BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-18357452
SEQUENCE:18368001
CREATED:20070205T072500Z
DESCRIPTION:CALL FOR EMERGENCY ACTIONS at CANADIAN EMBASSIES\non WEDNESDAY, 7 February 
 2007\n\nCanadian Consulate General - Seattle\n1501 4th Ave., Suite 
 600\nSeattle, Washington\nUSA\n98101\nTel: 1 (206) 443-1777\nFax: 1 (206) 
 443-9662\n\nfrom: People's Global Action North America\n\n"[They have a] 
 refrigerator stocked with a variety of juices, soy milk, honey and 
 chocolate sauce." -- Canadian "Public Safety" Minister Stockwell Day, asked 
 on 2 February about the hunger strike at Canada's Guantanamo 
 Bay\n\nCanada's Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister seems to 
 think that human rights violations are okay as long as prisoners have 
 access to chocolate sauce. Canada has its own mini-version of Guantanamo 
 bay, a new six-cell prison that was opened in April 2006 specifically for 
 immigrants and refugees who are detained without charge or trial, under 
 secret evidence, indefinitely, under threat of deportation, to places where 
 it has been recognized that they are at risk of torture.\n\nThe three 
 detainees - Mahmoud Jaballah, detained since August 2001, Hassan Almrei, 
 detained since October 2001, and Mahmoud Jaballah, detained since June 2000 
 - have been held under Canada's draconian "security certificate" process 
 (see background below), on vague allegations that they may have something 
 to do with that increasingly meaningless but all-powerful label 
 "terrorism". They have never ceased to insist on their innocence and demand 
 a fair and open trial, which is no more than the legal right of every 
 person in Canada.\n\nAll three are currently on hungerstrike, demanding 
 minor improvements to their conditions of detention, amounting to being 
 treated with some degree of dignity. Their demands include access to an 
 independent ombudsman to receive complaints (something which exists at 
 other prisons in Canada). The Canadian government's response has been 
 consistent with the way the detainees and their families have been treated 
 from the very beginning of their ordeal: stony silence, callous denial, 
 misinformation and outright lies. The spirit is captured by the Minister of 
 Public Safety's response to a public appeal by family members - on day 70 
 of a potentially deadly hungerstrike - that the prisoners have access to 
 chocolate sauce in the detention centre.\n\nAs of Wednesday, it will be day 
 75 for Mahjoub, and day 64 for Almrei and Jaballah of a juice and water 
 only hungerstrike. Because the men are even being denied the daily medical 
 monitoring that is standard in a hungerstrike (see letter from almost 70 
 health professionals calling for medical monitoring at 
 www.homesnotbombs.ca/health.htm), the situation could become 
 life-threatening at any time.\n\n==> WE ARE ASKING PEOPLE IN ALL PARTS OF 
 THE WORLD TO ORGANIZE EMERGENCY ACTIONS AT THE CANADIAN EMBASSY OR 
 CONSULATE NEAREST YOU ON WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY. We believe that 
 international pressure - particularly media attention - could have a 
 significant impact.\n\nActions could take the form of delegations to 
 present letters to Canadian officials, pickets, or theatrical media actions 
 (orange jumpsuits and chocolate sauce: chocolate sauce in Guantanmo! or Let 
 Them Eat Chocolate Sauce!) at Canadian consulates or embassies.\n\nActions 
 should highlight the following demands:\n1) Act immediately to find a 
 solution to the hungerstrike before the men die.\n2) Release the five 
 people who are currently subject to "security certificates", or charge them 
 and provide them a fair and open trial.\n3) Close the new Kingston 
 Immigration Holding Centre ("Guantanamo North"), Abolish security 
 certificates, and End deportations to torture.\n\n==> PLEASE LET US KNOW at 
  abolissons@gmail.com and  tasc@web.ca or tel. + 1 514 222 0205 if you can 
 carry out an action. We can supply background material, model letters, and 
 updates. It is very important that we receive copies of any letters you 
 write, reports on your actions, and media coverage.\n\nBACKGROUND 
 INFORMATION\n\n* For more updates on the 
 hungerstrike:\nwww.homesnotbombs.ca/gitmonorthstrike.htm\n\n* Open letter 
 from the hungerstrikers:\nwww.homesnotbombs.ca/openletter.htm\n\n* Links to 
 reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Committee against 
 Torture, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Human Right Committee 
 on Canadian security certificates:\nwww.adilinfo.org/dossier.htm.\n\nThe 
 context of the hungerstrikes that have been repeatedly waged by the 
 detainees at Canada's "Guantanamo North" prison (the Kingston Immigration 
 Holding Centre) is the security certificate process under which these 
 prisoners are being held. The reason they are on hungerstrike, the reason 
 they will be on hungerstrike again in a few months - if they survive this 
 round - is that they are in indefinite, arbitrary detention under a threat 
 of deportation to torture. What makes the daily prison abuse to which they 
 are subject intolerable is that they are locked up for no reason at all, 
 that the imprisonment is indefinite, that they are threatened with torture, 
 and that they are rendered powerless to challenge the injustices and to 
 clear their names.\n\nThe security certificate process is set in motion 
 when the Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the 
 Solicitor-General of Canada (that is, the Minister of Public Safety), on 
 the request of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), sign a 
 certificate. In the case of refugees, this automatically means detention 
 without bail until the certificate undergoes a judicial review; a process 
 which can take years. In the case of Permanent Residents, there are 
 detention reviews every six months.\n\nThe certificate is reviewed by a 
 Federal Court judge in a process that has been very widely criticised for 
 failing to meet international standards of a fair trial: by Amnesty 
 International, Human Rights Watch (Still at Risk: Diplomatic Assurances no 
 Safeguard against Torture, April 2005), the Canadian Bar Association, the 
 United Nations Human Rights Committee (2 November 2005, CCPR/C/CAN/CO/5), 
 the United Nations Committee against Torture (May 2005, CAT/C/CO/34/CAN), 
 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (5 December 2005, 
 E/CN.4/2006/7/Add.2), Members of Parliament, as well as a wide range of 
 other organizations and individuals across the country.\n\nBriefly:\n- the 
 process applies ONLY to those without full citizenship in Canada and so is 
 discriminatory from the outset;\n- information against the individual is 
 secret - that is, it is not disclosed either to the detainee nor their 
 lawyer;\n- closed hearings between the judge and the Ministers, without the 
 participation of the individual or their lawyer, can be held at any 
 time;\n- the presiding judge is restricted to assessing whether the 
 allegations are "reasonable", rather than "beyond all reasonable doubt";\n- 
 key terms (such as "national security", "terrorism" and "membership") are 
 simply undefined;\n- hearsay (i.e. gossip) and other dubious information 
 (newspaper articles, information from foreign spy agencies) is accepted; 
 and\n- if the judge upholds the certificate, there is no appeal.\n\nThe 
 certificate then becomes a deportation order. Though Canada's position - 
 completely contrary to international law - is that it has the right to 
 deport people on security grounds even if they face torture, the fact that 
 all current detainees face a substantial risk of torture has delayed their 
 deportation. In practice, this has translated to indefinite detention under 
 a continued threat of deportation to torture.\n\nSecurity certificates are 
 just the tip of the iceberg in terms of abuse Canada metes out to migrants 
 in the name of "national security". Refugees can be subjected to similar 
 treatment under other parts of Canada's immigration law. Bachan Singh Sogi, 
 for example, was deported on 1 July 2006, after spending almost four years 
 in prison without charge under secret evidence. The deportation was carried 
 out on the grounds of national security, but not under a security 
 certificate. It went ahead despite a positive assessment of "risk of 
 torture" and "risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or 
 punishment" by Canada's own immigration officials itself.\n\nA 
 constitutional challenge to the security certificate was heard by the 
 Supreme Court of Canada in June 2006. A decision is pending. A 
 parliamentary committee is also apparently in the process of reviewing the 
 legislation. But that has made no difference for the people currently 
 deprived of their liberty under a security certificate, nor for their 
 families.\n\n* Out under conditions:\n- Mohamed Harkat, married, born in 
 Algeria, was accepted as a convention refugee in Canada before being 
 arrested in December 2002. He was released on bail under virtual house 
 arrest in June 2006.\n- Adil Charkaoui, married with three children, was 
 born in Morocco and came to Canada as a permanent resident with his mother, 
 father and sister in 1995; he was arrested in May 2003 and released under 
 harsh conditions in February 2005.\n\n* Detained in "Guantanamo North", the 
 new detention facility for security\ncertificate detainees near Kingston, 
 Ontario:\n- Mohammad Mahjoub, married with two children, is a torture 
 survivor from Egypt who was accepted as a convention refugee in Canada in 
 1996. He was arrested in June 2000 in Toronto. He was denied bail in 
 November 2003 and again in November 2005. He is waiting for a third 
 decision on bail.\n- Mahmoud Jaballah, married with six children, is a 
 torture survivor from Egypt and a school principal who arrived in Canada in 
 1996. He was arrested under his second certificate in August 2001, days 
 before his refugee hearing. He is now waiting for a decision on his 
 application for release on bail.\n- Hassan Almrei, born in Syria and 
 accepted as convention refugee in June 2000, was arrested under a 
 certificate in October 2001. He has been refused bail 
 twice.\n\n\nHungerstrike Support Committee (Montreal)\n 
 abolissons@gmail.com\ntel. + 1 514 859 9023\n\nCampaign to Stop Secret 
 Trials in Canada (Toronto)\n tasc@web.ca\ntel. + 1 416 651 5800\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/04/18357452.php
SUMMARY:PROTEST CANADA'S "GUANTANAMO BAY" PRISON
LOCATION:DAY 75 of HUNGER-STRIKES at CANADA'S "GUANTANAMO BAY" PRISON\n\nCanadian 
 Consulate General - San Francisco / Silicon Valley\n580 California Street, 
 14th floor\nSan Francisco, California\nUSA\n94104\nTel: (415) 
 834-3180\nFax: (415) 834-3189
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/04/18357452.php
DTSTART:20070207T200000Z
DTEND:20070207T200000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR