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Some of you might want to know about this Canadian site, devoted to
Islamic relationships in North America, how Muslims are faring there, and
human rights. The article below is about erosion of civil rights in
Canada.
--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: CAIR-CAN <canada@cair-net.org>
To: <caircan-list@caircan.biglist.com>
Subject: GOOD NEWS ALERT: CAIR-CAN PUBLISHES OP-ED IN THE TORONTO STAR
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 10:29:28 -0400
Message-ID: <002f01c35838$5211ffb0$8becfea9@df6p3221>
CAIR-CAN
Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: 613-254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
----
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
GOOD NEWS ALERT # 110
CAIR-CAN PUBLISHES OP-ED ON CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE TORONTO STAR
Piece is twenty seventh op-ed published to date=20
(Ottawa, Canada - 1/8/2003) - Alhamdulillah (All praise is due to God),
CAIR-CAN today published an op-ed entitled, "Canadian civil rights under
siege," (reproduced at the end of the alert) in the Toronto Star.
CAIR-CAN has now published twenty seven commentaries in papers such as
the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto Star, the Montreal
Gazette and the Calgary Herald. Topics include multiculturalism, the
misinterpretation of the Qur'an, racial profiling, the Islamic headscarf
and the merit principle in the marketplace, the recent deportation of
Maher Arar, numerous pieces on Iraq, Islam and science, and children and
war.
All CAIR-CAN's comment pieces are now available online at their website:
http://www.caircan.ca/op_ed.php=20
----
CANADIAN CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER SIEGE
Toronto Star, 1/8/2003
Riad Saloojee
See: http://www.caircan.ca/oped_more.php?id=3D476_0_10_0_M=20
(Riad Saloojee is the Executive Director of CAIR-CAN)
Solicitor General Wayne Easter recently admitted that he is unable to
discount the possibility that elements in the RCMP passed on information
to the Americans that led to the deportation of Canadian citizen Maher
Arar to Syria and the corresponding deprivation of many of his legal
rights.
We are learning the hard way that state power is not benign.=20
Modern political thought has seen an evolution from Hobbes'
leviathan-state, where individuals give over their liberties for social
order, to a constitutional state, where certain rights and freedoms are
not on the table or up for grabs.=20
The great balancing act is to keep the state robust enough to protect
and serve, but also to keep it from infringing on the rights of its
citizens - to feed it, but not surrender to its gluttony. The state is a
greedy beast: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did,
and it never will."=20
And so we are finding out. The RCMP's civilian watchdog, Shirley Heafey,
says she has no way of knowing whether the RCMP is misusing its new
anti-terrorism powers. Recall that after Sept. 11, 2001, Parliament
approved sweeping new powers for the RCMP, allowing officers to search
homes without warrants, arrest suspects without charges and gain access
to a wider range of personal information.=20
In the haze of political haste, we were told that there were oversight
measures. Ottawa, for example, would produce a report on how it is using
its new powers. Justice Canada's tardy report, tabled in early May,
provides little discussion of the new law and has the imprimatur of "all
is well."
But all's not well. Heafey claims that her office has received five
formal complaints about the RCMP's anti-terrorism activities and that
many other Canadians have told her they have been harassed but fear the
attention of public complaint.=20
"We can't (investigate) unless there's a complaint, and even if there is
a complaint ... we can't see the information," she said. "So for all
practical purposes, there's no civilian oversight."
Heafey's certainly correct about reporting problems. Experts in hate
crimes, for example, estimate that the incidence of non-reporting -
called the dark figures - can run as high as 90 per cent. It stands to
reason that complaints made against the muscular agents of the state
would be similarly under-reported. For a variety of reasons, including
issues of confidentiality, safe space, and a previous political culture
of non-reporting, individuals will not come forward.=20
Most of our incidents have come from grassroots reporting at community
events or workshops on legal rights. And the tenor of the reports,
especially when they concern the RCMP or CSIS, tend to demonstrate a
rather troublesome pattern.
Some tactics are violations of the Charter of Rights: individuals told
that there are a number of unanswered questions about them and that they
"ought to come in" but that officers won't speak to them if they bring a
lawyer.=20
Some tactics are sly and subtle: individuals visited by plainclothes
(though clearly perceived by co-workers to be security officers) at
work. One individual, for example, was visited at his school; another
senior government engineer was visited at his place of work. Yet other
tactics are misrepresentations of the law: Individuals hesitant about
answering questions are told they can be "hauled in" without a reason or
that they can be "forced to speak" under the new legislation.
In all cases, however, the perception, especially among the Canadian
Arab and Muslim community, is the existence of a consciously applied
double standard of racial profiling. Much that occurs in the shade of
the law takes advantage of legal illiteracy, the anxiety of being
stigmatized after such a security visitation, or plain old fear. And the
fear factor is very real.=20
Immigrants and refugees are usually petrified that when CSIS gives them
a call, it is to become informants or suffer the consequences of an
all-too-slow application process or a threat of a contrived problem with
their security status.
The warning that sounds is not only that liberties taken are liberties
lost, but that such misuse of the law is starting to generate a gnawing
civic cynicism among Canadian Arabs and Muslims.=20
Networks of trust, so intimately constructed by day-to-day dealings, can
be easily frayed and irreparably damaged. And, in an environment where
security and safety have become basic public goods, trust between the
citizenry and those sworn to protect them, is - and this is our new
security/liberty paradox - becoming more and more essential to good
policing.
----
The Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA is a federally
incorporated, non-profit organization working to empower Canadian Muslims
in the fields of the media, human rights, and political activism.
CAIR-CAN is the only official Canadian office of CAIR.
Its board members include Dr. Jamal Badawi, Shahina Siddiqui, Dr.
Sheema Khan, Khadija Haffajee, Dr. Mustafa Fahmy, Dr. Wael Haddara,
Latif Ahmed, Abdul-Basit Khan LLB and Faisal Kutty LLB.
----
CAIR-CAN NEEDS YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE THIS WORK. PLEASE TAKE A
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serve Muslims in the areas of the media, human rights and political
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Council on American-Islamic Relations CANADA (CAIR-CAN)
P.O. Box 13219, Ottawa, ONT, K2K 1X4
E-mail: canada@cair-net.org
Tel: 1-866-524-0004
Fax: (613) 254-9810
URL: www.caircan.ca
CAIR-CAN is the only official Canadian office of CAIR.
----
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----
--------- End forwarded message ----------
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