 |
Fair trial
Human rights groups sound alarm over Diab extradition evidence
Ottawa Citizen 03/07/2013 - Amnesty International and two of Canada's leading civil liberties groups have intervened in the extradition case of former Ottawa university professor Hassan Diab, who is wanted by France for his alleged involvement in a 1980 terrorist bombing at a Paris synagogue. Along with Amnesty, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the  British Columbia Civil Liberties Association have filed interventions with the Ontario Court of Appeal, which is to hear Diab's appeal against federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's decision to order the academic's extradition. The hearing is set for November. While neither Amnesty nor the civil liberties groups are commenting directly on the merits of the case, they say they are deeply troubled that French evidence against the academic could have been gleaned from torture and will be used against him at any criminal trial in Paris. In addition to concerns over torture, the CCLA has intervened because they say crucial evidence in the case against Diab is unreliable and would be inadmissible in any Canadian trial. |
 |
|
Terrorism
Media traipsed on terror suspects' rights: BCCLA
Vancouver 24h 03/07/2013 - Two days after Mounties arrested Amanda Korody and John Nuttall, their landlord allowed media members to walk freely through the basement suite. A 24 hours staffer who went into the house twice, witnessed one reporter rifling through a notebook belonging to the couple and videotaping pages. He also noticed things were moved after his initial visit - drawers and closets were opened and
artifacts appeared rearranged and grouped. The  24 hours legal team advised the newsroom to refrain from publishing photos from inside the house. Josh Paterson, executive director of the BCCLA, says nobody should have been in the house in the first place, as there's only a handful of specific reasons a landlord can legally enter a suite. "They can do it if there's an emergency, they can do it if they have to show the unit, or if the tenant had abandoned the unit, but there's no information here to suggest any of those things are true," he said. "Just because you got arrested and maybe put in jail, doesn't end your residential tenancy. That's a whole separate process. I can think of no possible reason for any of you, any reporters or the landlord to be in the unit."
Canadian pleads guilty in U.S. to terrorism charges of supporting Tamil Tigers
The Toronto Star 03/07/2013 -
A Canadian man faces up to 15 years in prison after admitting to helping funnel sophisticated military technology to a terrorist group in Sri Lanka. Suresh Sriskandarajah, 32, who earned university degrees in Waterloo, Ont., pleaded guilty Tuesday in Brooklyn, N.Y., to conspiring to  provide material support to the Tamil Tigers. Sriskandarajah and several co-conspirators - six of whom have already been convicted of terrorism offences - helped research and acquire aviation equipment, submarine and warship design software, night vision equipment and communications technology for the Tamil Tigers, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a news release announcing the plea. Sriskandarajah used students to smuggle items in to Tamil Tiger-controlled territory in Sri Lanka between September 2004 and April 2006, the prosecutors said.
Read more Toronto 18 and Squamish 5 are part of Canada's terror history Convicted terrorist Carlos 'The Jackal' loses appeal in French bombing caseThe challenge of stopping homegrown terrorists
|
|
|
Mass surveillance
New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies
The Guardian 03/07/2013 - US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with  specialised antennae. Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states. One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed Dropmire, which, according to a 2007 document, is "implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC" - an apparent reference to a bug placed in a commercially available encrypted fax machine used at the mission. The NSA documents note the machine is used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals. The documents suggest the aim of the bugging exercise against the EU embassy in central Washington is to gather inside knowledge of policy disagreements on global issues and other rifts between member states.
Read more
Opinion: The EU won't stand up to the USA or protect our rights against 'the eyes'
openDemocracy 04/07/2013 -
As the fallout from the PRISM, TEMPORA, DROPMIRE and the other blithely acronymed surveillance programmes continues to reverberate across Europe, it is worth remembering what happened last time there was a comparable surveillance scandal: not much. The year was 2000 and the investigative journalist Duncan Campbell had just produced a report on the ECHELON system for the European Parliament, laying bare the way in which the "five eyes" - USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New  Zealand - intercepted global satellite traffic and other communications systems. For all their purported shock and outrage, the inconvenient truth for many European leaders was that their own intelligence services are up to their necks in unregulated surveillance and/or cooperation with the global USA-UK spying infrastructure. Also, the European Parliament is now populated primarily by people whose overwhelming concern is the May 2014 elections - for most social democrat, conservative and liberal MEPs getting re-elected tomorrow means toeing the national party or government line today. Even if MEPs vote today to produce another ECHELON-style report, the EU Council (member states) and the US establishment may simply ignore it - just as they did in 2000.
|
|
|
|
Access to information
|
|
Criminalization of dissent
|
|
Guantanamo
|
|
No fly list
|
|
Rule of law
|
|
State secrecy
|
|
War on terror
|
|
Miscellenaous
|
|
|
|
The views expressed in this News Digest do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
Take action
Tell Harper: No Secret Spying!
Openmedia.ca - According to online surveillance expert Ron Deibert, a secretive Canadian government agency is collecting our sensitive private information, giving them  the power to "pinpoint not only who you are, but with whom you meet, with what frequency and duration, and at which locations." We need to use this moment-when privacy issues are in the spotlight-to get answers. Call on the government to stop this secretive spying scheme, and to tell Canadians exactly what's going on. We deserve to know
|
|
Take action
Be Heard - No Attack Drones!
The Rideau Institute and Ceasefire.ca invite you to tell Stephen Harper, other party leaders, and your own MP that you do not support attack drones. Send your letter, right away.  |
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
