Canada mars international human rights day (10 December) for third year running

Montreal, December 10, 2005: In 2003, Canada marked international human rights day by arresting refugee Mohamed Harkat under a "security certificate"; they have held him without charge under threat of being sent to torture ever since. On 10 December 2004, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected Adil Charkaoui's constitutional challenge to security certificates. (The appeal will be heard by the Supreme Court in June 2006.) And yesterday, the Federal Court failed to uphold the absolute, international ban on torture.

Yesterday, the Federal Court rejected a motion from one of the victims of security certificates, Adil Charkaoui, heard in October 2005. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) excludes people who have been labelled "security threats" from provisions to guarantee that no one is deported to torture. Johanne Doyon, one of Charkaoui's lawyers, argued that keeping a person under threat of torture violates Charter rights to life, and security of the person, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment, as well as equality before the law.

On this international human rights day, Adil Charkaoui dedicated this poem to the four other victims of "security certificates" who, just like himself, are forced to live with the constant threat of deportation to torture: Mohammad Mahjoub, imprisonned in Toronto without charge since June 2000, that is, FIVE YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS; Mahmoud Jaballah, imprisonned in Toronto without charge since August 2001, that is FOUR YEARS AND THREE MONTHS; Hassan Almrei, imprisonned without charge since October 2001, that is, FOUR YEARS AND ONE MONTH; Mohamed Harkat, imprisonned without charge since December 2002, that is exactly THREE YEARS.

Adil Charkaoui spent almost TWO YEARS in prison without charge. He is no longer in prison, but he remains under conditions which severely limit his liberty: he has a curfew, is not allowed to leave his home without his mother or father, is confined to the island of Montreal, must wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times, is not allowed to use any but his home phone, is not allowed to use internet, and must give police 24-hour access to his home without mandate. These incursions on his liberty have been imposed even though his security certificate has not yet been examined by a judge (the judicial review of his certificate has been suspended since March 2005).

Poem (translated from French)

To four victims of Guilt Certificates, serving as scapegoats while rotting in the dungeons of shame, amidst the indifference of peers and cowardice of brothers

What is a security certicate?

 A security certificate,
 It's the right to be treated outside the law
 It's two-speed justice
 It's precedent for secret trials
 It's the law in the service of the Service(1)!

 A security certificate,
 It's the "pen", the "hole", and "screws" (2),
 It's contact visits with no contact
 It's the glass that separates you from loved ones,
 It's "deadlock" (2), solitude ... it's breathing corruption

A security certificate,
 It's being a minor at 30 years old
 It's the petty, constipated bureaucrat made inquisitor
 It's the self-satisfied inquisitor with the airs of a torturer
 It's the guilt of being born elsewhere

A security certificate,
 It's big brother at home,
 It's reality TV without the ads,
 It's "Get out, you immigrant!",
 It's shut up and put up!

 A security certificate,
 It's all that, it's more ...
 It's Hassan and Mahjoub on hunger-strike,
 It's Sophie Harkat with no Harkat,
 It's Jaballah 1 and Jaballah 2!

 A security certificate,
 It's this lament of a candidate for torture,
 It's being Muslim in Chretien's country,
 It's human folly clothed as wisdom.
 It's me today, maybe you tomorrow!

 - Adil CHARKAOUI

¹ Expression for CSIS used in Federal Court documents.
² The jail, the hole, the guards and detention in canadian prison lingo.