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Listing of terrorist entities
Opinion - By branding the Taliban 'terrorists,' Canada gave up on Afghan peace
The Globe and Mail 22/05/2013 - For anyone who has followed the Afghan war over the past twelve-odd years, the recent addition of the Afghan Taliban to Canada's list of terrorist entities came as a surprise. More than a surprise, it was disheartening. After more than a  decade of engagement in Afghanistan, the Harper government has indicated it is no longer interested in finding a path to peace. This is the problem with "terrorist lists" in general: they evoke a sense of evil and gloss over the details of complex conflicts like the one in Afghanistan. To simply label the Taliban a terrorist group without taking into account the matrix of alliances and interests that govern Afghanistan indicates a juvenile understanding of that war-ravaged nation. It reduces Afghanistan to Bush-era terms of good and evil. But terrorism, particularly terrorism in Afghanistan, has never been so simple. Why, it must be asked, did it take the Canadian government more than ten years to add the Taliban to the terrorist list?
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Privacy
Canada needs to update tools to protect privacy: Editorial
Toronto Star 26/05/2013 - To open a bank account, lease an apartment, obtain a credit card, hook up your computer to the Internet or fill out a job application, you are required to provide personal information to a private company. But you have little or no control over what happens to  it afterward. Every year, police officers, government officials and intelligence agents reach into these databases - which include everything from medical records to financial information - without a search warrant. But they're not the biggest threat. Companies can share your information with other businesses without asking you. They can let it fall into the wrong hands, lose it, dispose of it carelessly or fail to encrypt it properly. No one has to notify you if your security is breached. Companies aren't penalized for releasing information you thought was protected. The government looks the other way, except when there is a massive data spill.Read more
The Canadian government's embarrassing opposition to security breach disclosure legislation
Michael Geist 27/05/2013 - Last week, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released her vision of privacy reform, including the need for security breach disclosure legislation, order-making power, and greater transparency of
warrantless disclosure.  On the same day as Commissioner Stoddart released her position paper, the government was embarrassing itself in the House of Commons by formally opposing security breach disclosure legislation on the weakest of grounds. The opposition to meaningful privacy reform is particularly discouraging given the thousands of breaches that have occurred in recent years from within the government itself and its claims to be concerned with the privacy of Canadians.
Read moreThe Canadian Access to Social Media Information Project
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Border security
Personal data on thousands of cross-border travellers shared with U.S. under new program
Ottawa Citizen 27/05/2013 - Canada and the U.S. have swapped biographic information on 756,000 cross-border travellers under a sweeping new effort to catch cheating entrants, according to a new border agency report. The flow of personal data between the countries has so far been limited to information about third-  country nationals and permanent residents crossing at four major Canada-U.S. land border points. Next year, however, the bilateral exchange will expand to cover all travellers, including Canadian and American citizens, at all automated border crossings. The project is part of the 2011 Canada-U.S. Beyond the Border declaration and action plan. Like many post-9/11 efforts, the new "Entry/Exit Information System" attempts to find the elusive balance between national security and personal privacy. A a chief concern among privacy advocates is minimizing the threat of personal information being used for secondary purposes unrelated to border security.
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Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr in Edmonton: Terror suspect moved to Alberta prison after months in solitary confinement
The Canadian Press 29/05/2013 - Former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr woke up in an Alberta prison Wednesday after months stuck in isolation at a penitentiary in Ontario where an  inmate had threatened his life, The Canadian Press has learned. Khadr was flown to the Edmonton Institution Tuesday, potentially ending a situation in which he had been deprived of prison programming that complicated efforts to seek parole, his lawyer Dennis Edney confirmed. "Hopefully, this is a positive step in his long journey to freedom," the Edmonton-based Edney said. "I hope that this is a new start for Omar, an opportunity for people to see him as he really is - as someone who poses no threat to Canada, someone who has no radical viewpoints." Read more
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Reflections on the war on terror
The blowback: When American violence leads to anti-American violence
MSNBC 30/05/2013 - President Obama invoked Osama bin Laden in his counterterrorism speech last week to help him make the case that his policies had worked. The president cited a document in which bin Laden had written, "We could lose our reserves to the enemy's air strikes. We cannot fight air strikes with explosives." Bin Laden's words are  evidence of the effectiveness of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. It supports the view that, whatever their legal, moral, and strategic downsides, they helped to decimate the al Qaeda leadership. But if we're going to heed the words of those who wage violence against the west-and we should-we shouldn't do so selectively. Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote a note on the wall of the boat where he hid while law enforcement searched the Boston area for him. In it, he said his actions were payback for U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and likened the victims to innocent Muslims killed by the United States. Read more
Marjorie Cohn - Guantanamo, drone strikes and the non-war terror war: Obama speaksJuan Cole - President Obama and Counter-Terrorism: The Good, the Bad, and the UglyGlenn Greenwald - Obama's terrorism speech: seeing what you want to seeMedea Benjamin from CodePink - Obama interrupted: Why Guantanamo and the U.S. drone war are 'worth paying attention to'
U.S. drone attacks have a legal, moral and political cost: Siddiqui
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Anti-terror legislation
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Criminalization of dissent
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Freedom of the press
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Guantanamo
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Islamophobia
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Rule of law
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State secrecy
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Surveillance and privacy
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Terrorism
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Torture
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War on terror
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Miscellenaous
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The views expressed in this News Digest do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG
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What is the News Digest?
The News Digest is ICLMG's weekly publication of 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. The ICLMG is a national coalition of thirty-nine Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
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News from ICLMG
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Take action
Campaign to stop the deportation of
Jose Figueroa intensifies
Supporters of Jose Figueroa are calling on Jason Kenney, the Minister of Immigration, to intervene and stop his deportation to El Salvador, and for Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety to make clear his position on the matter. More than a thousand signatures  were on a petition delivered to Parliament Friday. The campaign to keep the Figueroa family united has intensified since a recent Immigration decision accepted his wife's application to stay in Canada, but denied Mr. Figueroa based on Section 34(1) of the Act: "membership in an organization that engages in terrorism." People from the WE ARE JOSE campaign believe this to be an error and ask you to act to keep Figueroa family together in Langley, BC.
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Take action
Why are you proud to protect refugees?
Following recent changes to Canada's refugee determination system, it may be tougher to protect refugees in Canada.  Join the Canadian Council for Refugees in showing Canadians and the world why we are still proud to protect refugees and refugee rights.
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Take action
Deportation is not entertainment! Cancel the reality show Border Security
Dozens of people were interrogated, arrested, and detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency.  Shockingly, some of these traumatic experiences were filmed for a reality TV show "Border Security" which airs on National Geographic Channel. Sign the petition to urge National Geographic Channel and Force Four Entertainment, to cancel the show "Border Security" immediately.
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