[antiwar-van] (Oct 27) Citizenshift- Measuring Security Measures

[harsha at resist.ca]

CitizenShift (NFB) & überculture
present

MEASURING SECURITY MEASURES
A close look at immigration, media and law in a secure Canada
• Are recent security laws and policies in Canada undermining civil
liberties?
• Has mainstream media in Canada adequately framed and analyzed this issue?

>From Halifax to Vancouver, CitizenShift and überculture with the
participation of refugee and immigrant advocacy groups have organized two
exciting weeks of film screenings and panel discussions in over ten
Canadian cities. These symposiums will be held from October 17-30, 2005,
and are meant to provide an open and accessible forum for debate on the
issues of immigration, media, law and national security in our country.

IMMIGRATION | MEDIA | LAW
These three intersecting components of Measuring Security Measures provide
a framework for discussion with audience and panellists. Changes in
Canadian laws and policies since September 11, 2001 and the consequences
of these laws for many immigrants and refugees will be examined, analyzed
and discussed through new short films and panels. The media’s role in
framing and covering such debate will also be discussed.

Following one hour of film screenings, audiences will hear from the
panellists, then be invited to join in a discussion. The events, occurring
from coast to coast are free and open to all.

VANCOUVER
October 27thm, 7pm at Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour
St. Vancouver. Co-presented by MARU and DOXA Documentary Festival

Panelists:
* Tom Sandorn is a poet, activist, Board Member of BC Civil Liberties
Association

* Naava Smolash is a media researcher focused on newspaper racializations
of bodies deemed the "enemy within" in Canada. She gives regular workshops
on media, nationalism, and race. She is also involved in the campaign to
end secret trials through work with No One Is Illegal. Her previous work
touches on two films shown in the CitizenShift series: her Master's thesis
at the University of Guelph analyzed coverage of the Project Thread
detentions in Canada's national newspapers, and her spoken word piece "War
Measures"was written in response to the film "Security Consciousness" and
was performed at that film's opening event.

* Zool Suleman is an immigration lawyer/activist (www.sulemanco.com) based
in Vancouver. He is the coordinator of a national campaign to stop racial
profiling (www.stopracialprofiling.ca). Zool has been involved with a
variety of projects, on a national and regional level, related to race
politics, art, migrant rights, and constitutional/civil liberties issues.

* Moderator: Harsha Walia is a local activist and writer. Her writings
have appeared in many alternative and mainstream newspapers and journals.
She has been heavily involved in organizing for migrant rights in the post
9/11 climate through community-based groups including No One is Illegal,
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy and Vancouver Status of
Women.


*** FILM PROGRAM:

- Security Consciousness: Detained in Guelph produced and directed by Reel
Alternative Productions, 2004, Canada, 35min . 12 min. excerpt will be
shown. With no film-making experience six University of Guelph
undergraduate students and a Sheridan College student created a project
using the medium of film to engage a wide audience in dialogue about the
role that post-9/11 security consciousness has had on the detention and
deportation of immigrants and refugees in Canada. The film’s starting
point is the recently negotiated use of the Guelph correctional facility
for detaining immigrants. The film aims to inspire collective opposition
to current practices of detention.

- Whose Rights Anyway? directed by Anice Wong, produced by Anice Wong and
Hugh Gibson, 2005, 23 min. The film revolves around the security
certificate case of Mohamed Harkat as told by his Canadian wife, his
lawyer, and an activist. The documentary speaks of the initial arrest and
how his fundamental human rights have since been violated. It also deals
with the racism felt by the Arab and Muslim community since the events of
September 11, 2001, and how it is against this backdrop that the Canadian
government is allowing itself to limit certain rights in the name of
“national security.” Harkat has been detained in a provincial jail in
Ottawa since December 10, 2002. He was arrested under a security
certificate, a provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,
which allows for his detention not on solid evidence, but solely on
assumptions suggesting that he may be linked to terrorism. No charges have
been laid. Furthermore, the government of Canada has withheld all evidence
it has from him and his lawyer, making it next to impossible for them to
defend themselves in court. This is an updated version of the film that
was shown in 2004.

- Sophie. directed and produced by Alexandre Roy
2004, 3 min. A hard hitting short animation that tells the story of
Sophie, a young Québecoise who wins a BBQ but refuses to take the prize
when she realizes that racism has tainted the contest.

-  Threadbare, (a work in progress) produced and directed by Arshad Khan. 
50 min., 2005, Canada. 20 min. excerpt will be shown. August 14th 2003:
After having their apartment doors kicked in and belongings trashed,
nineteen men were arrested in pre-dawn raids in the Greater Toronto Area
on suspicion that they might be a threat to National Security. They were
asked, “Are you Pakistani? Are you Muslim?” The Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP) carried out these and several other raids with the help of
The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Threadbare is
a film about racism against Pakistanis and South Asian Muslims in the
Canadian Immigration and Legal justice system. The documentary film
revolves around the struggles of the 25 Project Thread detainees, many now
deportees, that were a target of the RCMP Al-Qaeda investigation in August
2003. All allegations of terrorism against the detainees were dropped
within two weeks of the arrests, yet the detainees spent two to five
months in a maximum security prison outside Toronto. Threadbare also
documents the activist campaign  - Project Threadbare in its struggle to
exonerate, compensate, apologize, naturalize the detainees.

- Take Back the Days: Step by Step to Ottawa. produced and Directed by
Eylem Kaftan. 12 min., Canada 2005. June 2005- Solidarity Across Borders,
a Montreal-area coalition initiated by several groups active in defending
the rights of migrants, immigrants and refugees organized a march in
solidarity with all non-status persons in Canada, and in support of the
main demands of the Solidarity Across Borders network: the regularization
of all non-status persons in Canada; an end to the deportation and
detention of migrants; and the abolition of security certificates. The
film documents the journey giving voice to those who walked with purpose
to Ottawa. We see the solidarity, hope and commitment shared amongst the
marchers and witness the profound effect the trip had on them.