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Revue de l'actualit� - News Digest 
21 avril 2016 - April 21st, 2016 
Editorial     

Monia Mazigh
Ottawa has a double standard when it comes to protecting privacy


The Huffington Post 21/04/2016 - It is now almost a pattern: every time we, as a human right organization or activist, write to government agencies inquiring about cases of Canadians detained abroad or of Canadians subject to abuse or possible discrimination, the governmental response will certainly contain somehow the issue of "privacy." "Privacy concerns" have been used as a powerful pretext for inaction or silence and this should be challenged and denounced. [...] Unfortunately, this  apparent obsession with privacy seems to be very selective. In fact, we noticed that when individual cases would benefit out of disclosing information about them to activists and groups, the government is adamant about privacy. On the other side, when information about citizens are being threatened or shared with government agencies without their knowledge or consent, the government doesn't seem to be much caring or to say the least outraged. This behaviour is in total contradiction with what is written by the Privacy Act.

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Mass surveillance
Surveillance globale 

RCMP listening device capable of knocking out 911 calls, memo reveals

The Globe and Mail 18/04/2016 - The RCMP have used IMSI catchers (stingrays) since at least 2005, but until now, only police and the judges who grant warrants have known about it. Government officials will not publicly acknowledge the devices are in use. [...] Filings in the Montreal case show the RCMP equipment can have a range of up to 500 metres in a city, and every time such a device is turned on, it captures data from the phones of innocent bystanders. One filing in the Montreal case shows that while police were pursuing only a handful of mobsters' phones, they got a lot of others. "In the course of three minutes of using the technique, 136 different devices were intercepted," the filing says. [...] RCMP affidavits say information caught by IMSI catchers is relayed to a controlled facility in Ottawa. Detectives can search these pools of data only for phones relating to suspects and persons of interest. That said, bystanders' phone data is not necessarily destroyed once it gets to Ottawa. [...] "The MDI will shut itself off if a mobile telephone within its range calls 911. However, recent testing at [headquarters] revealed that more than 50% of the mobile telephones tested had not automatically completed their 911 calls after the MDI had shut itself off." [...] Under the Radiocommunications Act, interfering with or obstructing the public airwaves can result in a one-year jail term. In sworn testimony, several Mounties acknowledged they knew using IMSI catchers could expose them to this law - although they felt their three-minute-maximum policy probably kept them in the clear.

Omar Khadr  

Gerald Caplan: Omar Khadr has still not received his justice

The Globe and Mail 18/04/2016 - The Conservative caucus owes Mr. Khadr his youth. Tom Mulcair owes him, finally, some serious attention. The Liberal government has huge debts to him as well. Some members of today's government were also members of the Liberal government that so shabbily mistreated him and denied his rights from the get-go. Happily, the Trudeau government recently announced they would not proceed with the Conservative government's mean-spirited appeal of Mr. Khadr's release on bail. That's a good beginning. Now I hope thousands of Canadians go to www.freeOmar.ca and demand that their government offer Mr. Khadr the justice he deserves for the many years of his life that they wickedly stole from him.

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Canadians detained abroad    
Canadiens d�tenus � l'�tranger 

Marwa Alaradi: My father's tragedy and a new hope for the UAE

The Huffington Post 19/04/2016 - Still, even though we've succeeded in generating a significant amount of international attention for my father and the larger issue of human rights violations in the UAE, getting the attention of the UAE government itself has always proven to be difficult. So it was to our surprise when we realized recently that, for the first time in a long time, the UAE's civil society was beginning to become active on the issue. A prominent UAE figure who is believed to be a close advisor to the Crown Prince, Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, tweeted that the evidence in the case of my father and the two Americans is weak. This surprised a lot of experts who'd long written off the country's highly regulated civil sphere. Their involvement means that my father's case hasn't just brought international attention to important human rights issues, but that it also has the potential to spark actual systemic reforms in the UAE itself, which is badly needed.

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Islamophobie
Islamophobia     

Haroon Siddiqui: Canada's news media are contributing to mistrust of Muslims

The Toronto Star 18/04/2016 -  I argue that the media have contributed to widespread Islamophobia by conflating Muslim terrorists with all Muslims. In doing so, the media are violating their own declared principles of fair and ethical journalism. The biggest culprits have been the National Post and the Postmedia group of newspapers across the country, which now include the Sun chain. Hardly a week goes by without these publications finding something or other wrong with Muslims and Islam. These publications are forever looking for terrorists under every Canadian minaret. They are hunting for any imam or any Muslim who might make some outrageous statement that can be splashed as proof of rampant Muslim militancy or malevolence. [...] I describe myself as an "incurably optimistic Canadian." So I think if any nation can debate this issue, within the framework of free speech and fair play, it is Canada. If we get this right, we might even export it to the United States and Europe.
We owe it to Canada to at least try.

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UK - Beware of 'What British Muslims really think?'

France - Hijab Day � Sciences Po : � Je ne pensais pas que c'�tait � ce point �lectrique �
Migrants and refugee rights 
Migrants et droits des r�fugi�.es  

Des migrants rapportent qu'un naufrage a fait des centaines de morts en M�diterran�e

Le Monde 20/04/2016 - Un grand naufrage meurtrier a-t-il de nouveau eu lieu en M�diterran�e ? Un groupe de 41 migrants, dont trois femmes et un enfant de trois ans, arriv�s en Gr�ce dimanche 17 avril, ont en tout cas assur� aupr�s de plusieurs m�dias et du Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les r�fugi�s (HCR) �tre les seuls survivants d'un drame qui aurait fait plusieurs centaines de morts. � Jusqu'� 500 personnes pourraient avoir perdu la vie quand un bateau a sombr� � une localisation inconnue entre la Libye et l'Italie �, a affirm� dans un communiqu� le HCR, mercredi 20 avril, apr�s avoir interrog� plusieurs de ces migrants.

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Le fondateur de Pegida jug� en Allemagne pour avoir qualifi� les r�fugi�s de � b�tail �
Libert� d'expression    
Freedom of speech 
 
La dangereuse judiciarisation du d�bat public

Le Devoir 21/04/2016 - La Cour supr�me du Canada aura � se prononcer demain sur la condamnation de Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois pour outrage au tribunal. [...] Nadeau-Dubois a �t� condamn� pour des prises de position politiques dans un contexte de tensions avec le gouvernement. On ne lui reproche pas de gestes ill�gaux, mais une prise de parole publique. On lui reproche d'avoir dit, au nom de l'organisation qu'il repr�sentait, qu'il �tait � tout � fait l�gitime l�, que les gens prennent les moyens n�cessaires pour faire respecter le vote de gr�ve et si �a prend des lignes de piquetage, on croit que c'est un moyen tout � fait l�gitime de le faire �. On peut �tre en accord ou en d�saccord avec cette opinion, mais le d�bat est ailleurs : il porte sur la judiciarisation des d�bats publics, sur le recours au judiciaire pour faire taire ces d�bats. Que soit impos�e par un tribunal une telle limitation � la libert� d'expression constitue � notre sens un pr�c�dent dangereux qui risquerait d'avoir un effet intimidant sur les porte-parole des groupes de d�fense des droits, des �cologistes, des associations �tudiantes, de groupes f�ministes ou syndicaux, alors que les d�bats que ces organisations portent dans l'espace public visent � favoriser la d�lib�ration d�mocratique sur des enjeux portant sur le bien commun. La libert� d'expression doit �tre prot�g�e tant dans l'int�r�t de ceux et celles qui l'exercent que dans l'int�r�t de la soci�t�.

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Autres nouvelles - More news
Anti-terror legislation
L�gislation antiterroriste 
Criminalisation de la dissidence
Criminalization of dissent 
Drones  
Guantanamo 
"Guerre au terrorisme"
"War on terror"
Press freedom        
Libert� de la presse 
Privacy       
Vie priv�e   
Torture         
Miscellaneous
Divers

CETTE SEMAINE / THIS WEEK
 
Event    

The Rule of Law in an Age of Fear: A talk with Dennis Edney, Omar Khadr's lawyer 

This event, presented by ICLMG, InterPares and Octopus Books, is free and open to everyone.

When: Saturday, June 4, 2016, 4-6pm
Where: Octopus Books, 251 Bank Street, 2nd floor, Ottawa
What: Dennis Edney will speak about Omar Khadr's case and the climate of fear surrounding the war on terror and how it has affected and continues to negatively affect human rights, due process, and the rule of law.

More details

Facebook event

ICLMG - Canada's numerous national security agencies - including CSEC, CSIS, the RCMP and CBSA - have inadequate or simply no oversight or review mechanisms. This has led to human rights violations such as the rendition to torture of Canadiancitizens Maher Arar,
Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nurredin, among others. In 2006, Justice O'Connor concluded the Arar Commission with several recommendations to prevent such atrocities from happening again: Canadian national security agencies must be subjected to robust, integrated and comprehensive oversight and review. Years have passed and the federal government has yet to implement the recommendations.

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Details here

Find out how else you can help! 

Action   

Stop stingray surveillance!   

OpenMedia - Stingrays (also known as "IMSI-catchers") are surveillance devices that can suck up every piece of sensitive, personal info in our cell phones. Every call, email, and text - our most intimate moments. You don't have to do anything wrong to be a victim. Stingrays CAN'T target one person. They CAN vacuum up an entire neighbourhood, or up to 10,000 people's private data at once. We know they're being used in countries including the U.S. and Australia, and other governments are fighting to keep their use a secret. We must rein this in. Tell law-makers: It's time to put a stop to invasive Stingray cellphone surveillance.


Action   

Free Huseyin Celil   

Amnesty International - Huseyin has been in prison for 10 years after an unfair trial. Take action now to ensure that Huseyin is not subject to another 10 years of unfair treatment.


Action   

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!


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.



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.