THE HANDSTAND |
june 2005 |
Canada Canadas Secret Trial NATIONAL DAY
OF ACTION AGAINST SECURITY CERTIFICATES! WEDNESDAY JUNE 8 FROM
4:30 PM TO 6:30 PM GATHER AT VANCOUVER
ART GALLERY (ROBSON SIDE) Contact
No One is Illegal noii-van@resist.ca (604)682-3269 x 7149 This action is part of a pan-Canadian day to
Stop Secret Trials in Canada. Canadas Secret Trial Five are five Muslim
men whose lives have been torn apart by accusations that
they are not allowed to fight in a fair and independent
trial. All five men were arrested under "Security
Certificates," a measure of the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that has been described by Amnesty
International as "fundamentally flawed and
unfair". Security certificates and secret evidence
reverse the fundamental rule of innocent until proven
guilty. Neither the detainee nor his lawyer are informed
of the precise allegations or provided with the full
information against him. They are imprisoned indefinitely
without charges on secret evidence and face deportation
to their countries of origin, even if there is a
substantial risk of torture or death. June 8 is the anniversary of the day on which
Canada signed the Convention against torture. It is an
appropriate day to bring attention to the fact that the
Canadian government, using security certificates, is
trying to deport five men although the Immigration
department recognises they are at risk of torture if
forced out. It is also a good opportunity to highlight
the numerous other ways in which Canada, using other
anti-migrant tools, is engaging in forcing people into
situations where they will be tortured; is using
information extracted under torture in security
certificate cases; is exchanging information with secret
services recognised as complicit in physical and
psychological torture; is failing to criticise the use of
torture by its allies in Iraq, Guantanomo, Palestine,
Afghanistan and Europe; is enabling the use of torture
facilities in Afghanistan; and is itself using police
tactics and prison conditions of physical and
psychological torture. It is no coincidence, in a situation like the
present, where the "war on terror" is being
used to advance an agenda of economic and political
domination, that norms against torture are coming under
deliberate and concerted pressure. Security Certificates
are a tool that has been put to use in the post-9/11
climate of racist hysteria around "national
security" to attack the Muslim and Arab communities,
migrants and broader civil liberties. The historical
parallels are clear: Japanese-Canadians interned and deported from
Canada during World War II and the "red scare"
of the McCarthy era. These should stand as warnings to
us. For more information: http://noii-van.resist.ca ABOLISH SECURITY CERTIFICATES NOW! NO ONE IS ILLEGAL! |