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Revue de l'actualit� - News Digest 
25 septembre 2015 - September 25, 2015
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Certificat de s�curit�
Security certificates 

Government launches deportation proceedings against Harkat

The Ottawa Citizen 18/09/2015 - The federal government has launched deportation proceedings against Algerian-born terror suspect Mohamed Harkat 20 years after he first arrived in Ottawa as a refugee claimant. The case had been dormant for more than a year - ever since the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the government's security certificate regime and affirmed a decision that found Harkat to be an active member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. But for reasons that remain unexplained, the government took no action against Harkat for 15 months after its court victory. A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said Friday she  would "not speak to specific cases." Late last month, almost four weeks into the federal election campaign, Harkat received an official letter from the CBSA informing him that the first step in his deportation process had begun. "He was totally devastated," Harkat's wife, Sophie, said in an interview. "That big grey cloud he's had over his head for 13 years, it just got a lot darker." Harkat said her husband had hoped the government wouldn't pursue his deportation. "How big a threat can he be if they wait 15 months to issue this letter?" Two years ago, an electronic tracking bracelet was removed from Harkat's leg and his release conditions relaxed to allow him to travel outside of Ottawa, use a mobile phone and an Internet-connected computer. Monia Mazigh, national co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, said the move to deport Harkat comes at an odd time: with an election in full swing and with no certainty about what party will form the next government. "We see this as a very, very dangerous move," said Mazigh, who argued that Canada should not deport someone if there is even the slightest possibility that they will be mistreated or tortured.

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Criminalisation de la dissidence
Criminalization of dissent


ICLMG & MiningWatch Canada 21/09/2015 -The report squarely links Canadian mining interests throughout the Americas with intensifying repression and violence against mining-affected communities. Here in Canada and throughout the Americas, many governments have embraced resource extraction as the key sector to fuel economic growth, neglecting other sectors - or even at their expense. This is creating unprecedented demand for land and other resources, such as water and energy. In Latin America, economic dependency on intensive primary resource extraction has become known as 'extractivism'. Increasingly, when Indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples, farmers, environmentalists, journalists, and other concerned citizens speak out against this model for economic growth, particular projects and/or their impacts, they become the targets of threats, accusations, and smears that attempt to label and punish them as enemies of the state, opponents of development, delinquents, criminals, and terrorists. In the worst cases, this leads to physical violence and murder. Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico provide examples of intensified criminalization, where there has been little pause in neoliberal deregulation of the mining sector since the 1990s. [...] In summary, the report observes that it is becoming ever more dangerous and difficult for affected communities and organizations who are fighting for Indigenous rights, self-determination and environmental justice in the Americas to speak out and do their work. As this situation worsens, the Canadian government has increasingly dedicated its diplomatic services, aid budget, and trade and investment policy to promote and favour the interests of Canadian mining companies and to influence decisions over extractive projects and related policies. The trend of repression and deregulation in Canada to favour mining, oil, and gas projects is consistent with the model that the Canadian government promotes abroad. Concluding with a series of ideas and recommendations for discussion, the report seeks to spur debate and foster creative action to protect dissent in defence of land and the environment, and to question Canada's role in promoting the underlying economic development model that is putting communities at such a deadly disadvantage.

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Offensive contre la r�pression polici�re

Le Devoir 19/09/2015 - La r�pression de manifestants par la police de Montr�al fait l'objet de nouvelles actions en justice : un groupe de militants vient de d�poser une demande d'action collective et une plainte pour profilage politique � la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPJ), a appris Le Devoir. Ces militants, appuy�s par la puissante Conf�d�ration des syndicats nationaux (CSN), soutiennent qu'ils ont �t� arr�t�s pour la simple raison qu'ils prenaient part � une manifestation, le 15 mars dernier. Ce jour-l�, c'�tait la marche annuelle contre la � brutalit� polici�re �. Des dizaines de manifestants s'appr�taient � marcher � l'angle des rues Berri et Ontario, � Montr�al. Le Service de police de la Ville de Montr�al (SPVM) a ordonn� aux militants de se disperser. Quand ils ont tent� de s'en aller, ils ont �t� pris en sourici�re par une impressionnante escouade de 550 policiers ; 96 marcheurs ont �cop� d'une contravention de 504 $ pour avoir entrav� la circulation. � �a devient de l'humour noir : le SPVM s'amuse � encercler le monde et donne ensuite l'avis de dispersion. Mais vous ne pouvez pas vous disperser, vous �tes encercl�s ! �, lance Marc Ch�trit, l'avocat qui intente la demande d'action collective au nom des personnes arr�t�es. [...] Le groupe de militants soutient avoir �t� victime de � discrimination politique � parce que la manifestation �tait organis�e par le Collectif oppos� � la brutalit� polici�re. [...] La police avait aussi mis en garde les manifestants : ils seraient arr�t�s en vertu du r�glement P-6 si les organisateurs omettaient de r�v�ler leur itin�raire. Les organisateurs de la marche n'avaient pas r�v�l� leur itin�raire. Or le SPVM a tol�r� sans faire aucune arrestation 83 % des 139 manifestations sans itin�raire tenues � Montr�al en 2013 et 2014, selon une compilation faite par la Ligue des droits et libert�s. Les manifestations r�prim�es �taient li�es aux �tudiants, � la brutalit� polici�re ou aux luttes �cologistes, anticapitalistes et anticoloniales. Il s'agit clairement de � profilage politique � contre des mouvements de gauche, soutient Me Ch�trit.

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Egypt - Update: Activists Yara Sallam, Sanaa Seif released from prison

#FreeKaren: The hysterical campaign to free Australia's hypothetical eco-terrorist
Libert� de la presse
Press freedom   

Mohamed Fahmy obtient le pardon pr�sidentiel

La Presse 23/09/2015 - Le journaliste canadien Mohamed Fahmy et son coll�gue Baher Mohammed, tous deux employ�s de la cha�ne d'information Al-Jazira, ont re�u le pardon pr�sidentiel �gyptien mercredi. En tout, ce sont 100 personnes, dont des dizaines de militants des droits de l'homme, qui ont re�u le pardon du pr�sident Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi � la veille de la grande f�te musulmane de l'A�d al-Adha, qui est habituellement l'occasion de gracier des prisonniers. La d�cision tombe alors que le pr�sident �gyptien doit se rendre jeudi � New York pour assister � l'Assembl�e g�n�rale des Nations unies. �Je suis libre! Cette fois pour vrai! Les policiers m'ont d�pos� � CAC, mon ancienne �cole secondaire, dans ma tenue de prison. C'est la f�te!�, a �crit M. Fahmy sur Twitter, quelques instants apr�s sa lib�ration. Plus tard, s'adressant � des journalistes, M. Fahmy a dit qu'il avait peine � le croire. �Nous n'avons pas dig�r� le fait que nous sommes libres, que nous n'avons pas � nous inqui�ter de rien d'autre, a-t-il d�clar�. Nos familles ont tellement souffert depuis le d�but de ce proc�s et nous sommes tr�s heureux que M. El-Sissi ait pris cette mesure et nous ait lib�r�s.�
Islamophobie
Islamophobia
 
The Toronto Star 23/09/2015 - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper may have broken the Ramadan fast with supportive Muslims for a pre-election photo op before dropping the writ. But his government never loses an opportunity to stoke fear about "jihadist (read: Muslim) terrorism," and to exaggerate the threat that it poses. Canada is home to a million Muslims. Fewer than 200 have gone abroad as radicals or have been convicted of terrorism here. That's two bad apples in 10,000 people. Yet even so, Harper has singled out mosques as centres of radicalization, when imams have been working with the authorities to identify and neutralize threats. He has tried to bar Muslim women from veiling their faces during citizenship ceremonies as "contrary to our values," even when the courts rule otherwise. And after turning its back for years on millions of Syrian Muslim refugees, his government belatedly announced that it wants to cherry-pick Syrian religious minorities for resettlement here. Little wonder if, down in the weeds on the campaign trail, things get even uglier. As the Star's Tim Harper reports, not every Tory candidate has absorbed Harper's dark art of sowing fear and playing to prejudice to reap votes, while claiming to be acting only in the country's best security interests. Tory candidate Joe Daniel, for one, has been sounding the alarm with his Don Valley North constituents that there's an "agenda" afoot "to move as many Muslims into some of these European countries to change these countries in a major way." And "that is something that I certainly don't want to see happening in Canada

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Stephen Harper waging phony jihad on the niqab: Siddiqui

Heureusement qu'il y a le niqab

Proposed niqab ban could be thin edge of the wedge: H�bert 

#Halfabomb explodes on Twitter after think tank calls boy's clock a threat

The anti-Muslim controversies of the last week, reimagined

Opinion: The poisonous paranoia of 'see something, say something'

School questioned Muslim pupil about ISIS after discussion on eco-activism 
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Migration and refugee rights 
Immigration et droits des r�fugi�.es 

Le CCR accueille favorablement l'annonce du gouvernement concernant les r�fugi�s syriens, mais demande un engagement gouvernemental plus fort

Conseil canadien pour les r�fugi�s 17/09/2015 - Le CCR a salu� aujourd'hui les mesures importantes prises par le gouvernement pour �liminer les obstacles � la r�installation des r�fugi�s syriens et pour acc�l�rer leur arriv�e. Les mesures annonc�es par le gouvernement f�d�ral r�pondent � plusieurs des recommandations faites par le CCR. [...] Nous continuons de demander au gouvernement de ne pas d�pendre uniquement du secteur priv� pour la r�installation des Syriens, mais de prendre la responsabilit�, au nom de tous les Canadiens, de mettre en œuvre une r�ponse importante et urgente � la crise de r�fugi�s syriens. 1. Le CCR est d��u qu'il n'y ait eu aucune augmentation du nombre de r�fugi�s pris en charge par le gouvernement. [...] 2. Nous demeurons pr�occup�s par l'absence d'une r�ponse aux Syriens ayant de la famille au Canada. [...] 3. Les r�fugi�s syriens, tout comme les autres r�fugi�s parrain�s par le secteur priv�, continuent de se voir refuser l'acc�s � une couverture compl�te du Programme f�d�ral de sant� int�rimaire.

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Amnesty International: Canada takes small but disappointing steps forward for Syrian Refugees

Intolerable suffering of refugees' limbo in Canada

rabble.ca 25/09/2015 - Take the case of Ottawa's Dima Siam, a mother of three Canadian children who grows thinner by the day with worry that she may be forcibly torn from her family. Her husband, systems engineer Mohammad Al Rayyan, is exasperated that a simple misunderstanding has been used to refuse his sponsorship of his wife, who came to Canada on a visitor visa in 2012. [...] For less than three months, as they got their footing in Canada, the family was on social assistance, a fact that was held against them in the rejection of Al Rayyan's sponsorship application for his wife. That application was submitted in January 2013; had it been submitted a month later, after Al Rayyan received a job offer and left social assistance, the outcome would have been far different. [...] Meanwhile, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the landmark Carter case earlier this year on the legality of physician-assisted dying, the judges probably had little reason to believe that their reasons could apply equally to those currently facing deportation from Canada. [...] While the issue of physician-assisted dying tends to focus on people with physical ailments that are causing the intolerable suffering, the same analysis could be applied to the imposition of mental cruelty by the state on refugees living in limbo, who never know from one day to the next if they will be scooped up by border agents, detained, and deported to an uncertain fate that includes detention, torture, or execution. The answer here is not dying with dignity, but providing a means for those refugees to live with dignity. Indeed, living without status denies people autonomy over their own bodies and, it could be argued, contributes to cases of intolerable suffering. [...] Abdullah Alhaj says he supports the pledges to bring more Syrians to Canada, "but let's start with the ones who are already here." In all the rhetoric of the election campaign, it's a proposal that none of Canada's major political parties has yet to address.

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The European refugee crisis and Syria explained


'Refugees Welcome' rallies expose Canada's broken immigration system

Push to welcome refugees to Canada intensifies with month-long call to action

Rights campaigners torm human blockade to stop deportations

Cartographie. Murs, barri�res, cl�tures : comment le monde se referme

Refugees left stranded as Europe faces 'crisis of political will'

EU governments push through divisive deal to share 120,000 refugees

L'UE mobilise 1 milliard d'euros pour les r�fugi�s

'Failed' EU refugee summit results in aid pledge - and little else

The other refugee crisis: From Central America to the US
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Torture  

Torture and Afghan Detainees: the need for a public inquiry

The Rideau Institute 23/09/2015 - A new report, entitled Torture of Afghan Detainees: Canada's Alleged Complicity and the Need for a Public Inquiry, has just been released by the Rideau Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Written by Omar Sabry, a human rights researcher and advocate based in Ottawa, the study identifies the need for government accountability and non-impunity for alleged breaches of international and national law, in relation to the transfer of Afghan Detainees, despite substantial risks that they might be tortured. The study recommends that the Government of Canada launch a transparent and impartial judicial Commission of Inquiry into the actions of Canadian officials, including Ministers of the Crown, relating to Afghan detainees. The Government should also develop clear policies that would prevent future reliance on diplomatic assurances against torture, including in situations involving armed conflict and extradition, and reaffirm Canada's commitment to the prohibition of torture by immediately signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

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Amnesty USA denounces DOJ's inaction nine months after torture report

Abu Ghraib survivors appeal immunity for corporation involved in torture
L�gislation antiterroriste
Anti-terror legislation  

C-51's post-election fate may not be so simple: Forcese and Roach

iPolitics 21/09/2015 - It doesn't matter if the Conservatives, Liberals or New Democrats form government after October 19, something will have to be done with the Harper government's controversial anti-terrorism bill, C-51, that will likely fall between the repeal suggested by the NDP and implementation as-is by the Tories. "On election day, we're going to have a new government and it's going to confront - no matter what its policy plank is - serious conundrums that are not cured but are in fact enhanced by C-51 and are also not cured by simply repealing C-51," said University of Ottawa national security law professor Craig Forcese. Forcese and his colleague, Kent Roach, from the University of Toronto, have been at the forefront of criticism of C-51, appearing before the House and Senate committees studying it and producing hundreds of pages of legal review, all of which has culminated into their co-written book False Security, released Friday. [...] "We wrote this book - all 6oo pages of it - with the hope that the conversation is going to get better but there's certain things that worry me, like how the difference between oversight and review is not that well understood or how people think that repealing C-51 in itself would be enough," said Roach. "It wouldn't be." "There's a risk that the position Kent and I are taking is basically 'a pox on all your houses'," admitted Forcese, "because we don't think that any party is making a lot of sense right now on security, either from a rights perspective or a security perspective."
R�flexions sur la guerre au terrorisme 
Reflections on the war on terror 

The Toronto Star 23/09/2015 - How is Canada's war in Iraq and Syria going? I put that question to veteran Middle East journalist Robert Fisk. His answer: Badly. Fisk is Middle East correspondent for Britain's Independent newspaper. He's been covering the region for more than 35 years. Based in Beirut, he goes regularly into Syria. Earlier this year, he spent nine days travelling along the front lines of that country's bitter civil war. [...] How do we deal with ISIS then? Fisk doesn't claim to know all the answers. Nor does he claim to fully understand ISIS, which he calls a "cult, the likes of which we've never seen before." But he does say the solution lies in the geo-politics of the region and the four-year-old Syrian civil war. The roots of that civil war began when thousands of the country's rural poor, dispossessed of their land by drought and inept government policy, began to migrate into the suburbs of major cities like Damascus. It was volatile mixture that eventually exploded into a social revolution pitting the poor against the urban middle class. [P]eace can come only when Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar make clear to ISIS that the game is over. As for the Syrian civil war that is driving the current refugee crisis in Europe, Fisk reckons that Russia, Iran and the U.S. are already trying to work out a deal. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will probably be allowed to stay in power for a while. The key to ending the violence inside Syria, however, will be a massive reconstruction effort involving aid to the dispossessed. In the meantime, he says, the U.S.-led war to which Canada is contributing serves no useful purpose. "Abandon it," he says. "It's not doing any good."

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Margaret Atwood: we are double-plus unfree

Un rapport pr�conise de donner la parole aux djihadistes d�serteurs

U.S. state department "welcomes" news that Saudi Arabia will head U.N. human rights panel

The complexities of women, peace, security and countering violent extremism
 
Autres nouvelles - More news
Citizenship
Citoyennet�  
Drones 
Freedom of expression
Libert� d'expression
Guantanamo 
"Guerre au terrorisme"
"War on terror"
Mass surveillance
Surveillance globale
No fly list
Liste d'interdiction de vol
Peace bonds
Obligation de garder la paix
Politics and terrorism
Politique et terrorisme
State secrecy
Secret d'�tat

Suppression de le dissidence
Suppression of dissent

Surveillance

Terrorism cases
Proc�s pour terrorisme

Miscellaneous
Divers
CETTE SEMAINE / THIS WEEK
 
Event    

Canadian Mining and Criminalization in the Americas

Talk organized by MiningWatch, PSAC & ICLMG
Tuesday, October 6 at 7:00pm
PSAC Building, 233 Gilmour St, Ottawa

Special guest: Esperanza Salazar is a member of Bios Iguana, an environmental organization in Mexico who has been criminalized by state authorities for their work in defence of land and life, forcing members of the organization to spend months out of state and making it difficult to continue their support of mining affected communities. Following Esperanza's presentation, Jen Moore, from MiningWatch Canada, and Monia Mazigh, our National Coordinator, will talk about our new report: 'In the National Interest? Criminalization of Land and Environment Defenders in the Americas' and facilitate a discussion.

Facebook event
Action   

Saudi Arabia: Stop the execution of juvenile activist Ali al-Nimr

Amnesty International - Two courts have upheld the death sentence against a Shi'a activist. He has exhausted his appeals and may be executed as soon as the King ratifies the sentence. Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to death on 27 May 2014 for offences  he is alleged to have committed when he was 17 years old. The court seems to have based its decision on "confessions" which Ali al-Nimr has said were extracted under torture and other ill-treatment and has refused to look into this allegation. When Ali al-Nimr was arrested in February 2012 he was not allowed to see his lawyer. He has said that GDI officers tortured him to make him sign a "confession". Read more and sign the petition now!


Action   

UPDATE Sign the Declaration of the Voices-Voix Coalition 

Voices-Voix Coalition - United, we call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Respect the right to freedom of opinion and expression; 2. Act in accordance with Canada's democratic traditions and values; 3. Be transparent.

Both individuals and organizations can endorse the declaration.

Action   

Remind Prime Minister Harper: Canadians welcome Syrian refugees  

Amnesty International - On September 2, 2015, the body of three year old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore on a Turkish beach. He and his young brother were among at least 11 people believed to have drowned when their boat ran into trouble as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos. Call on the Prime Minister and all party leaders to increase Canada's contribution to the Syrian refugee crisis!


Action   

PM Harper: Call on the UAE to free Canadian citizen Salim Alaradi now!   

ICLMG - Salim Alaradi, a Canadian citizen and father of 5 young children, has been detained without charge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since August 2014. We are also worried that he was tortured. His health is deteriorating quickly as his family has informed us this week. Write to Prime Minister Harper to urge him to call on the UAE to free Salim Alaradi now!


Action   

All Parties: Commit to Repealing Citizenship Changes! Don't leave millions of us as second class Canadian citizens!

BCCLA, CARL - Canada is all about diversity. Many Canadians were born in other countries or are citizens of other countries because of their family history - and all of us are 100% Canadian. But the changes made to Canadian law by Bill C-24 will shatter a core principle of Canadian citizenship - that all Canadians have equal rights. This new law makes second-class citizens out of every Canadian who's born elsewhere or who is a dual citizen.


Action   

Join the great Canadian petition drive to kill Bill C-51 and win prizes! 

OpenMedia - If we want to get Bill C-51 repealed, we need to add as many voices as we can so our message can be heard far and wide. So to provide a little extra incentive to help us reach 300,000 signatures, we've put together some pretty great prizes for those who help us reach the most people.
Join the Great Canadian Petition Drive to Kill C-51 now with the chance to win an awesome pro-privacy prize pack! Are you ready to beat Margaret Atwood?

Action   

UAE: Free Canadian citizen Salim Alaradi! 

Free Salim Alaradi Campaign - We urge the United Arab Emirates to stop the torture and unconditionally and immediately release Canadian citizen Salim Alaradi, who has been detained for over 285 days without charge.

Please sign the petition and share widely!


Action   

Send Canada's Privacy Plan to the party leaders  

OpenMedia - Send the Crowdsourced Action Plan to the party leaders. The government has just rammed its anti-privacy Bill C-51 through the Senate.
Now we need to tell Party Leaders to #KillC51 and implement this positive alternative. Click below, read the plan and enter your information. They will use it to email the Privacy Plan to party leaders.


Action   

Petition: Call a Coroner's Inquest in to Abdi's death 

End Immigration Detention Network - Abdi had been in immigration prison without charges, trial or date of release for three years at the time of his death in a maximum security prison in Lindsay, Ontario. Days after his death, 88 immigration detainees imprisoned at the same prison, the Central East Correction Centre, defied sanctions to issue a joint petition calling for an inquiry into their friend's death. We at the End Immigration Detention Network have just been able to access to this petition. It reads:
* Coroner's inquest must happen and made public.
* Thorough inquest, must include talking to detainees.
* Implementation (of recommendations) from the inquest must be made immediately.
* The parties responsible must be made accountable.


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

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.