“A time comes when silence is betrayal. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Below are the notes I took while attending the event titled “CSIS: Harrasment of Canadians: Know Your Rights Workshop“.
Speakers:
Faisal Kutty (Lawyer/Human Rights Activists)
James Kafieh (Lawyer/Former President of Canadian Arab Federation)
James Clark (Toronto Coalition to Stop the War)
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Workshop Notes:
Preserving Canada’s security is everyone’s business. People should continue to play a vital role in this. One should promptly report to the authorities if they find out that someone is planning to threaten Canadian security e.g. planning to bomb some place. However, it is imperative that one must not lie to get someone in trouble. One of the speakers talked about a case where two brothers acted as moles to retrieve information about their third brother (I think they were talking about real biological brothers. Not so sure though). Anyways, these guys thought that acting as moles for CSIS will help them win their favour. However, they were wrong. Both of them later got in trouble with the CSIS. So, being a mole does not help at all.
CSIS has not always acted responsibly towards the Arab Canadian community as well as other cultural groups such as Tamils, Pakistani etc.
If CSIS knocks at the door of an Arab or Muslim community, then it is for two reasons: i) Either they suspect you as a terrorist or ii) They want you as a mole.
This is why, You must Know and Exercise your Rights:
The following are your legal rights concerning CSIS:
1-You have the right to refuse to talk to CSIS:
If CSIS wants to meet you, you may choose to see them. This is totally voluntary. You have a right to refuse to talk to them. However, one of the speakers commented that since they are already picking on you, do see them. Tell them: “I look forward to talk to you.” This way you are conveying the message that you have nothing to hide.
Kindly note that they might label you as “hostile” if you choose not to meet them.
2-You have the RIGHT to see their name and badge #. Record it.
3-Never meet CSIS at your place of work or home. It is your RIGHT to pick a place of your choice unless the meeting is with regards to Security Clearance:
One of the speakers talked of an incidence when CSIS came knocking at the house of an Arab Canadian. His spouse opened the door. After all, Arabs are very hospitable. When the gentleman arrived at his home, the CSIS were having tea and biscuits in his living room. (hahahaha! giggles J ) This is why every member of your household should have a strong idea of how to handle CSIS.
Make sure not to let them inside the house. The speaker said that they will make notes of things like Islamic inscriptions; the prayer mat etc. and they will use these to racially profile against you and your family.
4-Never, under no circumstances, meet them on your own. You have a RIGHT to bring someone with you, preferably a lawyer. Contact Canadian Arab Foundation for free legal advice and assistant by a lawyer. Ph: 416-493-8635:
Remember that CSIS is capable of fishing out information. So, it is best to stay careful.
If CSIS requests the meeting then prior to any meeting CSIS should be required to commit in writing to pay the reasonable cost of the lawyer assisting the person.
5-You have the right to electronically record all your meetings with CSIS. They may refuse. Tell them you have a right to protect yourself. This recording will eventually prove critical to your security.
Note that RCMP has the power to arrest people while CSIS is only involved in information gathering. They do stuff like wiretapping, searching homes, surveillance etc.
Also, once CSIS passes out your information to the RCMP, then RCMP might take action to arrest you. We have the right to have a lawyer but RCMP is actively engaging in hiding evidence. How exactly would the lawyer defend the allegedly accused if the evidence against him/her is not presented?
When dealing with RCMP, remember you have the right to remain silent. So use that right.
Kind of qu
estions they might ask You:
Q1: “Do you agree with the philosophy of using force to attain an objective?”
This is a trick question. If you say Yes, then they might consider you a terrorist threat. If you answer No, then they might conclude that you are opposing Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. Either way, it would make you look bad.
Q2: “How do you feel about the Canadian government’s position about groups such as Liberation Tigers of Tamil, Hezbollah etc.
According to one of the speakers, this question is targeted towards finding people whose thought patterns may not be pure enough.
Make sure that during the encounter you don’t say anything about Canada’s bond with Israel. CSIS gets very defensive about it.
Make sure to talk to the Canadian Arab Federation in advance and ask them what sort of questions might be expected.
Also, once CSIS passes out your information to the RCMP, then RCMP might take action to arrest you. We have the right to have a lawyer but RCMP is actively engaging in hiding evidence. How exactly would the lawyer defend the allegedly accused if the evidence against him/her is not presented?
One of the speakers mentioned that CSIS has an inherent human rights problem. The speaker mentioned that although the Canadian government has all rulings written down with regards to human rights and multiculturism but when it gets to applying these democratic rulings in real life, somehow the rights of Muslim community as well as other minority groups like Tamils, get undermined. CSIS is in denial about this inherent human rights problem.
However, some judges have already issued rulings about how CSIS is engaging in criminal activities. For instance, in the case of Omar Khadr, the Supreme Court ruled that his charter rights and human rights were violated as CSIS knew that he had been subjected to sleep deprivation (a form of torture), but nevertheless they subjected him to interrogation. Also, Justice Zinn recently ruled that the Government of Canada violated the charter rights of Abousfian Abdelrazik by preventing his return to Canada. Justices O’Connor and Iacobucci have found CSIS to have (indirect) responsibility for the torture suffered by Maher Arar and Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin.
Also, see this inquiry with regards to the detention of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin.
What is the Security Certificate?
(Sign a Petition against the Security Certificate)
Security Certificate is a legal document that allows the Government of Canada to detain and deport foreign nationals and all other non-citizens living in Canada. The certificate may be issued against a permanent resident or a non-citizen if these individuals are suspected of violating human rights, perceived as a threat to national security or recognized as having membership within organized crime.
Mustafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers Centre commented: “As an organization which works every day with immigrant communities, I can tell you that the message of this law and the way it was passed is very clear to immigrants: Your fundamental rights will not be respected, your voices will not be listened to in the political process.”
Once the security certificate is issued, the individual may be indefinitely detained, simply on the basis of secret suspicions, under threat of deportation or torture. For instance, since March 2004, five Muslim men have been held in Canadian prisons in solitary confinement, without bail, on secret evidence which neither they nor their lawyers can see. (1)
According to an article in Wikipedia, the Security Certificate impedes certain legal rights of the individuals concerned:
The security certificate process (sections 33 and 77 to 85 of IRPA) was found to be in violation of sections 7, 9 and 10 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark Charkaoui case on 23 February 2007. The Supreme Court suspended the effect of its ruling for one year. On 22 October 2007, the Conservative government introduced a bill to amend the security certificate process by introducing a “special advocate”, lawyers who would be able to view the evidence against the accused. However, these lawyers would be selected by the Justice minister, would only have access to a “summary” of the evidence, and would not be allowed to share this information with the accused, for example in order to ask for clarifications or corrections. (2)
According to the article titled “Campaign to Stop Secret Trials & Deportations”, the addition of a special advocate does not solve human rights problem because 1) it relies on secret evidence, 2) the special advocate is not allowed to share this information with the accused and ask for clarification or corrections. The article also states that the Senate adopted the bill in less than a week, after just one day of hearings where more than 20 witnesses called for the Senate to oppose the law.
“The way in which the Senate pushed through the new legislations was a farce,” stated Warren Allmand, representing the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, a coalition of over 30 NGOs, unions, faith groups, and other civil society organizations. The Senate adopted the bill in less than a week, following just one day of hearings in which more than twenty witnesses – with the exception of Stockwell Day – called for the Senate to oppose the laws as unjust and unconstitutional. (1)
One ought to wonder about the truthfulness of the statements that are issued by the CSIS, in legal documents and summaries, against the alleged. According to the article “Campaign to Stop Secret Trials & Deportations”, there are serious grounds to believe that CSIS continues to rely on information that is obtained via torture.
Meanwhile, Canadian journalists and editorial writers have been cooing about the “big” change: the new secret trials bill says information from torture is not allowed. However, this paper guarantee is belied by the simultaneous release of a report from CSIS’ normally accommodating oversight committee, the Security Intelligence Review Committee, that concludes CSIS “uses information obtained by torture,“ an establishment confirmation of what many in the community have long known. The report finds that CSIS’s only concern is whether such information is reliable, and not whether such use of torture information violates CSIS obligations under the Charter of Rights, the Criminal Code and international treaties “that absolutely reject torture.” so talk about how the summaries and confessions were made under torture. And also how the revealing of information (summaries) on website is a farce b/c the summaries are a farce. (1)
With regards to the case of Adil Charkaoui:
Most preoccupying is the fact that the public summary contains no proof, simply allegations, hearsay, and fragments of alleged conversations and incidents involving Mr. Charkaoui. Under the new security certificate law, as in the last law, Mr. Charkaoui will be denied access to further, secret information in the file, and thus denied the right to know the case against him — if any case in fact exists. Moreover, it was admitted by CSIS that records of at least some of these interviews were destroyed, meaning that only CSIS summaries — contextless, containing errors of interpretation or bias — remain to support the fragments contained in the summary. Mr. Charkaoui is currently waiting for a Supreme Court decision on CSIS investigative practices in his case, including the destruction of evidence and other indications of a biased investigation. (1)
Concerning the case of Mohamed Harakat:
Sophie Harkat (his wife) also questioned the accuracy of the new information — especially that taken from the 1997 interviews. She said that the transcripts of the interviews do not sound anything like what her husband would say, especially since they are in full sentences, and at that time, her husband did not understand English very well. (1)
Concerning the allegations issued by Ahmed Ressam:
The Coalition (Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui) is also very concerned that allegations from Ahmed Ressam remain part of the file. Ahmed Ressam, who identified dozens and dozens of people while imprisoned in the United States, under a deal which lessened his sentence in exchange for information, has publicly retracted his information and is known to have suffered a mental breakdown in prison. Charkaoui and his lawyers have asked to cross-examine Ressam numerous times. This opportunity has always been denied, and it was finally admitted by the government that no sworn testimony existed, and that the information was based on hearsay. (1)
With regards to the “farce” summaries, publically made online through the Federal Court:
The crude profiling employed in the summary is of particular concern: acquaintance with other members of Montreal’s Muslim community, his marriage, his pizzeria, certain political opinions and religious beliefs and his university studies are all held against Mr. Charkaoui. The profiling relies on a picture — a very distorted picture — of who Mr. Charkaoui is, rather than anything he has done. In a context of racist bias against Muslims and Arabs, innocent facts portrayed in a certain light become evidence against him; misreported and misinterpreted opinions, taken completely out of context, are proof of “terrorism.” (1)
In a highly politicized move, the Federal Court of Canada for the first time posted on its home page the so-called “public summaries” of the cases against four of the five Muslim men subject to security certificates. (Why four out of five? In perhaps another sign of the incompetence of the CSIS sponsors of secret trials, one of the summaries is attributed to the wrong guy. As if that weren’t bad enough, a summary package hand delivered to another of the detainees had a cover letter addressed to…someone other than himself!). There is no context to these Federal Court postings, no explanation that these are only unproven allegations based on speculation about some possible past, present, or future behavior, no chance for those whose names are slandered through this process to respond. They are simply there as “official-looking” documents that doom the reputations of those who have yet to have a hearing. And when they do get to court, they will be told that the basis for these allegations is a secret neither they nor their lawyers can challenge. (1)
The security certificate has been criticized by several human rights group and several well-known figures have joined the campaign against these certificates.
Alexandre Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has been vocal in his criticisms of the certificates and has appeared in court to testify in favour of Almrei’s and Charkaoui’s release, offering to act as a surety on their behalf. Other well-known figures who have joined the campaign against security certificates include Warren Allmand, former Solicitor-General of Canada; Flora MacDonald, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada; Denys Arcand; Bruce Cockburn, Naomi Klein, and Maude Barlow. (1)
Conclusion:
In the past, there have been times when the Canadian security state categorized ordinary Canadians into political stereotypes and labeled them as threats. Whatever has been happening nowadays to the Filipino, Tamil and the Muslim community is not foreign to the Canadian government. This has happened before. I would recommend that you read the book titled “Whose National Security” by Gary Kinsman, Dieter K. Buse, & Mercedes Steedman, etc.
One of the speakers commented that “they” can make you disappear. So, if you intend to talk about this stuff, discuss it, blog about it etc., just make sure to stay totally public about it. Make sure that many people know about you. So, in case if something happens to you (God forbid), people will notice that you are missing. Remember that it is alright to have religious or political viewpoints but don’t say stuff like “I am gonna kill you” or “I am gonna bomb you”. These comments would be considered as terrorist threats.
According to one of the speakers, a lot of low-profile events are happening where people are being interrogated or detained without reason. The media only talks about high profile cases. For instance, there has been a low-profile case where a 20 year old was visited by CSIS just because he was visiting sites that contained information about Afghanistan. CSIS printed out his internet activities and went around talking to his mom about it. There was a fear of radicalization of youth. So this incidence tells us how CSIS has the ability to spy on people’s internet activities.
There is a strong need to overcome fear, apprehension and get strategic if you must learn how to handle CSIS.
If you experience racism and such, then start documenting it and start talking about it.
In my personal opinion, I find it hilarious that Obama is making a big deal about Iranians being assaulted by the Iranian government whereas he is saying absolutely nothing about how its ally and neighbor country, Canada, is racially profiling and targeting the Muslim and Tamil community. This is yet another example of how some politicians unilaterally view a particular event just to promote their own political viewpoints and to cause internal divisions and conflict within a particular foreign country.
It is best to continue spreading the word about this entire deal Insha’Allah (God willing). The more the merrier.
References:
1- Campaign to Stop Secret Trials & Deportations
2- Security Certificate
