24-HOURS AGAINST TORTURE
Camp out in front of Paul Martin's office

On 8 June 2005, the Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui was outside the downtown office of Paul Martin for "24-hours against torture".

This action was part of a pan-Canadian day against torture called by the Toronto-based Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, in the context of the broader campaign to abolish discriminatory and unjust "security certificates". Events took place across Canada, including in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Durham, Vancouver and Toronto.

Why a cross-Canada day against torture? In its (in)security certificate cases, Canada has quietly taken the position that it can deport people even when there is a risk of torture. Five men currently face deportation despite the fact that human rights organisations and even Immigration Canada recognise they are at risk of torture. More generally, Canada already forces over 10,000 people to return to an uncertain fate every year -- and post-September 11th anti-migrant policies such as the "Safe Third Country Agreement" mean that even fewer people will be protected. Nor, in the prevailing atmosphere of racist hysteria, are Canadian citizens safe: not only Maher Arar, but Mr. Ahmad Abou El Maati, Mr. Abdullah Almalki and Mr. Muayyed Nurredin are known to have been rendered to foreign countries where they were tortured. Canada has made no complaint about the use of torture by its allies in Iraq, Guantanomo Bay, Palestine, Afghanistan (where Canadian troops are stationed), Europe, and the US. On the contrary, Canada's spy agency CSIS exchanges information with foreign spy agencies who use torture and then makes use of this highly suspect information in "security" certificate cases and against other people in Canada. At the same time, Canada uses police tactics and prison conditions which have been described as amounting to physical and psychological torture: one of the security certificate detainees, for example, has been in solitary confinement for two and a half years.

Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram, extraordinary rendition programmes ... Under cover of the so-called "war on terror", western governments are in the process of normalising state use of the most extreme forms of physical and psychological abuse. Canada is deeply involved. High time to speak out!

ACTIVITIES
 
Wednesday, 8 June at 8 am to Thursday, 9 June at 8 am

Outside office of the Prime Minister
400 Youville Square (McGill St. and Youville), Old Montreal
metro Square Victoria

8am to 10am: Passing flyers / set-up
10am to noon: First-hand testimonies
noon to 2pm: Picket
2pm to 8pm: Music, workshops, theatre
8pm to midnight: Film projections
midnight to 8 am: "Camp Guantanamo"

TORTURE

According to Amnesty International, the common forms of torture to which a country like Canada is prepared to deport people include being "beaten with fists, sticks, gun-butts, makeshift whips, iron pipes, baseball bats, electric flex. Victims suffer bruises, internal bleeding, broken bones, lost teeth, ruptured organs and some die.

"Rape and sexual abuse of prisoners is also widespread. Other common methods of torture and ill-treatment include electric shocks (reported in more than 40 countries), suspension of the body (more than 40 countries), beating on the soles of the feet (more than 30 countries), suffocation (more than 30 countries), mock execution or death threat (more than 50 countries) and prolonged solitary confinement (more than 50 countries).

Other methods include submersion in water, stubbing of cigarettes on the body, being tied to the back of a car and being dragged behind it, sleep deprivation and sensory deprivation."

SECURITY CERTIFICATES

Canada's 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.

Mohammad Mahjoub has been imprisonned since June 2000 in Toronto; Mahmoud Jaballah since August 2001 in Toronto; Hassan Almrei since October 2001 in Toronto; Mohamed Harkat since December 2002 in Ottawa; and Adil Charkaoui was held in Montreal between May 2003 and February 2005, and is now out under severe conditions. None have had a fair trial. None have even been charged.

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" and which Human Rights Watch has recommended that Canada repeal. Security certificates reverse the principle of innocent until proven guilty and strip detainees of their fundamental right to a fair trial. Applying only to non-citizens, they are highly discriminatory. Neither the detainee nor his lawyer are informed of the precise allegations nor provided with the full evidence against him. They are imprisoned for years without charge on secret evidence under threat of deportation to their countries of origin, even if there is a substantial risk of torture or death.