WHAT: Write to Prime Minister Paul Martin to Demand Freedom for Canada's
Secret Trial Five
WHEN: Now until Monday, October 18 (Martin's return to Canada)
WHY NOW?
1. Prime Minister Paul Martin, who campaigned against racial profiling
and for respect of Charter Rights, lectured Russian President Vladimir
Putin with the following words on Oct. 11:
"The fight against terrorism will only be won if in fact the rights of
individuals are respected at the same time."
"There is going to be constant battle in terms of where the balance lies.
It is my view, and it is the Canadian view, that the balance has got to
be on the side of freedom of the individual."
Mr. Martin needs to be reminded that the Secret Trial Five have been
detained for a collective 164 months without charge on secret evidence in
Canada.
2. The federal government, in response to growing criticism of the secret
trial security certificate, has announced that to make the process "more
fair," it is returning to the practice of having two signatures, not one,
on the certificate. We need to remind the PM that such window dressing
does not deal with the fundamentally flawed and unfair secret trial
process.
SUGGESTED LETTER
(change it as you like -- if it looks like a form letter they'll be less
likely to pay attention):
Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca
Dear Mr. Martin,
Welcome back from your trip overseas. I was pleased to see you speak up
for individual rights in the face of security concerns. I strongly agree
that, "The fight against terrorism will only be won if in fact the rights
of individuals are respected at the same time."
This statement is difficult to reconcile with the Canadian practice of
secret trials under the Security Certificate. Five Muslim men have been
imprisoned here in Canada for years, without charge or bail, on secret
evidence; all denied a fair trial and threatened with deportation to
torture. Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei has spent three years in solitary
confinement; Egyptian refugee Mohammad Mahjoub has been detained since
June 2000; Mahmoud Jaballah, father of six, has been in jail since
August 2001 on a second security certificate after having the first one
quashed, even though CSIS admits to having no "new" evidence against him;
newly married Mohamed Harkat in Ottawa was arrested on International
Human Rights Day in December 2002; and father of two, Adil Charkaoui,
has been held in Montreal since May 2003.
The men and their families have demanded either to be arrested and
provided with a fair trial with full disclosure, if the government
actually has a case agains t them, or to be set free.
Amnesty International says all their lives are at risk if deported. The
Minister of Public Safety has stated that, even if they are at risk,
deportation may still go ahead.
I urge you to take positive action to end the indefinite incarceration
and fear of deportation facing these men and their families.
Furthermore, in keeping with your words "that the balance has got to be
on the side of freedom of the individual," I urge you to abolish the
security certificate process, which creates what one federal court judge
has called Canada's own Guantanamo Bay.
Thank you.
* * * * *
MORE INFO: Campaign to Stop Secret trials in Canada,
tasc@web.ca,
www.homesnbotbombs.ca
