Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, August 2007
 
Join the cross-Canada Day of Action on Saturday, October 20

Sign up for Emergency Actions when the new law is introduced into Parliament

The campaign against secret trials won a victory in February when the Supreme Court recognized that the "security certificate" is unconstitutional.

However, the Supreme Court gave the government one year before the law falls. All five detainees thus remain in indefinite, arbitrary detention or house arrest conditions, under threat of deportation to torture - under a law that has now been recognized as  illegal.

The Harper government has announced that it will introduce NEW security certificate legislation this fall. This is likely to be based on the "special advocate" model, which will continue the injustice of security certificates while further entrenching the use of secrecy in the immigration and justice systems.

Harper will be asking us to accept a new kind of unfair, secret trial and a different way of practicing racism. His government will be counting on Canadians to continue to accept the violation of the rights of immigrants, indefinite detention/house arrest and the practice of holding people under threat of deportation to torture.

The decision to introduce new security certificate legislation is an affront to democracy and to justice. No amount of tinkering can make a process fair that is essentially discriminatory, treating the liberty of non-citizens with contempt. It is a process that places abitrary power in the hands of spy agencies and politicians, that replaces precise charges with vague concepts, that relies on secret suspicions, profiling and association instead of evidence, and that has no end except deportation to further torture. It assumes that immigrants are potential "threats to national security". It cannot be reformed, and must be eliminated.

Let's oppose new legislation that will only feed the national security agenda and allow CSIS to continue to target certain communities with impunity.

Let's insist that the secret trial five, along with their families, be freed from the daily humiliation and indignity of draconian house arrest conditions and the ongoing threat of deportation under an unconstitutional law.

GET INVOLVED!

We are planning a Canada-wide day of action for Saturday, October 20. We are also planning emergency responses within 48 hours of the new legislation being introduced in Parliament.

Join us to resist racist paranoia and demand:

• No new security certificates;
• Immediately free the five from all conditions or charge them and provide them with a full, fair, and open trial;
• End deportation proceedings against the five;
• End deportations to torture; and
• Close "Guantanamo North".

TO JOIN IN:

1. Write and call your MP and let them know that you are counting on them to vote against the new security certificate legislation (and that NO fancy window dressing, such as special advocates, can fix a fundamentally flawed and unfair regime). Postcard / sample letter available from justiceforadil@riseup.net ; you can find your MP's contacts via www.parl.gc.ca.

2. Be part of the emergency response network that will organize actions within 48 hours of the government introducing new security certificate legislation. Contact justiceforadil@riseup.net if you would like to participate.

3. Get your group to endorse the coast-to-coast-to-coast day of action on Saturday, October 20. Send an email to tasc@web.ca to endorse.

4. If you plan to organize a march or rally or other action on October 20 and would like to be included in the joint press release for the day of action, please email tasc@web.ca.

For more information:
Toronto: Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, tasc@web.ca, (416) 651-5800.
Montreal: Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, justiceforadil@riseup.net, 514 859 9023.
Ottawa: Justice Committee for Mohamed Harkat, justicepourmohamedharkat@yahoo.ca.