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.

... and our Solidarity !

To all friends, allies and supporters,

After six long years of struggle, it is finally time to celebrate a massive victory in the battle against the security certificate regime. Adil Charkaoui and the Coalition would like to invite you to a party on Thursday, November 26th, 6pm, to celebrate with Adil, his family, friends and supporters.

The evening includes:

Federal Court issued a ruling this afternoon: the certificate against Adil is quashed and the government is denied an appeal after Judge Tremblay Lamer decided that there was no basis for an appeal. The Charkaouis' six+ year for justice is over at last!

Press conference:

4pm, Wed., October 14th 2009
Centre St-Pierre, Montreal

Video from press conference

Mr. Adil Charkaoui, joined by Ms. Monia Mazigh, Mr. Bill Siksay (MP, NDP-Burnaby Douglas), Mr. Thierry St-Cyr (Immigration critic for the Bloc Quebecois), and Mr. Salam Elmenyawi (President, Muslim Council of MOntreal), asked for an official apology during a press conference which took place in federal Parliament on Tuesday, 29 September 2009.

View press conference: click here.

Adil Charkaoui, accompanied by a member of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, flew to Vancouver on 25 June, flying home again to Montreal on 27 June. He participated in three events, and met with many who are working for justice and against racism in Vancouver and Victoria.

Vancouver

A press conference was held immediately after Adil's arrival and generated lots of interest. On Friday, Adil spoke at a public forum, and after was hosted by members of the BC Civil Liberties Union (BCCLU).

Kingston - 16 June

Adil spoke to a diverse crowd at Queen's University on June 16th. Many people asked what they could do afterwards, and seemed very eager to help out. Kingston is home to Guantanamo North prison, where Mohamed Mahjoub is the sole detainee. Mahjoub is currently on hungerstrike.

• Article from Queen's Journal.
• Report from the Kingston Coalition Against Poverty (scroll down to the June 18, 2009 news entry)

Waterloo - 17 June

Adil met with some organizers in Waterloo for a quick dinner before heading to the university to speak to a crowd of about 100 people at an event co-hosted by PIRG-Waterloo and Amnesty International-Waterloo. The atmosphere was warm and the questions positive; people stayed to talk with Adil after the event.

The kick-off of Adil's tour across the country was a big success. Adil flew to Halifax on May 31st, returning to Montreal from Fredericton on June 3rd.

Halifax

Upon arriving on the East Coast, Adil was welcomed at a potluck at the Saint Andrew's Rec Centre by members of the Muslim community and local allies.

On Monday morning we met Adil in front of the Citizenship and Immigration offices to draw media attention to the issue and take some photos to mark the beginning of the tour.

We then had the chance to spend the day exploring cafes and parks in Halifax. It was amazing to walk the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with Adil, since he grew up by the sea but has been unable to travel outside of Montreal for years. Unfortunately, the ocean in Nova Scotia is a lot colder than it is in Morocco so we weren't able to swim!

In February 2009, the Federal Court finally lifted most of the interim conditions imposed on Adil Charkaoui. Adil was arrested under a so-called security certificate in 2003; he spent almost two years in jail before being released under draconian conditions pending the outcome of the process against him. Now, for the first time in six years, Adil is able to travel freely outside Montreal. In June, he will be taking advantage of this restored freedom to travel to other parts of Canada to speak about his continuing struggle to clear his name and achieve justice in Canada.

While the decision in February was a very welcome step in the right direction, Adil's struggle is not over. He is still forced to wear a GPS-tracking bracelet; he continues to live under the label of "suspected terrorist" (a label which has already cost him his job and much more); and he is still threatened with deportation to torture.

Adil Charkaoui is one of five men in Canada who are undergoing the Kafka-esque security certificate process. All are still subject to the agonizingly irrational "security" certificate process, deeply invasive and suffocating bail conditions, and live under threat of deportation and torture.

Main events

You are invited to join Adil Charkaoui and members of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui on Wednesday, 15 April, when Adil is in court to argue for his right to keep his job as a high school French teacher and to finally obtain a teaching permit, according to his rights.

Despite the fact that Adil Charkaoui has all the academic qualifications required to teach at the secondary level and that he has considerable experience in this area, he has been denied, since November 2008, his means of subsistence following an arbitrary decision taken by the Minister of Education of Québec, Michelle Courchesne. Courchesne believes that the baseless allegations which have been made against Adil in the context of a security certificate, issued by the Federal government in 2003, are sufficient grounds to deny him his teaching permit.

1 April 2009, 2pm

McGill University
3700 McTavish (the Education Building), room 233

Panel on security certificates and the struggle ahead, with Adil Charkaoui and Mary Foster (Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui).

Organized by the McGill Refugee Research Project.