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Revue de l'actualit� - News Digest 
26 novembre 2015 - November 26th, 2015 
L�gislation antiterroriste
Anti-terror legislation


ICLMG signed this open letter written by OpenMedia

Ottawa Citizen 20/11/2015 - In a letter to Trudeau to be released Friday, organizers write "it is only through meaningful engagement with stakeholders that the government can hope to address security in a manner that appropriately respects civil liberties. "In light of the sweeping and fundamental nature of the changes imposed by Bill C-51, such consultation must occur before the parliamentary reform stage begins." The Liberal government has promised to hold public consultations on its plan to repeal parts of the law, reform others and create a
committee of parliamentarians to monitor the operations of federal agencies responsible for national security. The coalition, led by the Internet advocacy group OpenMedia, wants the government to go further by issuing a position statement to "clearly demonstrate how Canada's pre-Bill C-51 security apparatus was inadequate, and justify any changes introduced by Bill C-51 that the government seeks to retain. It should also outline any anticipated impacts on civil liberties and explain why these are justified." It also calls on the government to conduct online consultations with Canadians and hold hearings with various experts - all before the promised legislation is tabled in Parliament. "To rebuild public trust after Bill C-51 we need to restore a democratic dialogue that is more collaborative and generates results that are constitutional and consistent with Canadian values," the letter concludes.

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Read the letter 
"Guerre au terrorisme"
"War on terror"


Globe and Mail 23/11/2015 -
The Canadian military is facing accusations that a recent air strike by CF-18 pilots in northern Iraq ended up killing at least five civilians and injuring more than one dozen. Canadian warplanes are still bombing Islamic State targets despite Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign pledge to end these air strikes in Iraq and Syria. The air strike, on Nov. 19, one month after the Liberals were elected, was intended to destroy what the Canadian military said was an Islamic State bomb-making factory in Mosul. But local Iraq media reports, which included video and photographic evidence of collateral damage, say the attack on the bomb plant also damaged a dairy factory next door, killing between five and 13 people and injuring more than a dozen.

iPolitics 25/11/2015 - As part of an ongoing lawsuit seeking compensation for what they argue was a breach of their Charter rights and complicity by Canadian officials in their torture, three Canadian citizens - Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin - have asked for the release of redacted information on their case to the court, including the identities of CSIS employees and sources involved. The three were sent to Syria - El Maati was later sent to Egypt - and were interrogated and tortured between 2001 and 2003, along with fellow Canadian Maher Arar, who  received $10 million in compensation from the government. Not one of them was ever charged with terror offences and Almalki is seeking $100 million in damages. The three men are challenging government efforts to avoid disclosing the identities of CSIS employees and sources who may have been involved, citing national security. After Bill C-44 became law on April 23, 2015, the attorney general argued that its protection should be extended retroactively to the current case. C-44 prevents courts from compelling the release of information that could disclose the identity of CSIS human sources. Prior to the bill coming into force, decisions on the release of such information were made case-by-case based on whether they met the threshold for disclosure under a standard known as the Ribic test.

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Bahrain torture report undermines UK's reform claims
Entrapment
Pi�geage


iPolitics 15/11/2015 - There is evidence the RCMP broke the law while conducting a high-profile terrorism sting and must hand over confidential legal documents, says a B.C. Supreme Court judge. Justice Catherine Bruce has not yet ruled whether the RCMP entrapped John Nuttall and Amanda Korody into plotting to blow up the B.C. legislature in 2013, but she said in a ruling released
Wednesday that the Mounties may be guilty of knowingly facilitating a terrorist act. "In my view, the defence have raised at least a prima facie case that the RCMP officers involved in Project Souvenir were engaged in unlawful acts during the undercover operation," wrote Bruce, referring to the operation by its code name. "There is a sufficiently close link between the illegal acts committed by the RCMP and the prosecution of the accused to support an abuse of process claim."

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R�flexions sur la guerre au terrorisme
Reflections on the war on terror


FIDH 19/11/2015 - L'exp�rience d�montre tragiquement combien cette lutte ne doit en aucun cas s'affranchir d'un cadre respectueux de l'�tat de droit et de la garantie du respect des droits humains, conform�ment aux normes internationales. Les politiques et l�gislations d'exception adopt�es par le pass� en r�action � des actes terroristes ont prouv� leur inefficacit�. Elles ont toujours men� � des violations, parfois m�me syst�matiques, et souvent dans l'impunit� totale, des principes dont se pr�valent les r�gimes concern�s : racisme et discrimination fond�e sur l'origine ethnique ou nationale, violences, neutralisation de la justice, violations du droit � un proc�s �quitable, musellement des m�dia et de la soci�t� civile, atteintes graves au droit � la vie priv�e et � la libert� d'expression, discriminations � l'�gard des femmes, d�tention arbitraire, torture, disparitions forc�es, ex�cutions extrajudiciaires, populations d�plac�es, r�fugi�es. Ces violations graves des droits humains constituent aujourd'hui le quotidien de nombreuses soci�t�s et citoyens dont les r�gimes ont d�tourn� la peur l�gitime du terrorisme � leur profit politique. Les politiques ultra s�curitaires, motiv�es par l'urgence et/ou des consid�rations �lectorales ou de courte vue, perdurent souvent : l'exception devient la norme, le d�rogatoire devient le droit commun, le provisoire devient d�finitif. Les graves violations qu'impliquent ces politiques nourrissent dans de nombreux pays l'incompr�hension, l'intol�rance, le repli identitaire, le racisme voire l'esprit de vengeance qui alimente le terrorisme. Dans de nombreux pays, elles ont finalement �t� d�tourn�es de leur but pour museler toute contestation pacifique. La FIDH alerte sur les cons�quences potentiellement d�sastreuses des approches se limitant au tout-s�curitaire qui am�nent � renoncer � l'intelligence collective, et appelle les dirigeants tent�s par de telles mesures � avoir le courage politique d'y r�sister.

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Daesh: On fait quoi maintenant? (vid�o)

Contre l'EI, la France doit �changer ses alliances� et se d�tourner de l'Arabie saoudite

Hitting Saudi Arabia where it hurts

To stop ISIS, outside powers must end their proxy wars in Syria

Frankie Boyle on the fallout from Paris: 'This is the worst time for society to go on psychopathic autopilot'

C'est donc comme �a que d�butent les guerres?

The case for British airstrikes on Syria makes even less sense now

When will Britain learn? More war is not the answer

European defence industry to receive $50-billion boost in war against IS

Bamako hostage crisis: How U.S.-backed intervention in Libya spread chaos to nearby Mali
Attaque de Paris
Paris attacks


rabble.ca 20/11/2015 - Internationally, France continued dangerously meddling in African affairs: in Libya, Chad, Sahal, Somalia... all under the disguise of helping democracy. France participated in creating a state of chaos everywhere it went. It bombed Mali, creating even more chaos in the region. It supported the Ben Ali regime until that the last minutes of his dictatorship. It even sent anti-riot weapons to help Tunisian police forces stop the demonstrators taking to the streets to pave their way to freedom. In Syria in the 1930s, it was France that encouraged Alawites to join their military forces, in an attempt to weaken the Sunni majority (which was against the French protectorate). That decision paved the way for the Alawite minority to seize power in Syria and to become one of the most ruthless military regimes in the Middle East. Today, after the Paris attacks, nobody seems to point fingers at Bashar Al-Assad who kills his own people with total impunity. Rather, Fran�ois Hollande recently said, "In Syria, we are looking for the political solution to the problem, which is not Bashar Assad. Our enemy is ISIL." So does this all mean that France looked for its own trouble? I've never believed that violence from any side could be justified or accepted. Killing people isn't a choice. However, it is time for France to re-examine its foreign policies, its collective conscience and its blind new alignment with American imperialistic policies. Fran�ois Hollande's declaration of war will not make the French feel safer. Hiring an additional 5,000 police (he already hired 10,000 more police after the Charlie Hebdo attack) won't help. Why won't French police be held accountable for what happened? Why isn't French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve being held accountable for not making France safer? Why is Fran�ois Hollande not held accountable for trying to imitate America?


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How French intelligence agencies failed before the Paris attacks

Les failles de la lutte antiterroriste point�es du doigt (vid�o)

Trevor Timm: Paris is being used to justify agendas that had nothing to do with the attack


ICLMG 26/11/2015 - The recent appeal by Bob Paulson the RCMP commissioner to the Canadian public about the urgent need to have warrantless access to our communication is worrisome for multiple reasons. Fighting cybercrime is crucial as well as fighting all other forms of crimes but that never be done at the expense of our privacy rights. The excuses of fighting the horrible perpetrators of child pornography for instance cannot be used as a pretext, no matter how noble and genuine the reason is, to collect data on Internet users. The climate of fear and uncertainty that followed the Paris attack shouldn't be used as a carte blanche to ask the population for a warrantless access to their phones. Most importantly, we have to refresh our memories here and remember that Canada has already many legal (frankly controversial) tools to fight what Mr. Paulson seems to be incapable of fighting.

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ICLMG signed this statement written by Voice-Voix

iPolitics 24/11/2015 - On the legislative front, a slew of hostile or punitive legislation should be repealed or amended on public safety, national security, environmental protection, citizenship, sentencing, privacy and labour unions. The reckless reforms of Bill C-51 remain top of mind. As well, the use of omnibus bills must be curtailed. There's a need for new laws to improve access to information, strengthen oversight and better reflect the role and realities of charities in the 21st century. [...] Restoring the integrity of Parliament, empowering committees, welcoming the expert advice of the civil service and respecting the independence of the judiciary (while ensuring appointments that reflect the true face of Canada) are essential. Department of Justice lawyers should be allowed to do their jobs and signal to Parliament when draft laws are not likely to pass Charter muster. With a new generation of MPs, there are tremendous opportunities for innovative approaches that respect traditions but respond to the growing need for greater openness and transparency. [...] We are reminded that, even in a country such as Canada, rights are vulnerable, and respect for dialogue and diversity is fragile. For a generation of young and new Canadians, their only experience of government is that of the past ten years. This raises the risk of a "new normal," setting the bar so low it will be easy for the new government to improve on the performance of its predecessor.
Simply reversing the worst of the Harper record isn't enough. We look to the new government to move forward with a bold and ambitious agenda to strengthen respect for debate and dissent. And we encourage all Canadians to actively engage in shaping that agenda and holding the government to account for its implementation.

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Charities and political activities  
Organismes de bienfaisance et politique 

The Tyee 26/11/2015 - It already seems so long since Stephen Harper lorded over our nation. But before memories fade of this awful ordeal there are some critical house-cleaning items to take care of. Perhaps the most pressing is the need to uncover whether the Canada Revenue Agency was improperly taking political direction from the Prime Minister's Office. It's true that Prime Minister Trudeau has now directed the new minister of national revenue, Diane Lebouthillier to cease hounding environmental charities. Specifically, her mandate letter states the CRA should "allow charities to do their work on behalf of Canadians free from political harassment..." That is all well and good but there is a far larger principle at play. It's not enough that charitable non-profits can hopefully no longer expect the executive branch to use the public service as a tool of political intimidation. This must never happen again. The only way to fully clean this wound is through a Commission of Inquiry empowered to compel testimony under oath and order the production of documents. Senior CRA bureaucrats must be called to answer for themselves. Former PMO staffers should be ordered to appear, perhaps before they disappear to Kuwait.

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Surveillance globale 
Mass surveillance

New docs reveal NSA never ended bulk email collection, just hid it better  

Common Dreams 19/11/2015 - The National Security Agency (NSA) secretly replaced its program monitoring Americans' emails and moved it overseas before the operation was exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013, according to new reporting. NSA officials responded to Snowden's leaks by stating that the email records program had shut down in 2011-and in a way, it had. But newly released documents show the agency had simply created a "functional equivalent" that analyzed Americans' emails without collecting bulk data from U.S. telecommunications companies, the New York Times reported on Friday. The Times obtained a copy of the NSA inspector general's watchdog report through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The report appeared to confirm that by moving its program outside of U.S. borders, the NSA was able to take advantage of several intelligence laws to conduct its surveillance operations with even less oversight and accountability than it had previously.

 
Autres nouvelles - More news
Anti-terror legislation
L�gislation anti-terroriste   
Drones 
Guantanamo 
"Guerre au terrorisme"
"War on terror"
Migration and refugee rights
Immigration et droits des r�fugi�.es
Press freedom
Libert� de la presse
Privacy
Vie priv�e
Surveillance

Transparence
Transparency
Miscellaneous
Divers
CETTE SEMAINE / THIS WEEK
 
Action   

Tell Trudeau to Support Refugees!   

RefugeesWelcome.ca - After the recent tragic events in Paris a number of calls are being made to ban refugees from coming to Canada. Three petitions have gathered almost 100,000 signatures. Humanity is indivisible. We refuse to exploit these tragedies to fuel fear, hatred and more war. Now is the time to open our hearts, extend our hands and homes in welcome, and to work for peace. Tell Justin Trudeau: Open the borders to all refugees seeking safety, overhaul the immigration system, end the wars.


Action   

NEW VIDEO
PM Trudeau: 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 Trudeau to urge him to call on the UAE to free Salim Alaradi now!



Plan�te+ Canada - Les cons�quences de la guerre au terrorisme que m�ne le Canada, et plus particuli�rement le recours aux forts controvers�s certificats de s�curit�. Le film pr�sente cinq familles dont la vie a �t� boulevers�e par ces certificats de s�curit� qui autorisent la d�tention ind�termin�e sans que des accusations soient port�es et la non-divulgation, m�me aux avocats de la personne d�tenue, des raisons qui motivent cette d�tention. M�me si la Cour supr�me du Canada a jug� que ces certificats �taient anticonstitutionnels, ils sont toujours utilis�s. Au cours de la derni�re d�cennie, cinq hommes ont ainsi �t� d�tenus, passant ensemble un total de plus de 30 ans en prison. Aucun d'eux n'a encore �t� accus� de quoi que ce soit.

D�tails et horaire de diffusion
Action   

NEW Tell Prime Minister Trudeau to consult with Canadians now, while there's still time to undo C-51  

OpenMedia - Prime Minister Trudeau has said C-51 is a top priority,1 but we must ensure Canadians are at the centre of the process. If we aren't consulted, we could miss our chance to fully repeal the dangerous powers in this bill.
C-51 was rammed into law without meaningful public consultation. Its unprecedented new spy powers are too far-reaching to address behind closed doors. Over 300,000 Canadians have spoken against the reckless, dangerous, and ineffective bill. If we don't act quickly, we'll lose our chance. ACT NOW: Tell Prime Minister Trudeau to launch a public consultation.

Action   

Let Khaled leave Egypt!  

Free Khaled Al-Qazzaz - Write to your MP to ask them to urge the Egyptian authorities to remove the travel ban on Canadian resident Khaled Al-Qazzaz so he can finally be free after being detained without charges for a year and a half and released since January 2015 but prevented from leaving the country.


Report


Critical areas where the Canadian government needs to demonstrate commitment to upholding human rights in national security policies and activities were outlined today in a report on the anniversary of the October 2014 "Arar +10" conference. Convened at the University of Ottawa on October 29, 2014 by Amnesty International and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, along with the university's Human Rights Research and Education Centre and Centre for International Policy Studies, "Arar +10" reviewed the state of national security and human rights in Canada a decade after a public inquiry was established to investigate the rendition to Syria and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar. From a range of panels key recommendations emerged. The conference's recommendations are particularly timely as the new federal government prepares to introduce legal and other reforms reversing or revising national security and citizenship laws and practices.

Report


ICLMG & MiningWatch Canada - 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.

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   

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 43 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 43 organisations de la soci�t� civile canadienne qui a �t� cr��e suite aux attentats terroristes de septembre 2001 aux �tats-Unis.