and most media trust Western governments' explanations." Thus, we learn that France (with the United States in the wings) intervened in the bloody upheavals besetting the West African country of Mali in order to help the government battle a threat as ubiquitous and expected as the old Red Menace: Al Qaeda. But, as is usually true, things are not so simple. In fact, coming to grips with the searing civil war and foreign crisis du jour requires wading through multiple layers of tangled relationships-which threaten to turn the conflict into a yet another protracted, foreign-assisted internecine conflict.

 

Read more

Canadian special forces on ground in Mali, sources say

France calls for Mali peace talks

UN considers new peacekeeping force for Mali

Options in Mali? What options!

In northern Mali's war, al-Qaeda affiliate is directing the fight

How villagers in Mali helped drive out the occupying Islamists

Turmoil in the Sahara - A timeline

Mali conflict: Army probes summary executions claim

Malians who risk extradition ask Ottawa for a moratorium

Mali's Ansar Dine Islamists 'split and want talks'
Rule of law

Kerry, drones and cultural diplomacy

The Huffington Post 30/01/2013 - Cultural diplomacy or public diplomacy cannot be effective when coupled with acts of war. This is a lesson which major powers keep learning and also keep forgetting. Public diplomacy could not succeed in Iraq as long as military force was used. The French had had to learn the same lesson in Algeria in the 1950s and early 60s. Yet there are now officials and scholars who praise US cultural efforts in Pakistan when the country is "living under drones". There was a time when the U.S. dropped bombs and peanut butter over Afghanistan. This was what Arundhati Roy called "Brutality Smeared in Peanut Butter." I won't belabor the point, for many have made it in eloquent ways before me. The question that remains is why the U.S. strives for cultural or public diplomacy successes when it employs the most devastating military means at the same time. And fails.

Read more

Video: The case against drones

US drones in Africa: Surveillance or strikes?

UK - Trident subs, aircraft carriers and drones on MoD's �160bn shopping list

CIA secret prisons investigation by Poland loses steam

Will Obama the constitutional lawyer please stand up? 
 
More news
Anti-terror laws   

Guantanamo  

Immigration and refugee rights   

National security  

No-fly lists 

Privacy   

Racism  

State secrets      
Technology  

Terrorism   

War on terror 
Miscellaneous

 

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.


Take action 

The Secret Trial 5 - donate to make the documentary a reality  

Many Canadians view the so-called War on Terror as something distant, something far away. The reality is, it has struck much closer to home than most of us realize. There are men, women and families right here in Canada that have been caught in its web. Our film is about five such individuals, and five such families. Click below to watch an excerpt and share with your networks.

 

Event    

Human Rights, National Security, and the Federal Court  

 

Monday February 4, 2013

6pm-7:30pm

Jury Assembly Room of the Ottawa Court House at 161 Elgin Street 

 

Justice Anne Mactavish of the Federal Court of Canada will be speaking. This is the second talk in ICJ Canada's fourth annual speaker series, Dialogues on Human Rights.

 

Event    

Ottawa premiere screening of Doctors of the Dark Side  

 

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013, 5pm-7pm
University of Ottawa, Fauteux Hall, Faculty of Law, room 227
Entrance free
*seating limited so arrive early

 

The screening will be followed by remarks by Mohammad Mahjoub.
Doctors of the Dark Side is a documentary about the pivotal complicity of psychologists, doctors and other medical professionals in detainee torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Mohammad Mahjoub is a torture survivor who has been fighting for freedom from an immigration 'security certificate' for more than 12 years.

Doctors of the Dark Side Trailer - a Documentary Film by Martha Davis

 *Trigger warning*

 

Event   

Carters: The Ottawa Region Charity & Not-for-Profit Law Seminar 

 

Thursday February 7, 2013

8:30am-3:30pm 

Travelodge Convention Centre, Ottawa West 

 

The seminar is designed to assist charities and not-for-profit organizations in understanding developing trends in the law in order to reduce unnecessary exposure to legal liability.     

 

Event   

Twelve years under Canada's security certificate regime: 
Mohammad Mahjoub speaks 

Thursday, February 7, 3:15-5:00pm
Carleton University, Dunton Tower, room 2017

Talk by Mohammad Mahjoub about his struggle to free himself from an immigration security certificate: from hunger-strikes to legal action, he has never ceased to speak out against the illegal process. Mr. Mahjoub is remarkably frank about his devastating experiences in Canadian prisons. He is one of three Muslim men currently held by Canada on secret information about their suspected profile.
Event   

Panel discussion
Your client has a profile: Security and secrecy in Canadian law  

 

Friday, February 8, 5-7pm
McGill University Faculty of Law
3644 Peel Street, New Chancellor Day Hall, Room 312

Panelists:
- Mohamed Mahjoub, fighting against a security certificate since June 2000
- Adil Charkaoui, suing the government for six years of security certificate hell
- Patil Tutunjian, lawyer at Doyon & Associ� who works on security certificate cases
- David Austin, community worker & educator, author of upcoming book on the state surveillance of black activists in Quebec

An update on the current state of security certificate legislation in Canada and on the cases of five recent security certificate detainees, as well as a broader look at national and state security and surveillance targeting communities of colour in Canada.
Event     

NCCAR presents:
An evening with Miko Peled: Can Israelis and Palestinians live together?  

 

Tuesday, February 26th
7:30pm
St. Paul University Auditorium, 233 Main Street, Ottawa

$10 ($15 at door)

 

An optimistic assessment of one of the world's most intractable problems. Miko Peled, Israeli/American Jew, former Israeli soldier, son of a famous Israeli general, discusses his frank views in a courageous new book. The book will be available for sale and signing by Mr Peled. This event is endorsed by the Independent Jewish Voices and the Group of 78.  

 

Take action 

Tell your MP to stand against Bill C-30 and warrantless online spying 

 

OpenMedia.ca - 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.