Audio Slideshow
The People's Camp: Our Solidarity is Our Security
On Friday, 23 May 2008 the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui organized the People's Camp, a community-based info-fair. This is the first of several camps that are going to be held in different Montreal neighbourhoods throughout the summer.
View the slideshow here!
Ivan Apaolaza Sancho
Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, a 36-year old Basque refugee claimant and political prisoner, has been detained at the Rivière-des-Prairies prison since June 2007. He was arrested by the RCMP, acting at the behest of the Spanish authorities, who allege that he was a member of the Basque nationalist group ETA, a "listed entity" under Canada's Antiterrorism Act. Ivan vigorously denies the allegations. However, the Minister of Immigration has argued that Ivan should be deported from Canada on these grounds and that he should be detained pending deportation.
Despite repeated requests from his lawyers, not one piece of evidence to support the allegations has been presented. Ivan is detained and faces deportation on the basis of allegations contained within Spanish arrest warrants. Moreover, the allegations in these warrants themselves seem to come from a "confession" a Basque woman made under torture while she was held incommunicado by Spanish police. Under Canadian and international law, information obtained under torture cannot be used in any judicial proceeding.
The Immigration and Refugee Board agreed in May 2008 that the confession in question was likely obtained under torture, but did not accept evidence that the allegations were based on this declaration. As a result of this decision, Ivan is barred from making a refugee claim in Canada. Ivan now faces deportation to Spain where he fears torture at the hands of the Spanish police and further detention without a fair trial. Amnesty International has reported that torture is frequent in Spain in cases such as Mr. Sancho's.
Ivan is one of hundreds of Basque political prisoners. For centuries, the Spanish state has inflicted intense and cruel repression on the Basque left-sovereignist movement, which enjoys broad support in Basque society. Today, following in Franco's footsteps, the state continues to use political repression as it attempts to dismantle the Basque movement's base of social support. Of the 18,721 people arrested in Basque country for political reasons between 1977 and 2002, 9200 people served jail time, 5300 people reported having been tortured, and 9 people were murdered during police interrogations.
Read more here...
Abousfian Abdelrazik
Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Montreal man whose name may take its place alongside Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin in a growing list of victims of a Canadian version of ‘extraordinary rendition’.
Documents obtained under the Privacy Act seem to indicate that Mr. Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen, was incarcerated in Sudan on the request of Canadian officials. While in prison in December 2003, he was interrogated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), despite Canadian doubts about Sudan’s human rights record. Mr. Abdelrazik was held without charge and eventually released. Since his release in July 2006, he has been blocked from returning home to Montreal.
Serious and unanswered questions are raised about the role played by Canadian officials in the affair. Since the story became public, government statements have failed to clarify the situation. Mr. Abdelrazik was granted ‘temporary safe haven’ in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum in late April 2008 but has since been denied access to his legal counsel and to journalists.
Mr. Abdelrazik’s family, based in Montreal, has not seen him for more than five years, when he left to visit his mother in Sudan. They remain hopeful that they will be reunited soon.
Read more here...
FULL REPORT
People's commission on immigration security measures
For three days in April 2006, the People’s Commission on Immigration Security Measures held
Public Hearings at a community centre in Montreal’s Little Burgundy neighbourhood. The first
popular commission of inquiry on immigration issues to take place in Quebec, its purpose was
to investigate the implications of security-related measures currently imposed on international
migrants in the name of national security. The Commission, though based in Montreal, drew on support
from Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Sherbrooke, Halifax and elsewhere in Canada. The
Commission investigated and reported on the actions of Canadian government bodies in relation to
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act security measures (IRPA), examining the equality of treatment
of non-citizens, security certificates and similar procedures, detention and deportation (including
deportation to torture). Based on its findings, the Commission has made recommendations for appropriate
legal or popular action against those responsible for abuses and for changes to the current legal
and procedural framework.
Download full report
POPULAR ASSEMBLY
People's commission on immigration security measures
- launch of Report and Follow-up Campaigns
Thursday, 1 February, 2007,
at 6:30pm
3300 Crémazie East (métro St-Michel)
The PEOPLE'S COMMISSION on Immigration "Security" Measures held public
hearings in Montreal from April 21-23, 2006. The nine Commissioners heard
testimony from thirty individuals on the abuses which immigrants and
refugees face in Canada in the name of "national security"; including
racial profiling, denial of fair trials, use of secret evidence,
indefinite and arbitrary detentions, labelling, and
deportations to torture. Measures such as the 'security certificate' have
raised broad concerns about expanding government powers of surveillance
and control advancing under cover of the "war on terror". To view
photo-essay of public hearings: http://gallery.cmaq.net/peoplescommission.
The PEOPLE's COMMISSION was launched in the lead up to the Supreme Court
hearing on the constitutionality of security certificates, by grassroots
organisations, to provide an alternative, popular forum for our
communities to consider these issues, as they affect us, from the starting
point of our own experiences of security.
An Executive Summary was released in June 2006, containing the
Commissioners' findings and recommendations in the following areas:
(1)National security, equality and racial profiling, (2) Due process, (3)
Detention, and (4) Deportation. The Executive Summary made recommendations
for government and for popular action.
The complete report will be launched at a POPULAR ASSEMBLY on 1 February
2007 at 3300 Crémazie East (St. Michel metro). The
Popular Assembly will organise follow up on the recommendations as part
of our growing struggle against immigration security measures and expanding
government powers.
If you wish to participate in any stage of the development of these
popular education materials, please email: abolissons@gmail.com.
For more information: www.peoplescommission.ath.cx or 514.859.9023.
The People's Commission on
Immigration "Security" Measures
MEDIA ADVISORY
5 June 2006
REPORT: Non-citizens and national security
What: Press conference to launch People's Commission on Immigration Security Measures recommendations on issues relating to the treatment of non-citizens in the name of national security.
The press conference will be followed at 2pm by a delegation to the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper (80 Wellington St.) to deliver the recommendations.
When : Tuesday, 6 June 2006 at 10:30am
Where : Charles Lynch Room (Room 130-S), Central Building, Parliament Hill
Less than a week before the Supreme Court hears a constitutional challenge to the security certificate (13 to 15 June), the People's Commission on Immigration Security Measures is publishing a preliminary report outlining its recommendations relating to the treatment of non-citizens in the name of national security, including the security certificate process, detention, and deportation to torture.
This report is the result of a two-month People's Commission of inquiry. Three days of public hearings were held in Montreal from April 21-23 at which nine Commissioners heard dozens of testimonies from those affected by these measures as well as from experts. A first in Quebec, this People's Commission was launched to examine abuses against non-citizens in the name of national security and to formulate recommendations for change and action.
The Commissioner's recommendations are also based on hundreds of pages of documentation from legal experts and human rights organisations, as well as research reports and academic papers.
The transfer, on April 24th, of four of the five men under security certificates to “Guantanamo North” (the new prison at Kingston) as well as the draconian conditions under which a Federal
Court judge finally released Mohamed Harkat, after more than three years in arbitrary detention without accusation or trial, demonstrate the urgent need for a real public debate on the treatment of non-citizens on this stolen land. Even as this is written, the government has decided to appeal the decision to release Harkat and, inside Guantanamo North, Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei have been on hunger-strike since 22 May.
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For more information: tel. 514 222 0205 or 514 267 3701
Three days of democracy
Report on People's Commission Public Hearings
21-23 April 2006, Montreal
PHOTO ESSAY: gallery.cmaq.net/peoplescommission
Commissioners' report of findings and recommendations is due on 6 June.
For three days, the People's Commission on Immigration Security Measures held Public Hearings at a community centre in Montreal's St-Henri neighbourhood. The first popular commission of inquiry to take place in Quebec, it was set up to look into the injustices and abuses inflicted on immigrants in the name of national security, and to offer recommendations for change and action.
Under immigration 'security' measures, non-citizens are denied their rights to a fair trial, to protection from arbitrary detention and to protection from torture. Security certificates and similar policies raise serious questions about how the principles of equality, liberty, presumption of innocence and security of the person are practised in Canada. They increase the power of government officials over individuals and raise important questions about the future direction of our society.
The nine Commissioners, all anchored in communities who have felt the impact of racist 'security' measures (bios of the Commissioners: www.peoplescommission.ath.cx/commissionners.php), took turns questioning the
thirty witnesses who appeared before the Commission during the Hearings.
The Hearings took place during an escalation in a land defense at Six Nations (http://sisis.nativeweb.org/actionalert/index.html). With news of potential military intervention, one of the Commissioners, Kahentineta Horn, a Mohawk elder, Kahnawake, was unable to participate fully in the Hearings. However, the situation only served to highlight the context of colonialism which frames Canadian immigration policy.
The witnesses, coming from Hull, Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Sherbrooke, as well as Montreal, brought a wealth of experience and expertise to the hearings. The Hearings opened with Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, Anglophone section, who detailed Amnesty's position that Canada is in violation of key international laws in its security certificate policy and practice. The same block of witnesses included Sophie Lamarche Harkat, who has been campaigning for three and a half years for the release of her husband, security certificate detainee Mohamed Harkat; and Victor Regalado, a journalist detained under a security certificate in 1982, after fleeing his native El Salvador for his political beliefs. Regalado, who was cleared of all suspicions and received his citizenship after 22 years, spoke about how the suspected presence of constant, unseen surveillance turns us into our own prison guards, causing
us to screen what we say and how we act.
Over the next few days, Commissioners heard from Latifa Charkaoui, who has been forced by court order to become an agent of state surveillance of her own son, having to accompany him every time he leaves his home, while herself under surveillance; Dieter Misgeld, whose wife, an accepted refugee who fled political repression in Colombia, faces deportation to Colombia on secret evidence; Warren Allmand, the former Solicitor-General of Canada, who testified that,
from time to time, he found errors in intelligence agency requests, and who argued that criminal law provides a better framework than immigration law for security cases; Suleyman Goven, a refugee from Turkish Kurdistan, who has lived in legal limbo without status for over a decade, and is finally suing CSIS for their serious abuses in his case; Arash A., a refugee from Iran, who spent 10 months in 'ordinary' immigration detention while struggling for his status; Johanne Doyon, the lawyer who is bringing a full challenge to the constitutionality of the security certificate to the Supreme Court in June; Sherene Razack and Gary Kinsman, who provided important historical analyses of racism and of the use of national security talk in Canada; from Ahmad Jaballah, son of security certificate detainee Mahmoud Jaballah, who testified that he had lost his childhood, having, from the age of 11, to cope with CSIS interviews, court hearings and public attention, on top of having to take on much of his father's responsibility in the family; and from many others (full programme: www.peoplescommission.ath.cx/audiences_en.php).
After each testimony, the witnesses were questioned by the Commissioners as well as by members of the public. This was followed by an open period for those assembled to share their own experiences and commentaries.
Full audio recordings of the Hearings will be made available online via
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx shortly.
The Commissioner's report of findings and recommendations is due on 6 June, one week before the Supreme Court hears a constitutional challenge to security certificates. The report will be launched in Ottawa, to bring it to the attention of Members of Parliament and others who are making government decisions on these issues. The launch will take place during a Caravan from Toronto to Ottawa for the Supreme Court hearings, which will establish a "Camp Hope" in Ottawa at the Supreme Court building for the three days of hearings on security certificates. (To find out how you can get involved or contribute: www.homesnotbombs.ca or, for Montreal-based actions around the Supreme Court hearings: www.adilinfo.org.)
A popular version of the People's Commission report, in the form of a booklet with audio and video component, will be put together over the summer months, to be ready for use in September.
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx
abolissons@gmail.com
tel 1 514 859 9023
fax 514 848 7584
People's Commission c/o QPIRG Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve W., ste. 204
Montreal QC H3G 1N1
The People's Commission is a project of the Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui (www.adilinfo.org), QPIRG-Concordia, and Solidarity Across Borders (www.solidarityacrossborders.org).
The People's Commission has been endorsed or sponsored by: l'Association pour la défense des droits sociaux (ADDS), Black Coalition of Québec, CAIR-CAN, Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Centre justice et foi, Comité chrétien pour les droits humains en Amérique latine (CCDHAL), Au Contre-Temps B&B, Comité des sans-emploi Montréal-Centre, CKUT 90.3 FM, Communauté Catholique Congolaise de Montréal, Concordia Student Union (CSU), Council of Canadians, Downtown Legal Services (DLS) Toronto, Fédération autonome du collégial (FAC), Immigrant Workers' Centre (IWC), Institute in Management and Community Development (at the Centre for Continuing Education at Concordia University), Inter Pares, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), Jesuit Refugee Service, The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, Ligue des droits et libertés, Moog Audio, Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM), No One Is Illegal -Montreal, No One Is Illegal -Vancouver, No One Is Illegal -Toronto, Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG), Ontario Coalition
against Poverty (OCAP), Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC), People's Potato, Soeurs Auxiliatrices, South Asian Women's Community Centre (SAWCC), Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), Toronto Action for Social Change (TASC), United Muslim Students Association (UMSA).
The People's Commission welcomes your input!
The Commission cannot succeed without the active participation of the public. There are several ways that you ⅃ as an individual or representative of an organisation ⅃ can provide input:
1. PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS
A series of Public Consultations are being organised across Canada and Quebec to provide information about the issue of security certificates and other immigration security measures, explain the project, seek feedback on how we are setting it up, and to encourage participation. Please check our website or contact us to find out whether a Consultation is being organised near you.
We also welcome your suggestions at any time by email, fax, phone or post. See contact details on front cover.
2. OPEN PARTICIPATION AT THE PUBLIC HEARINGS
Witnesses and experts who give testimony at the Public Hearings will be questioned both by the Commissioners and by members of the public. All members of the public who attend the hearings will be able to question the witnesses and experts who speak, time permitting.
The Public Hearings will be held from 21 to 23 April 2006 at CÉDA, 2515 Delisle St., Montreal. A provisional schedule of experts and witnesses will be available on our website or by contacting us during the first half of April. Please come out!
3. TAKE THE SURVEY
Download the survey
Responses can be emailed, faxed or sent by mail. Deadline to return your responses to us is 23 April.
4. WRITTEN OR RECORDED INPUT
We invite everyone to submit evidence to the Commission. Particularly, we are looking for expert testimony or testimony of experiences related to Canadian immigration security policies (immigration detention, deportation, torture, immigration hearings, racial profling, security interviews, etc.).
Your input will be reviewed by the Commission. All submissions can be treated with confidentiality and anonymity will be respected. If you agree, we will also make your evidence available publicly on our website and on request.
To make a submission:
Language: we can accept written or recorded information, in English, French, Arabic, and Spanish. We will do our best to accommodate other languages – please contact us to find out whether we can.
Written submissions can be type-written or even hand-written if necessary (clearly, please!) and can be any length you like.
Recorded submissions can be made in CD or MP 3 format, and also tape if necessary.
Please don't forget:
- to begin your submission with a quick summary (one or two sentences) and a statement of why it is important for the Commission to consider the information or analysis you are providing;
- to specify whether or not you want us to make your submission available to the public (on the website or on request); and
- to include your name and let us know how to get in touch with you for follow up (if you are not making your submission on an anonymous basis).
Send your submission by 23 April 2006 to:
- abolissons@gmail.com; or
- fax 514-848-7584; or
- People's Commission c/o QPIRG-Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve W, Suite 204, Montreal, Qc, H3G 1N1.
5. MAKE A PRESENTATION AT THE PUBLIC HEARINGS
The Commissioners will be holding Public Hearings from 21 to 23 April 2006 in Montreal. Members of the public – groups or individuals - are invited to apply to speak at the public hearing. Space is limited, so the Commissioners will chose testimonies that they believe will add an important element to the issues under consideration.
More than two dozen experts and witnesses will testify before the Commission at the Public Hearings. The hearings will be divided into sessions looking at different aspects of the issue and hearing people's stories. Testimony will be followed by questions from the Commissioners and from the public.
Privacy will be fully respected, and arrangements can be made to ensure your anonymity, as necessary.
To apply to speak at the Public Hearings:
Send the following information to us by 10 April by email, fax or post (as above).
1. Do you wish to make your presentation anonymously (yes/no)?
2. Optional info:
Name
Gender
Years in Canada
Country of birth
Immigration status
3. Are you making this submission on behalf of an organisation? If yes, please include a brief description of your organisation.
4. How can we contact you (tel, fax, email, address or via community centre, place of worship, etc.)?
5. Here are some of the topics we would like to discuss: family impact of immigration policies; community impact of immigration policies; security agencies, control and insecurity; racial profiling; state kidnapping and torture (so-called extraordinary "rendition"); concept of "national security"; purpose of immigration controls; other immigration security measures (besides security certificates); role of legal community in abuse; racial profiling; immigration detentions; secrecy and quality of "evidence" used in immigration security cases; lack of due process in immigration cases; deportation to torture; discrimination against non-citizens; deportation; psychological torture of indefinite detention and of threat of deportation to torture. Will you be speaking about some of these questions? Which ones do you think you will be talking about? What other topics would you like to talk about?
6. In a few sentences, summarise the presentation you want to make.
7. Why do you think your presentation is important for the Commission to hear?
8. Will you also be making a written or recorded submission?
9. Which language would you present in?
10. Is there any time you are not available on 21, 22 and 23 April?
11. Would you be available/willing to have a pre-interview with members of the Commission?
12. Anything else we should take into account when considering your application?
Don't forget to write "Request to speak at Public Hearings" at the top of your application or in the subject line of your email.
Overview
The People's Commission on Immigration "Security" Measures is a grassroots initiative designed to draw attention to the abuses that non-citizens face under security certificates and other Immigration Act security measures and allow a broad public to express themselves on the question, particularly those who are directly or indirectly affected by such measures.
A Commission of no more than 12 members will be selected to represent various sectors of society, including communities directly and indirectly affected by the security certificate. As far as possible, the Commissionners will be selected by the organising committee to include voices from Muslim communities, indigenous communities, migrant communities, anti-poverty groups, and the legal community.
A framework will guide the work of the Commission. Both the composition of the Commission and the framework will be subject to a series of public consultations throughout March.
The Commission will be asked to investigate and report on the actions of Canadian officials and Canadian government bodies in relation to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act security measures (IRPA), examining the equality of treatment of non-citizens, the security certificate review process, detention, deportation and torture. The Commission will also be asked to make recommendations for appropriate legal or popular action against those responsible for abuses and for changes to the current legal and procedural framework.
The Commission will be based in Montreal, but will draw on support from Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and elsewhere. It is a four-month project beginning in mid-February and ending in mid-June, when a constitutional challenge to security certificates will be heard by the Supreme Court. Beginning its work on 18 March 2006, with the assistance of a team of volunteer researchers and writers, the Commission will study prepared files, oral and written submissions, solicited reports, and interviews. Three days of public hearings will be held on April 21-22-23 will provide the final input for their report, to be released in the latter part of May, and distributed to key decision-makers and the broad public.
Why a Popular Commission?
Security measures in the immigration regime have emerged as a battlefront in the fight for equal treatment of migrants in Canada, and the fight against measures being introduced under the banner of the "war on terror". As increasing numbers of people worldwide are forced to leave their homes in search of minimal security, dignity and opportunity elsewhere, governments in North America have responded with new measures which exclude or marginalise the most vulnerable of those who arrive on these stolen shores. Domestic policies aimed at creating a "fortress North America" work hand-in-hand with newly aggressive external policies promoted as the "war against terror". Security measures in the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (2002) — measures which deny the most basic of human rights in the name of an ill-defined "national security" — act in many ways as the flagship of this political trend.
A campaign spearheaded by the family members of security certificate detainees has successfully ensured that the issue can no longer be ignored by the public, the media and politicians.
Grassroots mobilisations are now widespread — several national days of
action, a seven-day No one is illegal march from Montreal to Ottawa,and
diverse ongoing actions from individuals and networks have challenged
the security certificate. Human rights organisations in Canada and the
US,immigrant and refugee organisations, members of the Parliament, and the
legal community as well as several UN bodies have at last begun to speak out
about the issue.
The law is now under review in a Parliamentary subcommittee, and will be tested in the Supreme Court on June 13-14 2006. In the current political climate, it is essential that public attention to the issue and popular pressure remain high as these two formal processes unfold. Moreover, the nature of these review processes make it unlikely that the voices of those who are most affected by the abuses of the immigration system will be audible in either the Parliamentary review or Court proceedings. A popular commission with the aim of putting the spotlight on the abuses and providing those who are closest to the ground a vehicle for suggesting changes will be timely and important.
