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Election 2015: Special News Digest Edition
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For this week and the next one, we decided at ICLMG, to make a light version of the News Digest focused on the Federal Election 2015. We will go back to our classic format in two weeks.
English articles
Will Beshir Makhtal will be home soon?
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| | Beshir Makhtal, detained in Ethiopia for more then 5 years |
Bashir Makhtal, a Toronto man who has spent almost nine years languishing in detention in Ethiopia, is one step closer to coming home.
Government officials have alerted his cousin Said Maktal that the paperwork is being drawn up to send to Ethiopia after the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Canada Minister Steven Blaney finally signed off on a prison transfer.
Maktal is relieved that his cousin's transfer papers have been signed by Ottawa and is anxious to see him back on Canadian soil, but he has reservations and he wonders why it took them so long to sign the documents. Read more...
When Technology and entrepreneurs are against Bill C-51
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| | Fred Ghahramani, Canadian entrepreneur, to donate $1 million to fight Bill C-51 |
The Canadian co-founder of mobile app maker airG Inc. has pledged to donate $1 million to the fight against Bill C-51, the recently passed anti-terror law that critics say creates a new "secret police" and will impinge on freedom of expression.
Fred Ghahramani, who grew up in Iran, compared the law supported by the Conservatives and Liberals to "the authoritarian Iranian regime that arbitrarily recorded and surveilled every citizen's phone calls."
Federal Election 2015
C-24 and the right to vote of convicted terrorists
 An Iranian-Canadian imprisoned in Edmonton for terrorism has filed a court challenge against federal legislation that could result in the loss of his citizenship, arguing it amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment." Read more...
Politically Exposed Domestic Persons and C-31: Louise Arbour digs into the troubling aspects of the law
When he retires from his post, the Governor-General of Canada will have his bank accounts subjected to heightened scrutiny. So will his parents, his spouse and his children, for the next 20 years. So, too, will the Chief Justice of Canada, all Supreme Court and appellate court judges, ambassadors, counsellors, deputy ministers, generals, past and present, and all their family members. They should expect calls from their bankers asking questions about the sources of deposits and other transactions. And if one of their children happens to have a joint account with a third party, all that would have to be explained to the bankers who are required by law to exercise such vigilance. Read more...
Politics and Security Measures: An Opinion
In responding to last year's terrorist attacks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised his government would not over-react, but also would not under-react, to the ISIS terrorist threat. Unfortunately his government proceeded to do just that.
The over-reactions are well known: a new, sweeping speech offence; citizenship revocation; a complex law making almost everything a security matter for purposes of whole-of-government information sharing, without whole of government accountability review; and CSIS's new powers to break the law and violate any Charter right, so long as a judge signs off in a secret hearing. Read more...
How the Syrian Refugees Issue Came into the Canadian Elections
 Like many Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper choked up when he saw the photos of a young Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a Mediterranean beach last month. Speaking to the media on Sept. 3, his voice breaking, he called the child's drowning "a heartbreaking situation ... a terrible tragedy." And so it was. Read more...
Is Surveillance Making us More Innovative?
We've come a long way from the tinfoil hat, that traditional aluminum trademark of conspiracy theorists.
These days, the idea that average citizens need protection from Orwellian-style surveillance seems more practical than paranoid, because of Bill C-51, Canada's expansive "anti-terror" legislation that allows for more personal information to be shared among a list of government departments or the warnings of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who advocates for greater global privacy-protection rights. Read more...
International: On Freedom of Expression and bigotry in India
India's literary community is disgusted. Dozens of writers say every day brings more evidence of intolerance and bigotry going mainstream - a man lynched allegedly for eating beef, an atheist critic of Hindu idol worship gunned down - all met by a deafening silence from the government. Read more...
Articles en français
Pour cette semaine et la suivante, nous avons décidé de publier une revue d'actualité
allégée, spéciale élection. Nous reviendrons à notre format habituel après deux semaines.
Mohamed Fahmey critique le silence d'Ottawa
Profitant de son retour au pays en pleine campagne électorale, M. Fahmy a soutenu qu'Ottawa devait en faire plus pour défendre les Canadiens emprisonnés injustement à l'étranger, décochant une flèche à l'endroit des conservateurs. Lire plus...
L'organisme apolitique PEN fait le bilan
Les années Harper ont marqué un recul « alarmant » pour la protection de la liberté d'expression au Canada, estime l'organisme PEN International. Ce dernier soutient dans un rapport dévoilé mardi que les « autorités canadiennes n'ont eu de cesse de miner la liberté d'expression, la liberté d'association et l'accès à l'information » dans les dernières années.
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ICLMG
Monia Mazigh
National Coordinator
613.241.5298
national.coordination@iclmg.ca
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ICLMG
Anne Dagenais Guertin
Communications and Research Coordinator
613.241.5298
communications@iclmg.ca
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