The Toronto Star 10/05/2016 - A former high-ranking Pakistani politician with Canadian citizenship is being held in Karachi on trumped-up political charges, supporters say. While in custody of the Rangers, Dr. Asim, as he is known, was forced to stand up all night in a dark room while blindfolded with his hands tied, supporters say in a brief on his case. He went into kidney failure and had a heart attack. Human Rights Watch recently highlighted Dr. Asim's case in declaring that the Rangers - a security force operating under the Pakistan army - have been implicated in serious rights abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment of criminal suspects, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

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Pakistan: Independently Investigate Aftab Ahmad's Death, says Human Rights Watch

CBC News 11/05/2016 - A passport, a school ID card or even an Aeroplan number are among the pieces of identification Air Canada employees were instructed to obtain from children, even as the federal public safety minister said additional security screening was not required for people under 18. Screenshots of documents taken by an Air Canada employee in January and sent to CBC News show the airline carrier issued a directive to employees stating children are not subject to extra screening measures. But the document goes on to list numerous such steps to clear what is known as the "deemed high profile" or DHP list. The revelations come just after the Minister Goodale announced that Canada and the U.S. set up a working group to help prevent false-positives for children matching names on no-fly lists. Since Ahmed's case made headlines, more than 40 other parents have come forward through social media and other means, with the same complaint. One of those mothers, based in Kamloops, said on Tuesday that Air Canada employees have recommended she change her baby's name to bypass the delays. "I wasn't happy with that," Faaria Siddiqui told CBC News. "How do we know if we change his name it won't be on the list or the name we choose won't be on list?"

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The Walrus 02/05/2016 - While our leaders repeatedly proclaim that they are waging war on terrorists, not on Muslims, let alone Islam, it's not easy to separate out the Muslims over there and Muslims here. It was inevitable that the propaganda to justify wars on Muslim nations would deteriorate into cultural warfare on Muslims, often waged through the media. If we are busy saving Afghan women, we end up wanting to save Muslim women here as well. If Afghan men are misogynists, many end up assuming that Muslim men here may be as well, and that Canadian Muslim women also need to be saved. The confusion or deliberate conflation of Muslim terrorists and ordinary Muslims leads to laying collective guilt on law-abiding Muslims. "What do you, Siddiqui, have to say about this or that horrible act of terrorism?" I am personally responsible. Muslims are suspected of being Fifth Columnists. That's what Japanese Canadians were suspected of during the Second World War and held in internment camps, a shameful policy for which Ottawa has since officially apologized. Of course, Muslims today are not being interned. But many Muslims complain of being psychologically interned, of being under surveillance and suspicion, of being under siege.

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UK Police chief apologises after fake Muslim shouts 'Allahu Akbar' in simulated suicide bomb attack

Amnesty International 06/05/2016 - On February 22 of this year, the House of Commons passed a motion condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement initiated in 2005 by Palestinian civil society. AI does not take a position vis-a-vis the BDS movement. We do, however, unequivocally support the right of individuals to engage in the debate associated with the movement and associated campaign, including the right to advance the objectives of the BDS movement and promote the view that boycotts, divestment and sanctions should be applied. We are deeply concerned, therefore, that the House of Commons motion goes further than simply rejecting the BDS movement and calls "upon the [Canadian] government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad."  It is unclear what steps the government is expected to take pursuant to this motion to condemn promotion of the BDS movement. Many such measures would certainly raise serious concerns about violating or casting a chill upon the right to free expression. It is incumbent upon the government to now make a clear statement that the motion will not be interpreted or applied in a way that directly or indirectly violates or undermines the right of individuals to exercise their free expression right to promote the BDS movement.

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Canadians join the world to speak out for dissent and democracy

The Guardian 11/05/2016 - Obama's global drone assassination campaign, a remarkable innovation in global terrorism, exhibits the same patterns. By most accounts, it is generating terrorists more rapidly than it is murdering those suspected of someday intending to harm us - an impressive contribution by a constitutional lawyer on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, which established the basis for the principle of presumption of innocence that is the foundation of civilized law. Another characteristic feature of such interventions is the belief that the insurgency will be overcome by eliminating its leaders. But when such an effort succeeds, the reviled leader is regularly replaced by someone younger, more determined, more brutal, and more effective. Polk gives many examples. Military historian Andrew Cockburn has reviewed American campaigns to kill drug and then terror "kingpins" over a long period in his important study Kill Chain and found the same results. And one can expect with fair confidence that the pattern will continue. No doubt right now US strategists are seeking ways to murder the "Caliph of the Islamic State" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is a bitter rival of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The likely result of this achievement is forecast by the prominent terrorism scholar Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow at the US Military Academy at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. He predicts that "al-Baghdadi's death would likely pave the way for a rapprochement [with al-Qaida] producing a combined terrorist force unprecedented in scope, size, ambition and resources".

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UK - Chilcot report on Iraq war to be published on July 6

Common Dreams 09/05/2016 - "Framing the increased flow of people fleeing war and poverty as a 'migrant crisis' misses the point," the document reads. "It assumes that it is the arrival of these people, rather than the situations they are trying to escape, that is the problem." In turn, cracking down on the migrants themselves is "not the solution," Global Justice Now declares. "Rich countries, with the help of the highly profitable security industry, have tried their best to use cruel migration controls, fences, walls and even guns to force people to accept lives of violence and destitution," the briefing says. "This is not the solution. No matter how high the walls of Fortress Europe become, the only way to solve this problem is to deal with its root causes." Dearden added: "To demonize those making a rational choice on the part of themselves, their family and their community, obscures the truth. Migration is bringing those of us in Europe face to face with the reality of the brutal and unjust world our leaders have constructed."

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Emoi de la communauté internationale après le bombardement d'un camp de déplacés en Syrie

Solidarity Across Borders occupies Montreal CBSA, demands status for all

The refugee issue: The clash of two worlds

EU Commission says Turkey deal not "dead" over anti-terrorism laws

Pour le Défenseur des droits, la France discrimine ses étrangers

 
NYC: Activists Honor Slain Environmentalist Berta Cáceres on Mother's Day