Saturday, 10 December 2011, 6pm
Maison de l'amitié, 120 Duluth St. East, Montreal
(Sherbrooke metro)

- suggested donation of $20 (pay what you can; no one turned away) - vegetarian & hallal options - childcare onsite - we regret that Maison de l'Amitié is not wheel-chair accessible -

Programme includes:

Adil Charkaoui. Adil Charkaoui spent over six years of his life trying to free himself from a security certicate, on the streets and in the courts. He won!

Johanne Doyon. Johanne Doyon has been working on Charkaoui's case since 2003. She brought the case against security certificates to the Supreme Court and won, and finally winning Charkaoui's case in the Federal Court as well.

Stefan Christoff (piano) with Peter Burton (contrabass) and Norman Nawrocki (fiddle). Stefan Christoff is a pianist and community activist in Montreal who will be performing compositions from an upcoming album of instrumental piano duets to be released in Montreal in 2012, listen to Stefan's music at http://soundcloud.com/spirodon. Peter Burton is an improvisational musician playing contrabass who also works with Suoni per il Popolo festival. Norman Nawrocki (pronounced Nav-rot-ski) is a local writer, musician, activist in Montreal.

It's been more than two years since the Federal Court of Canada struck down the so-called security certificate that held the Charkaoui family in a virtual prison for six and a half years. Two years have passed but the struggle for justice is still not won. The government has not been held accountable and Adil Charkaoui still does not have citizenship.

Shortly after winning his case, Adil called on the government to issue an apology, grant him citizenship and provide reasonable reparation. There was no response. Adil was then forced to turn to the courts to seek the apology he needed to begin putting his life back together and hold the government accountable. The lawsuit has now been underway for more than a year and a half. Adil's lawyers, who have worked with him for eight years, building up considerable trust and knowledge of the case, have reached the point where they absolutely need financial support to continue. They face a much larger, much better resourced team of government lawyers. Court costs alone are significant. Moreover, Adil's application for citizenship, submitted in 1999, twelve years ago, has not moved forward. Lack of citizenship leaves Adil in a state of vulnerability and uncertainty. Legal action to force the government to respond is possible, but remains out of reach due to legal costs.

December 10th marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. It is also the day that Mohamed Harkat was arrested in Ottawa under a security certificate, nine years ago. It has been eleven and a half years since Mohamed Mahjoub was arrested and over ten years since Mahmoud Jaballah's arrest (for the second time). All three men remain under severe forms of house arrest, their lives in limbo and under threat. The certificate against Hassan Almrei was thrown out of court in 2009, after more than eight years of arbitrary detention, and he too is waging a court battle to hold the government accountable for its acts.

Join the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui on Friday, December 10th to eat together, find out where the struggle against security certificates is at and support Adil on the road to justice.