- Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
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- A few weeks ago I wrote a letter to Minister Anne McLellan,
asking that I be granted an interview with her about my kidnapped husband.
Her reply was the standard balderdash you can expect out of government:
She cannot get involved because Ernst's case is before the Federal Courts
of Canada - if I have complaints about CSIS, I might consider writing to
SIRC, the alleged "watch dog" of CSIS, but in fact, a rubber
stamp outfit for CSIS, as we already learned in 1996.
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- It's called the Royal Runaround. Besides, Ernst wrote
to SIRC already - which triggered a punishing transfer the very next day
from the fairly humane, albeit raggedy prison in Thorold to the abominable
hellhole where he is now!
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- Ernst's case will now be submitted to the Supreme Court
of Canada, asking that leave be granted. If leave is granted, and if a
miracle occurs and he actually wins against CSIS, it means that five Canadian-based
Arabs, held under practically identical brutality, and who are probably
as innocent as Ernst, will benefit.
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- These men insist that they are innocent and certainly
no threat to Canada. Yet they are stuck in Guantanamo North. To my knowledge,
not one of them has the means, or the know-how, or the tenacity and will,
as Ernst does, to challenge the satanic power that is trying to force a
dictatorship by judicial decree and subsequent administrative punishment
on all of Canada.
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- One might assume that these five Arabs would be grateful
for the supreme sacrifice the Zundel case entails. The irony and sad reality
is that the Arab community is as prejudiced and biased against Ernst as
the Canadian system is against Arabs.
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- In their releases and communiqués, the Arabs always
talk of "five men" as victims of CSIS, as if they didn't know
- how can they not know? - that there are six, one right next to one of
their own.
-
- At any rate, if you want to get a glimpse of Marxist
Canada, here is as good a summary as any:
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- [START]
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- Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui
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- tel. 514 859 9023, justiceforadil@riseup.net, www.adilinfo.org
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- Security Certificates: Is this Canada?
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- 3 May 2004
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- On 21 May 2003, Montreal resident Adil Charkaoui brought
his pregnant wife to her gynaecologist, dropped her at a cousin's and began
to head towards the University of Montreal, where he was taking a Masters
degree in teaching. In the middle of the highway, he suddenly found himself
surrounded by police and summarily arrested. With great media fanfare,
but no evidence, he was declared a threat to national security. He has
been imprisoned without charges, on allegations that neither he nor his
lawyer are allowed to see, ever since. For almost a year, he and his family
have been living under the constant fear of his deportation to Morocco,
the country where he was born. There, because of the case that has been
made against him in Canada, he is likely to suffer further attacks on his
dignity and rights; such as imprisonment without charges, torture, cruel
and unusual punishment - and even death.
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- Mr. Charkaoui describes years of intimidation and harassment
by CSIS agents leading up to his arrest. He vehemently denies that he is
a "terrorist" and that he represents any danger to the public
or to national security. He says his arrest is directly related to his
refusal to use his connections to Muslims in Montreal to become an informer
for CSIS. He also recognises that the Canadian government is under political
pressure to produce high profile cases like his to show the White House
that they are doing their part in the "war on terror", a campaign
that, all too often, uses terrorist techniques itself.
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- Charkaoui is one of Canada's Secret Trial Five, five
Muslim men whose lives have been torn apart by accusations they are not
allowed to fight in a fair and independent trial. Three men are imprisoned
in Toronto: Mohammad Mahjoub, a refugee from Eygpt who has been in prison
since June 2000 (almost four years in prison without charge); Mahmoud Jaballah,
a refugee from Egypt who was arrested in August 2001 (three years this
summer), and Hassan Almrei, a refugee who has been facing deportation to
Syrian torture, just like Maher Arar, since October 2001 (two and a half
years in solitary). The fourth man, Algerian refugee Mohamed Harkat, was
arrested in Ottawa in December 2002, ironically on Human Rights Day.
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- All five men were arrested under "security certificates,"
a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) which has
been described by Amnesty International as "fundamentally flawed and
unfair". They are imprisoned without charges on secret evidence and
face deportation to their countries of origin, even if there is a substantial
risk of torture or death.
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- Talking Points
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- The court is not given the power to decide on the truth
of the allegations. A Security Certificate is issued by the Minister of
Public Safety, Anne McLellan. Although a judicial review of her decision
is allowed, the court is not given the power to judge the truth of the
allegations. The judge can only decide on whether it is possible that the
allegations are true; on whether the Minister had "reasonable grounds"
to sign the certificate. In the end, this is a political decision, which
is fought in the arena of media sensationalism, public opinion, party politics,
pressure from the United States administration, and behind-the-scene games
in the shadowy spy world of CSIS and the RCMP. It is the end result of
this political struggle, not facts weighed up in a fair and independent
trial, which will determine the fate of the"Secret Trial Five".
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- Secret trials are fundamentally unfair. Neither the detainee
nor his lawyer are informed of the precise allegations or provided with
the full information against him &endash; they are only given a summary.
Evidence, which is not included in the summary, can be presented at any
time to the judge in the absence of the detainee and his lawyer. Normal
standards of evidence are explicitly waived. As lawyer Edward Greenspan
wrote, "The evidence can be hearsay, double hearsay, triple hearsay".
Information based on confessions under torture and plea-bargains, which
would generally be inadmissable, or at least highly questionable on grounds
of ethics and credibility, is apparently used. There is no right to cross-examine
witnesses who have made allegations. The result is that both the original
approval of the certificate (by the Minister), and then the judgement on
whether it is "reasonable" (by a Federal Court judge), are based
on one-sided arguments, without access to counter-evidence and context
that a defense would normally bring forward. This violates a fairly fundamental
playground rule: that both sides of the story are heard.
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- There is no appeal. Once the Federal Court judge decides
that there are "reasonable grounds" to issue the security certificate,
there is no appeal. Similarly, once the judge reviews the decision on whether
to grant protection there is no appeal. Lawyer Greenspan calls this "a
glaring violation of a basic tenet of the rule of law." Constitutional
lawyer Julius Gray argues that it is in fact unconstitutional, along with
other elements of the secret trial process.
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- The detainee can be imprisoned indefinitely. Refugees
are not given any chance of release on bail during the proceedings. They
can be held indefinitely: years of prison without charge. In the case of
Mohammad Mahjoub, this has meant jail for almost four years! For permanent
residents like Adil Charkaoui, the court is required to conduct a detention
review every six months. In Charkaoui's case, the judge has already refused
release on bail twice, on the basis that the secret evidence he has seen
makes him think that it is possible that a threat exists &endash; before
the case has even been heard! In effect, his decision reverses the fundamental
rule of innocent until proven guilty.
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- The men can be deported, even if their lives are threatened.
A substantial risk of torture and even death exists for all five men &endash;
in some cases, because of the case that has been made against them in Canada.
For example, under Immigration Canada's own assessment, Adil Charkaoui
faces a "risk of torture," and a "threat to his life or
risk of cruel and unusual punishment" if he is deported to Morrocco
(ERAR, 21 August 2003). Both Human Rights Watch (25 March 2004) and Amnesty
International (28 July 2003) agree with this assessment and it is further
substantiated by a detailed report on Morocco's "anti-"terror
measures, released in February 2004 by the Fédération Internationale
des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH). But this is not enough! Deportation
may still go ahead, even though torture is a crime against humanity. The
UN Committee against Torture actually had to remind Canada in 2000 that
it is a violation of the UN Convention against Torture to deport someone
to a substantial risk of torture, including when there are security concerns.
Where security concerns actually do exist, other solutions can and must
be sought. Nothing justifies knowingly sending someone to torture, cruel
and unusual punishment, and death.
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- The security certificate process undermines the Charter
of Rights and violates Canada's international obligations. Amnesty International
"is of the view that the security certificate process may very well
result in arbitrary detention and thus violate the fundamental right to
liberty." Amnesty also believes that the Secret Trial Five are "effectively
denied their right to prepare a defense and mount a meaningful challenge
to the lawfulness of their detention." According to Amnesty, this
puts Canada on the wrong side of articles 9 and 14 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Amnesty International, 31 March
2004).
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- This is a discriminatory measure. Security certificates
only apply to Permanent Residents and Refugees. They thus deny certain
classes of people in Canada their fundamental rights &endash; a completely
unacceptable discrimination. Human rights are inalienable and do not depend
on legal status.
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- Secret trials for refugees and immigrants are just the
beginning. Muslim and Arab communities and civil liberties more generally
are being threatened by hysteria around national security. The Security
Certificate, which dates back to 1991 and was reintroduced in the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act in 2002, is one of the roots of the attack that
has been mounted, with frightening rapidity, on civil liberties and international
norms since 11 September 2001. Now, "national security" is endangering
all of us. It is being used to justify Bill C-18, which would amend the
Citizenship of Canada Act to subject naturalized citizens to indefinite
detention, secret trials, and deportation. With C-36, the Anti-Terrorism
Act, similar violations of rights are extended to all citizens. The historical
parallels are clear: Japanese interned in Canada during World War II; the
"red scare" of the McCarthy era; even the rise of fascism in
Germany in the 40s. These should stand as warnings to us. If national security
is not about safeguarding our fundamental freedoms and values, then what
is it about?
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- We must not let fears about terrorist attacks blind us
to some very obvious questions:
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- * Why are these men not permitted to argue against precise
charges in a free and fair trial?
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- * Why don't ordinary standards of evidence apply?
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- * Why is there no appeal?
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- * Why can't the Minister's security concerns be satisfied
by less abusive measures than a secret trial, indefinite imprisonment and
deportation to torture or death?
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- We are asking Anne McLellan to:
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- 1) immediately release all five men;
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- 2) if any case against them actually exists, let them
fight it in a fair and independent trial;
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- 3) guarantee that they will not be deported;
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- 4) cease using Security Certificates and re-write the
security provisions of IRPA in compliance with the constitution and the
Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
UN Convention against Torture and principles of justice; and
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- 5) stop the racist scape-goating of Arab and Muslim communities
and the attack on civil liberties in Canada.
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- FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.adilinfo.org or www.homesnotbombs.org
or www.zerra.net/freemohamed.
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- Please also feel free to contact the Coalition for Justice
for Adil Charkaoui for further background material, including all of the
reports and articles cited in this document:
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- tel 514 859 9023 or justiceforadil@riseup.net.
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- [END]
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