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Revue de l'actualit� - News Digest 
5 mars 2015 - March 5, 2015
L�gislation antiterroriste
Anti-terror legislation  

Bill C-51 defies key rulings on security certificates, lawyers say

CBC News 27/02/2015 -
 Immigration experts say the sweeping anti-terrorism bill would give the government - and its spy agency, CSIS - new power to withhold information in cases where suspects are held on security certificates. The changes are included in Bill C-51's amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which have received little attention to date. Security certificates allow the government to detain and deport permanent residents or foreign nationals considered to be a security threat using secret evidence that the accused is not allowed to see. The bill states the government would only be required to disclose material that's "relevant to grounds of inadmissibility stated in the [security] certificate." That contradicts key Supreme Court rulings on what the Crown must provide to the special advocates of people being held on the controversial certificates, say lawyers who have acted as special advocates. "That [change] gives CSIS the power to decide what part of the file is going to be disclosed, and what part of the file is not going to be disclosed," says immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman. "It will significantly alter the balance and the fairness of the procedure, a balance the Supreme Court has been very careful to craft."


CBC News 27/02/3015 - More than 100 academics are urging the government to drastically alter C-51, the Conservatives' proposed anti-terrorism legislation, arguing it is far too broad and doesn't come with safeguards to protect Canadians' privacy rights. The group, made up mainly of law professors from across Canada, have signed an open letter arguing the proposed bill has major problems that threaten Canadians' privacy and freedom of speech. The legal experts also take aim at the government for cutting off debate on the legislation. "In light of the sweeping scope and great importance of this bill, we believe that circumventing the ability of MPs to dissect the bill, and their responsibility to convey their concerns to Canadians at large... is a troubling undermining of our parliamentary democracy's capacity to hold majority governments accountable. "It is sadly ironic that democratic debate is being curtailed on a bill that vastly expands the scope of covert state activity when that activity will be subject to poor or even non-existent democratic oversight or review." The letter lays out five primary concerns and a number of secondary concerns, calling the bill "a dangerous piece of legislation."

Politique et terrorisme
Politics and terrorism
 

Loi antiterroriste : des conservateurs trop press�s

 

L'actualit� 27/02/2015 - Le projet de loi antiterroriste (C-51) a pr�tendument pour but de prot�ger nos valeurs et notre d�mocratie, mais pour le faire adopter, le gouvernement conservateur est pr�t � bousculer le Parlement - et, par ricochet, � se moquer de ces m�mes institutions d�mocratiques qu'il dit vouloir d�fendre. Ainsi, il ne lui a pas suffi de limiter le d�bat en deuxi�me lecture sur le projet de loi C-51 : il a tout fait pour faire de m�me avec l'�tude en comit�. N'e�t �t� de la r�sistance du NPD (qui a multipli� les tactiques dilatoires), le comit� de la S�curit� publique et nationale n'aurait eu que trois jours d'audiences, en plus de la comparution du ministre et des fonctionnaires, pour entendre des t�moins. Et quand on dit trois jours, il faut comprendre qu'une audience d'un comit� de la Chambre ne dure g�n�ralement que deux heures. Donc, six heures pour entendre le point de vue d'experts, de juristes et de citoyens sur un projet de loi qui risque de modifier l'�quilibre entre la protection des Canadiens et le respect de certains droits fondamentaux. Dire que c'est peu est un euph�misme. Le gouvernement veut que le comit� rende son rapport le 31 mars, car il veut que le projet devienne loi avant l'�t�. Le NPD a accept� l'�ch�ance du 31 mars, tuant dans l'œuf les accusations conservatrices � l'effet que les n�od�mocrates ne cherchaient qu'� tout retarder. En contrepartie, le NPD demandait que le comit� si�ge durant les deux semaines de rel�che de mars afin de donner plus de temps aux t�moins, sans succ�s. Le comit� ne tiendra donc que huit jours d'audiences. Malgr� cela, le gouvernement affirme qu'il sera possible d'entendre au moins 48 t�moins, le NPD ayant une liste de plus de 50 personnes. Mais autant de gens en si peu de temps veut dire que les t�moins devront compara�tre par groupe de trois ou plus, et chaque groupe n'aura qu'une petite heure pour exposer son point de vue. On n'est pas loin d'une parodie d'�tude s�rieuse. Le gouvernement invoque l'urgence, mais pourquoi alors refuser de si�ger durant les deux semaines de rel�che ? Parce que plus il y a de t�moins avec des critiques cr�dibles - et avec assez de temps pour les faire comprendre -, plus il y a de chances que la n�cessit� d'apporter des changements devienne trop �vidente pour �tre ignor�e par le gouvernement.

Lire plus - Read more

Committee won't hear from former prime ministers on anti-terror bill 

Harper surrenders to ISIS

 

rabble.ca 05/03/2015 - The Harper government's anti-terrorism act is a trap for the Conservatives' opponents. To Stephen Harper, there's no trade-off between security and civil liberties when you fight terrorism. The prime minister postures as tough on terror and taunts those who disagree with him as pawns of the jihadists. [...] Most Canadians aren't swallowing Harper's bait. In a Leger poll conducted February 9 to 11, 40 per cent of the respondents across the country agreed that "in order to curb terrorism in this country, I am ready to give up some civil liberties." On the other side, 48 per cent disagreed. Those who "strongly" disagree -- 26 per cent -- overwhelmed the 10 per cent who strongly agree (12 per cent had no opinion). In a Nanos Research poll (January 24-26), 34 per cent were concerned "about the possibility that Canadian security agencies will be given too much power" in the name of fighting ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Another 30 per cent were "somewhat concerned." [...] As a ballot box question, terrorism ranks far behind the pocketbook issues of jobs, health care and retirement incomes. In a Pollara survey conducted November 3-5, 26 per cent said terrorism should be a "top priority issue" for the government, way behind "health care and long-term care costs for our aging population" (44 per cent), the economy (38 per cent) and pensions (36 per cent). Expect Harper to continue crying terror until election day. Nothing else has helped his reputation. After polling in the days before the government tabled C-51, Abacus said a gradual improvement in Harper's reputation stopped in January: 34 per cent had a positive view of the PM, 40 per cent a negative view. 

 

Read more - Lire plus  

  

Why Stephen Harper's terror bill may not be as popular as he thinks 

  

Study on radicalization chugs along as anti-terror bill speeds through Parliament 

  

UBC students challenge Justin Trudeau in his stance on anti-terrorism bill 

   

La vid�o de Zehaf Bibeau doit �tre rendue publique vendredi 

  

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau video to be shown Friday 

  

How Harper's anti-terrorism bill plays into fear tactics 

  

Rick Mercer blasts politics of fear amid anti-terror debate (video) 

Islamophobie
Islamophobia  

The Toronto Star 01/03/2015 - Are we moving into a new era of intolerance in this country? Intolerance is a strong word, but certainly no more inflammatory than some of the words being bandied about by our politicians in this election year.  Vigilance has crossed a line, much of it fuelled by comments - or inaction, or studied silence - by politicians at the federal level, much of it from the Conservative government. The events of the past weeks have been well-chronicled. The Bloc Quebecois has targeted Quebec voters unhappy with NDP leader Tom Mulcair's defence of a woman's right to wear a niqab at a citizenship ceremony. "Should you have to hide your face to vote NDP?" it asks in an ad, as the House of Commons chamber is seen through the eyeholes of a niqab. Harper's Conservatives have made their challenge to the niqab ruling a fundraising pitch. A mosque in Terrebonne, Que., was forced to close after municipal officials ruled it had obtained a permit to open "under false pretenses." Earlier in the month, Shawinigan refused a permit for a mosque because of what was termed "irrational" anti-Muslim fears by city officials. Here in Ottawa, a well-known Manitoba Muslim leader implored Canadians to stop casting all Muslims as threats because of the actions of terrorists who have subverted her faith.

For her trouble, as first reported in the Winnipeg Free Press, Shahina Siddiqui was told by Ontario Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak to stop being so thin-skinned. "Canadians don't want to hear all that," Beyak said. "They are tired of us being offended. They want us to do something about people who are threatening to blow up malls." And there is the Quebec judge who refused to hear a case before her because the single mother in her court was wearing a hijab.

 

Michael Geist 02/03/2015 - Last fall, Daniel Therrien, the government's newly appointed Privacy Commissioner of Canada, released the annual report on the Privacy Act, the legislation that governs how government collects, uses, and discloses personal information. The lead story from the report was the result of an audit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police practices regarding warrantless requests for telecom subscriber information. The audit had been expected to shed new light into RCMP information requests. Auditors were forced to terminate the investigation, however, when they realized that Canada's national police force simply did not compile the requested information. When asked why the information was not collected, RCMP officials responded that its information management system was never designed to capture access requests.

While that raised serious concerns - the RCMP has since promised to study mechanisms for reporting requests with recommendations expected in April - my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) reports that documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the publicly released audit results significantly understated the severity of the problem. Indeed, after the draft final report was provided to the RCMP in advance for comment, several of the findings were toned down for the public release. [...] In short, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada set out to audit the RCMP in the hope of uncovering the details behind requests for subscriber information. What it encountered instead was inaccurate data and an effort to downplay the problems within the public report.  

 


Quebec resident Alain Philippon to fight charge for not giving up phone password at airport
Surveillance globale
Mass surveillance

 
Libert�s civiles et d�mocratie
Civil liberties and democracy 

CBC News 02/03/2015 - A few weeks ago, from Switzerland, John Baird tweeted a picture of himself grinning into the camera, shaking the hand of a short, unprepossessing fellow who seemed amused and distracted by something elsewhere in the room. "Great to have dinner & speak with President el-Sisi last night," gushed Baird, who was at the time still Canada's foreign affairs minister. [...] In January, el-Sissi's troops opened fire on protesters marking the fourth anniversary of the short-lived revolution that ousted the former dictator, Hosni Mubarak. They killed at least 23 people. Egypt's courts, meanwhile, have overturned or dismissed Mubarak's criminal convictions. Ferry de Kerckhove, Canada's former ambassador to Egypt, laughs at the very idea that human rights in Egypt have any importance for the West. "Nobody cares," he says. Of paramount importance, he says, is keeping the Brotherhood crushed, respecting the peace deal with Israel, and  playing along with any agreement between Western nations and Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions. It is essential that Saudi Arabia and Egypt not obstruct that deal, says de Kerckhove: "Why would they make life miserable for el-Sissi when they are trying to achieve that? Human rights are completely out the window." So, billions in aid are flowing in. So is European investment. Stephen Harper, meanwhile, has said that Egypt's "transition toward democracy," while of course desirable, shouldn't be so abrupt that it would risk "forces from the street that run out of control." After all, he said in a speech in Tel Aviv last year, el-Sissi's elected predecessor was bent on using an element of democracy, an election win, to create an "authoritarian Islamic state." Well. At least it isn't Islamic anymore.
 
 
Autres nouvelles - More news
Acc�s � l'information
Access to information  
Anti-terror legislation
L�gislation anti-terrorisme  
Charities and dissent
Organismes de bienfaisance et dissidence 
Criminalisation de la dissidence
Criminalization of dissent 
Drones 
Guantanamo

Guerre au terrorisme
War on terror 
Immigration and refugee rights
Immigration et droits des r�fugi�.es 
Reflections on the war on terror
R�flexions sur la guerre au terrorisme  
R�flexions sur le terrorisme
Reflections on terrorism 
State secret
Secret d'�tat 
Terrorism cases
Proc�s pour terrorisme
Torture 
Miscellenaous
Divers

 

 
CETTE SEMAINE / THIS WEEK
 
Action   

Reject fear. Stop Harper's "secret police" bill C-51!    

LeadNow.ca - We call on MPs to reject Stephen Harper's fear campaign and stop the bill, unless it's amended to:
-- Include strong safeguards for Canadians, including a dedicated, high-level Parliamentary committee to oversee our spy agencies.
-- Strip out the outrageous attacks on civil liberties, including the sweeping expansion of spy powers, criminalization of speech, and preventative arrest for those who have committed no crime.
-- Clarify that the vague parts of the bill, to be certain it will only be used to target people who pose a violent threat to the lives and physical security of people

Video on Facebook



National Day of Action to Stop Bill C-51 Facebook event
ICLMG in the media 

The misuses of national security:
An interview with human rights defender Roch Tass� 

CCPA - Can you describe a bit the impact of this first wave of terrorism law? RT: The first wave of legislation created a paradigm of dealing with terrorism as an enemy, and the concept of the war on terror was born. Destroying a building was always a crime. But suddenly if it was motivated by religious or political motivations they call it terrorism. The massacre at the �cole Polytechnique in Montreal, where a crazy guy killed 14 women, was not an act of terrorism. A lone wolf who shoots one guy on Parliament Hill is called terrorism. It's a concept that can be manipulated for political reasons, easily. And we've seen the slippery slope in government documents over the years, and in CSIS reports, not explicitly changing the definition, but naming some threats to Canada under anti-terrorism documents. For example, environmental activists are seen as people opposed to the national interests of Canada. The association between economic interest and national interests has been expressed more clearly than ever before by this government.

Read more - Lire plus
Film    

The Secret Trial 5 Canada-wide tour dates announced!    

The ST5 team - We are once again facing a move to place perceived security before individual freedom and, as as our film documents, these tactics have very real human consequences. A recent poll suggested that 80% of Canadians agree with Bill C-51 despite criticism from all over the political spectrum. We aim to change that one tour stop at a time. We believe wholeheartedly that when Canadians see the story of The Secret Trial 5, they will be moved by their sense of compassion, not fear.

From March 12th to 26th, 2015 in most major Canadian cities!

Tous les d�tails
Action   

Signez la p�tition pour lib�rer le blogueur saoudien Raif Badawi  



Amnistie internationale - Raif Badawi, prisonnier d'opinion en Arabie saoudite, risque la mort pour avoir offert un d�bat sur la libert� religieuse.
Exigeons des autorit�s saoudiennes que les coups de fouet cessent imm�diatement, que Raif soit lib�r� sans condition, et qu'il soit r�uni avec sa famille r�fugi�e au Canada.
Exigeons de cet �tat qu'il respecte ses obligations en mati�re de droits humains et qu'il abolisse la flagellation.



English petition
Arar +10   

Watch the Arar +10: National Security and Human Rights, 10 years later conference

Retrospective of the Past Decade
Opening remarks: Retrospective of the Past Decade
Panel 1: The People and Lives Behind the Issues
Panel 1: The People and Lives Behind the Issues
Panel 2: Perspectives from the Media
Panel 2: Perspectives from the Media
Keynote Panel: Judicial Reflections on National Security and Human Rights
Keynote Panel: Judicial Reflections on National Security and Human Rights
Panel 3: Lawyering for Human Rights in a National Security Context
Panel 3: Lawyering for Human Rights in a National Security Context
Panel 4: A View from Community Level
Panel 4: A View from Community Level
Panel 5: Oversight and Review
Panel 5: Oversight and Review
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks

Les opinions exprim�es ne refl�tent pas n�cessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG

What is the News Digest? Qu'est-ce que la Revue de l'actualit�?

The News Digest is ICLMG's weekly publication of news articles, events, calls to action and much more regarding national security, anti-terrorism, and civil liberties. The ICLMG is a national coalition of thirty-eight Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
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La revue de l'actualit� est notre publication hebdomadaire de nouvelles, d'�v�nements, d'appels � l'action, et beaucoup plus, entourant la s�curit� nationale, la lutte au terrorisme, et les libert�s civiles. La CSILC est une coalition nationale de 38 organisations de la soci�t� civile canadienne qui a �t� cr��e suite aux attentats terroristes de septembre 2001 aux �tats-Unis.