Free Homa 13/09/2016 - On the occasion of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly which started in New York City on 13 September, we, former human rights mandate holders for the UN, recall that the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals unequivocally reaffirm commitment to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls as Goal 5. Underlining the obligation of all UN Member States to respect, protect and promote gender equality and States Parties to fulfill obligations under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), we draw attention to the case of Professor Homa Hoodfar held in solitary confinement in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, since 2 June 2016. Today marks her 100th day of imprisonment. Her detention came after a three-month period of unrelenting interrogation sessions and the confiscation of her passports preventing her from leaving Iran. We call for the release of Professor Hoodfar, a 65-year-old renowned anthropologist from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada who has dedicated her career to understanding and improving the status of women and promoting gender equality, particularly within Muslim communities.

The Tyee 09/09/2016 - On Thursday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould announced wide-ranging consultations on national security, which will take place until Dec.1. Ottawa said the consultations will "inform" any changes to national security policy while safeguarding Charter rights. The Liberals promised to repeal "problematic" parts of C-51 during the election campaign. But David Christopher of the Internet rights group OpenMedia said the wording of the consultation's backgrounder is biased in favour of law enforcement, for example often detailing how current legislation impedes law enforcement. "Much of the explanatory information that is presented is really one-sided," Christopher said. "We have all this background information written in a way that seems to address police concerns rather than what the public [is] most worried about." He said the backgrounder's definition of encryption is written in a way that would mesh with arguments that police chiefs have made in wanting a law that could force people to hand over their passwords.

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The Toronto Star 12/09/2016 - Last week, the Trudeau government launched its promised public consultation on security issues. The government's embrace of democratic engagement marks a refreshing break from the remote and secretive approach of the previous administration. But this most recent example looks disturbingly like a delay tactic. The consultations were originally supposed to coincide with proposed revisions to the Tories' badly flawed anti-terror law, formerly C-51. Despite supporting the bill while in opposition, the Liberals vowed to amend the legislation's most egregiously overreaching (and likely unconstitutional) aspects once in office. But 10 months later, not one word of the law has been changed. And now the government says any revisions will be put off until the consultation is complete. That's bizarre. As the Star has argued before, C-51 clearly and in several ways infringes on Canadians' civil rights; and there is no evidence it makes us any safer. What relevance could a public consultation possibly have to whether Trudeau ought to follow through on his promise to rewrite the legislation to comply with the Charter?

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Reminder: C-51, Anti-terrorist Act, 2015: Why it should be repealed

Second, MPs and their staff will need access to secret information. We note with concern that, unlike SIRC, the proposed committee of parliamentarians can be denied access to information on a host of often broadly phrased grounds. And its power to review security activities is subject to a broad veto by the minister. We also have concerns about the ability of the prime minister to redact final committee reports.