[antiwar-van] Immigration/ Refugee News

[No One is Illegal-Vancouver]

NEWS

1) CSIS Sit-in followup
2) Mohamed Cherfi refused asylum in US
3) Pending anti-immigrant legislation in US


SIX ARRESTS MADE AT CSIS AS SIT-IN DEMANDS SECRET EVIDENCE BEING USED TO
DETAIN CANADA'S SECRET TRIAL FIVE

TORONTO, OCTOBER 20, 2004 --  Six people were arrested today following a
sit-in in the lobby of the building that houses the Toronto offices of
Canada's national spy agency, CSIS. The group, made up of folks from
Burlington, Hamilton, Dundas, Durham, and Toronto, had been seeking a
meeting to discuss the secret "evidence" which has been used to detain
five Muslim men a collective 164 months, or 13 and a half years, behind
Canadian prison bars without charge or bail.

Sponsored by the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, the group chose
the date of October 20 because it marks three years in solitary
confinement for secret trial detainee Hassan Almrei, a Syrian refugee held
in Toronto's Metro West Detention Centre and one of the five Muslim men
currently detained without charge or bail. Next week in Ottawa, secret
trial detainee Mohamed Harkat will attend the public portion of his secret
trial, after which the judge will retire with CSIS and government lawyers
to discuss the evidence -- if any exists -- without  Harkat and his lawyer
present.  Mohammad Mahjoub, held since June 2000 in Toronto, is currently
in solitary confinement; Mahmoud Jaballah has been detained since August,
2001, and Adil Charkaoui detained since May, 2003.

"We sit here not because we despair, but because we hope. Perhaps our
willingness to take some risk, to practice some truth-seeking, Gandhian
nonviolence, will open some minds, some hearts, some souls, to the crime
of secret trials in Canada and the pain they have inflicted on
individuals,
families, communities."

The group were charged with failure to leave premises when directed as
well as engaging in a prohibited activity on private property and released
shortly after their arrests. Those arrested and charged are Kirsten
Romaine, Rae Mitchell,  Diana Ralph,  Chris Shannon,  Barney Barningham
and Matthew Behrens.

About ten people entered the lobby shortly after 11 am and sat on benches
that they imagined were for...well...sitting. Security came within a few
minutes to ascertain why we were sitting on those benches.

A member of the group called upstairs to CSIS requesting that a meeting be
held immediately to discuss transfer of the secret "evidence" to the
lawyers of the detainees, so they can defend their clients. Other security
officials showed up to make extensive explanations about the fact that,
even though CSIS is a federal government agency, it is housed in a
building that is "private property."

One particularly interesting exchange between a resister and a police
officer went like this:

OFFICER: Well, you'll have your 15 seconds on the news tonight.
RESISTER: I hope these men will be released
OFFICER: Are they illegal immigrants? What are the charges?
RESISTER: No Charges. They're refugees and permanent residents, and this
could now be done to citizens.
OFFICER: Well, it could be me or you next.
RESISTER: Yes, it could be, that's why we're doing this. We're trying to
generate public support for these men.
OFFICER: I think it's very important tthat you're doing this. If the
public doesn't know about this, these men could just disappear. It
happened in Chile, it could happen here.
RESISTER: We think they should get a fair and open trial so they can
defend themselves. There must be checks and balances.
OFFICER: I agree, there must be checks and balances.

Another arrestee reports that the arresting officer apologized for having
to make the arrest, for after having heard about the reason for the
protest, the officer felt a sense of shame that he would be hauling such
folks out of the CSIS building.

The six plan to contest the charges, a right that thusfar remains
unavailable to the five secret trial detainees.

Below is a statement the group presented during the sit-in.

For more info. call (416) 651-5800.
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada,
PO Box 73620,
509 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, www.homesnotbombs.ca, tasc at web.ca

STATEMENT FOR THE CSIS SIT-IN,
October 20, 2004

Today is a sad anniversary. It marks three years in solitary confinement
for Hassan Almrei, a Syrian refugee held at Metro West Detention Centre
without charge or bail on secret evidence neither he nor his lawyers are
allowed to see.

Hassan is one of five Muslim men collectively held 164 months, or 13 and a
half years, on CSIS secret trial security certificates. They are Mohammad
Mahjoub, father of two, held since June, 2000; Mahmoud Jaballah, father of
six, held 9 months in 1999, cleared of allegations, re-arrested in August
2001, held since then despite CSIS admitting there's no new evidence;
Mohamed Harkat, married, held since December, 2002; and Adil Charkaoui,
father of two, held since May, 2003.

None of these men has been charged with, much less convicted, of any crime
here in Canada. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and  other
human rights experts agree that all their lives are at risk if deported.
Their lives continue to be degraded by the indefinite incarceration which
has led one Federal Court judge to conclude we have a Canadian version of
Guantanamo Bay.

All the men have called on the government to charge them if there is a
case, and to try them in an open, fair trial with full disclosure of the
case against them. Otherwise, they should be released immediately.

* We sit here because we want CSIS to hand over the secret "evidence" to
us, which we will pass on to the lawyers of the detainees.

* We sit here because we cannot do otherwise. These men are our brothers,
as they are yours. And as Martin Luther King, Jr., said, no piece of paper
can make them any less so. We are obligated to be here, in respect of
international laws and covenants Canada has signed and the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, and in honour of that human bond which calls us to
respect and cherish one another's dignity and humanity.

* We sit here because we are rapidly running out of options. We have tried
many times to meet with representatives of CSIS, but each time we have
been met with locked doors and cordons of police, whether here in Toronto
or in Ottawa. We have organized long-distance walks, educational
fora, countless vigils and letter campaigns; met with MPs, sought meetings
with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister; spent countless hours
in court during the open portions of the secret trials; written many
letters to and received many phone calls from the detainees themselves. We
have fasted with the detainees; we have laughed with them, cried with
them,shared their hopes and dreams.

* We sit here because we have tried just about every channel available to
us. But time is not on our side. These men are shadows of their former
selves, often broken in body, and scarred in spirit. Their families are
traumatized, their communities fearful.  And each day they wake brings the
same nagging question: why are they being held behind bars, and why is
Canada attempting to deport them to torture?

* We sit here not because we despair, but because we hope. Perhaps our
willingness to take some risk, to practice some truth-seeking, Gandhian
nonviolence, will open some minds, some hearts, some souls, to the crime
of secret trials in Canada and the pain they have inflicted on
individuals, families, communities.

Perhaps it may be considered a tad indelicate for us to be sitting where
we are. But too often, we have been locked outside of the building, and
our pleas for a meeting ignored. Today we are here to say we cannot, we
must not, be ignored. Too many lives are on the line, and concepts like
 conscience and rule of law in Canada are in danger of being disappeared
just as these men have been.

Together, let us find a humane solution.


==================================================


http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/10/22/cherfi041023.html

Algerian removed from Quebec church denied refugee status in U.S.
Last Updated Fri, 22 Oct 2004 19:01:06 EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. - An Algerian man removed from a Quebec church by police and
sent to the U.S. was denied political asylum Friday by American
authorities.

Mohamed Cherfi had been seeking refugee status in the U.S., claiming his
life will be in danger if he's sent back to Algeria because he has
publicly denounced his country's regime and refused to join its military.

Cherfi's lawyer said he will appeal the decision, which could delay his
deportation by two to three months.

Cherfi sought refuge in the Quebec City church in February when police
tried to arrest him for allegedly violating bail conditions. He had been
arrested earlier for taking part in a demonstration in Montreal.

The first person in Canada in recent history to be pulled out of sanctuary
by police, Cherfi was then turned over to immigration officials and sent
to the U.S.

Cherfi and approximately 1,000 other Algerians fled to the U.S. and then
to Quebec in the 1990s to escape violence in their own land.

He had spent six years in Montreal without legal status.

His supporters accused Immigration Canada of using local police to arrest
Cherfi on minor court violations, alleging it was a ploy to make it easier
to deport him.

Police officers said they arrested Cherfi because he didn't notify the
court of a change of address, which is one of the bail conditions.

Supporters of Cherfi have said they would be willing to sponsor him and
try to bring him back to Canada.


* For more information: www.mohamedcherfi.org

====================================================

Pending legislation that is now before the US House and Senate.

Both houses passed the “911 Commission Recommendations Implementation
Act." The House of Representatives version -- HR 10 -- includes
immigration amendments that were NEVER a part of the Commission’s
recommendations. Now, without further debate, a group of 21 Senators and
House members are meeting this week to decide whether the bill will retain
these anti-immigration amendments when it goes to President Bush to be
signed into law.

HR 10 IS CONGRESS’S BIGGEST ATTACK ON IMMIGRANTS SINCE THE 1996
IMMIGRATION LAWS, which have caused over one million immigrants to be
deported from the US. Since 1996, the only real success many immigrants
have had fighting deportation is in the federal courts. HR 10 strips that
away completely under the guise of the War on Terror.

If the HR-10 version is passed it will:

- Extend expedited removal of immigrants and asylum seekers denying them
the chance to go before an immigration judge
- Suspend habeas corpus, the right to ask a court to review a person’s
detention and deportation for the first time since the Civil War
- Allow deportations to countries without functioning governments such as
Somalia
- Increase the use of mandatory, indefinite detentions
- Require torture victims to prove beyond a doubt that they will be
tortured if returned
- Restrict the definition of persecution excluding asylum seekers that are
now protected under the refugee convention
- Require consistency between an asylum seeker’s story and US State
Department reports
- Restricts driver's licenses and consular ID cards

On action to take and for more information:
Families for Freedom: http://www.familiesforfreedom.org/actioncenter.htm

National Immigration Forum:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/documents/TheDebate/NationalSecurity/911_bill_sign-on_letter.pdf


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The No One is Illegal campaign is in full confrontation with Canadian
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and wage-slave conditions of migrant workers and non-status people.

We struggle for the right for our communities to maintain their
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theft of land and displacement.