Evening against security certificates includes Canadian ‘rendered’ to torture

PANEL DISCUSSION The other Arars: When the ‘exception’ is the rule
Sunday, 21 October 2007, 5 to 7 pm
CÉDA, 2515 Délisle St. (metro Lionel Groulx)

The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui is proud to host Mr. Abdullah Almalki’s first speaking event in Montreal. Mr. Almalki, a Canadian, was interrogated under physical and psychological torture in Syria for two years. In the Arar Commission Report, Justice O’Connor wrote, “the Canadian consul, on the instructions of the Ambassador, delivered a letter from the RCMP to General Khalil [head of Syrian Military Intelligence] enclosing a series of questions to be posed to Abdullah Almalki, who, like Mr. Arar, was imprisoned at the Palestine Branch at the time.” The Iacobucci Inquiry is currently investigating Canada’s role in the affair, but has itself fallen into controversy over its secrecy.

Mr. Almalki will speak in the context of an evening to oppose the introduction of any new security certificate regime in the wake of the Supreme Court Charkaoui decision striking down the old security certificate process. Other panelists will include Mr. Yavar Hameed, an Ottawa lawyer involved in the constitutional challenge to security certificates, Mr. Dominique Peschard, vice-President of the Ligue des droits et libertés, and Mr. Adil Charkaoui, arrested under a certificate in May 2005.

The evening takes place as part of a pan-Canadian day of action calling on the government to acknowledge the invalidity of the security certificate and refrain from introducing a new process. The day of action will also demand that those currently under certificates be released or charged and provided with a fair and open trial. Over a dozen cities across Canada will host actions or events on 20 or 21 October.

The day of action is backed by over sixty organizations and networks, including national organizations such as the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Arab Federation, national unions such as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, NGO networks such as the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, TCRI and AQOCI, feminist organizations such as Féderation des femmes du Québec, student associations such as ASSÉ, political parties such as Québec solidaire, human rights organizations such as the the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, and numerous community groups such as Solidarity across Borders, as well as individuals such as Jack Layton and Monia Mazigh.

-30-