Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 19 August 2004

19 August, Montreal,2004 – Prime Minister Paul Martin is coming under fire this week for his Minister’s decision to refuse protection from torture to secret trial detainee Adil Charkaoui. Amnesty International, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), Ed Broadbent and other Members of Parliament are among those sounding the alarm about the recent decision by Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan.

“Morocco, together with Egypt and Jordan, are often cited as the three countries on which the United States relies to render suspects up to torture. A Canadian decision to refuse protection to Mr. Charkaoui raises serious questions about Canada’s possible complicity with this practice of rendition,” wrote the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group in a letter to Paul Martin. ICLMG is a coalition of over 30 unions and NGOs, including the Canadian Labour Congress, Rights and Democracy, Canadian Council for International Cooperation, AQOCI, Development and Peace (Catholic Church) and World Vision Canada.

“In the wake of the Maher Arar affair, the decision raises further serious questions about Canada’s willingness to defend fundamental human rights under pressure of the “war on terrorism”,” Mr. Warren Allmand, former Liberal Solicitor-General of Canada, stated in a letter to the Prime Minister.

“You have an obligation to ensure that Mr. Charkaoui be accorded a fair and transparent process, and that he not be deported to face certain torture or even death. National security must never be at the expense of human rights," wrote Alexa McDonough, MP for Halifax and Foreign Affairs Critic for the NDP.

In August 2003, Immigration Canada assessed that Charkaoui, a Permanent Resident of Canada, would be at risk of torture and death if deported to Morocco. This assessment was corroborated by both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. However, their expert opinions were set aside in a politicised decision by the new Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEPC), Canada’s answer to American “Homeland Security”. Citing assurances from Morocco that they have laws against torture, Anne Arnott of PSEPC concluded that Immigration Canada and the human rights organisations were mistaken. Syria provided similar assurances to the United States before Maher Arar was sent to months of torture.

In the decision, Arnott also stated that, even if she were under-estimating the risk to Mr. Charkaoui, it would still be acceptable to deport him. This is a shocking admission of Canada’s acceptance of torture and its willingness to violate the Convention against Torture, which includes an absolute prohibition on deportations to torture. It is made all the more shocking by the fact that, under current Canadian law, there will be no court hearing on whether the allegations that have been made against Mr. Charkaoui are actually true. Mr. Charkaoui vehemently denies the allegations and only demands the opportunity to clear his name of suspicion in a fair trial.

Morocco posed no danger to Mr. Charkaoui prior to the allegations of terrorism made against him by Canada. If Mr. Charkaoui is deported, Morocco will now come under pressure to treat Mr. Charkaoui as a terrorist suspect in order to show its credentials in the “war on terror”. Morocco has been cited as one the three countries which the United States has used most often to render suspects up to torture.

One of the “secret trial five”, five Muslim men who are imprisoned without charge under secret evidence in Canada, Mr. Charkaoui has been in prison in Montreal since May 2003. Charkaoui will continue to fight his deportation through a constitutional challenge to the security certificate process and by trying to clear himself under that biased process. None of the men have had, and, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, none will have, a trial on whether or not the accusations made against them are accurate. In a process which has been described as “fundamentally flawed and unfair” by Amnesty International, Mr. Charkaoui and the other men face deportation to their countries of origin if a Federal Court judge deems that the allegations, the details of which are concealed from the men, are “reasonable”.

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Background: www.homesnotbombs.ca/charkaouideniedprotection.htm